G. I. Gurdjieff (1866–1949)
Author of Meetings with Remarkable Men
About the Author
George Gurdjieff was a modern magus who was born in Alexandropol, Armenia, and traveled widely as a young man, spending several years in Central Asia and Tibet. His experiences during this time led to his famous book Meetings with Remarkable Men, an account of his alleged encounters with Eastern show more spiritual teachers that was published posthumously in 1963. Gurdjieff's system draws on diverse sources, including Sufism, Buddhism, and the Cabala. He taught that human beings have neither soul nor true will and must strive to cure these defects by work and suffering. The ordinary person is asleep, acting merely according to habit, and needs the shock of awakening. To this end he sponsored experiences of dance, exercise, hard labor, and sometimes surprises or acute frustration. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by G. I. Gurdjieff
Beelzebub's Tales To His Grandson: An Objectively Impartial Criticism of the Life of Man (1950) 700 copies
Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson: an Objectively Impartial Criticism of the Life of Man, 3rd Book (1973) 44 copies
Guide and Index to Gurdjieff's All and Everything: Beezlebub's Tales To His Grandson (1971) 37 copies
Point in the Work: A Continuation of the Teaching of the Work of GI Gurdjieff, PD Ouspensky and Maurice Nicoll (1986) 8 copies
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Gurdjieff, George Ivanovich
Գյուրջիև, Գեորգի Իվանովիչ - Other names
- Gurdjieff, Georges Ivanovitch
- Birthdate
- 1866-01-13
- Date of death
- 1949-10-29
- Burial location
- Avon Cemetery, Fontainebleau, France
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- Russian Empire
- Country (for map)
- Armenia
- Birthplace
- Alexandropol, Russian Empire (Gyumri, Armenia)
- Place of death
- Neully-sur-Seine, France
- Cause of death
- cancer
- Places of residence
- Alexandropol, Russian Empire
Istanbul, Turkey
Fontainebleau, France
Moscow, Russia - Occupations
- Spiritual teacher
- Relationships
- Ouspensky, P. D. (pupil)
Bennett, J. G. (pupil)
Bennett, Elizabeth (pupil) - Short biography
- George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (c. 1866–1877 – 29 October 1949) was a philosopher, mystic, spiritual teacher, and composer. Gurdjieff taught that most humans are not conscious of themselves and thus live their lives in a state of hypnotic "waking sleep", but that it is possible to awaken to a higher state of consciousness and thus achieve our full human potential. Gurdjieff described a method attempting to do so, calling the discipline "The Work" (connoting "work on oneself") or "the System". According to his principles and instructions, Gurdjieff's method for awakening one's consciousness unites the methods of the fakir, monk and yogi, and thus his student P. D. Ouspensky referred to it as the "Fourth Way".
- Wikipedia
Members
Reviews
Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson by G. I. Gurdjieff
Incomprehensible. This is what would happen if you threw Sufism, Gnosticism and Scientology into a blender. The author recommends reading this through three times to understand it. I made it a little over halfway before my eyeballs were twitchin' and my brain was itchin'. Smoke this book, it'll really get you out there!
This book, published nealry 50 years after it was written, constitutes a primary source for the ideas, methods and biography of G.I. Gurdjieff.
Awhile back this was considered to be one of THE books to read about mysticism. I have not read it in quite a long time so I'm not sure how it holds up, but at the time I recall being tremendously impressed. This was one of the first books I read that encouraged me to look beyond the surface of things. The set/setting in which we meet people can have so much influence on us, and it's often not until much later that we realize that that meeting has transformed our lives. And yes, many of us do spend way too much of our lives "asleep." Gurdjieff encourages us to wake up.… (more)
I do like the way that the book has been written. The writing style is somewhat lyrical and, in this way, it is one of his more accessible books.
For the rest, I also found it to be one of his more superficial books, and I did not find much in the book that enlightened or inspired me. This was sad, as I was expecting a lot more from the book.
Did I, perhaps, expect too much?
For the rest, I also found it to be one of his more superficial books, and I did not find much in the book that enlightened or inspired me. This was sad, as I was expecting a lot more from the book.
Did I, perhaps, expect too much?
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Statistics
- Works
- 50
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 2,522
- Popularity
- #10,178
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 28
- ISBNs
- 177
- Languages
- 14
- Favorited
- 5
