Customer Reviews

Transcripts of Gurdjieff's Meetings 1941-1946

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Often when I read for ex music reviews I think, why can't the reviewer
tell me what he likes and dislikes so I have something to relate to
when reading his review? That would make it so much easier for me.

Fourth Way books I find particularly inspiring are for ex: In Search
of the Miraculous, Views from the Real World, Kenneth Walker's Venture
with Ideas, Robert S. de Ropp's Self-Completion. I have made several
attempts on Beelzebub but failed. I can't say I have "worked" sincerly
all these 25 years I have been interested in the ideas. I get
inspiration from it. For me that's a lot. Enough said on that.

"Transcripts of Gurdjieff's Meetings 1941-1946" is nothing more or
nothing less than exactly that. When reading the book I get the
feeling of spying on something not intended for my eyes. In a way I
guess it's true. It was never intended to be published, but now it is,
and the book is very interesting indeed.

I'm trying to remind myself all the time, while reading, that the
questions and answers in the meetings are for the people present only
and that I dont know anything about the people questioning. Several
times the talks are about an exercise previously explained in another
meeting, not included in the book, so it's difficult to get the full
picture, and sometimes the talks and explanations concerns a
particular person to such an extent it's hard to get anything out of
it at all. All this is of course quite natural considering the nature
of this book. It's good in a way. It helps me to detach from it and
view it for what it is.

Of course you will undoubtly find wisdom in this book. Brilliant
remarks and answers from Gurdjieff more universal and not only for the
particular person in question:

" Question: I've arrived at the point where I am very unhappy,
everything is distasteful to me, of no interest.
Gurdjieff: And that handkerchief arranged like that in your
pocket? That interests you."

The documentation of the meetings are remarkable in detail, at least
it seems like that. for ex:

"...And these three directors can give a fourth one, who can be the "I."
[Noise of breakage in the kitchen. Mr.Gurdjieff speaks in russian to
Mme de Salzmann.]
I'm saying to Mme de Salzmann...."

One feel very much present with all these details included. Some
chapters lists the people present and some not.

I highly recommend this book, mainly for the insight it gives to what
took place in Gurdjieff's apartment these years. It's not for the
"beginner". You must be aquainted with the terminology to get the most
out of it.

For what it is I can't give it less than 5 stars

Of all the literature written on the subject, this is perhaps most revealing into the methods and teaching of a truly remarkable man. Here we see a warm and sensitive side hitherto unavailable to the reader of other books dealing with Mr. gurdjieff and his methods. Here we see a patient and remarkable understanding of the questions posed him. Remarkable because of his spot-on-insight of the puples real question not spoken, but kept deep inside... Over and over he repeats the essential message: Self Remembering, not accidental but consciously done.

Transcriptions of down to earth meetings in G.'s Paris flat.
Clean notes without an aura of mystification...
Much material for thought in the vein of 'Views From the Real World'...

Recommended for those solidly connected with the Work.

In this book you will find 32 Transcripts of Meetings with Gurdjieff, already published in "Voices in the Dark", by William Patrick Patterson and at the Homepage of J. Walter Driscol. It contains only the Transcripts, no Foreword, no Comment etc. Publisher is a "Book Studio London" no more Information is given. For the Content: Invaluable for everyone who is interested what a real teaching may be and what was Gurdjieffs special art to talk to his pupils. A lot of what he is saying touches one even today, but one must not forget that it was intended for the pupils then, with their specific personal background.

These transcripts, now in book form after 62 years, are some of the most authentic we can come across from Mr. Gurdjieff. His own books were translated, edited and re-edited during his life and also after he died. The transcripts are a translation from French and what Mr. Gurdjieff said in these meetings was also during the meetings themselves translated to French. A careful study of these texts can be rewarding.

Some years ago I was warned (by a senior member of a respected "official" Gurdjieff organisation) about publishing the texts on my website. (His words were an answer to my question why the transcripts had not been published.) I repeat the warning.

He had three main arguments against publishing:

* that there are enough authentic writings from Mr. Gurdjieff already available

* that those reading the transcripts will think that they have understood something and therefore not make the efforts to work

* that what was said was meant for those present and can easily be misunderstood by reading them


I don't have to explain why I was truly amazed at this and disappointed! To understand is wrong, to misunderstand is also wrong and to add to the couple of thousand pages already published of authentic material from Mr. Gurdjieff is also wrong!

Nevertheless - back to the book: to read anything it is wise to read slowly and like Mr. Gurdjieff advised about reading his main work Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson (All and Everything/First): first as one is accustomed to read the newspapers, then as if aloud to oneself and then one can study. This way it is not so much only the head that understands; one of the main messages in the transcripts and the exercises described in it and also in the whole of the Gurdjieff Work.

Mr. Gurdjieff said that his mission was "to live and teach so that there should be a new conception of God in the world, a change in the very meaning of the word" (the quote is in the A. R. Orage - A Memoir by Philip Mairet). This is for all of us to discover in the transcripts. When asked how he found his teaching he answered: "Perhaps I stole it!" Perhaps Mr.Gurdjieff "stole Christianity"! How could he do that?

There is more material in the book than in the notes that I have been reading and for those who are studying it is therefore a must. It is good to keep in mind that "the head is a luxury and only a policeman".

The important question, so aptly put by Reshad Feild is: who is the Gurdjieff of our time?

A.R. Orage. A Memoir by Philip Mairet