Gurdjieff & Work

This essay is an attempt to survey Gurdjieff's central ideas, locate his sources and to delineate the main reasons for his "Work", chief methods, as well as to evaluate its place in history and in the present.

Gurdjieff's vison of human machine

We will completely omit Gurdjieff's cosmology (a strictly personal com ination of !eopythagorean "vi ratory" cosmogony and "uasignostic scheme of ever constricting "worlds"#, and focus on the most important parts of Gurdjieff's (in short, we'll use popular acronym G$G from now on# psychology. This is necessary ecause only this will give raison d'etre for his specific psychospiritual e%ercises. G$G can est e descri ed as a lend of operating Theosophist and the protagonist of !eopythagorean&'osicrucian()ermetic doctrines in vogue these times ( turn of the *+&,-th century.# What the Theosophical movement had een teaching in last two decades of the *+th century, G$G, armed with his vitalist temper and adventurous spirit tried to achieve in practice. .or all the nice talk a out $ndia and "/asters", Theosophists remained an influential, ut rather impotent de ate clu . G$G yearned for "the right stuff" of superhuman mastery and actuali0ation of the "miraculous", a pervasive theme during the fin de siecle. Bodies G$G's Theosophical "roots" can e traced in his analysis of a human eing1 he divides man ($'ll use 2i lical chauvinist 3ahwespeak# into four " odies"1 *. 4arnal or 5hysical 2ody ,. 6stral&7esdjan 2ody (feelings, desires# 8. /ental or 9piritual 2ody (mind, mental faculty# :. ;ivine or 4ausal 2ody ( "$" consciousness, will, soul# .rom this survey, one can easily e%tract a few o servations1 a# G$G didn't use the odiless terminology, oth <ast and West ( 6tman, 2uddha !ature, 9pirit, $nner 4hrist, 6r('uh al(=udsi (9upreme 9pirit#, )sing&>riginal !ature #. .or him, (potentially# transtemporal and indestructi le "spiritual" element in human eing remains e"ual to (not encased witin# a "higher" ody. # G$G's vision of human composition is in many respects strangely similar to 6ssagioli's 5sychosynthesis (10, 11; for oth of them, the central attri ute of the innermost self is will#. 6lthough, some du ieties remain1 looks like 6ssagioli has een su tler re the indestructi le self1 in shallower and lower levels of disidentification it is a pure witnessing "$". $n deeper and more potent dimensions of its "life" it is Transpersonal or )igher 9elf( virtually odiless 6tman or 9pirit. c# like most Theosophists, G$G calls the :th ody soul.

$t is the soul Gurdjieff's "Work" is all a out. 2ut, e"ually ironic, in his version of thanatology Gurdjieff (not une"uivocally# radically departs oth from traditional wisdom doctrines and Theosophy1 if not worked upon sufficiently and not awakened, even soul is mortal. $t is "eaten y the /oon"( pro a ly the weirdest destiny that has ever efallen the spiritual element in man. 9o, in his rather incongruos lend of Theosophy, !eopythagoreanism 'osicrucianism and 6lchemy, even (in a few interpretations, 4# the in orn spiritual self is doomed to post(mortem e%tinction in ordinary human eings. $n order to understand G$G's e%ercises, we'll address only three more concepts, leaving the intricate we of other Gurdjieffian speculations untouched. Essence and Personality These two crucial concepts can e taken as the central human polarity1 essence is, so to speak (in astrological parlance#, the sum total of individual incarnational& ehavioral tendencies one is usually not aware of, ut lives their mechanical life according to the essence promptings. <ssence grows, decays,.. ut a person is generally not aware of its processes. $t's innate, the mould of one's personality and the matri% of a human eing's conscious life. With a it of stretch, the essence could e compared either to temperament, or to .reudian $d, or at least to a host of rudimentary su conscious "uasientities emerging out of it. We can e"uate it to the psychoanalytic su conscious ( 6 short remark1 essence is nothing "spiritual"? this term has completely different connotations in other wisdom doctrines#. 5ersonality is something inauthentic, a sort of fluctuating mask a human eing adopts in dealing with the world (inner and outer#. <ssentially, it can e compared to ancient "persona", false series of "$"s or "acting" spurious self one uncounsciously adopts as optimal (from their viewpoint# in dealings with the life's challenges. 9uccinctly1 G$G's insistence on the dichotomy etween essence and personality is just another weapon more in his arsenal stored for attack on "ordinary man's" hypnoti0ed, sleepy and inauthentic e%istence. 2oth uilding locks of human eing are just raw, mechanical matrices of human ondage. 5olarity etween "carnal" and "spiritual" is alien to Gurdjieff "Work". There is no "struggle for one's soul" (conventionally speaking# one encounters in all monotheistic traditions.True, he fre"uently plays with these concepts, ut, evidently, his "God" is more akin to the deistic <nlightenment ;eity not intersted in human affairs? it's some weird and concocted mechanical laws (not more convincing than one can encounter in the @ain cosmology, ending under inflatio numeri gone erserk# operate on oth inner and outer worlds (something like the !ewtonian paradigm pushed to the e%treme and utterly impro a le conclusions.# 2oth concepts are fundamental to Gurdjieff "Work" and integrated with the rest of his psychology1 for instance, crucial G$G's elements of human transformation, centres, are fre"uently descri ed as " eing contained in essence".

Three "stories" and respective centres G$G has divided a human into three "stories"&compartments (metaphorically, " rains", although this has nothing to do with the anatomical organ#. 'oughly, the division goes as follows1 *. Apper story ( $ntellectual center plus )igher $ntellectual center# ,. /iddle story (<motional center and )igher <motional center# 8. Bower story (9e%ual center plus $nstinctive center plus /oving center# ")igher" centers in upper two stories are only potential? e%isting, yet dormant. They are accessi le and (hopefully# operating in men and women who have passed through strenuous e%ercises of Gurdjieffian "Work". What virtually all Gurdjieffians ignore (or simply haven't deigned to ask# is1 where these centers reside C 4onventionally, the answer is that they are located in physical ody ( lower story in a domen, middle story in chest and upper story in head#. 2ut( anatomy is sufficiently advanced to discover anything resem ling these "centres" if they e%ist in this mortal coil. 3et( nothing so far of it. We are left with a host of possi le choices1 a# as a Theosophist, G$G includes "etheric", or, in modern parlance, ioplasmatic or ioenergy ( "7irlian photography"# ody into the physical ody framework. <ssentially, this corresponds to the 3ogic "vital sheath". The "uestion which naturally arises is how these centres, located in such a "low" ody, could give rise to supramundane consciousness, especially considering the fact that Gurdjieff, in his cosmology, adheres to "uasimaterialist e%planations C $f a center is constrained to a specific "vi ratory level"( how can it skip other levels and whi00 across the emanationist ladder which is deterministically structured C $n normal physics language, it would e as a surd as e%pect a hydrogen atom to contain DallD uranium energy levels. # centres are positioned in respective odies1 the "lower" ones in physical, "emotional" in astral and "intellectual" in mental. .ine. @ust( there is not a hint of such a classification in Gurdjieff's or >uspensky's works? more, we're left with soul "uncentred" and again nothing (the "lowest" centres# visi le&detecta le in the physical ody. <ven more em arrassing(how "Work" on these lower centes could produce anything on the soul, since there is no energy connection etween divine ody and lower centres C 'ealistically( the centres concept is most vulnera le to the anal "uestion1 why accept their e%istence at all C They seem to com ine in an awkward manner 5latonic and Thomist psychology (where centres are psychological functions located in a ody(soul compound1 vegetatitive soul, passionate&animal and rational soul( this triple division corresponds e%actly to Gurdjieff's three stories or " rains"# and Theosophical&)indu idea of enery wheels or chakras located in su tle supraphysical odies. The confusion arises ecause these two approaches are not harmoni0ed1 for, chakras don't have any psychological functions (save in !ew 6ge interpretations#. The majority of them are dormant (like 6jna in the head#, while 5lato's psyche logistike&rational soul is perfectly functional in an ordinary human. 6lso, in >riental traditions some say spiritual pole is dormant, and physiological active (with the e%ception of "lower" centers which don't have even dormant spiritual function.

c# e%panding on the 5latonic metaphor, one could ponder something like this1 5lato speaks of immortal soul. <vidently, his "centers" are located not in physical, ut in supraphysical "soul ody", which is not further dissected. 9uch a view is endorsed in chief dialogues, "6pologia", "5haedo" and "The 'epu lic". 9ocrates, as the story goes, will (pro a ly# lead an immortal life, conversing with )omer, >rpheus and comp., with all his mental and emotional functions&centres operating. 6s a simple paradigm, it would fit nicely with Gurdjieff's views, save for a few irreconcila le points1 G$G's "theory" contains more than one ody. /ore, he has ela orated an intricate we of interrelated connections etween centres leading to a errant or functional ehavior, all set in a materialist lingo (se% center steals energy&su stance for its gratification etc.#. /ultiplicity of odies in Gurdjieff's system and unity of one, soul ody with various functions&centres in 5lato's psychology are mutually e%clusive. 6 su variant of "protoplatonic" interpretation (although a it stretchy# is that a center in a "lower" ody acts as a focus or radiating "centre" for higher ody, which is termed a centre, ut in actuality is a whole "higher" ody. 2ut, as $ said1 this is, to say the least, not very pro a le interpretation. d# in his posthumous work (5) Gurdjieff casually gave the most plausi le (to the modern mind# and at the same time cursory and offhand rief review of the centers1 he e"uated them with various ple%uses and sympathetic&paraympathetic nervous systems com ined with parts of rain (a rather fu00y description#. !eedless to say( this is completely at variance with virtually everything he had een talking on the su ject for more than 8- years. The final "uestion1 why all the fuss a out this C Well( ecause entire Gurdjieffian "Work" and the ".ourth Way" rest on harmonious development of a human eing (2,3,4,5,6,7,8), which, in his system, means work on all centers through a structured network of very ela orate e%ercises aiming at empowerment, harmoni0ation and coordination of various centres that would (at least, that's the theory# facilitate crystalli0ation of permanent "$" or soul. $f there are no centres (for instance, one can dismiss the Gurdjieff system completely y pointing to achievements of neurophysiology, rain research or cognitive sciences, and "attack" his esoteric edifice from the standpoint of modern materialist&physicalist paradigm where consciousness is an epiphenomenon of rain E 4!9 #( then, apart from a few e%ercises good for health and strengthening of perception, his central goal is null and void(just another specimen in a procession of human self( deceptions. A hackney carria e metaphor )ere, Gurdjieff retells an analogy already present in Apanishads, which gives ancient )indu insight into human condition. @ust( G$G consciously misread Apanishadic (at least in 6dvaitin interpretation# metaphor1 a carriage (human&physical ody# is drawn y a horse (emotions&astral ody#, 6 sha y coachman, with meagre powers and understanding (intellect&mental ody# tries his est, ut the central pro lem is that a passenger in a o% (whatever "$" turns out at the moment, a false self or su personality instead of true self or soul# is asleep (pro a ly snoo0ing#. The central aim of G$G's "Work" is that the passenger ecome ;ivine ody&soul, fully oparating and possessing authentic will.

!eedless to say, the majority of monist doctrines speak of the passenger in completely different terms1 ")e is the unseen seer, the unheard hearer,....>ther than he there is no seer, other than he there is no hearer,...)e is your 9elf, the $nner 4ontroller, the $mmortal" (2rhadaranyaka Apanishad#. 2efore e%plaining chief G$G's e%ercises, in order to put them in proper perspective, let's give rief overview of Gurdjieff's sources and phases.

Gurdjieff's sources and phases

$'ll omit here interesting adventure story of Gurdjieff's pre(teacher life (one can find it in (1)# and concentrate on sources of his doctrine. Gurdjieff in his early phase can e est descri ed as a lend of operating Theosophical guru, drawing the majority of his ideas from !eopythagorean&'osicrucian()ermetic doctrines in vogue these times, and com ining them with Tantric awareness practice he ecame ac"uainted with in the Theosophists's )oly land, Ti et, into an "original eclectic" Gnosis. Theosophy What the Theosophical movement had een teaching in last two decades of the *+th century, G$G, armed with his vitalist temper and adventurous spirit tried to achieve in practice. .or all the nice talk a out $ndia and "/asters", Theosophists remained an influential, ut rather impotent de ate clu . G$G yearned for "the right stuff" of superhuman mastery and actuali0ation of the "miraculous", a pervasive theme during the fin de siecle. >ne can detect Theosophical influence in his " odies" doctrine, "inner circle of humanity" concept which corresponds to the Theosophical "/asters", plus the central concept of evolution. !osicrucianism 6nother strand, far less visi le, is the 'osicrucian one. $t had een "in the air" for years (14), and ecame most prominent in Gurdjieff's /oscow and 9t.5eters urg teachings, where he e%pounded an ela orate (al eit contradictory# cosmology and "psychochemistry". 'osicrucian movement of the age was saturated with ideas of "scientific spirituality" (they still possess many la s#, and a multitude of their crucial concepts ( food diagram, octaves, world as a vi ratory universe, strange chemistry ased on ;alton's works on atomic structure, ut "intrepreted" eyond recognition# form the asis of Gurdjieff(>uspensky school (!icoll, as well as 2ennet, are effectively >uspenskians#. 5lato >uspensky was kicked out y 9ocrates Gurdjieff in early ,-ies, ut, since he was a le to e%press esoteric ideas in a more reada le manner (and with a touch of "academic" rigor#( the majority of contemporary Gurdjieff's "schools" are in essence >uspensky's spiritual progeny. Two remarks have to e added1 a# Gurdjieff's ideas from 'ussian and early .rench&5rieure period (and est articulated in >uspensky's two magna opera (12, 13) # are an occult thrill. >ne gets the whole stuff1 cosmology, psychology, centres, secret schools, mysteries,...>n the other hand, works written

y G$G himself are not nearly as captivating. 2i0arrely enough( Gurdjieff's own five or si% ooks almost consciously ignore all the "hot esoteric stuff" that is >uspensky's main attraction. !o ray of creation, no hydrogens from the 6 solute, no spectacular reports on telepathy..... $n his magnum opus (4) Gurdjieff tackled a massive esoteric and e%oteric tour de force interspersed with personal indulgences1 essentially, this is e%position of G$G's ideas, tastes and distastes( all cloaked in a form of a science fiction novel with little or no action. Gurdjieff ram les through more than *--- pages on German national "character", "higher eings" (sorts of 6rchangels or ;emiurge#, mastur ation, various drugs, humorous treatment of various religions and their supposed origin, vi ratory levels of the Aniverse etc etc. The most conspicuous trait of the ook is a host of i0arre neologisms, derived from many languages (Greek, 6rmenian, 'ussian, Turkish,..# and which only dogmatically pronounce "Great Baws" of the Aniverse1 "Triama0ikamno" or the "Baw of Threefoldedness", and ")eptaparaparshinokh" or the "Baw of 9evenfoldedness". <vidently( these are not "laws" as contemporary sciences understand them. 6lso(other important concepts (like vi ratory levels which ac"uired e"ually creepy names and are conveniently arrranged into musical octaves# etray ancient, pro a ly 5ythagorean mindset1 "laws" and musical "e%planation" of the Aniverse can e traced to !eopythagorean and )ermetic schools in 6le%andria and eyond. >ne gets an inescapa le feeling1 for all the science fiction scenery, this is an e%position of principles having originated in the 2ron0e 6ge and refined in the early period of Western civili0ation. !o dou t that >uspensky, with his "uasischolarly and didactic approach (and esoterica galore# is a much more visi le influence. # although G$G was evidently heavily influenced y 'osicrucian ideas, he ehaved towards them as an "original eclectic". )e introduced many novel concepts (shock points, a confusing "uasimaterialist emanationist cosmology, food diagram adapted for centres, man(as(a(machine crucial paradigm#? also, he rejected reincarnation and !eoplatonist emanationism of 'osicrucians. )is ent was on "tough materialism", and he made sure his disciples would e well aware of that. 6nd, the author's last word on this su ject1 in my opinion, for anyone ac"uainted with ideas of the ,-th century physics DandD "perennial philosophy", Gurdjieff( >uspensky "esoteric" cosmology, chemistry, physiology and "natural philosophy" are, to say the least, a monumental nonsense and e%ercise in futile ja erwock. 5ro a ly those contaminated y Gurdjieffian myth would furiously disagree, ut, as Buther said1 ")ier stehe $ch. $ch kann nicht anders." "ufism and #smaili Gnosis The most important "mystic" or "occult" sym ol Gurdjieff's "Work" has introduced to the West is enneagram, an occult glyph resem ling in some respects 'osicrucian geometrical constructs or 7a alistic Tree of life. 6s the story goes (1,7,8), it is prominent

among $slamic mystics, 9ufis. 2ut( there is a little pro lem. !ot one known 9ufi order (and there are more than hundred of them, most nota le eing !a"sh andis, /evlevis, 4histis, =adiris at al.# knows of and uses this sym ol. 9o, pro a ly, enenagram represents a modified remnant of !eopythagorean and )ermetic tradition that has percolated and survived in $slamic "esoteric" circles? most likely candidates eing $smaili 9hiites, spiritual descendants of famous $hwan(al(9afa (men of learning, an encyclopedic group flourishing around F&+ century 4.<.# and dreaded and slandered (.rench scholar )enry 4or in has done much to reha ilitate them# 6ssassins, a secret society on its acme at **&*, century 4.<., until their mountain strongholds in the 4aucasus had een destroyed during /ongol invasion in the *8th century. .inally, a word on the glyph1 it is an archaic cosmologico(spiritual sym ol, originating in 9umero(4haldean milieu and concisely summari0ing their conception of the Aniverse E descent and ascent of the "soul". )aving undergone further modifications in !eopythagorean and !eoplatonist schools, pro a ly in 6le%andria, it has een, as some stories indicate, transmitted via the $smailis's si%th $mam, @afar(as(9adi", to some of their "occult" ranches. <ssentially, enneagrem represents )ermetic, spherical 5tolemaic and geocentric cosmos as preserved in the traditions of /andeans and 9a eans, later enriched and restructured y the !eoplatonist influences. 9o, enneagram which makes some sense ( at least when interpreted through scholarly works y 9.).!asr, 2urckhardt, 2erthelot # is a summary of ideas and processes ancient proto(scientists imagined cosmos and psyche ( they didn't make much distinction # to e governed y. $t is the verita le irony of history that a fossil of palaentological spiritual cognition has ecome a !ew 6ge icon. G$G's use of the enneagram sym ol is most visi le in his 'ussian (post (*+*G# and <uropean years, when he gathered a cluster of disciplined devotees and made stage appearances with them, oth in <urope and the A9 (mainly in the *+,-ies#. Asually, his disciples danced along enneagram points and lines, self(o serving themselves, until under Gurdjieff's command "9top H" they would fre0e up in an act of (supposedly# self(remem ering, when, at least in theory, Gurdjieff would transmit spiritual (or, more likely, ioenergy e"uivalent to Taoist ch'i# to their suscepti le psyches with the aim to elevate and e%pand their consciousness and eing( an e%ercise in some points resem ling the transfer of 9ufi arrakah ( lessing, spiritual energy# or Tantric shaktipat. 6lso, the profile of dances, devised y Gurdjieff himself, etray influences of 9ufi and Iajrayana&Ti etan traditions. <nnegram doesn't play a prominent role in his own writings, and, apart from his early and middle periods (*+*G( *+,-ies, with the significant pause in *+,G., when he arely survived a car(crash#, it is mainly preserved in >uspensky's ooks. Bater "enneagrammoratos", from $dries 9hah to 6rica's >scar $cha0o and 4laudio !aranjo are not part of this essay. Tantric tradition 5ro a ly the most enduring legacy Gurdjieff has e"ueathed to the West (and going far eyond the adherents of his "Work"# is a set of e%ercises which he picked up in 4entral and <ast 6sia, and which are prominent in 2uddhist and )indu Tantric traditions.

(6lthough the most important e%ercise, vipassana&vipasyana or "insight" meditation is central also in non(Tantric, southern Theravada 2uddhism of 9ri Banka, 2urma and $ndochina Gurdjieff, y all accounts, didn't have physical contacts with#. <ssentially, the most widespread "non(energetic" Ti etan 3oga, /ahamudra, consists of two parts1 shamatha (or concentration&a sor tion# and vipas(h#yana ("insight" or mindfulness( variously termed#. Gurdjieffian self(remem ering (and to a lesser degree, self(o servation# is an e%ample of vipasyana reshaped to suit his system. .or, eing an integral practice of unitary monism of 4ittamatra&3ogachara school, vipasyana has only one goal1 to recogni0e, in a flash of insight, the identity etween one's essential nature (variously termed1 2uddha !ature, >riginal !ature, True !ature(in 9anskrt, 2uddhata# with the ;harmakaya (literally, the ";octrine's ody", which is e"uivalent to the Western 6 solute&6 yss of Godhead.# $n the most famous version, this is the grand Apanishadic e"uation1 6tman (essential human soul# and 2rahman (Ground of the 4osmos# are one and the same. The Tantric e%ercise reaps the harvest of insight only after practice of mindfulness has dissolved all the skandhas&constitutive elements which have created an illusory sense of ego&mano( vijnana. We won't delve into intricacies of 4ittamatra psychology, ut will only point out to the central aim of non(dual doctrine that is perfectly e%pounded in /ahamudra (9) (and its part, vipasyana&mindfulness# or 4h'an&Jen, which is essentially identical in theory and similar in practice1 for non(dual doctrines, the sense of selfhood or "ego", at whichever level&layer is nothing ut a vorte% in $llusion of mundane consciousness&perception. .or them, the only 'eality is supracosmic Ioid&9hunya. Iipasyana&mindfulness e%ercise gradually dissolves illusory layers of "normal" waking consciousness until ignorance ( avidya # ursts out into the insight into the identity of one's essential self&2uddhata and the Ground of 6ll&;harmakaya&9hunya. (True, there are less radical interpretations within different schools of Iajrayana 2uddhism, ut it is ucertain whether Gurdjieff contacted !yingma order or even heterodo% 2onpo, that practice (among other things# a powerful ;0ogchen e%ercise, in many respects similar to Iipasyana, ut su tler in emphasi0ing state of "unity in multiplicity" ($'ll use their terminology# of the !ature&2uddhata and <ssence&9hunya. $n their own words1 "While the essence is like the vast e%panse of a clear, sunlit sky, the nature is like the light itself, the sky's luminosity."# 6nyway( in oth variants, it is a far cry from Gurdjieff's soul awakening and empowering project. Gurdjieff's intention was entirely different1 the accent is on the awakening of evolving "essential soul", perpetually growing yet indestructi le inner self, the true protagonist and "privileged" agent of cosmic evolution. Gurdjieff's world is a too real and dynamic place to afford its inha itants a lu%ury of escapist "uietism and the "river into ocean" loss of selfhood.

Pieces of the "Work"

"elf$o%servation 9elf(o servation is, in short, a process where y individual is perpetually engaged in attentive "monitoring" of their actions, sensations, impressions, thoughts, reactions,....and assigning every isolated perceived event to a specific centre. This e%ercise is essentially dis(identification from one's ody&emotions&thoughts compound and intensification of it y dispassionately cataloging everything e%perienced. )aving roots in ancient and modern e%ercisses of "witnessing" (as various as 'aja 3oga and )usserl's 5henomenology# of imagined "pure $", it nevertheless makes sense only in Gurdjieff's system. $f we put aside all o jections re his "centres" (practically, it doesn't matter where some sensation is assigned to ut only that it is recorded and categori0ed#, we can immediately see positive as well as negative effects of this e%ercise. >n the positive level1 a person, in due time, achieves certain level of "inner freedom", of still assuredness she&he is a self different from the vorte% of odily sensations, emotions and thoughts they used to consider their eing. 4ategori0ation, as it were, "e%ternali0es" one's psychophysical functions and frees oneself from clutches of previous ha itual, fre"uently mechanical ehavior. Gurdjieff and his disciples tried (sometimes# to "e%plain" these effects in their "chemical su stances" lingo (harmoni0ation of centres, redistri ution of odily (al#chemical energies in a desira le manner#, ut this is of minor importance. The crucial positive effect remains growing freedom from the claws of odypsyche domination (which is, y the way, natural condition of an ordinary human#. 2ut( here lies a danger of disintegration1 a sane human person is unity of this "compound". $f e%ercised radically and isolatedly, without other "unifying" or humani0ing practices, self(o servation could at est lead to devaluation of one's e%perience of total life, which is prefera ly to e lived than analy0ed, or, at worst, to schi0ophrenia(like symptoms of alienation from one's own ody and psyche. The attle against mechanical ehavior can assume mechanical characteristics1 a "self(o servation addict" is a sort of ro ot(like creature focused primarily on apperception and categori0ation of their inner and outer world. !ot a desira le way of life, $'d say. 6lso, from a practical standpoint( a person easily gets ored with such a not instantly rewarding discipline and generally not spectacular at all1 futile witnessing one's sensations(mostly trivial stream of consciousness. <ven worse1 witnessing and cataloging may sometimes lock genuinely creative impulses. .inally( $ would say that "unnaturalness" of selfo servation e%ercise makes it simply unattractive to the majority of even "selected" introverts. "elf$remem%rin The central Gurdjieffian practice is dis(identification intensified and "compressed". 6ccounts of self(remem ering go something like this1 one "sees" one's odypsyche in a flash of insight ("takes a mental photo"#, with sensations, feelings

and thoughts not se"uentially categori0ed, ut apperceived in a timeless "instant". <vidently, self(remem ering is (at least in its form# a variant of Tantric vipasyana or Theravada vipassana&mindfulness meditation1 while walking, sitting, eating, defecating, speaking (and, if possi le, sleeping and dreaming# continually dispassionately witnessing one's perceptual world. Gurdjieffian self(remem ering adds a Gnostic urgency to the act1 Ti etan Tantric vipasyana, assured in the ever(a iding presence of enlightened 2uddha !ature within, patiently goes on, without hurry (at least in theory#, practicing mindfulness meditation which will, eventually, have dissolved all the defilements that keep the /ind&4itta in delusional state of normal consciousness. .estina lente would e their motto. With the perpetual practice of vipasyna&mindfulness, the immanent 2odhi&<nlightenment will manifest of itself, following the gradual weakening of the hypnotic attraction the 9amsara (inner and outer# holds on a person's consciousness. !ot so in G$G's self(remem ering. >ne is e%pected, literally, to "fight" one's natural "sleepy human condition". 6n effort, something unnatural, is needed to activate human attention to full and intense apperception of one's odypsyche comple% and its intrer( relation with the "world". 9elf(remem ering means going against the current of ordinary slum er called human life. True, in deeper levels of vipasyana, similar effects occur, ut they are classified according to their Weltanschauung. The main difference is that the everpresent 2odhi&<nlightenment only waits to manifest itself, while no such state or eing e%ists in Gurdjieff's mythology. .or Gurdjieffians, soul is asleep, and only concentrated effort of self(remem ering can lead to its transient awakening. >therwise, when a man dies, his soul will remain immortal within the confines of the 9olar system (or, in "loonier" versions of the "system", will e eaten y the /oon#, ut e"ually snoo0y and impotent. 6s is the case with all true Gnostics( it's now or never. $nterpretations of successful Gurdjieffian self(remem ering will vary according to one's worldview1 non(physicalists will pro a ly consider it an e%ample of consciousness e%pansion and recentering one's eing&"$" closer to the )igher 9elf? physicalists&materialists will descri e it as an altered mental state produced y iochemical&physiological changes induced y e%traordinary stress or effort. &onscious la%or and intentional sufferin $ shall consider only this e%ercise among many others Gurdjieff's followers practice in the "Work" (various Gurdjieff(designed dances, a multitude of psychological e%ercises, suppressing anger and "negative" emotions, conscience development, etc.#. 6lthough various authors differ in their reports, conscious la or and intentional suffering could e descri ed riefly as development of one's strength of will and patience. >n an "esoteric" level, conscious la or can e considered a distant progeny of ancient DaskesisD (ascetic practice#, thought to generate willpower necessary to su due "lower" or "passionate" nature. This e%ercise is done in succession of meaningless, oring and unpleasant acts( which is supposed to crystalli0e one's will and help harmoni0e human

centres. 6lso, it can take on the form of strenuous mental and physical e%ercises, e%hausting manual la or or prolonged self(imposed restrictions(an echo of 4hristian vita purgativa. $ntentional suffering is essentiallly patience, ranging from self(control to almost 4hristian ideal of humility. 2oth these practices are considered the prere"uisite for harmoniously developed human eing (usually defined in terms of optimally functioning centres# who will e a le to sustain ever more prolonged states of soul consciousness generated y selfremem ering with the ultimate goal of eing more or less permanently (or at will# centered in soul.

!ecapitulation
An afterthou ht We have riefly addressed pillars of Gurdjieffian psychology that range from Western(type alchemical )ermetism (enneagram, his i0arre "chemistry" and the rest one can find est descri ed in >uspensky's works (12,13) # to the more "<astern" e%ercises of creating&awakening a "witness", a disidentified permanent "$", different from psyche perceived as a spatio(temporally restricted flu% of thoughts, emotions and sensations (such practices can e found in various ranches of Tantricism, oth )indu and 2uddhist, as well as in some types of alchemical Taoism#. 2e as it may, Gurdjieff remained throughout his entire opus e"uivocal re the nature of this "$". 9ometimes, he stu ornly denied its e%istence, insisting that a person can only through various psychophysical strategies (conscious la or, self(o servation, self( remem ering# "create" or "develop" such an entity, which would, in due course, ena le an individual to survive physical death .The parallels with early alchemical Taoism, where a human eing is sentenced to mortality, and the only chance of escape of the ine%ora le fatum is to create immortal "spiritual essence"&9hen, are striking (never mind that later !orthern Taoism insisted on the given and already indestructi le self#. )owever, in the majority of instances Gurdjieff admitted that the su ject of witnessing is always here, ut asleep&deluded(therefore no need for some pseudochemical "effort" that would "e%tract" permanent "$" out of the ody in claws of mortality and decay? "only" a set of strenuous e%ercises with the aim to re(awake the enum ed and unconscious soul. 6nd, as the last o servation1 Gurdjieff's e%ercises and, $ would say, "the Gurdjieffian myth" are mesmeri0ing for a particular type of personality1 someone not "at home" in this world, not satisfied with the common human lot as circumscri ed in "<cclesiastes", and eing possessed of something one might term as the "Ar(Gnostic" temperament, whose cri de coeur can e summari0ed thusly 1 may e "3e shall e like Gods" is an overstatement, ut "/ore

than human" is, hopefully, a reacha le goal that makes life worth living.

"ummary
6fter having riefly delineated sources and phases of Gurdjieffian "Work", $ would like to summari0e the main points of this doctrine( its characteristics and differentia specifica from other "perrennial wisdoms"1 Gurdjieff was, to put it succinctly, a vitalist Gnostic. )is central worldview is a Gnostic one, ut having passed through various phases and mutations, fragments of his "system" (never fully articulated# gave rise to conflicting interpretations1 deism (12) vs diluted Gnostic theism (4), materialism vs spirituality, .../ore1 since accents during various phases shifted from one concept to another (and since he "invented" a new voca ulary along the way (for instance, "hand led0oin" for something akin to " ioplasmatic field" or "magnetic (in /esmer's parlance# force"##, it is impossi le to gather his opus in corpus of a coherent "teaching". >ne can only detect various twists and turns and their inconsistencies. )is "vitalism" is evident not only in his tumultuous life trajectory, ut even more in essential "toughness" and energetic "uest for reali0ation of one's soul, which is given in terms of incessant strife for ac"usition of soul's will and powercertainly not an escapist Gnosis of a 2uddhist or Gnostic 4hristian variety. This "power mad" characteristics com ined with "scientific occultism" was something new in his era and Gurdjieff can e righteously termed the spiritual progenitor of 4astaneda, 6rica's >scar $cha0o, clownish <.@.Gold and, to a lesser degree, of 9cientology and all "3e shall e like Gods" ideologies availa le on modern spiritual supermarket. 5ermanent loathing of such human traits like melancholy, mor id introspection, imagination and self(pity are trademarks of Gurdjieffian mythos. )amlet would certainly not fare well in this worldview. .or all his emphasis on "investigation" and "repeata ility", Gurdjieff was, no dou t, a charismatic occultist, something of a Western Guru or 'enaissance /agus like .lood reincarnated (no traces of .austian hy ris#. )ence( any idea of impartial or "scientific" investigation of the "Work" is out of "uestion. This is essentially an initiatory cult, and such secret societies shun the "outsiders". What $ find more intriguing is the following1 his writings (and his conversations with pupils, as well as their works# show his lack of interest for stormy ideas that had transformed Western culture from, say, *+-- to *+:-. There is no indication (apart for casual and shallow remarks# that he was ac"uainted (or even payed attention to # with anything scientific a ove the purely technical level1 relativity or "uantum physics or radiation phsyics hadn't made way into his work. 6lso, speculative ideas and artistic

movements that changed his era passed him y1 psychoanalysis, e%istentialism, phenomenology, e%pressionism, cu ism,...4uriously enough, phenomenology's insistence on "inauthenticity" of ordinary human life didn't sit well with Gurdjieff. >nce formed, his Weltanschauung remained essentailly fi%ed and impenetra le (shifting accents only emphasi0ed incongruity of his primary sources#. 6ll the talk a out an all(encompassing "teaching", spanning the spectrum from cosmology, psychology, theology ...to chemistry, ethics, art and "evolution" evaporated in thin air. This is even more striking considering the fact that he harped on "o jective art" and similar concepts. >ne can only ask whether he had ever heard of poor "su jectives" like Titian or 'em randt. /y final verdict (G$G would certainly e%plode in a riotous laughter could he read these sentences#1 Gurdjieff "Work", once important, even inspiring force, has spent itself. 6ncient wisdom doctrines, transplanted and adapted to the West, do it etter. 4ontemporary 4onsciousness studies, groping and hoping to discover, analy0e and synthesi0e, to use Gurdjieff's title, "6ll and <verything", in in"uisitive nondogmatic efforts, ranging from non(4openhagen interpretations of =uantum theory to 4ognitive science and 4omple%ity(are on a completely different track where newly emerging paradigmata may have not achieved a universally accepted corpus of knowledge yet ut, in these fields (if they intend to grow# Gurdjieff is destined to remain something of a curiosity. $n 9t.5aul's words1 When $ was a child, $ spake as a child, $ understood as a child, $ thought as a child1 ut when $ ecame a man, $ put away childish things. 1.Kathleen Riordan Speeth: he !"rd#ie$$ %or&, 'o(&et )oo&*, 1978 2.+ie,* $ro- the Real %orld: .arl/ al&* o$ !"rd#ie$$ 3.!.!"rd#ie$$: he 0erald o$ 1o-in2 !ood 4.!.3.!"rd#ie$$: )eel4e5"56* ale* to 0i* !rand*on 5.!"rd#ie$$: 7i$e i* real onl/ then, ,hen 83 a-8 6.1.S.9ott: ea(hin2* o$ !"rd#ie$$ 7.1.S.9ott: :"rther ea(hin2* o$ !"rd#ie$$ 8.;.!.)ennett: !"rd#ie$$: <a&in2 a 9e, %orld 9.7. =. !o>inda: :o"ndation* o$ i5etan </*ti(i*10. Ro5erto =**a2ioli: '*/(ho*/nthe*i* 11.Ro5erto =**a2ioli: he =(t o$ %ill 12.?"*pen*&/: 3n Sea(h o$ the <ira("lo"* 13.?"*pen*&/: he :o"rth %a/ 14.0.Spen(er 7e,i*: Ro*i(r"(ian <an"al, =<?R1; 1*t edition 1918