The Gurdjieff Work

by Kathleen Riordan Speeth

Discusses Gurdjieff's spiritual teachings, offers a brief profile of the philosopher, and assesses his influence on the modern world

Genres: Spirituality, Philosophy, Psychology

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

Reviews

[Shamim Valian · Rating 2 out of 5]

هرچند هیچوقت از گرجیف خوشم نیومده و شارلاتان درونش رو خیلی فعال میبینم، اما به نظرم این کتاب جمع بندی خوبی از مکتبشه. بهتر از کتابای خودش. ملغمه ی من درآوردی ای که به اسم مکتب گرجیف شناخته میشه، ترکیبی از خیلی سنتهای کهنیه که ایشون ظاهرا در سفرهای بسیارشون باهاش برخورد داشتن.
شاید نظرم اشتباه باشه یا از شناخت محدودی که خوندن کتابهاش میده ناشی بشه، اما در نظرم گرجیف شبیه کوئیلوئه که داستان مولانا رو روایت کرد و شد کیمیاگر و کوئیلو رو معروف کرد!... پشت گرجیف هم اساتید گمنام درست درمونی هستن که حتی درسهاشون کامل روایت نشده... ترکیب رقص های آیینی هم که ابداع گرجیف نیست و ریشه ش به تاریخ حضور بشر در جهان بر می گرده... از نظریاتش انیاگرام برام قابل تفکر و بحثه. بقیه ی حکایت، تکرار مکرراتیه که منابع خیلی بهتری براشون میشناسم تا منابع دست چندم مکتب گرجیف

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provides a great explanation, with illustrations, of the philosophical basis of Gurdjieff's system.

A great basic read.

Rich.

[Dan Tasse · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'd heard of Gurdjieff and I'm always vaguely interested in weird mystics, so when I found this 100 page overview of his philosophy instead of a thick tome, I jumped at it. But as I was reading, I kept thinking about this Far Side comic:
(guy lying on couch while therapist writes notes: "just plain nuts!")

like, the sacred octaves with the first and second shocks, the fact that the earth has 48 rules operating on it while the moon has 96 so this is a hard place to get enlightened but the moon would be worse, the series of movement exercises that *nobody has ever been able to improve on*, the three types of man based on the three lower centers of the body (not to be confused with the emotional center, *higher* emotional center, intellectual center, and of course higher intellectual center)...

I know he traveled a lot and learned a lot but he sounds like a guy who dropped acid twice and got all these grand visions of how the world is organized. And the drama about his followers, who consider themselves special because not everyone can be enlightened, doesn't help his case. I don't know. I hope it's helpful for them, and I don't think it's for me.

[Karen Blanchette · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a book, this is basically a dry history and slight introduction to Gurdjieff and his work. It took a while to get any value out of it and there was far too much of the logistics of how the movement began instead of the meat of it in general. As an introduction and for context it's fine, but I wish there was more about why I should even care about the Fourth Way.

[Ari Lohr · Rating 5 out of 5]

I personally consider this to be one of the best introductions to the Gurdjieff Work. To me, this book walks the fine line between accessibility and substance quite effectively, and even as someone who’s a COMPLETE newcomer the Work (I’ve been studying and practicing for about 9 months) I found something to gain from this read.

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Gurdjieff Work is an easily accessible introduction to basic work ideas. While not delving deeply into Gurdjieff's cosmology, what Speeth writes is clear and easy to understand - not as simple as it looks.

[Ardalan]

I read the Persian translation of the book years ago and found it somehow interesting that time but as I'm not interested in such books anymore I'm not gonna rate it though people interested in mystisism n spirtualism may found it interesting