Gurdjieff
A Topical Look at Religion: Molly Leach and David Jones highlight lesser known 'other denominations' which have followers in the Channel Islands
(Jersey Topic 1967)
There exists in Jersey a strong group of men and women who try to follow a method of spiritual development formulated by a Georgian-Greek scholar and philosopher, George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff.
The group has been in existence for 12 years. It never canvasses for members and does not believe in publicity or advertising.
Indeed, entry into it is not easy but members feel that if anyone is truly interested in their quest for truth he will find a way to approach them.
Gurdjief brought his teaching back to Moscow after many years of wandering in the East. An early convert to the new way of life was Russian professor, mathematician and writer, Philip D. Ouspensky whose book "Tertium Organum" has already aroused great interest among British intellectuals. When the two men fled from the Revolution of 1917 to Constantinople, Ouspensky's influential admirers in London managed to get a permit from the Home Office to admit him to England. Gurdjieff went to Paris where his teachings attracted great attention and he eventually established a centre for the Har¬monious Development of Man at Fon¬tainbleau.
Amongst the wide circle of followers that Gurdjieff attracted when he taught in London was a Harley Street brain specialist, Dr. Maurice Nicoll. He was given permission to teach and interpret the philosophy. Dr. Nicoll wrote five volumes of Psychological Comment-aries on the new teaching—it is on these that the Jersey Group bases its work.
Gurdjieff teaches that Man is really asleep. He has an entirely false idea of what he is and what he can do. He thinks he has free will self-control.
"Not true," says Gurdjieff. "Normal man is only a machine that reacts blindly to external forces. A truly developed man ceases to be mechanical. Man has not one, stable person-ality, as he believes, but many different ones, and he is often taken over by one or the other of these.
"Thus he makes decisions and acts on im-pulses which are purely the mechanical reac-tion to external stimulus. He is not one cohesive "I", but a split personality con¬trolled in different ways, at different times. He is a often a slave to blind forces of emotion, instinct, prejudice and ignorance".
Man has to awaken, Gurdjieff says, observe himself and learn what he truly is. Then he must free himself from blind, mechanical compulsions. Man thinks of himself as a complete personality. "I am T " he says' This is a great illusion. He is many Ts' and different ones dominate his thoughts and actions from minute to minute. He must learn to control and not be controlled.
The Zen Buddhist Master describes all teaching as a finger pointing at the moon. He severely reprimands his disciple if he con-centrates on the finger instead of the object to which it points.
So it is with the teachings of Gurdjieff. They are a finger pointing out methods and principles, but the work itself of self-observation and :development calls for per¬severance, courage and dedication.
This work and effort must become part of the fabric of the everyday life of his followers—and he constantly warns them not to sink back into mental or spiritual complacency. They must always be alert to observe their own vanity, smug self-satisfaction and mechanical reaction.
A Topical Look at Religion: Molly Leach and David Jones highlight lesser known 'other denominations' which have followers in the Channel Islands
(Jersey Topic 1967)
There exists in Jersey a strong group of men and women who try to follow a method of spiritual development formulated by a Georgian-Greek scholar and philosopher, George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff.
The group has been in existence for 12 years. It never canvasses for members and does not believe in publicity or advertising.
Indeed, entry into it is not easy but members feel that if anyone is truly interested in their quest for truth he will find a way to approach them.
Gurdjief brought his teaching back to Moscow after many years of wandering in the East. An early convert to the new way of life was Russian professor, mathematician and writer, Philip D. Ouspensky whose book "Tertium Organum" has already aroused great interest among British intellectuals. When the two men fled from the Revolution of 1917 to Constantinople, Ouspensky's influential admirers in London managed to get a permit from the Home Office to admit him to England. Gurdjieff went to Paris where his teachings attracted great attention and he eventually established a centre for the Har¬monious Development of Man at Fon¬tainbleau.
Amongst the wide circle of followers that Gurdjieff attracted when he taught in London was a Harley Street brain specialist, Dr. Maurice Nicoll. He was given permission to teach and interpret the philosophy. Dr. Nicoll wrote five volumes of Psychological Comment-aries on the new teaching—it is on these that the Jersey Group bases its work.
Gurdjieff teaches that Man is really asleep. He has an entirely false idea of what he is and what he can do. He thinks he has free will self-control.
"Not true," says Gurdjieff. "Normal man is only a machine that reacts blindly to external forces. A truly developed man ceases to be mechanical. Man has not one, stable person-ality, as he believes, but many different ones, and he is often taken over by one or the other of these.
"Thus he makes decisions and acts on im-pulses which are purely the mechanical reac-tion to external stimulus. He is not one cohesive "I", but a split personality con¬trolled in different ways, at different times. He is a often a slave to blind forces of emotion, instinct, prejudice and ignorance".
Man has to awaken, Gurdjieff says, observe himself and learn what he truly is. Then he must free himself from blind, mechanical compulsions. Man thinks of himself as a complete personality. "I am T " he says' This is a great illusion. He is many Ts' and different ones dominate his thoughts and actions from minute to minute. He must learn to control and not be controlled.
The Zen Buddhist Master describes all teaching as a finger pointing at the moon. He severely reprimands his disciple if he con-centrates on the finger instead of the object to which it points.
So it is with the teachings of Gurdjieff. They are a finger pointing out methods and principles, but the work itself of self-observation and :development calls for per¬severance, courage and dedication.
This work and effort must become part of the fabric of the everyday life of his followers—and he constantly warns them not to sink back into mental or spiritual complacency. They must always be alert to observe their own vanity, smug self-satisfaction and mechanical reaction.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment