About the way
“Man is a seed, an incomplete being, who has the possibility of developing.”
Fritz Peters
The fourth way, or “the work”, is a spiritual path for inner development as taught by G.I. Gurdjieff in the first half of the twentieth century. The path is intended for anyone who is looking for the meaning of their existence, a person who feels that there is something more beyond his or her “ordinary” life. One of the things that characterizes Gurdjieff’s teachings is that there is no need to change one’s lifestyle in order to start on the path; one is not required to go to a monastery or to fast or change anything in one’s daily conduct. On the contrary, the best conditions for a person to start working on himself are the conditions in which he is now. The path to self-study begins exactly where I am. But this work must be done together with others, in a group, and with a teacher who is him or herself studying the way.
“As my life goes by, I begin to suspect that I am not who I believe I am. I am asleep, unconscious of myself. In this sleep, my thoughts, feelings and movements act without direction, subject to accidental shocks and habits.”
Jeanne de Salzmann
In the schools of the fourth way one works with others in a group, and also works by him or herself, with the aim of understanding the true nature of the world and of man. According to Gurdjieff, in order to achieve beneficial results, inner development must be harmonious and balanced, and include all parts of the person. It calls for simultaneous development on the intellectual level, the emotional level and the physical level. Our study includes the “movements” – sacred dances, and also music that Gurdjieff brought from ancient traditions. These are an important aid to a person’s learning about him/herself and the world.
“Beyond the thin shell of imagined reality there is another reality. Something, for some reason, stands between us and it.”
P. D. Ouspensky
In 1922, Gurdjieff founded in France the “Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man”. There, and later in Paris, he worked intensely with people from his groups in France, England and in the United States. After his death in 1949, Jeanne de Salzmann, his closest student, continued his work which spread throughout the world. The international center for the Gurdjieff groups is in Paris, in the house founded by his students. In the 1960s, following a request from a group of seekers from Israel who were interested in Gurdjieff’s path, Madame de Salzmann appointed Dr. Michel Conge, also a direct student of Gurdjieff, to be responsible for establishing groups in Israel, which would work according to Gurdjieff’s teachings. The groups in Israel remain in close contact with the center in Paris, as well as with other Gurdjieff groups throughout the world.
G. I. Gurdjieff (1866-1949)
Georgi Ivanovich Gurdjieff was born in the Caucasus, to a Greek father and an Armenian mother. In his book “Meetings with Special People” he describes the unique upbringing he received and the unique sights of his youth that raised many questions in him about the meaning of life – questions that did not find a satisfactory answer in religion or science. The search for answers became the focus of his life, and led to a belief in the existence of hidden ancient knowledge, followed by Ter throughout Central Asia and the Middle East, he was able to make contact with various communities where parts of this ancient knowledge are still alive and present, and these parts of knowledge were formed in him into a comprehensive worldview.
In 1912 Gurdjieff arrived in Moscow and St. Petersburg and gathered around him a small group of students who were interested in his teaching. Due to the conditions during World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution, Gurdjieff left Russia together with his closest students, with the aim of charting an accessible path of work for truth seekers in the West. In 1922, he founded the “Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man” on a farm near Paris.
In the years between the two world wars, Gurdjieff taught many students at the institute, wrote his main work, “The Tales of Baal Zebuv to his Grandson”, visited the United States and many European countries, where he founded student groups, lectured to the general public and organized public performances of the sacred dances and exercises called “the movements” . During the Second World War, Gurdjieff lived in a small apartment in Paris and worked tirelessly to create a nucleus of students trained to carry out this multifaceted quest, later called simply “The Work”.
Gurdjieff died in 1949. After his death, his students from all over the world continued his work under the guidance of Madame de Salzman, who was authorized by Gurdjieff to continue his work. First, the centers were founded in Paris, London, New York and Caracas, in order to have a direct delivery of his teachings. Over the years, many new groups have been added, as well as the group in Israel.
The work of internal development is a personal, binding and ongoing search, based on finding a harmonious relationship between body, thought and emotion. The search was conducted together with the members of the group under the conditions of everyday life and according to the principles and guidelines of this Mishnah.
Impressions from working in Gurdjieff groups
To be present in movement
The special conditions of working at school are a valuable aid to one’s personal ambition to simply be present in life, in every situation. Working together with others, in various activities, is an essential dimension of inner work. The movement class is working on Gurdjieff’s “Slow Second Obligatory”.
Books translated into Hebrew
In Search of the Miraculous
P. D. Ouspensky
Shoken Publishing, 1977
Meetings with Remarkable Men
G. I. Gurdjieff
Shoken Publishing, 1987
Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson
G. I. Gurdjieff
Shoken Publishing, 2002
Views from the Real World
Drachim Publishing
Gurdjieff groups in Israel