Hidden Meaninigs and Picture Gurdjieff

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Hidden Meanings andPicture-form Language in theWritings of G. I. Gurdjieff

(Excavations of the Buried Dog)

Copyright 2007, John Henderson

Note: The “Foreword” and the first three chapters of this book areherewith declared to be under “Free Copyright,” and, so long asaccuracy is maintained, they may be copied or reproduced in anymedium, and distributed freely without further restriction,permission, or notification, of either the author or the publisher of this book.John Henderson

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Foreword

For well over half a century great Beelzebub has wandered thewilderness of our minds, meeting thousands upon thousands of sincere students who try very hard to understand his message; butin spite of all our efforts, after years and even decades of study,we remain perplexed and mystified by the awesome weight anddepth of it all, with no apparent solution in sight.Still, we are convinced that something of great value is bound upwithin Gurdjieff’s books; but what is it, and how can we get to it?The answer remains elusive. All in all, and after all this time, itappears we could use some help.Fortunately for us, Gurdjieff’s carefully laid plan does include alittle something to aid us in our attempt to fathom his message,and that help is concerned with what is called

language

.In the year 1916 Gurdjieff said that some things such as ‘types’and the 48 laws:…cannot be defined in ordinary language, and thelanguage in which they could be defined you do not as yetknow and will not know for a long time. (

Fragments,

p.246)Now, if ordinary language is inadequate to describe such things aswe seek, then what kind of language is needed?According to several of Gurdjieff’s long-standing and personallyprepared “old pupils,” we simply need to learn his picture-formlanguage, the language in which he often spoke and wrote. Andalthough Gurdjieff may have said that we will not know thatlanguage for a long time, given that he made that remark almost acentury ago, perhaps the required “long time” has been satisfied.And indeed, it has. So let us see what some of Gurdjieff’sspecially prepared “old pupils” have to say on the matter; then wecan begin, with their help but by our own labors, to disinter Gurdjieff’s long and deeply buried dog, and finally decipher thetrue

Teachings of Gurdjieff.

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Just as Gurdjieff advised, “No one interested in my writings shouldever attempt to read them in any other than the indicated order,”so one should apply that same advice to the chapters of this book,and read them,

first

, only in sequent order.

Contents

ForewordI. IntroductionII. Whether Hidden MeaningIII. Beelzebub’s “Hidden Thought”(Gurdjieff’s Exposé of Revision)IV. Tools and Techniques of the Outer Version(Beelzebub’s Tricks)V. The Learned Society A-KhaldanVI. Why the Teaching is HiddenVII. A Multiplicity of the ‘Two Things’(Word-pairs of the Inner Version)VIII. “Tzvarnoharno”: Warning – Do Not ReadThis Chapter! (unless...)IX. The Experimental PeriodX. Ghosts and Superstitions of the Fourth WayXI. Three Wise Men and the Golden Calf XII. From the Author Addendum:

The Herald of Coming Good

After Word

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