A magical colleague, for a long time, has expounded to me the virtues of George Ivanovich Gurdjieff's esoteric teaching. Although some of the platitudes he spouted seemed interesting to an extent, I could never really grasp the bigger picture. In terms of practicality, what constitutes the Fourth Way (one name amongst many for Gurdjieff's approach) ? My interest was piqued so I decided to investigate the man further. Wary of any 'interpretations' of Gurdjieff's work, I avoided the vast library of books written by his students, and picked up the first book in Gurdjieff's All and Everything series, entitled Beelzebub's Tales To His Grandson (Gurdjieff, 2000) . If you've ever tried to read this book, you'll understand when I say I couldn't understand a frigging word. Apparently, Gurdjieff wrote the book in an intentionally obscure and difficult style in order to make the student work for his teaching. Bollocks. Why teach but hide the teaching? This pissed me off no end, so I gave up on the Fourth Way. That was last year. This year, my friend still rattles on about Gurdjieff, but this time he has a book to recommend: Gurdjieff Unveiled (Ginsburg, 2005). It's a little slip of a thing compared to the rotund monster that is Gurdjieff's first book, so I recently acquired a copy and quickly worked my way through it. I cannot recommend this book enough. The book outlines Gurdjieff's core teachings, but more importantly, the actual exercises taught in his institute. It recommends practising the exercises every day, joining a Gurdjieff group, and reading Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson. Daily practice is fine by me. I once tried contacting the Gurdjieff group in London (as has my friend, on many occasions), but they've never replied, so sod them. But in the cause of actually understanding the method behind the madness, I'm willing to read Gurdjieff's magnum opus. Whether or not I'll actually read it three times, as Gurdjieff suggests, we'll have to see. So on the 12th January 2007 I began the Gurdjieff Experiment.
The General Principle of the Gurdjieff Exercises
The idea is that unless we are actually 'aware of being aware' we are 'sleeping'. Most people, although they believe they are thinking, decisive beings, are in fact slaves to reaction and conditioning. Eventually, being 'aware of being aware' will lead to the experience of what Gurdjieff called Endlessness, or the infinite godhead. The aim of the game then is to remain in a state of being 'aware of being aware' at all times, as a means of reducing our identification with these reactions and acting in a decisive manner in accordance with our actual will, and as means of moving closer to experiencing our true
identity, which is unity. An example of a Gurdjieff exercise is to pick a random part of the body, and retain the awareness of that body part at all times, regardless of what we are thinking, feeling or doing.
Results
12/01/07
Chose my left hand, and sought to keep it in my awareness all day. I've done better than expected; of course, I forget to maintain my awareness frequently, but when Ido, it lasts for approximately 10 minutes or so, and it' s never longer than an hour before I remember I'm not doing the exercise.
13/01/07
It's remarkable: I make hardly any conscious decisions whatsoever; nearly every action I find myself doing is a result of habit or reaction. When I am conscious of this, I stop myself and make an effort of actually deciding what I want to do. I can see the possible benefits of continued work in the Fourth Way in regards to addiction. Today, I chose my left foot. Irritatingly, I find my awareness wants to go to my other foot instead, although after a certain amount of repeated effort, this dissipates.
14/01/07
Right hand, sometimes right foot. Those rare moments when I'm able to maintain my awareness, I find myself becoming incredibly lucid in everyday consciousness. It reminds me of dhyana. The practice has had an impact on my meditation.1 By going into my meditation maintaining awareness of a body part
(I must stress this is not concentrating on a body part to the exclusion of all other sensations - you simply 'split' your attention), I found I could drop the body part and remain in the state of lucid awareness. The awareness seemed to spill out of my body and into the room. At this point I used wu wei, and found my legs and lower back disappeared. Strangely, this caused my breathing to become laboured, almost as if I were drowning; this was physiological, rather than the result of any emotional state.
15/01/07
I'm finding 1 can move my awareness around my various body parts a lot easier than I could before the outset. I'm also catching myself 'remembering' who and what I am (as in being a human on a planet doing stuff), which makes me laugh, 1 I already meditate every day, and Gurdjieff also recommends meditation whilst carrying out The
almost as if at certain points during the day I'm identifying with the body part more than my 'personality' (i.e. my reactions and habits). I also keep having bursts of 'feeling good'. How much of this is down to the Gurdjieff practice? And how much of my previous work has gone towards success using the Fourth Way?
16/01/07
Woke up and immediately became aware of my right leg. However, my effort today has been weak; not only have I frequently forgotten to do the practice, but when I remembered I didn't really put in as much effort as I have done previously. I've also skipped meditation. Perhaps I shouldn't have got drunk last night.