Meetings with Remarkable Men

G. I. Gurdjieff

Description

These are the memoirs of the great mystic and teacher who inspired a generation of disciples and followers before, during and briefing after the Second World War. In Meetings With Remarkable Men Gurdjieff introduces us to some of the companions he encountered in his travels to the most remote regions of Central Asia. With colorful episodes from his adventures, he brings to life the story of his own relentless search for a real and universal knowledge.

Sujets

• History
• Philosophy
• Philosophie et théologie
• Surveys

Informations

• Publié par: Rare Treasure Editions
• Date de parution: 10 novembre 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781774644072
• Langue: English

Extrait

Meetings with Remarkable Men
by G. I. Gurdjieff

First published in 1963
This edition published by Rare Treasures
Victoria, BC Canada with branch offices in the Czech Republic and Germany
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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except in the case of excerpts by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Meetings with Remarkable Men



by G. I. Gurdjieff

FOREWORD
GURDJIEFF HAD DEVOTED most of his life to teaching a system of knowledge to his pupils when, shortly before his death, he decided to publish the first of the three books in which he had expressed his ideas, All and Everything, or Beelzebub’s Tales to his Grandson. In his own words, the aim of Beelzebub’s Tales was ‘to destroy mercilessly the beliefs and views rooted for centuries in the mind and feelings of man’ by arousing in the mind of the reader a stream of unfamiliar thoughts.
Ten years after his death, his pupils decided to make known the whole body of his ideas, until then accessible only to themselves.
A second volume, which represents what Gurdjieff called the second series of his writings, was first published in France in 196o, and it is this book which is now published in English under the title Meetings with Remarkable Men. As Gurdjieff said, his task in this series was to furnish ‘the material required to create the feeling of a new world’—a feeling which throws a different light on one’s own life.
At the same time this book is written in the form of autobiography and contains the only available information about his early life and the sources of his knowledge.
Gurdjieff begins by describing the circumstances of his childhood, particularly the influence of his father, one of the last survivors of an ancient culture handed down by oral tradition. Coming as a boy under the tutelage of the dean of the Cathedral of Kars, he was given both a religious training and a modern scientific education by men who understood how to cultivate in him a taste for essential values.
As he grew up, his urge to understand the meaning of human life became so strong that he attracted a group of ‘remarkable men’ -among whom were engineers, doctors, archaeologists and so on. In search of a knowledge which they were certain had existed in the past but of which almost all traces seemed to have disappeared, he set out with them to explore many countries in the Middle East and Central Asia.
With his companions, after many great and unexpected difficulties, he succeeded in finding a very few individuals and isolated communities, each time acquiring fragments of this knowledge—until the moment when the doors of a certain school opened for him, where he came to understand how to bring together all the principles of an esoteric teaching. This school he calls simply the Universal Brotherhood, without telling more.
From then on he proceeded to ‘live’ these principles, putting them to the test by the strictest inner disciplines till the end of his life.
Gurdjieff spoke also of a third series of his writings called Life Is Real Only When I Am. His aim in this series was ‘to assist the arising in a man’s thought and feeling of a true representation of the real world, instead of the illusory world he now perceives’.
The third book, now being prepared for publication, will consist chiefly of talks and lectures which Gurdjieff gave to his pupils. Here he shows the way towards direct work on oneself, points out the pitfalls, and provides means for a better understanding of the inner conditions which are indispensable in the self-development of man.
TRANSLATORS’ NOTE

THE WORK OF GURDJIEFF has many aspects. But through whatever form he expresses himself, his voice is heard as a call.
He calls because he suffers from the inner chaos in which we live.
He calls to us to open our eyes.
He asks us why we are here, what we wish for, what forces we obey. He asks us, above all, if we understand what we are.
He wants us to bring everything back into question.
And because he insists and his insistence compels us to answer, a relationship is created between him and ourselves which is an integral part of his work.
For nearly forty years this call rang with such force that people came to him from all over the world.
But to meet him was always a test. In his presence every attitude seemed artificial. Whether too deferential, or on the contrary pretentious, from the first moment it was shattered; and nothing remained but a human creature stripped of his mask and revealed for an instant as he truly was.
This was a merciless experience—and for some impossible to bear.
These people could not forgive him for having seen through them and as soon as they were out of his sight, went to great lengths to justify themselves. This was the origin of the most fantastic legends.
Gurdjieff himself was amused by these stories. He even went so far as to provoke them, at times, if only to be rid of curiosity-seekers, incapable of understanding the meaning of his search.
As for those who knew how to approach him and for whom this meeting was a turning-point in their lives, any attempt to describe their experience seemed ridiculous. This explains why direct accounts are so rare.
The influence he exerted—and still exerts—cannot, however, be separated from Gurdjieff the man. So it is legitimate to want to know about his life, at least in its main outlines.
For this reason his pupils have felt it right to publish this book, originally intended to be read aloud to a limited circle of pupils and guests. Here Gurdjieff speaks of the least-known period of his life: his childhood, his youth and the first stages of his search.
But if Gurdjieff speaks of himself, he does so to serve his lifelong purpose. It is apparent that this is not an autobiography in the strict sense of the word. For him the past is not worth recounting except in so far as it can serve as an example. In these tales of adventure what he suggests are not models for outward imitation, but a completely new way of facing life, which touches us directly and gives us a foretaste of another order of reality.
For Gurdjieff was not, and could not be, only a writer. His task was a different one.
Gurdjieff was a master.
This idea of master, so familiar in the East, is hardly accepted at all in the West. It calls to mind nothing definite; its content is extremely vague, even suspect.
According to traditional conceptions, the function of a master is not limited to the teaching of doctrines, but implies an actual incarnation of knowledge, thanks to which he can awaken other men, and help them in their search simply by his presence.
He is there to create conditions for an experience through which knowledge can be lived as fully as possible.
This is the real key to the life of Gurdjieff.
From the time of his return to the West, he worked unceasingly to gather round him a group of people ready to share with him a life wholly turned towards the development of consciousness. He unfolded his ideas to them, sustained and gave life to their search, and brought them to the conviction that, to be complete, their experience must include at one and the same time all the aspects of a human being. And this is the very idea of the “harmonious development of man” on which he based that Institute which for many years he strove to set on its feet.
Working towards this goal, Gurdjieff had to fight a relentless battle through all the difficulties caused not only by war, revolution, and exile, but also by the indifference of some and the hostility of others.
To give the reader some idea of this struggle, and of his tireless ingenuity in carrying it on, there has been added a chapter not originally intended for this book. It is an account he gave one evening in reply to a question—seemingly very indiscreet—about the financial resources of the Institute.
This astonishing narrative, which appears under the title “The Material Question”, may contribute to a better understanding of how a master’s life and all his actions are subordinated to the accomplishment of his mission.
I
INTRODUCTION
EXACTLY A MONTH HAS ELAPSED since I finished the first series of my writings—just that period of the flow of time which I intended to devote exclusively to resting the parts of my common presence subordinate to my pure reason. As I wrote in the last chapter of the first series,2 I had given myself my word that during the whole of this time I would do no writing whatsoever, but would only, for the well-being of the most deserving of these subordinate parts, slowly and gently drink down all the bottles of old calvados now at my disposal by the will of fate in the wine-cellar of the Prieuré, and specially provided the century before last by people who understood the true sense of life.
Today I have decided, and now I wish—without forcing myself at all, but on the contrary with great pleasure—to set to work at my writing again, of course with the help of all the corresponding forces and also, this time, with the help of the law-conformable cosmic results flowing in from all sides upon my person from the good wishes of the readers of the first series.
I now propose to give a form understandable for everyone to everything I have written down for the second series, in the hope that these ideas may serve a