Gurdjieff Making a New World

"Gurdjieff was an extraordinary man who made a profound impact upon those who met him even casually. In the early 1920s he founded a school in France, popularly known as the 'forest philosophers,' and attracted a circle of remarkable men and women whose lives were changed by their contact with him. Nevertheless, after 1935 he almost disappeared from view and remained an enigma till the end of his life. His followers pledged themselves to perpetuate his work and to oversee the publication of his writings. Through their efforts Gurdjieff's ideas have penetrated into the world, particularly Europe and America. Books by and about him have been widely read and discussed. Appearing everywhere are groups dedicated to the study and application of Gurdjieff's teachings. Yet many have admitted that they have not fully understood his thought, especially his masterwork Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandson. Now J.G. Bennett, long both friend and pupil of Gurdjieff, has undertaken a mammoth task: to put Gurdjieff's mission into perspective and to indicate precisely how his three-volume All and Everything fits into this mission. Bennett's painstaking research into Gurdjieff's early life and the sources of his teaching gives the book a solid foundation, a way out of the subjective impasse all too typical of hooks on Gurdjieff. He offers fresh evidence that 'schools of wisdom' existed in Central Asia and suggests Gurdjieff's possible connection with these spiritual traditions. The fascinating story of Gurdjieff's own searchings forms a second thread that runs in documentary fashion through the book. Finally, Bennett interprets Gurdjieff's message and outlines the methods that he used in transmitting this message to his followers. The entire enterprise is held together by reference to 'Gurdjieff's Question' as Bennett calls it in chapter 8: 'What is the sense and significance in general of life on earth, and in particular of human life?' This question, and the answer Gurdjieff found, lead to the conclusion that Gurdjieff has left an original and workable system of beliefs and values for our own time, and that we should set ourselves at once to decipher it and put his advice into effect. [This book] makes it clear that the message of this spiritual avatar was by no means his own private affair but rather part of a greater message coming from a higher source, unaffected by passing fashion and so capable of enlightening our changing, confusing orb."--Dust jacket.