a Moment of Truth

Pamela L. Travers

His mere presence gave out energy. To receive his glance was to receive a moment of truth that was often very hard to bear. A master like Gurdjieff is not someone who teaches this or that idea. He embodies it himself.

I think I saw in him what every true master has: a certain sacrificial quality as though he clearly had come for others.


He was a serene, massive man who looked at one with a long, contemplative, all-knowing glance. I felt myself in a presence. He had a certain quality that one might call mythological. Later, when I came to be his student, I always felt the same way: He was a man whom you recognized but you didn’t know what you were recognizing.

When we were in Gurdjieff’s presence, we felt his energy infused in us. He could deliver this to anyone in the room. He had something very high and not within our ordinary comprehension.

Esoteric Knowledge is limited

...but one person present asked, quite seriously, why it was that knowledge - Gurdjieff's kind of knowledge - had to be presented in such a curious, devious, secret fashion - why could it not be made generally available to everyone, thereby benefiting everyone and improving the world in every way. Typically, Gurdjieff avoided any discussion of his "devious" methods, but made a pronouncement about knowledge.

"Like almost all people," he said, "you not understand nature of knowledge. Knowledge, like very fine French champagne, is rare. There exists only a certain amount - and is impossible produce more. If you give everyone in world one drop of champagne, nothing would be changed, no one would appreciate it. But for people who understand French champagne, when they drink, they appreciate; also they have money to buy this. But even if everyone had enough money for such drink, even so they would not buy. While what I say is true - that existing amount of knowledge is limited; receptivity for such knowledge is also limited." 

He refused to say anything further, and that person only remarked that he was as mystified as before.

quoted from Fritz Peters - My Journey with a Mystic p. 268

Gurdjieff is a Lohan

Prof. Denis Saurat

Saurat: "Gurdjieff is a Lohan. In China there is the cave of a hundred Lohans, presumably all that have appeared in China in over four thousand years. A Lohan is a man who has gone to schools and by incredible exertions and study has perfected himself. He then comes back into ordinary life, sits in cafes, drinks, has women, and lives the life of a man, but more intensely. It was accepted that the rules of ordinary man did not apply to him. He teaches, and people come to him to learn objective truths. In the East a Lohan was understood. The West does not understand. A teacher in the West must appear to behave like an English gentleman."
 

C.S. Nott: "Tell me, why in your view, did Ouspensky separate himself from Gurdjieff?"

Saurat: "The explanation is simple. Ouspensky is a professional philosopher who studied with Gurdjieff and has now set up a sort of rival school - a very good school for certain people, perhaps, but on a lower level than Gurdjieff´s school. Really, he is interested only in the theoretical side of the teaching. He hoped that the knowledge he got from Gurdjieff would classify and index his ideas, which it has, of course. But - Ouspensky could not submit to the pressure Gurdjieff brought to bear on him to break down his particular kind of vanity."

from C.S. Nott - Further Teachings of Gurdjieff p. 47

a new type of Sage

Gurdjieff: "The doctrine has always existed, but the tradition has often been interrupted.  In ancient times certain groups and castes knew it, but it was incomplete. The ancients went in too much for metaphysics.  The doctrine was too abstract."

Saurat: Why have you come to Europe? 

Gurdjieff: "Because I want to combine the mystical, Oriental spirit with the scientific, Occidental spirit. The Oriental spirit dwells in the truth, but only in its tendencies and  general ideas;  the Occidental spirit dwells in the truth in so far as its methods and technique are concerned.  Only Occidental methods are good in history and observation. I want to create a type of sage who unites the spirit of the Orient and the technique of the Occident."

Saurat: Do you teach any positive doctrine over and above questions of method?

Gurdjieff: "Yes. Few human beings have a soul.  Nobody has a soul at birth.  One must acquire a soul.  Those who do not succeed in this die.  The atoms disperse and nothing remains.  Some make a partial soul and are then subject to a kind of reincarnation that permits them to progress.  Finally, a very small number of men succeed in possessing immortal souls.  But this number is extremely small.  There are only a few of them.  Most of those who accomplish anything have only partial souls."

from Denis Saurats interview with Gurdjieff on February 18th 1923

two basic Life Aims

Gurdjieff describes the two basic aims of his life:

The trouble is that until this time the aim of my inner world had
been concentrated only on my one unconquerable desire to
investigate from all sides, and to understand, the exact 
significance and purpose of the life of man.

This other newly arisen aim of my inner world was summed up in this: that I must discover, at all costs, some manner or means for destroying in people the predilection for suggestibility which causes them to fall easily under the influence of "mass hypnosis".

quoted from his book: Life is real only then, when "I am"