Gurdjieff presents as yet another old white man whose language, culture and message are woefully out of date in today’s world. Say it ain’t so, Joe! Well, from where I sit it is and it isn’t.
First, Gurdjieff’s dad was Armenian, and his mom was Greek. He grew up in the Caucasus, so he certainly did not come from a European cultural mind-set. He did not speak English or any other European language until well into adulthood, although he spoke Greek, Armenian, Turkish, Russian, and numerous Caucasian dialects.
Second, Ouspensky, who was Russian, translated Gurdjieff’s teachings into a “system” and wrote In Search of the Miraculous, which was largely responsible for introducing the “Work” to my generation. It has been said that Gurdjieff brought the Wisdom of the East to the West. P.D. Ouspensky had a large hand in that, as did other western men and women of note, like A.R. Orage, and most notably, Jeanne De Salzmann.
Teaching Europeans
So yes, there is a case that Gurdjieff’s teaching was largely patriarchal, aimed at European, aka white audiences, and thus by today’s measure, woefully out of date. But wait.
What Gurdjieff taught was a guide towards inner growth, accomplished by honing the skills of attention, discipline, wish, and inner alignment. Gurdjieff aimed to share what he had gleaned from his life-long search into the question about the sense and meaning of life on Earth, and our role in that.
In doing so, he accepted and worked with the hand that was dealt him. This included leading a large group of men, women, and children out of Russia thru the Caucasian Mountains during the Bolshevik Revolution. Eventually, the consequences of the war landed him in France, where he began his work in earnest. By then, most of his followers were European and he had to adjust his method of teaching to suit the students. If he had remained in the Caucasus, his approach likely would not have been introduced through the intellectual center. After all, he did call himself a “teacher of dance.”
Out of Date?
The model that spoke to the generation of students who learned directly from Gurdjieff, and those of us who learned from those students, worked for us. But what about today? If it doesn’t work for the generations that follow, that does not mean the esoteric knowledge he conveyed is at fault. It just means the vehicle of transmission needs to adjust, using the creative energy that this Work demands.
In my experience, Gurdjieff’s Movements and inner exercises carry the teaching within them in a more real way than words. These vehicles transmit knowledge to those that open themselves to receive it. The body of ideas that Ouspensky, Gurdjieff and others wrote books exploring, contain, but did not create, the knowledge that Gurdjieff offered. Rather than throwing the teaching out as outdated—another old white man’s message—let’s learn how best to receive and share universal truths.
Water boils at 212 degrees farenheight at sea level. The Earth orbits the Sun. These (and all other scientifically confirmed theories/facts) are concrete realities. The race, age, sex and cultural condioning of those uncoverting and sharing these realities has no bearing on their existence.
The higher order realities to which Gurdjieff directs our attention can only become fully grasped to the extent that we become willing and able to confirm them in our own experience in a given present moment. These realities need to be remembered, understood and renewed in our lives if they are to be made manifest and share them in the form of our own evolution as individuals and as a species.
We can surely change all of the words Gurdjief and his direct students left us, and do so with authority………….only to the degree that we have become able to swim upstream into the experiential realm of Grace from which the realities/ideas/ideals and enerigies spring.
Thank you Roberta for promting my own flicker of remembrance.
HI Nick, glad this piece spoke to you.
Perhaps what is “foreign” to us must be explored, learned about and danced with in any time and place in order to know thy self.
Certainly a point Gurdjieff made.
The presentation of “the work” has changed since my course in 1986. That was another time in those conditions. After working, and I use that word lightly, for more than 20 years alone, I was a little shocked at how much the presentation had changed. I was very uncomfortable being in a group where there was not a leader or guide but where everyone took on that role every two weeks. The world, society, culture, politics have all changed. While the inner work stays the same. This is just my view.