My understanding of the Gurdjieff’s thoughts-1

The original Fragments of Gurdjieff’s thoughts lie somewhere from Central Asia (near Kashgar in Chinese Turkestan where there has been unrests ever since, so probably nothing remains of it now) to India and Iran as well as from Caucasus to Turkey.

In the past, Gurdjieff’s ideas were known as "the non-dual Advaita philosophy and practic”. He created an extraordinary system of which separate fragments could be found elsewhere, but not connected and put together like they are in his wisdom. And certain things, particularly belonging to the psychological side, are elements alongside many other constituents. The whirling dervish practice known as Mukabele or the Turning ceremony of the Mevlevi order of Dervishes is a likewise technique requiring awareness of the great stillness that underlies all phenomena.

Peter D. Ouspensky (1878–1947) was a major contributor to Twentieth century ideas. He appreciated many of the key questions in philosophy, psychology and religion that have driven and informed us throughout the century. Born in Moscow and raised by an artistic and intellectual family, Ouspensky refused to follow conventional academic training.

He studied intensively with G. I. Gurdjieff between 1915 and 1918. Throughout the rest of his life, Ouspensky continued to promote Gurdjieff’s vision as the practical study of methods for developing Consciousness. He lived conspicuously in England after 1921, exerting considerable influence among writers, conducting his own study groups and publishing The New Model of the Universe in 1931. In 1940, as a leading exponent of Gurdjieff’s teaching, he moved to the United States with some of his London pupils and continued lecturing until his death in 1947, shortly after returning to England. Ouspensky was an important philosopher and at the same time Anti-Bolshevist Russia and a professional journalist.

The Armenian sage G. I. Gurdjieff established a most interesting spiritual tradition in the West; one which, although not connected with religious Sufism, contains a number of original elements. Gurdjieff's teachings are strongly practical, revolving around the development of Self-awareness, and a kind of control of the subtle bodies known as multiple I identities.  The Gurdjieffian path requires great discipline; so it is not surprising given its esoteric origins, it is only a path for a few. The Gurdjieff tradition could not possibly compare with any of the various “New Age" and Guru-groups.

Gurdjieff's teachings were based on the idea of developing self-Consciousness, of being "Awake” and aware in everything one does, rather than being  "Asleep" as is the case of most of humanity lifestyles.

For Gurdjieff humans are mortal, but immortality can be attained once one is merged with the Devine through Love. So he formulated an alternative perspective called "Fourth Way" or "Way of the Sly Man". 

If it is accepted that the Higher Self is immortal in any case, it could be supposed that what Gurdjieff was striving for was a sort of transmutation and eventual immortality of the personality, or at least something equivalent to Immortal Fetus of Taoist thought.

The Fourth Way refers to a concept used by Gurdjieff to combine what he saw as three established ways, or schools: that of the body, the emotions and the mind. The chief difference between the three traditional schools, or ways, and the fourth way is that; they are permanent forms which have survived throughout history mostly unchanged, and are based on mysticism as the substance of all religions. Thus the term "The Fourth Way" has also come to be used as a general descriptive term for the body of ideas and teachings which Gurdjieff brought to the west from his study of eastern esoteric schools.

It gives a lucid explanation of the practical side of Gurdjieff's teachings presented in the form of raw materials. Ouspensky's specific task was to put them together as a systematic whole. So The Fourth Way is concerned with a new way of living. It shows a way of inner development to be followed under the ordinary conditions of life. The Fourth Way or "Way of the Sly Man"(comparable to that of Nietzsche’s concept Super Human) is distinctive from the three traditional ways that call for emancipation. These esoteric Eastern traditions are those of the schools of yogi, monk or fakir which are barely distinguishable from religious conventions. The Fourth Way is a way of developing all the levels simultaneously, and is a guide for those who seek a true way of inner growth under conditions open to everyone today.

Learning to be awakened seems like an act of trying to hold a thousand different ideas in your mind at the same time. It seems to present an avalanche of separate ideas capable of differing interpretations. The central themes are identified as: Self-Remembering, Non-Identifying, Separation, External-Considering and the subtle practice of Transforming Negative Emotion. These are five of the most central ideas of the entire Work. The powerful ideas such as recognition of multiple I's and non-identification, can improve our understanding of ourselves if we engage in the necessary struggle against the smug impotence of our present state. You can then sort out all the rest of the seemingly vast array of things to observe or ponder, and see where they fall and where their place is relative to the central ideas and practices. This array of rare ideas of a high order, consist of ideas yet poetic and mystic by nature. It is always compelling to re-orient yourself by the light of the central ideas and practices.

LOVE is the ground as well as the goal of The Fourth Way. In order to become no one and yet someone in the highest sense of the term, one needs to return to the Self and having gone beyond name, colour and race, country, and even faith. In other words, it is the state of realizing the unity beyond all dualities, the one Formless reality beyond all formal distinctions.

Self-knowledge is necessary to learn about our own psychology. A new outlook is needed to think, and ways to observe for our Self growth. Interesting examples are for instance simply observing your thoughts for a day, contemplating on how one thought does lead to another and detecting where one thought does seem to arise from. When you are distracted, you may embark on a fact finding mission on how much of your surroundings are you aware of. When you become distracted, do you tap your feet or unconsciously move your fingers or hands? If you aim to observe yourself for one day, you will likely notice that your attention is swayed from one thing to another, and you have many unconscious habits and patterns of acting/reacting/or simply interacting.

Practicing self-observation (e.g. meditation or self-analysis, body awareness through yoga or tai-chi or other disciplines) is in itself a great achievement. According to Ouspensky, once we create a "permanent centre of gravity", in the sense that we focus on Knowledge, events will happen in our life (e.g. meeting particular people, going through particular circumstances) that facilitate our growth.