Fourth-Way Flotsam (Gurdjieff-Ouspensky Gobbledygook)

I briefly participated in a Gurdjieff-Ouspensky group in San Diego in 1971. The group didn’t even suggest that I read anything by Gurdjieff. Instead, they recommended P.D. Ouspensky’s “In Search of the Miraculous” – probably because they knew that Gurdjieff hadn’t written anything very useful for spiritual seekers. Unimpressed with the group and “the Fourth Way,” I left Gurdjieff and Ouspensky in my rear-view mirror and focused my attention on other spiritual paths.

Now, decades later, I’ve reviewed Ouspensky’s “In Search of the Miraculous” (two stars) and Gurdjieff’s “Meetings with Remarkable Men” (two stars) and “Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson” (one star) at Amazon, and I’ve decided to post the reviews here to make clear my POV on “the Fourth Way.”

Eckhart Tolle-Level Dharma

I first read “In Search of the Miraculous” forty years ago, when I was just beginning my "Journey to the East." And just for fun, I decided to get another copy--my original one is long gone--and review it from my perspective as a long-time serious student of mysticism and occultism. In the four decade interval between my two readings, I've devoted myself to studying, practicing, and teaching original, Zen, and Tibetan Buddhism; Hindu Raja, Jnana, and Tantra yoga; Christian Hermeticsm; the Kabbalah (and Qabala); and the teachings of J. Krishnamurti and Adi Da. I have also practiced astrology professionally, and worked with the I Ching and Tarot.

I could write a book deconstructing Gurdjieff's teachings (as I have Eckhart Tolle's), but because these teachings are not mainstream New Age popular, it wouldn't be worth my time and effort. In this review, I will have to limit my critique to specific aspects of Gurdjieff's teachings.

The Gurdjieff teaching is essentially a blend of three approaches to "understanding"--1) cosmological, 2) psychological, and 3) gnostic. I'll briefly consider each.

1) An overwhelming proportion of the book focuses on cosmology; and this perhaps reflects Ouspensky's extreme interest in the subject. Unfortunately, much of Gurdjieff's cosmology is pure bullcrap, yet he spits it out as if it were gospel truth rather than just far-out speculative theory. His description of the moon, for example, is a hoot: "For instance, the evolution of humanity beyond a certain point, or to speak more correctly, above a certain percentage, would be fatal for the moon. The moon at present feeds on organic life, on humanity. Humanity is part of organic life; this means that humanity is food for the moon. If all men were to become too intelligent, they would not want to be eaten by the moon...The moon is growing and developing, and at some time it will, possibly attain the same level as the earth. Then, near it, a new moon will appear and the earth will become their sun." Here's another quick example of more Gurdjieff bullcrap: "On the earth we are very far removed from the will of the Absolute; we are separated from it by forty-eight orders of mechanical laws." Yeah, right. And there is plenty more nonsense in the Gurdjieff cosmological system. If you are interested in profound spiritual cosmology, I suggest you turn your attention to Hindu Kashmir Shaivism.

2) If you read Eckhart Tolle, you'll see that he got quite a bit of his muddle-brained psycho-babble from Gurdjieff. Gurdjieff says, "Man is a machine. All his deeds, actions, words, thoughts, feelings, convictions, opinions, and habits are the result of external impressions. Out of himself a man cannot produce a single thought, a single action. Everything he says, does thinks, feels--all this happens. Man cannot discover anything, invent anything." Tolle, sounding like he's channeling Gurdjieff, emphasizes that "the human mind is not at all creative." If you're interesting in seeing Gurdjieff's and Tolle's "Skinnerian"-type arguments eviscerated, read Ayn Rand's "Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology."

Gurdjieff states that the external influence controlling man's behavior on both an individual and mass scale is the planets (including the sun and moon). If the planets control, or dramatically influence, human behavior, then it would seem that astrology would be the most important occult art to study. But Gurdjieff, instead of teaching his students the art and science of astrology, fills their minds with endless cosmological mumbo-jumbo.

3) Gurdjieff calls his gnostic work the "The Fourth Way," contrasting it with the three lesser ways of, respectively, the Fakir, the Monk, and the Yogi. Again, this is a hoot, utterly farcical to anyone deep and eclectically into the mystery traditions. What Gurdjieff teaches is yoga, is Buddhism. And innumerable monks have practiced it. First he emphasizes self-remembrance or mindfulness relative to every aspect of one's being. This is the same as Buddhist Vipassana meditation, which, unlike Gurdjieff's superficial Dharma, goes into great detail regarding the practice. And Tibetan Dzogchen, which exceeds Vipassana, is a quantum leap above his shallow meditation instuctions. Second, Gurdjieff talks about the multiple false `I's that prevent a man from realizing his true transcendental `I," or Self. Hindu Advaita Vedanta, particularly Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950), teaches, through Self-enquiry, to undermine the spurious `I,'s, (really I-thoughts and not separate selves of one's being) and realize the indivisible `I,' or transcendental Self, the Heart. The Buddha also taught this, telling his monks to disidentify from every form, feeling, perception, sensation, and act of attention, in order to realize Nirvana, one's Buddha-nature.

Gurdjieff is bereft of esotericism relative to the en-Light-enment process. For example, he is clueless about Kundalini, calling it the "power of imagination, the power of fantasy, which takes the place of a real function." Contrast this with Ramana's Maharshi, India's foremost twentieth-century guru, who says Kundlalini is just another name for the Self. (In other words, it is the dynamic Energy, or Spirit-power, that accompanies the awakening, or freeing, of one's consciousness.

Gurdjieff is also lacking when it comes to Jesus' teachings. He says, "The Last Supper was magical ceremony similar to `blood-brotherhood' for establishing a connection between astral bodies." Actually, it was a demonstration of the esoteric Eucharist, with the pouring of the wine into the Holy Chalice implying that a true Christian disciple must empty (or impoverish) himself in order to receive the Holy Spirit, the descending, or higher, Kundalini. Strictly speaking, Gurdjieff's teachings cannot be classified as "spiritual," because they have nothing to say about Spirit (or Shakti, or Divine Power) in the en-Light-enment, or Self-awakening, process.

A couple of final points: Gurdjieff emphasizes the need for an organization or group to awaken. He says, "Nothing can be achieved without an organization." Nonsense. Many of the greatest sages awoke sans an organization. A few examples are the Buddha, Ramana Maharshi, and J. Krishnamurti. And the gnostic teachings of these masters are superior to Gurdjieff's. If you're interested in mystical texts that exceed this one, check out my reviews at Amazon.com (and keep checking them out, because I am continually adding new ones).

Meetings with an Unremarkable Book

I read this book 45 years ago, and I decided to give it another read, to see if time had changed my opinion of it. It hadn’t. It’s a colorful narrative of Gurdjieff’s travels that serves as an autobiography of sorts, which fans of Gurdjieff may enjoy. But I found none of the “remarkable men” in this book to be particularly remarkable. In short, the book is bereft of any profound or esoteric spiritual teachings.

Interestingly enough, neither of Gurdjieff’s two signature texts – this one and “Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson” (see my one-star review) -- contains any substantive information about his teachings, which reflects negatively on them. Instead, one must turn to a secondary source, “In Search of the Miraculous” by P.D. Ouspensky (see my two-star review), in order to get a comprehensive presentation of them.

To those who have “cracked the cosmic code” and truly grok “the Master Game,” it couldn’t be clearer that Gurdjieff was not a great spiritual master teeming with demystifying insights, like, say, Ramana Maharshi, J. Krishnamurti, or Adi Da. Rather, he was charlatan of sorts who cobbled together byzantine Sufi teachings chock-full of cosmological crap, and cleverly packaged them into a mystery school still alive today in the form of Fourth Way schools that will gladly take your money, but offer you little Enlightenment in return.

$2.99 Smoked

If I’d donated the $2.99 I spent for this Kindle edition to the Clinton Foundation, I’d at least I’d have something to show for my money – 18 cents working to cure diarrhea in Africa, and the other $2.81 providing Bill Clinton with tip money for one of the broads he bangs. But as it is, I’m stuck with a worthless digital copy of “Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson,” which is nothing more than a tome of Gurdjieffian gobbledygook that may impress the Fourth Way ignoranti (who are too clueless to know there is no “Fourth Way”), but repulse any rational individual seeking spiritual Truth.

It had been 45 years since I’d perused a copy of this book, and once I read a few pages, I remembered why I didn’t buy a copy after checking it out at a bookstore.

If you enjoy reading nonstop, nonsensical cosmological crap, then don’t let my review discourage you from purchasing this book. But if you’re interested in real esoteric spiritual teachings, rather than the the psedo-esoteric crap produced by Gurdjieff, check out the spiritual teachings/traditions of Ramana Maharshi, Tibetan Dzogchen, Hindu Kashmir Shaivism, Adi Da’s Daism, Christian Hermeticism, and Electrical Spirituality.