Gurdjieff Unveiled: 8 Week Study in Principles of G. Gurdjieff Facilitators: Gwynne Mayer, Sy Ginsburg and Harry Gray

Gurdjieff
Unveiled
8 Week Study in Principles of G. Gurdjieff
Facilitators: Gwynne Mayer, Sy Ginsburg and Harry

Gray
Lesson 1:
An Introduction to Gurdjieff’s Teaching

Be sure and download a free copy of GURDJIEFF UNVEILED as we will the text
in this class. Go to this site to download:
https://www.theosophical.org/files/resources/books/Gurdjieff/GUNVEILEDFIN
ALWHOLEBOOK1_3_05d.pdf Please be ready with questions and discussions.
Our first lesson will briefly touch on the following from text on Lesson #1.
…Brief discussion of Gurdjieff’s background and Sleeping Humanity
…Brief discussion of ‘Who Am I’?
…Discussion of ‘Transferring our identity from personality to essence.’
…Discussion of ‘FOURTH WAY’ and how this applies to the above discussion.
Closing with an exercise in ‘consciousness’ --- ‘how to observe oneself’ also

putting yourselves in the ‘place of the other.’
Important note from the Preface:
We believe that Gurdjieff is no ordinary teacher but is, as he called many

of the great teachers of humanity (although never himself), "a genuine
messenger from above." We think that he was given a mission for the new
millennium, and that mission was to bring the teaching in a form that
could be practiced in the midst of life, the so-called Fourth Way. The ideas
that Gurdjieff presents, really new restatements of an ancient and
perennial wisdom, will become more generally recognized as they take
root in the fabric of contemporary mostly urban society. This has already
started to happen.
An experienced writer and journalist, Ouspensky was the ideal pupil to explain the
teaching in an organized fashion. This he did;his presentation of the Work teaching was
privately circulated at first, and later published as Fragments of an Unknown Teaching
.This title was later changed to In Search of the Miraculous .It was published in 1949
just before Gurdjieff's Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson . The broader publication of
the teaching of the Work through these two books took place only after the death of
Ouspensky in 1947 and of Gurdjieff in 1949. In Search of the Miraculous remains today
the most widely used text of Gurdjieff's teaching, and in it is revealed another name for
the Work teaching: the Fourth Way. The Fourth Way (to immortality) is a way that is
practiced in the midst of life, whereas the traditional ways, of which there are three,
the physical, the emotional and the intellectual, have all required retreat into a
secluded or monastic setting.
Sleeping Humanity --Because Gurdjieff's teaching is a
"how to" teaching, it is directed at the category of human
beings who realize they are asleep and who are attempting
to awaken. For the category of human beings who do not
know that they are asleep, there is no need for this
teaching. It is only when a person begins to recognize the
sleep of his mechanicalness and looks for a way to awaken
that this teaching becomes relevant.
A primary feature of this state of sleep is the illusion that
we are each separate from one another. In terms of our
personalities, the aggregate of experience in this lifetime,
this is true. Our personalities are each different from one
another.
The verification of new ideas
Contained in this material are assertions that you will not be able to
verify, at least not in the ordinary way that verification is understood.
Therefore, it is necessary to state at the outset that it is not a good idea
to accept anything merely because it is asserted. Indeed, a healthy dose
of skepticism mixed with a reasonable amount of credulity is the best
attitude for the student who comes across these ideas for the first time.
Don't believe anything, but at the same time do not close yourself off to
new ideas. Be open to them. Take them as hypotheses subject to your
own personal verification.
Everything in our life is conditioned by our habits, by the few "rules" we
learned as children; but Gurdjieff's teaching bring us many new ideas,
many new possibilities. The aim here is to present them to you as well as
is possible in an introductory text, and to help you to be a little more
conscious of yourself during the studying of this material. Much more
will be said about the technique suggested by Gurdjieff to help us
become more conscious of ourselves. For now, just try to be aware of
the physical sensation of your body as you proceed through the text.
Transferring our identity from personality to essence
In order to experience the highest state of human
consciousness, objective consciousness, we must transfer our
identity from the personality, which is what we mistakenly
believe that we are, to essence, that which we really are.
Because of our improper education or conditioning (Gurdjieff
calls this our improper oskiano), we mistakenly believe that we
are the personality. The personality is that tissue of memories,
thoughts, emotions, and sensations that we have come
mistakenly to call "I." Yet we know that none of this existed
before birth and that all of this will dissolve at death or shortly
thereafter. In this sense the personality is impermanent and thus
in Gurdjieff's view, unreal. As long as we believe in the
overwhelming importance of the personality we will never
discover that which is real.
What then is real? Why, we are! We are real in our essential nature, that
with which we came into this life. Gurdjieff has called this "essence." It is
our essential nature, and from the state of self-consciousness, it must be
identified in order for us to change our viewpoint.
Essence is what the human being brings into this lifetime. The
personality, the "lower bodies," in its broadest terms includes the
physical (and etheric) body, the emotional (astral) body, and the body of
ordinary thought. These are the products of food, education, and
experience in this lifetime. It is the personality or mask that we put on
during this life. It is really Endlessness in the guise of each one of us that
puts on the mask we call personality.
The change of viewpoint in transferring our identity from personality to
essence helps us to understand that we consist of both essence and
personality, but that in reality we are essence. Gurdjieff called this change
of viewpoint metanoia , a Greek word which we can think of as a change
in outlook. Metanoia takes place in us usually through many years of
watchfulness or what Gurdjieff calls self-observation, in which we engage
in exercises designed to help us to see that the personality is not really
who we are and to shake us loose from this misconception
The Fourth Way
Many students of Gurdjieff's teaching regard him as an enlightened being who has
undertaken a special mission designed to help contemporary people living mainly in
urban environments far removed from the tranquility of earlier times. For this
reason Gurdjieff called his mission "the Fourth Way," a way in life.Gurdjieff said that
throughout history there have been three traditional ways that can lead a man or
woman to immortality.By this he meant the transferring of our identity from the
personality which exists in time and space and is therefore transient, to essence,
which transcends time and space and is therefore immortal. These three traditional
ways are: 7
1. The way of the fakir (the way of struggle with the physical body).
2. The way of the monk (the way of faith, the emotional way).
3. The way of the yogi (the way of knowledge, the way of mind).
Gurdjieff went on to say that historically, these three traditional ways were the only
possible methods for the development of the human being's potential to be
objectively conscious. Objective consciousness brings the recognition of one's
immortality. It is the immortality of essence that is meant. There is no immortality
of the personality.
This teaching works on all three sides of our nature at once: on
our physical body, on our emotions, and on our intellect. This is
another characteristic of the Fourth Way. It requires that we
become balanced individuals, using the events of life to attain
that balance. As we become more balanced, we can be self-
conscious more easily because we are less identified with our
body, our thoughts, or our emotions. When we no longer
identify with these features of temporal life, we discover that
we are free of all fears and all desires. We then stand in
essence, not in personality, and essence is immortal.
An exercise in consciousness: putting ourselves in the other person's place
Because the Fourth Way is a way in life, it is practiced in the midst of life.
Students of the teaching engage in inner exercises which need not be known to other
people. Many exercises were given by Gurdjieff himself. Some have been created by
students of the teaching. There is no need to distress others or call to their attention any
sort of inner practice that may seem strange to them and even threatening. All such
exercises have to do with the expansion of consciousness that is characteristic of the
transfer of our identity from personality to essence.
An exercise that Gurdjieff emphasized more than any other is to strive to put oneself in
the position of another being. It is a principal exercise and is among the most difficult
exercises that he gave, but because it is so important let us try it. Take it as an inner
exercise that we can practice in the midst of life. During this next week let us observe
ourselves as we try whenever possible to put ourselves in the position of the people we
encounter. Pick a particular person as the occasion presents itself, and try to satisfy what
you perceive to be that person's wishes during the period of encounter, as if you were
that person. Really try to put yourself in that person's position. At the beginning of the
next lesson we shall share our experiences of what we have observed in attempting this
exercise. Bring a specific example that you can share with others.
(Please read the Lesson #2 as part of the exercise above.)

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Gurdjieff

Facilitators: Gwynne Mayer, Sy Ginsburg and Harry

An Introduction to Gurdjieff’s Teaching

Closing with an exercise in ‘consciousness’ --- ‘how to observe oneself’ also

We believe that Gurdjieff is no ordinary teacher but is, as he called many

(Please read the Lesson #2 as part of the exercise above.)

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