February 1, 2010
There is an entire dimension of Gurdjieff’s own life and words that is generally left untouched or unspoken in the presentation of the Teaching. For instance, Gurdjieff said: “You must pray with your whole presence and with all three centers concentrated on the same thing……From realizing the significance of your neighbor when your attention rests on him, that he will die, pity for him and compassion toward him will arise in you, and finally you will love him; also, by doing this constantly, real faith, conscious faith, will arise in some part of you and spread to other parts, and you will have the possibility of knowing real happiness.”
These words take us beyond the diagrams, the cosmology, the ribald behavior, to a man of authentic and deep spirituality. There are anecdotes from persons close to him, such as J.G. Bennett, that further confirm this fact: there was a side of Gurdjieff that was not known or shared with his students. This man took care of Russian refugees, assisted the local addicts and prostitutes in his Paris neighborhood, was related to the Russian Orthodox Church to such an extent that a priest was at his side when he died.
This was a man who valued real faith so greatly that he had no tolerance for superficial piety or social club religion. Therefore, he took an entirely different approach to share the Teaching, one especially suited to early twentieth century agnostics who were in search of something that could not be identified with external religion. In this way, he was able to reach people who would never have made their way into a transforming spirituality. He bypassed old associations made with the ideas of Christ which automatically cut the seeker off from the life-giving teaching behind the words.
Gurdjieff seems to have been a teacher who was (and still is) often thought of as either just crazy or more a scoundrel than a wise-man. But as Theodore Nottingham points out in the above interview, there was quite a compassionate side to him, hidden under the masks he chose (for whatever reason) to wear. This is the sense I get of him and his teachings, the more and more of them I read.
On Gurdjieff and food.
Comment by Ian — February 1, 2010 @ 3:48 pm
I will admit that there is a flipside to this as well, where among his supporters, Gurdjieff was given an almost too-high status, in my opinion. Not “too high” as in he didn’t deserve it (whether he did or not is not an objective fact, after all), but in that this put him on a pedestal of sorts, stopping those who came after him from thinking it possible to achieve the heights that he did.
After all, “if you meet the Buddha on the road, kill the Buddha”. Or as William Segal put it somewhere in “A Voice”: “If I met God on the road, I’d punch him right in the face. I’d ask him, ‘What are you doing here? I’m not going to help you, and you certainly aren’t going to help me!’” (hazily called from memory, not typed from the text)
Comment by Ian — February 1, 2010 @ 3:52 pm
Animated by an essentially pragmatic point of view, Americans were immediately attracted to the ideas of Gurdjieff. What could have spoken more forcefully to a people formed by a tradition of practical realism, disdainful of mere theory, and not hemmed in by abstract principles, than this teaching which had daily life for a field of application?…
- William Segal
Comment by Ian — February 1, 2010 @ 3:59 pm
Ian,
I think that many people who are attracted to Gurdjieff’s teaching are people who have turned away from organized religion and don’t want to have anything to do with it. That was my experience and it has taken me a long time to recognize (I wanted to type ‘understand’ but I’m not really there yet) the sacred within this teaching.
I think you’ll find this article interesting – http://knol.google.com/k/gurdjieff-christianity#
Ann
Comment by Ann Seeker — February 2, 2010 @ 1:12 am
Awesome, thank you Ann! This is something I’ve been curious about for a long time.
And yes, organized religion has never had enough of the sacred in it for me. But as I explore more and more into that empty space, I realize that a lot of organized religion does have its roots in something important.
Comment by Ian — February 2, 2010 @ 9:15 am