Fourth Way Literature 2012

english Fourth Way related books, published in 2012:

Solita Solano/ Kathryn Hulme - Gurdjieff and the Women of the Rope
Kathryn C. Hulme - Undiscovered Country: A Spiritual Adventure
Louise March Göpfert - The Gurdieff Years: 1929-1949
Keith A. Buzzell - Reflections on Gurdjieff's Whim
Georgette Leblanc - The Courage Machine: A New Life in a New World
Christian Wertenbaker - Man in the Cosmos: G. I. Gurdjieff and Modern Science 

Jacob Needleman - An Unknown World: Notes on the Meaning of the Earth
Paul B. Taylor - Real Worlds of G.I.Gurdjieff. Chapters in the Life of a Master
Bob Hunter - Meetings with Beryl Pogson - A Guide to the Fourth Way
Michael S. Pittman - Classical Spirituality in Contemporary America: The Confluence and Contribution of G.I. Gurdjieff and Sufism
Ashala Gabriel - Remembering: Being with my Teacher
David Hall - Beelzebub And The Beast - Comparative Study of G.I. Gurdjieff & Aleister Crowley
Mohammad Tamdgidi - Gurdjieff and Hypnosis: A Hermeneutic Study
Theodore J. Nottingham - Written In Our Hearts: The Practice of Spiritual Transformation
Patty de Llosa - Taming your inner tyrant
Herb Cohen - Journey to Feel like a Man: Olympic Fencer, Gurdjieff Work, Tai Chi Teacher
Edward F. Sylvia - Swedenborg & Gurdjieff: The Missing Links
Philip Riley - God Was All Dry: Alienation, Violence, and an Experience in The Fourth Way

Prince Oldenburgsky and Beelzebub

If this episode has a base in historicel fact, the person Beelzebub/Gurdjieff met in Egypt would have been Prince Alexander Petrovich Oldenburgsky (1844-1932).

In Tales, Beelzebubs function in relation to the Temperance committee is the curing of alcoholics, something for which Gurdjieff had proved adept.

Paul B. Taylor - G.I.Gurdjieff. A New Life p. 35

 (Beelzebubs Tales to his Grandson - Beelzebub in Russia,Chapter 34)

studying ancient magic in Baku

I often went to Baku because there was a society there, composed mostly of Persians who were studying ancient magic, of which I had been an associate member for a long time.

Meetings with Remarkable Men p.255 (dated around 1900)

all life is hidden in design

Whenever somenone questioned why Gurdjieff described himself to visitors as a rug merchant, he replied: "Why dealer in rugs? Answer simple. I sell knowledge. All is in rugs around you, all. Read! All life is hidden in design."

The rugs on his floors and walls were texts, stories to be read. Rug or carpet designs, like folk stories, transmit traditional cultural lore from one generation to another. Gurdjieff had always insisted that story, myth, art and dance reduplicate objective language, and that symbols veil truths.

Paul B. Taylor - Gurdjieff. A New Life p.218

Prince Bebutov and the Seekers of Truth

D.I. Bebutov

Prince Bebutov, born 1859 of Armenian descent, was a politician and a leading member of the russian Kadet Party.

He was the founder of the Astreya Lodge, whose house on Rozhdestvensky Boulevard in Moscow, replete with symbols hidden in its ornamented fasade, was familiar to Gurdjieff. Gurdjieffs cousin Merkurov equated members of Bebutovs circle with the "Seekers of Truth". Bebutov practised magic and spiritualistic seances.

Gurdjieff travelled to Istanbul with Bebutov in 1908. There he apparently met with Turkish Masons who had overthrown the Turkish Sultan. Among the European guests of the Turkish revolutionaries was a German, Rudolf von Sebottendorf.

Bebutov was a high ranked mason.("Great East of Russia", "Order of free masons", "Polar Star") He was also one of three founders of a lodge called "The Truth" in Odessa.  Bebutov wrote a book titled "The Russian Masonry of the 20th Century".

Bebutov´s House in Moscow, where the Seekers of Truth were meeting

Masonic Symbols on Bebutov´s house

my teaching is my own

Tibet is an example where, ten years ago, all government was in the hands of the monks. But they couldn’t put my ideas into practice, because my teaching was not known to them. My teaching is my own. It combines all the evidence of ancient truth that I collected in my travels with all the knowledge that I have acquired through my own personal work.

Our Life with Mr.Gurdjieff p.182

desires and nondesires

And so, only he who consciously assists the process of this inner struggle, and consciously assists the "nondesires" to prevail over the "desires," behaves in accordance with the Being of our Common Father Creator Himself, whereas he who consciously assists the contrary only increases His sorrow.

Beelzebubs Tales to his Grandson(Chapter 27)

a King in exile

Gurdjieff...even now, nearly thirty years after his death, the name has for me a certain magic. He was, without doubt, the most extraordinary human being I have ever met.

...

The life of Gurdjieff represented a special aspect of the Warrior's Way. More than any other man I have met, he lived by self-imposed rules and pursued intentional aims. In the fullest sense of the word he was inner-directed and lived strategically, knowing what he was doing and why he was doing it. He cared nothing for the artificial laws that confine weaker people to narrow patterns of behavior. He made his own laws and played the game by his own rules. Because these laws and rules were very different from those that ordinarily govern human behavior he seemed like an enigma to some and like a madman to others. My impression that Gurdjieff was a king in exile, that he had been displaced not only in space but also in time...

...

Jesus evidently had plenty of Hvareno. Gurdjieff had it too. It gave him the quality of a king in exile. His kingdom was neither in our time or our place, but he could, had he wished to, have used his Hvareno to draw great numbers of people to him. He could have had a following of thousands.

Robert de Ropp - Warrior´s Way

know thyself

Man who all 'good' or man who all 'bad' is not whole man, is one-sided. Third thing is conscience; possibility to acquire conscience is already in man when born; this possibility given - free - by Nature. But is only possibility. Real conscience can only be acquired by work, by learning to understand self first. Even your religion - western religion - have this phrase "Know thyself". This phrase most important in all religions. When begin know self already begin have possibility become genuine man. So first thing must learn is know self by this exercise, self-observation. If not do this, then will be like acorn that not become tree—fertilizer. Fertilizer which go back in ground and become possibility for future man.

Fritz Peters - Boyhood with Gurdjieff Chapter 9

sayings on Jesus Christ

In any other man I should have been sceptical of most of his tales; but certainly Georgiy Ivanovich was out of the common theosophical ruck. If he really wanted to go anywhere, were it even to his mysterious monasteries in Tibet - in one of which, he said, echoing an Indian tradition, Jesus had studied! (Bechhofer Roberts - A Journey through Georgia)

Q: Was Christ a teacher with a school preparation, or was he an accidental genius? Gurdjieff: Without knowledge he could not have been what he was, nor could he have done what he did. It is known that where he was there was knowledge.
(Views from the Real World p.85)

But while for some people religion serves as guidance, for others it is only a policeman. Christ, too, was a magician, a man of Knowledge. He was not God, or rather He was God, but on a certain level. (Views from the Real World p.211)

Christ and all the others spoke of the death which can take place in life, the death of the tyrant from whom our slavery comes, that death which is a necessary condition of the first and principal liberation of man. (Views from the Real World p.238)

He said that Jesus knew his own nonentityness and should he return, he would be very angry that people thought he had said he was God. 
(Gurdjieff and the Women of the Rope p.179)

Let us suppose Jesus Christ to be man number eight. (ISOM Chapter 16)

The Last Supper was a magical ceremony similar to 'blood-brotherhood' for establishing a connection between 'astral bodies.' But who is there who knows about this in existing religions and who understands what it means? All this has been long forgotten and everything has been given quite a different meaning. The words have remained but their meaning has long been lost. (ISOM Chapter 5)

There is nothing new in the idea of sleep. People have been told almost since the creation of the world that they are asleep and that they must awaken. How many times is this said in the Gospels, for instance? 'Awake,' 'watch,' 'sleep not.' Christ's disciples even slept when he was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane for the last time. (ISOM Chapter 8)

see also the detailed description in Beelzebubs Tales (Chapter on Religion)

my bible is quite another thing

What you learn from bible you wish believe, but your bible is one thing and my bible is quite another. Nobody now believe in Christian thing, not with inner world, especially young ones. Nobody but English old maid and your American Lesbians. In General, man over there not believe. Your bible is hodgepodge.

Gurdjieff and the Women of the Rope p.156

perhaps will understand better

Nott: What about people who have never met you, or will never meet you? How will they be able to understand Beelzebub's Tales?

Gurdjieff: Perhaps will understand better than many always around me. You, by the way, you see much of me and become identified with me. I not wish people identified with me, I wish them identified with my ideas. Many who never will meet me, simple people, will understand my book. Time come perhaps when they read Beelzebub's Tales in Churches.

C.S. Nott - Further Teachings of Gurdjieff p.77

discovery of Gurdjieffs true nature

Julia O. Ostrowska

It might seem surprising that this member of the Polish high aristocracy, who associated with those close to the Tsar, became the wife of a man so remote from the manners of the court. Mr. Gurdjieff had won the heart of this young woman, though she little suspected what she was to find out about him later.

One day she confided to us, with a certain smile, how moved she was to discover her husband’s true nature, and to realize that he was totally devoted to work of a spiritual order and dedicated to the good of his fellow man. In his quiet strength she had until then appreciated him above all as an affectionate companion, a benevolent protector, and the hoped-for father of their children.

She saw him in a new light when she realized that her husband was revered by those around him as an exceptional teacher and as an authentic master of wisdom, with the power to help his pupils discover their true spiritual potential. She then took a discreet place beside him, careful not to hinder in any way the work he had to accomplish.

Gurdjieff a Master in Life p.227

Western Section in Tiflis 1919

Alexander de Salzmann´s cover design for the prospectus of the Institute for the Harmonious Developement of Man.

At the bottom in Russian language : Western Section!

This bottom part is removed in the later versions in english, french and german.

I wish for Immortality

Olgivanna Lazovic

She told me about their life in the Caucasus with Gurdjieff. In Tiflis he had asked her if she had a wish, a real wish. She said, ‘I wish for immortality’. He said, ‘What you do now?’ ‘I look after my house and servants,’ she replied. ‘You work yourself? Cook, look after baby?’ ‘No, my servants do that for me.’ ‘You do nothing, and you wish for immortality!’ he said. ‘But this does not come by wishing but by special kind of work. You must work, make effort, for immortality. Now, I will show you how to work. First, tell servants to go and begin by doing everything yourself’

‘He did show me,’ she added. ‘He showed me how to do ordinary housework, not as a servant would do it, but to work and at the same time use his method.’

Like all the women who really worked with Gurdjieff, she was remarkable and unusual; she possessed an inner something, she had individuality, and she could turn her hand to anything.

C.S. Nott - Teachings of Gurdjieff p.84

a Guide to the eternal Mysteries of the Universe

He was still surrounded by this strange entourage of philosophers, doctors, poets, and dancers. He was not exploiting them; on the contrary, several of them were living on his diminishing means. And by them all he was esteemed, almost worshipped, as a guide to the eternal mysteries of the universe. His admirers were by no means fools; some of them were distinguished men, and these especially insisted that Georgiy Ivanovich, as they called him in Russian fashion, had taught them more about their particular art than they had ever learned before. He had peculiar notions about music; others about the ballet; more still about medicine and philosophy; all of which, he said, were based upon secret mathematical mysteries in which he had been instructed in the remote hills of Central Asia!

C. E. Bechhofer Roberts - A Journey Through Georgia

the first Sign of the Awakening

The realization of the fact that he has no aim and that he is not going anywhere is the first sign of the approaching awakening of a man or of awakening becoming really possible for him. Awakening begins when a man realizes that he is going nowhere and does not know where to go.

In Search Of The Miraculous Chapter 8

how to be One of the Elite

“Everyone,” he said, “knows something. Each of us has learned to do something mechanically.” He insisted on this word. “Two people have the same worth when each stays within his own speciality. However, if one can also do what the other does, then he is superior. He who aspires to be one of the elite must be capable not only of doing what he does habitually, but also of doing anything that those he regards inferior can do, even if not with the competence of a professional.”

Gurdjieff, a Master in Life p.92

we both are His

grave of Ivan Gurdjieff

I AM THOU, 

THOU ART I,
HE IS OURS, 

WE BOTH ARE HIS.
SO MAY ALL BE FOR OUR NEIGHBOUR.