Product Description

This is one of the few records published by Gurdjieff in which he offers guidance to his 'community of seekers', the pupils from many countries who joined him in Paris and New York. The first section is mainly autobiographical, relating material crucial to an understanding of the nature and intensity of personal effort required for an all-inclusive work on oneself. This is followed by a series of talks which Gurdjieff gave to his pupils in New York in 1930, and then by a long, but incomplete, essay on 'The Outer and Inner World of Man'.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #216503 in Books
• Published on: 1999-02-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

About the Author
Gurdjieff was born in Alexandropol, and trained in Kars both as a priest and a physician. For some twenty years, he travelled in the remotest regions of Central Asia and the Middle East - this time was crucial in the moulding of his thought. With his party of followers, he was responsible for the opening of the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man. Other key works available from Arkana: BEELZEBUB'S TALES TO HIS GRANDSON, VIEWS FROM THE REAL WORLD and MEETINGS WITH REMARKABLE MEN.

Customer Reviews

Some autobiographical musings of G. I. Gurdjieff
Scattered amongst Gurdjieff's autobiographical meanderings is some hard, usable information; this book is worth reading for that reason alone. It also provides the reader with some insights into the personality of the man behind the myth. I wouldn't recommend this book as an introduction to those interested in Gurdjieff's teachings, but it does provide interesting, supplementary information.

Important Note!!!
I've read through a few reviews of Gurdjieff's stuff and most of them omit the key point about them: This is the third book in a trilogy. The first book was 'Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandson': then comes 'Meetings with Remarkable Men', and finally this book.
The reason for this, very briefly, is that 'Beelzebub' is intended as a demolition of standard Western ways of thinking and acting (it might be subtitled 'everything you know is wrong'). The second book (which is far far easier to read) is supposed to indicate new ways of thinking, and this third book explains Gurdjieff's own views on the answers to 'Life, the Universe and Everything'. The books make a lot more sense read in this order.

Also worth reading is James Webb's excellent 'The Harmonious Circle', which explains a lot more about the background.

Easy read at first sight
One of those books that is read by people and understood totally different by each one of them. You can read this book on different levels depending on your own level of development which makes it possible to read this book over a stretch of years to discover that the book has a totally different meaning than the last time you read it. Interesting to say the least.