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27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Christianized Gurdjieff? Two Kinds of Man? The One Romance?, March 19, 2006
Mouravieff's Gnosis series presents a rendering of Gurdjieff's teaching, as transmitted and reported by Ouspensky. On top of the kernel of the 4th Way Work ideas, Mouravieff adds concepts that are specific to him alone, namely the notion of polar beings, the division of mankind into Adamic and Preadamic man plus generally synarchistic political ideas and some speculations about esoteric history.
To derive benefit from this series, we must consider these elements each in turn.
Mouravieff's cosmology and description of man's inner structure is basically Gurdjieffian. Whether he got this from Ouspenskky or some other source is unclear, however Mouravieff did not get it from Gurdjieff directly. In his own words, he found it as a fragmentary oral tradition in Eastern Orthodox monasticism. Be the case as it may, Mouravieff lays out the system with a good sense for structure.
For intellectually oriented people, this is a nice rendition of a complex set of ideas and the schematics of the worlds, hydrogens, centers and so forth provide good cognitive tools for describing self and the world. Of course we always run the risk of confusing the thing itself with the word or symbol if we take these of necessity approximate theoretical descriptions too literally.
Mouravieff very specifically presents all ideas in a Christian context, whereas Gurdjieff and Ouspensky are not specifically tied to the Christian context. At any rate, his quoting and interpreting of the New Testament is clever and insightful, whether he penetrates to the intended inner meaning of the text is something we cannot determine with certainty.
When seeking to understand the 4th Way Work ideas, Gnosis can be a good additional source for another perspective on the same or related concepts. It is more of a textbook than In Search of the Miraculous or Beelzebub's Tales. Whether this is a plagiarism of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky or another transmission of the same source as Gurdjieff's is uncertain. Still, this is a work of intellect and reading it with attention can deepen one's understanding.
Historically, Mouravieff had little respect for Gurdjieff and even though the two met a number of times, Mouravieff was never a participant in the Work. Mouravieff found Gurdjieff personally little better than a snake charmer. Gurdjieff likely considered Mouravieff an exterior man with only theoretical ideas. This is good to keep in mind as background.
But let us talk about things which are proper to Gnosis and not generally foun in 4th Way literature.
The concept of Adamic and Preadamic man basically states that one half of humanity has a "soul" capable of esoteric evolution away from the mechanicity of the world and that the other half has no such soul. The two types are basically evenly mixed in families and nations and no exterior test can discern the difference. The concept is on one hand helpful for explaining why some people have an esoterically inclined spirit and others not. On the otherhand, this can feed feelings of specialness and give rise to labeling and name calling. Laura Knight-Jadczyk elaborates on these ideas in depth at her www.cassiopaea.org site under the heading of "organic portals."
The other idea proper to Gnosis is the notion of "polar opposites," a man and woman "made for each other., the two halves of the androgyne of Plato's symposium. These two halves would be precisely complementary and when united could achieve rapid spiritual progress. This Mouravieff calls the "fifth way." Well, if one subscribes to any notion of preincarnative life plan or soul essence one brings with one when born into this world, then one cannot exclude the possibility that such "meant to be" couples may occur. Whether this is a universal law and applies to each is however less certain. Again, the treatment of polarity by Mouravieff, even when not talking about the perfect match, provides a nice framework for thought about attractions and affinities. Again, this is a conceptual device, to be used if found helpful.
Mouravieff's political ideas are rather naively synarchistic. He talks about bringing the world under one government, under some sort of enlightened supervision by the UN or similar, guided by a sort of spiritual elite. Failure to do this would cause the world to meet a fiery end in the not very distant future, a sort of failure of the divine experiment of Earth, where the planet did not deliver the prescribed quota of consciousness.
The idea of the Earth producing a sort of harvest of sufficiently evolved souls is not specific to Mouravieff, the same is found with Gurdjieff and many present day sources. The synarchistic gloss and apocalyptic tone is all Mouravieff's own, though.
Gnosis has many good conceptual tools for organizing ideas and describing things. The book is almost exclusively geared to the intellectual side of man and is abstract and academic in tone. Reading the book and attempting to apply the concepts and descriptions to real life situations and phenomena can be an enriching experience. One should have the proper experimental spirit and not take everything too literally or at face value. Mouravieff has the tendency to make
authoritative and dogmatic sounding statements about very complex matters, whose complete description is likely above any human capacity. Use the schematic where it helps but do not confuse the picture with the real thing, as Gurdjieff might say, do not fall into "formatory thinking."
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An undiscovered classic of extraordinary significance, October 28, 1997
G.I. Gurdjieff often stated that the basis of his teaching was esoteric Christianity. In GNOSIS, Boris Mouravieff reveals that this Tradition is found in its complete form in Greece and Russia, transmitted by the "Great Esoteric Brotherhood." The author informs us that this ancient Tradition in which is found all of the Fourth Way's ideas, diagrams, cosmologies, and exercises, comes from the heart of Eastern Christianity. Anyone long-studied in these ideas will recognize that this book expresses the very essence of the teaching. Mouravieff, who knew both Gurdjieff and Ouspensky before their appearance in western Europe, presents an astonishing display of brilliant and profound wisdom. There is no denying the authoritative atmosphere which radiates from every page. These volumes will require all who seek awakening to reconsider in a new light the great legacy left us by Gurdjieff.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Fall, August 7, 2006
Man is asleep. This is the explicit message of the 4th Way school, and the implicit message of many other spiritual traditions. In "Gnosis", Mouravieff, who was loosely associated with Gurdjieff, describes a method, based on esoteric teachings of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, that is to lead to our awakening and consequent salvation.
Mouravieff argues that most of our actions and thoughts are just mechanical reactions to stimulae. We identify ourselves with those thoughts and actions and put the label "I" on them, thus giving them authorship. However, it would be more correct to speak of many "I"s. And, if we are truthful with ourselves, we will admit that these actions and thoughts do not proceed from our will but sort of "happen to us".
So far, so good. Anyone who has done any meditation training will be familiar to some extent with the above description. We sit in meditation and tend to our breath, a mantra, a prop. Very soon, though, we will be distracted by a myriad of thoughts, some of them very strange indeed. Whence did they arise? We are taught, in such cases, to observe these thoughts and return to our concentration. We can see that in some way the thoughts that arise are alien to us and the "observer" is the one, permanent, I. Let us call this "observer" the True I.
These worldy phenomenon- be they thoughts, emotions or events- to which we usually identify ourselves are given the name of "A" influences. Occasionally we will have another type of higher experience, named "B" influences or those issuing from God.
It occurs to me that one should observe the "A" influences from the vantage point of the True I and willfully decide to engage them or not. The idea is to enter into a more conscious role with the world and ourselves. Mouravieff has other ideas though.
We should according to him, "never again participate enthusiastically in life. In other words one must die to life if one is to deflect the "A" influences and attract more of the "B" influences.
Here is where Mouravieff shows his hand and where I must part company with him. He views the fall of man from a strictly negative point of view similar to some forms of gnosticism. Life is an evil into which man has fallen and you had better disengage with it. Instead could not there be a positive view of the fall: that it is also a chance for creation and consciousness to expand?
In order for consciousness to grow, life must be engaged consciously and not avoided. To do so, one must be a conscious participant and not just a disinterested actor (as Mouravieff suggests). For an example of what I mean, please see the wonderful film by Wim Wenders, "The Wings of Desire".
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