Introduction to the Gurdjieff Work [Paperback] Review

Needleman's introduction gives an excellent overview not only of the basic ideas of the Gurdjieff teaching but also touches on how the ideas are relevant to the human situation. Equally valuable is the glimpse it affords of how the different chapters of the Gurdjieff Foundation--the principal organization directly descended from Gurdjieff's own Institute--provide their members with the special conditions needed to embody the teaching. The book is a thorough revision (contrary to what one reviewer has remarked), based on the introduction Needleman wrote for The Inner Journey: Views from the Gurdjieff Work. The list of books, films, and recordings provided in "For Further Study," new to this version of the original essay, forms an essential part of the introduction and provides a way to continue to explore one of the major teachings of our time.

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The Gurdjieff tradition, commonly referred to as "The Work," describes people's day-to-day lives as completely mechanical, conducted asleep. Gurdjieff's intent, as with many sacred traditions, was literally to aid in one's awakening. The tools for doing this are many, but integrated. The various methods of "The Work" are intended to specifically integrate a person's physical, emotional, and intellectual centers into a fourth way of consciousness. Like Zen, Gurdjieff's work is structured as an oral tradition emphasizing the relationship of teacher to student. But there have also been extensive writings on his views, and this short, pocket-sized book is one of the most useful. A clear, concise summary of Gurdjieff's life and teachings, this is the first book to describe the actual practices of the tradition. It provides comprehensive resource information for readers who wish to pursue further inquiry, including a reading list and a summary of the most important published music from the Gurdjieff vault.

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Toward Awakening: An Approach to the Teaching Brought by Gurdjieff (Hardcover) Review

The teachings of twentieth century mystic/philosopher GI Gurdjieff are a difficult but rewarding journey. Central to his ideas is the concepts that we are all asleep, we are all machines, incapable of Will or free choice. Also that we are predominantly false personality and have forgotten our Essential nature. Those who doubt these words have only to look at the world around them (and by extension, themselves). G himself wrote "Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandson, All and Everything" but this work is unbelieveably difficult to read with G's constant use of run-on sentences and foot-long, made-up words to express his difficult to understand ideas.

The most well known text of Gurdjieff's ideas was written not by G himself, but by his student PD Ouspensky, "In Search of the Miraculous". Ouspensky recounts, in chronological order, what he learned at the master's feet. This book is brilliant and reading it (with proper understanding with practice exercises from a Work group) is a life changing experience. Gurdjieff's ideas are nothing less than the central, common points behind all mysticism and the esoteric traditions of major religions.

Now back in print is a new translation of Frenchman Jean Vaysse's book "Toward Awakening" where another Gurdjeiff directly-taught student further renders down the psychological aspects of G's teaching in a clearer form with words more readers will understand. Vaysse does not discuss to cosmological ideas and thus narrows his focas. Vaysse discusses how to awaken. Topics include indentification, self-remembering, centers and their functioning, essence and personality, and more.

As with "In Search", and other G books, it is said the student will get NOWHERE without being part of an authentic Work group and getting study exercises. This will only lead to misunderstanding and speculation. But Vaysse has done us a great service to provide these G Work psychological ideas in the clearest terms available, to date.

This book has been out of print for years. Serious Gurdjeiff students will get it while they can.



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Toward Awakening provides a clear, chapter-by-chapter summation of the major points of Gurdjieff's teachings. In accessible language, author Jean Vaysse first expresses the meaning and possibility of an inner life, then follows a logical exposition of the path to be traveled in order to move in that direction. That process, he explains, begins with an exposition of the key ideas of the structure of humans, the practices of "self-observation" and "self-remembering," the concept of presence, and the dual roles of essence and personality in determining the overall nature of each individual. The author outlines the obstacles to awakening, as well as the first steps toward awakening. Missing in most books about the Gurdjieff teaching is the key role played by sensation, a topic that Vaysse covers with a clarity based on his personal experience.

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The Inner Journey: Views from the Gurdjieff Work (PARABOLA Anthology Series) (Paperback) Review

I'm very pleased with this book which is an anthology of articles and interviews on the subject of G.I. Gurdjieff and his spiritual system, all taken from past issues of Parabola:the Magazine of Myth and Tradition.What makes it especially good value is the inclusion of a DVD of "Meetings with Remarkable Men", the film of Gurdjieff's early years directed by Peter Brook and Jeanne de Saltzman.The highlight of the film, in my opinion, are the scenes of Gurdjieff's "movements" or sacred dances, performed to his arrangements of folk and sacred music gleaned from his travels.

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Product Description:
The Gurdjieff tradition, commonly referred to as "The Work," describes people's daily lives as completely mechanical, conducted asleep. Gurdjieff's intent, as with many sacred traditions, was literally to aid in one's awakening. The tools for doing this are many but integrated. The various methods of "The Work" are intended to specifically integrate a person's physical, emotional, and intellectual centers into a fourth way of consciousness. Like Zen, this tradition has been an oral one emphasizing the relationship of teacher to student. But there have also been extensive writings on this tradition, and The Inner Journey collects some of the best of these in the form ofessays, interviews, and fables. To expand readers' experience and understanding of both Gurdjieff's life and his teachings, the book is bundled with the feature film Meetings with Remarkable Men, Peter Brook's critically acclaimed adaptation of the early years of Gurdjieff's search for meaning.

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Conscience: The Search for Truth [Paperback] Review

If you already have Ouspensky's main work books this book, Conscience, is still worth acquiring.It covers the same subjects yet does it in a slightly different way.I actually found Conscience to be more helpful when I was first learning the work than some of the larger books.
There are 5 chapters:
1. Memory (Memory, Self-Remembering, Recurrence)
2. Surface Personality (A Study of Imaginary Man)
3. Self-Will (On Controlling Self-Will for Growth of Real Will)
4. Negative Emotions (no subtitle)
5. Notes on Work (no subtitle)
Each was originally a separately published essay.It's a helpful presentation because it's intentionally designed to focused in a more concentrated way on each of the central work subjects presented (as opposed to the content of, say, the Fourth Way).My copy gave me alot in my initial study (and doing) of the work ideas, practices, and goals...

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The five essays in this collection are based on P. D. Ouspensky's talks and answers to questions, transcribed at private meetings in England and the United States from 1931 to 1946. They bring contemporary readers the wisdom of Gurdjieff as interpreted and refined by a spiritual master in his own right. Topics include "Memory," "Surface Personality," "Self-Will," "Negative Emotions," and "Notes on Work." These essays argue persuasively that direct observation of self is the key to awakening from the "waking sleep" that characterizes life for so many.

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The Practice of Presence: Five Paths for Daily Life [Paperback] Review

this is an interesting and very personal book talking about one womans journey through different spiritual endeavours and the struggles she encounters to "find" who she really is. A very good read

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Discover practical guidance on how to contact your own inner truth from the seminal ideas of five great spiritual paths.
The Practice of Presence: Five Paths for Daily Life, is about making a new start by coming alive to this present moment, wherever we are, without changing our conditions. It is in the present that we will find meaning and heal the wounds caused by hate, violence and the suffering that is an inevitable part of life. By practicing attention to our own presence we can learn to receive in a new way everything that comes toward us -- the demands, the seductions, the possibilities for joy and nurture.
In The Practice of Presence the reader will find practical guidance on how to seek daily what we truly desire behind all the urgencies and obligations of our lives: contact with our own immediate inner truth. The book contains the seminal ideas and experiential activities of five great spiritual paths as seen through the lens of a seeker s experience. T ai Chi, prayer and meditation are well known. The Alexander Technique and Jungian studies are not usually thought of as spiritual, and the Gurdjieff teaching is relatively unknown.
Each of these paths to wholeness is complementary to the others, calling on the body, mind and feeling in unique ways that can lead to a growing integration of all three. The author, Patty de Llosa, has studied all of these paths intensively for many years, while pursuing fulltime activities as a journalist, parent and teacher. Her website is practiceofpresence.com.
Said Spirituality and Practice magazine, "Llosa is especially qualified to write about work for presence in the midst of an active life. She has been engaged in the Gurdjieff teaching all her life, having met the enigmatic philosopher as a child in the 30 s and 40 s, and has taught Gurdjieff s sacred dances and led groups for more than forty years in Peru, Chile, Canada and New York. She is now one of the senior leaders of the New York Gurdjieff Foundation. Prayer and meditation have been integral to her exploration of the world s religions from an early age, and she has studied and taught Tai Chi several evenings a week since l963, first in Lima, Peru (including a special class for Karate blackbelts), then in New York since l979. She has studied Jungian psychology some thirty years and undergone a Jungian analysis. More recently she worked intensively with Jungian analyst Marion Woodman in her Body/Soul Rhythms programs."

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