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69-481: The name comes from the Sanskrit words बद्ध, Baddha meaning "bound", कोण, Koṇa meaning "angle", and आसन, Āsana meaning "posture" or "seat". The name Baddha Konasana is relatively recent, but the pose is medieval, as the meditation seat Bhadrasana (from भद्रा Bhadra , "throne") is described in the 15th century Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā 1.53-54. From sitting position with both the legs outstretched forward, hands by

138-648: A carpenter and amateur ashik or bardic poet, and the priest of the town's cathedral , Dean Borsh, a family friend. The young Gurdjieff avidly read literature from many sources and influenced by these writings and witnessing a number of phenomena that he could not explain, he formed the conviction that there existed a hidden truth known to mankind in the past, which could not be ascertained from science or mainstream religion. In early adulthood, according to his own account, Gurdjieff's search for such knowledge led him to travel widely to Central Asia , Egypt, Iran, India, Tibet and other places before he returned to Russia for

207-564: A child of Gurdjieff, the following six people are quoted to be his children: Gurdjieff had a niece, Luba Gurdjieff Everitt , who for about 40 years (1950s–1990s) ran a small but rather famous restaurant, Luba's Bistro, in Knightsbridge , London. Gurdjieff taught that people cannot perceive reality as they are, because they are not conscious of themselves, but rather live in a state of hypnotic "waking sleep" of constantly turning thoughts, worries and imagination. The title of one of his books

276-631: A distinct meaning to various ancient texts such as the Bible and many religious prayers. He believed that such texts possess meanings very different from those commonly attributed to them. "Sleep not"; "Awake, for you know not the hour"; and "The Kingdom of Heaven is Within" are examples of biblical statements which point to teachings whose essence has been forgotten. Gurdjieff taught people how to strengthen and focus their attention and energy in various ways so as to minimize daydreaming and absentmindedness. According to his teaching, this inner development of oneself

345-467: A few years in 1912. He was never forthcoming about the source of his teaching, which he once labelled as esoteric Christianity , in that it ascribes a psychological rather than a literal meaning to various parables and statements found in the Bible. The only account of his wanderings appears in his book Meetings with Remarkable Men , which is not generally considered to be a reliable autobiography. One example

414-542: A follower. In 1935, Gurdjieff stopped work on All and Everything. He had completed the first two parts of the planned trilogy but then started on the Third Series. (It was later published under the title Life Is Real Only Then, When 'I Am'. ) In 1936, he settled in a flat at 6, Rue des Colonels-Renard in Paris, where he was to stay for the rest of his life. In 1937, his brother Dmitry died, and The Rope disbanded. Although

483-453: A great spasm of pain shook his body and blood gushed from an ear. Bennett thought: "He has a cerebral haemorrhage. He will kill himself if he continues to force his body to move". But then he reflected: "He has to do all this. If he allows his body to stop moving, he will die. He has power over his body". After recovering, Gurdjieff finalised plans for the official publication of Beelzebub's Tales and made two trips to New York. He also visited

552-623: A reputation as a writer on mystical subjects and had conducted his own, ultimately disappointing, search for wisdom in the East. The Fourth Way "system" taught during this period was complex and metaphysical, partly expressed in scientific terminology. During the revolutionary upheaval in Russia, Gurdjieff left Petrograd in 1917 to return to his family home in Alexandropol (present-day Gyumri in Armenia). During

621-672: A result, these ways fail to produce a properly balanced human being. Furthermore, anyone wishing to undertake any of the traditional paths to spiritual knowledge (which Gurdjieff reduced to three—namely the way of the Fakir , the way of the Monk , and the way of the Yogi ) were required to renounce life in the world. But Gurdjieff also described a "Fourth Way" which would be amenable to the requirements of contemporary people living in Europe and America. Instead of training

690-407: A scientist and wearing a red fireman's belt with brass rings Gurdjieff left Essentuki with fourteen companions (excluding Gurdjieff's family and Ouspensky). They travelled by train to Maikop, where hostilities delayed them for three weeks. In the spring of 1919, Gurdjieff met the artist Alexandre de Salzmann and his wife Jeanne and accepted them as pupils. Assisted by Jeanne de Salzmann, Gurdjieff gave

759-493: A second car accident in 1948 but again made an unexpected recovery. "I was looking at a dying man. Even this is not enough to express it. It was a dead man, a corpse, that came out of the car; and yet it walked. I was shivering like someone who sees a ghost." With iron-like tenacity, he managed to get to his room, where he sat down and said: "Now all organs are destroyed. Must make new". Then, he turned to Bennett, smiling: "Tonight you come dinner. I must make body work". As he spoke,

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828-495: A stable base for meditation , and have been used for the purpose in Buddhism and Hinduism for many centuries. These include Padmasana (full lotus), Ardha Padmasana (half lotus), Siddhasana or Muktasana (also called Burmese posture, sitting with the knees on the ground and the feet tucked in close to the body), and Sukhasana (any easy cross-legged position). Other possibilities are the kneeling postures Virasana (sitting between

897-419: Is Life is Real, Only Then, when "I am" . "Man lives his life in sleep, and in sleep he dies." As a result, a person perceives the world while in a state of dream. He asserted that people in their ordinary waking state function as unconscious automatons , but that a person can "wake up" and become what a human being ought to be. Some contemporary researchers claim that Gurdjieff's concept of self-remembering

966-656: Is "close to the Buddhist concept of awareness or a popular definition of 'mindfulness'.   ... The Buddhist term translated into English as 'mindfulness' originates in the Pali term 'sati', which is identical to Sanskrit 'smṛti'. Both terms mean 'to remember'." As Gurdjieff himself said at a meeting held in his Paris flat during the Second World War: "Our aim is to have constantly a sensation of oneself, of one's individuality: this sensation cannot be expressed intellectually, because it

1035-460: Is a groin or knee injury, the knees must be supported on folded blankets. A common variant is Supta Baddha Konasana, Cobbler's Pose in Lying Position, from सुप्त, supta , meaning "supine" or "reclining". In pregnancy , the pose can be practised reclining as "Wall Butterfly", with the buttocks and feet against a wall, feet together, the knees falling to the sides. The hands can be used to press

1104-649: Is additional to the ways of the Fakirs ( Sufis ), Monks and Yogis , so that his student P. D. Ouspensky referred to it as the " Fourth Way ". Gurdjieff's teaching has inspired the formation of many groups around the world. After his death in 1949, the Gurdjieff Foundation in Paris was established and led by his close pupil Jeanne de Salzmann in cooperation with other direct pupils of Gurdjieff, until her death in 1990; and then by her son Michel de Salzmann , until his death in 2001. The International Association of

1173-457: Is crucial to spiritual awakening." The pose can cause beginners knee pain and injury. Baddha Konasana is a safer alternative, provided the knees are not pushed down. Cushman notes that since meditation is not a posture, no particular posture is required. All the same, she writes, a formal method is helpful, and the asana chosen needs to be stable and comfortable, as the Yoga Sutras state: on

1242-606: Is inscribed in a plate on the grave-marker in the cemetery of Avon, Seine-et-Marne , France, where his body was buried. Gurdjieff spent his childhood in Kars , which, from 1878 to 1918, was the administrative capital of the Russian-ruled Transcaucasus province of Kars Oblast , a border region recently acquired following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire . It contained extensive grassy plateau-steppe and high mountains, and

1311-441: Is not so difficult as wishing to work, taking the decision." Though Gurdjieff never put major significance on the term "Fourth Way" and never used the term in his writings, his pupil P. D. Ouspensky from 1924 to 1947 made the term and its use central to his own interpretation of Gurdjieff's teaching. After Ouspensky's death, his students published a book titled The Fourth Way based on his lectures. Gurdjieff's teaching addressed

1380-462: Is of the adventure of walking across the Gobi desert on stilts, where Gurdjieff said he was able to look down on the contours of the sand dunes while the sand storm whirled around below him. Each chapter is named after a "remarkable man", some of whom were putative members of a society called "The Seekers of Truth". After Gurdjieff's death, J. G. Bennett researched his potential sources and suggested that

1449-616: Is organic. It is something which makes you independent, when you are with other people." Gurdjieff argued that many of the existing forms of religious and spiritual tradition on Earth had lost connection with their original meaning and vitality and so could no longer serve humanity in the way that had been intended at their inception. As a result, humans were failing to realize the truths of ancient teachings and were instead becoming more and more like automatons, susceptible to control from outside and increasingly capable of otherwise unthinkable acts of mass psychosis such as World War I . At best,

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1518-550: Is quoted by his students in "Views from the Real World" as saying: "The Institute can help one to be able to be a Christian." An aphorism was displayed which stated: "Here there are neither Russians nor English, Jews nor Christians, but only those who pursue one aim – to be able to be." New pupils included C. S. Nott , René Zuber , Margaret Anderson and her ward Fritz Peters. The intellectual and middle-class types who were attracted to Gurdjieff's teaching often found

1587-491: Is the beginning of a possible further process of change, the aim of which is to transform people into what Gurdjieff believed they ought to be. Distrusting "morality", which he describes as varying from culture to culture, often contradictory and hypocritical, Gurdjieff greatly stressed the importance of " conscience ". To provide conditions in which inner attention could be exercised more intensively, Gurdjieff also taught his pupils "sacred dances" or "movements", later known as

1656-566: The Buddhist and Hindu traditions are the lotus and kneeling positions; other options include sitting on a chair, with the spine upright. Meditation is sometimes practiced while walking, such as kinhin , doing simple repetitive tasks, as in Zen samu , or work which encourages mindfulness . The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali describe yoga as having eight limbs , one being asana , the meditation seat. The sutras do not name any asanas, merely specifying

1725-639: The Caucasus . There are conflicting views regarding Gurdjieff's birth date, ranging from 1866 to 1877. The bulk of extant records weigh heavily toward 1877, but Gurdjieff in reported conversations with students gave the year of his birth as c.  1867 , which is corroborated by the account of his niece Luba Gurdjieff Everitt and accords with photographs and videos taken of him in 1949. George Kiourtzidis, great-grandson of Gurdjieff's paternal uncle Vasilii (through Vasilii's son Alexander), recalled that his grandfather Alexander, born in 1875, said that Gurdjieff

1794-935: The Galata Tower . The apartment is near the Khanqah (Sufi lodge) of the Mevlevi Order (a Sufi order following the teachings of Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi ), where Gurdjieff, Ouspensky and Thomas de Hartmann witnessed the Sama ceremony of the Whirling Dervishes . In Istanbul, Gurdjieff also met his future pupil, Capt. John G. Bennett , then head of the British Directorate of Military Intelligence in Ottoman Turkey , who described his impression of Gurdjieff as follows: It

1863-590: The Molokans , Doukhobors , Pryguny , and Subbotniks . Gurdjieff makes particular mention of the Yazidi community . Growing up in a multi-ethnic society, Gurdjieff became fluent in Armenian , Pontic Greek , Russian , and Turkish , speaking the last in a mixture of elegant Ottoman Turkish with some dialect. He later acquired "a working facility with several European languages". Early influences on him included his father,

1932-705: The October Revolution , he set up a temporary study community in Essentuki in the Caucasus, where he worked intensively with a small group of Russian pupils. Gurdjieff's eldest sister Anna and her family later arrived there as refugees, informing him that Turks had shot his father in Alexandropol on 15 May. As the area became increasingly threatened by civil war, Gurdjieff fabricated a newspaper story announcing his forthcoming "scientific expedition" to "Mount Induc". Posing as

2001-416: The " Sarmoung Brotherhood ". Gurdjieff wrote that he supported himself during his travels by engaging in various enterprises such as running a travelling repair shop and making paper flowers; and on one occasion while thinking about what he could do, he described catching sparrows in the park and then dyeing them yellow to be sold as canaries; It is also speculated by commentators that during his travels he

2070-487: The 1870s managed large herds of cattle and sheep. The long-held view is that Gurdjieff's mother was Armenian , although some scholars have recently speculated that she too was Greek. According to Gurdjieff himself, his father came of a Greek family whose ancestors had emigrated from Byzantium after the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, with his family initially moving to central Anatolia , and from there eventually to Georgia in

2139-780: The Gurdjieff Foundations comprises the Institut Gurdjieff in France; The Gurdjieff Foundation in the USA; The Gurdjieff Society in the UK; and the Gurdjieff Foundation in Venezuela. Gurdjieff was born in Alexandropol, Yerevan Governorate , Russian Empire (now Gyumri , Armenia ). His father Ivan Ivanovich Gurdjieff was Greek , and a renowned ashugh under the pseudonym of Adash , who in

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2208-450: The Prieuré operation ran into debt and was shut down in 1932. Gurdjieff constituted a new teaching group in Paris. Known as The Rope, it was composed of only women, many of them writers, and several lesbians. Members included Kathryn Hulme , Jane Heap , Margaret Anderson and Enrico Caruso 's widow, Dorothy. Gurdjieff became acquainted with Gertrude Stein through its members, but she was never

2277-415: The Prieuré's spartan accommodation and emphasis on hard labour on the grounds disconcerting. Gurdjieff was putting into practice his teaching that people need to develop physically, emotionally and intellectually, so lectures, music, dance, and manual work were organised. Older pupils noticed how the Prieuré teaching differed from the complex metaphysical "system" that had been taught in Russia. In addition to

2346-625: The Stjoernvals, the Hartmanns, and the de Salzmanns continued to assimilate his teaching. Gurdjieff concentrated on his still unstaged ballet, The Struggle of the Magicians . Thomas de Hartmann (who had made his debut years ago, before Tsar Nicholas II of Russia ), worked on the music for the ballet, and Olga Ivanovna Hinzenberg (who years later wed the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright ), practiced

2415-671: The accent that one associates with those born and bred in the narrow circle of the Imperial Court . His appearance was striking enough even in Turkey , where one saw many unusual types. His head was shaven, immense black moustache, eyes which at one moment seemed very pale and at another almost black. Below average height, he gave nevertheless an impression of great physical strength. In August 1921 and 1922, Gurdjieff travelled around western Europe, lecturing and giving demonstrations of his work in various cities, such as Berlin and London. He attracted

2484-796: The allegiance of Ouspensky's many prominent pupils (notably the editor A. R. Orage ). After an unsuccessful attempt to gain British citizenship, Gurdjieff established the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man south of Paris at the Prieuré des Basses Loges in Avon near the famous Château de Fontainebleau . The once-impressive but somewhat crumbling mansion set in extensive grounds housed an entourage of several dozen, including some of Gurdjieff's remaining relatives and some White Russian refugees. Gurdjieff

2553-427: The break in the rhythm. During this period, Gurdjieff acquired notoriety as "the man who killed Katherine Mansfield" after Katherine Mansfield died there of tuberculosis on 9 January 1923. However, James Moore and Ouspensky argue that Mansfield knew she would soon die and that Gurdjieff made her last days happy and fulfilling. Starting in 1924, Gurdjieff made visits to North America, where he eventually received

2622-560: The characteristics of a good asana, stating: स्थिरसुखमासनम् ॥४६॥ sthira sukham āsanam Your [meditation] seat should be steady and comfortable. Yoga Sutras 2:46 The Sutras are embedded in the Bhasya commentary, which scholars including Philipp Maas now believe are by the same author; it names 12 seated meditation asanas, possibly all cross-legged, including Padmasana , Virasana, Bhadrasana (now called Baddha Konasana), and Svastikasana . Sitting positions, often cross-legged, provide

2691-557: The dances. It was here that Gurdjieff opened his first Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man . In late May 1920, when political and social conditions in Georgia deteriorated, his party travelled to Batumi on the Black Sea coast and then by ship to Constantinople (today Istanbul ). Gurdjieff rented an apartment on Kumbaracı Street in Péra and later at 13 Abdullatif Yemeneci Sokak near

2760-581: The eccentric Rachmilievitch. In the same year, he married the Polish Julia Ostrowska in Saint Petersburg. In 1914, Gurdjieff advertised his ballet, The Struggle of the Magicians, and he supervised his pupils' writing of the sketch Glimpses of Truth. In 1915, Gurdjieff accepted P. D. Ouspensky as a pupil, and in 1916, he accepted the composer Thomas de Hartmann and his wife, Olga, as students. He then had about 30 pupils. Ouspensky already had

2829-606: The famous prehistoric cave paintings at Lascaux , giving his interpretation of their significance to his pupils. Gurdjieff died of cancer at the American Hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine , France, on 29 October 1949. His funeral took place at the St. Alexandre Nevsky Russian Orthodox Cathedral at 12 Rue Daru, Paris. He is buried in the cemetery at Avon (near Fontainebleau). Although no evidence or documents have certified anyone as

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2898-579: The first public demonstration of his Sacred Dances (Movements at the Tbilisi Opera House, 22 June). In March 1918, Ouspensky separated from Gurdjieff, settling in England and teaching the Fourth Way in his own right. The two men were to have a very ambivalent relationship for decades to come. In 1919, Gurdjieff and his closest pupils moved to Tbilisi , Georgia , where Gurdjieff's wife Julia Ostrowska,

2967-417: The flat at 6 Rue des Colonels-Renard was very small, he continued to teach groups of pupils there throughout the war. Visitors have described his pantry or 'inner sanctum' as being stocked with an extraordinary collection of eastern delicacies and the suppers he held with elaborate toasts with vodka and cognac to "idiots". Having cut a physically impressive figure for many years, he was now paunchy. His teaching

3036-426: The future, under the pretext of different worthy reasons, to remove from my eyesight all those who by this or that make my life too comfortable". Whilst recovering from his injuries and still too weak to write himself, he began to dictate his magnum opus, Beelzebub's Tales , the first part of All and Everything , in a mixture of Armenian and Russian. The book is generally found to be convoluted and obscure and forces

3105-568: The hands are placed in Anjali mudra (prayer position) in front of the chest. The pose strongly opens hip and groin, and is one of the few yoga asanas that can be practiced comfortably soon after eating, except for the forward-bending variation with the head on the floor. It is claimed in Light on Yoga , citing Grantly Dick Reed's Childbirth Without Fear , that the pose is beneficial to pregnant women , as regular practice reduces pain during delivery. If there

3174-470: The heels) and Vajrasana or Seiza (sitting on the heels). Another sitting posture, Baddha Konasana (Cobbler's Pose), is suitable for people who can sit with the feet together and both knees on the ground; B. K. S. Iyengar states that to meditate in this position, the palms should be held in prayer position over the chest, which demands some practice for balance. Seymour Ginsburg, describing Gurdjieff meditation, suggests that such compact positions help

3243-476: The hips above the knees, allowing practitioners with stiff hips to have the spine straight and upright. In various traditions people meditate in other postures. People who find sitting cross-legged uncomfortable can sit upright on a straight-backed chair, flat-footed and without back support, with the hands resting on the thighs, in what is sometimes called the Egyptian position. Orthodox Christians may practice

3312-441: The knees. Tarasana, Star Pose, has the body leaning forwards over the clasped feet. With the thighs supported on folded blankets , 10-pound sandbags may be placed on the inner thigh (near the groin) to assist the stretch. Meditation seat Meditative postures or meditation seats are the body positions or asanas , usually sitting but also sometimes standing or reclining, used to facilitate meditation . Best known in

3381-499: The meditation of hesychasm sitting on a stool, as was recommended by Saint Gregory of Sinai . Theravada and Zen Buddhists sometimes vary their sitting meditation by meditating while walking, often very slowly so as to be mindful of each movement. Standing meditation or zhan zhuang is practised in the Chinese martial art training system Yiquan . Gurdjieff George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (c. 1867 – 29 October 1949)

3450-401: The meditator to "include the entire experience of ourself in our attention." The lotus position in particular can be extremely uncomfortable for Westerners who have not practised sitting cross-legged since early childhood. They may, in the words of the yoga and meditation teacher Anne Cushman , be practising "self-torture ... apparently believing that bruising your inner thigh with your ankle

3519-559: The men were symbolic of the three types of people to whom Gurdjieff referred: No. 1 centred in their physical body; No. 2 centred in their emotions and No. 3 centred in their mind. Gurdjieff describes how he encountered dervishes , fakirs and descendants of the Essenes , whose teaching he said had been conserved at a monastery in Sarmoung. The book also has an overarching quest involving a map of "pre-sand Egypt" and culminates in an encounter with

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3588-430: The mind, body and emotions separately, Gurdjieff's discipline worked on all three to promote an organic connection between them and a balanced development. In parallel with other spiritual traditions, Gurdjieff taught that a person must expend considerable effort to effect the transformation that leads to awakening . Gurdjieff referred to it as "The Work" or "Work on oneself". According to Gurdjieff, "Working on oneself

3657-403: The muscles of the back relax, and this in turn allows the attention to be focussed on the breath. These conditions can be met by a variety of postures with or without support, whether a cross-legged posture such as Muktasana, a kneeling posture, or sitting on a chair with the back vertical and the feet on the ground. The traditional support for sitting meditation is a zafu cushion; this elevates

3726-443: The one side, few people would wish to hold strenuous postures like Downward Dog for half an hour or more; on the other side, a restful posture like Savasana (Corpse Pose) might be comfortable but would more likely lead to sleep than meditation. The cross-legged postures are simple and stable, restful for the muscles, but active enough to keep the practitioner awake. The spinal column needs to be erect and in balance; this poise lets

3795-609: The physical hardships, his personal behaviour towards pupils could be ferocious: Gurdjieff was standing by his bed in a state of what seemed to me to be completely uncontrolled fury. He was raging at Orage, who stood impassively and very pale, framed in one of the windows ... Suddenly, in the space of an instant, Gurdjieff's voice stopped, his whole personality changed and he gave me a broad smile—and looking incredibly peaceful and inwardly quiet, motioned me to leave. He then resumed his tirade with undiminished force. This happened so quickly that I do not believe that Mr. Orage even noticed

3864-415: The pupils taught previously by A. R. Orage. In 1924, while driving alone from Paris to Fontainebleau, he had a near-fatal car accident. Nursed by his wife and mother, he made a slow and painful recovery against all medical expectations. Still convalescent, he formally "disbanded" his institute on 26 August (in fact he dispersed only his "less dedicated" pupils) which he expressed was a personal undertaking: "in

3933-476: The question of humanity's place in the universe and the importance of developing its latent potentialities—regarded as our natural endowment as human beings, but which was rarely brought to fruition. He taught that higher levels of consciousness, higher bodies, inner growth and development are real possibilities that nonetheless require conscious work to achieve. The aim was not to acquire anything new but to recover what we had lost. In his teaching, Gurdjieff gave

4002-532: The reader to "work" to find its meaning. He continued to develop the book over some years, writing in noisy cafes which he found conducive for setting down his thoughts. Gurdjieff's mother died in 1925 and his wife developed cancer and died in June 1926. Ouspensky attended her funeral. According to Fritz Peters , Gurdjieff was in New York from November 1925 to the spring of 1926, when he succeeded in raising over $ 100,000. He

4071-457: The sides, palms resting on the ground, fingers together pointing forward, the legs are hinged at the knees so the soles of the feet meet. The legs are grasped at the ankles and folded more until the heels reach the perineum. The knees move down to the ground, and with practice reach there; the body is erect and the gaze in front. The asana is held before coming back to the starting position. The thighs are stretched with care. When used for meditation,

4140-414: The various surviving sects and schools could provide only a one-sided development, which did not result in a fully integrated human being. According to Gurdjieff, only one of the three dimensions of a person—namely, either the emotions, or the physical body or the mind—tends to develop in such schools and sects, and generally at the expense of the other faculties or centres , as Gurdjieff called them. As

4209-433: The war, and it also brought him to the attention of the authorities, leading to a night in the cells. After the war, Gurdjieff tried to reconnect with his former pupils. Ouspensky was hesitant, but after his death (October 1947), his widow advised his remaining pupils to see Gurdjieff in Paris. J. G. Bennett also visited from England, their first meeting in 25 years. Ouspensky's pupils in England had all thought that Gurdjieff

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4278-431: Was a Greek–Armenian philosopher , mystic , spiritual teacher , composer , and movements teacher . Gurdjieff taught that people are not conscious of themselves and thus live their lives in a state of hypnotic "waking sleep", but that it is possible to awaken to a higher state of consciousness and serve our purpose as human beings. The practice of his teaching has become known as "The Work" (connoting work on oneself) and

4347-526: Was about three years older than him, which would point to a birth date c.  1872 . Although official documents consistently record the day of his birth as 28 December, Gurdjieff himself celebrated his birthday either on the Old Orthodox Julian calendar date of 1 January, or according to the Gregorian calendar date for New Year of 13 January (up to 1899; 14 January after 1900). The year of 1872

4416-422: Was dead. They discovered he was alive only after the death of Ouspensky, who had not told them that Gurdjieff, from whom he had learnt of the teaching, was still living. They were overjoyed and many of Ouspensky's pupils including Rina Hands, Basil Tilley and Catherine Murphy visited Gurdjieff in Paris. Hands and Murphy worked on the typing and retyping for the publication of All and Everything . Gurdjieff suffered

4485-459: Was engaged in a certain amount of political activity, as part of The Great Game . From 1913 to 1949, the chronology appears to be based on material that can be confirmed by primary documents, independent witnesses, cross-references and reasonable inference. On New Year's Day in 1912, Gurdjieff arrived in Moscow and attracted his first students, including his cousin, the sculptor Sergey Merkurov , and

4554-708: Was inhabited by a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional population that had a history of respect for travelling mystics and holy men, and for religious syncretism and conversion . Both the city of Kars and the surrounding territory were home to an extremely diverse population: although part of the Armenian Plateau , the Russian-ruled Transcaucasus province of Kars Oblast was home to Armenians , Caucasus Greeks , Pontic Greeks , Georgians , Russians , Kurds , Turks , and smaller numbers of Christian communities from eastern and central Europe such as Caucasus Germans , Estonians , and Russian Orthodox sectarian communities like

4623-464: Was now conveyed more directly through personal interaction with his pupils, who were encouraged to study the ideas he had expressed in Beelzebub's Tales . His personal business enterprises (he had intermittently been a dealer in oriental rugs and carpets for much of his life, among other activities) enabled him to offer charitable relief to neighbours who had been affected by the difficult circumstances of

4692-408: Was there that I first met Gurdjieff in the autumn of 1920, and no surroundings could have been more appropriate. In Gurdjieff, East and West do not just meet. Their difference is annihilated in a world outlook which knows no distinctions of race or creed. This was my first, and has remained one of my strongest impressions. A Greek from the Caucasus , he spoke Turkish with an accent of unexpected purity,

4761-598: Was to make six or seven trips to the US, but alienated a number of people with his brash and impudent demands for money. A Chicago-based Gurdjieff group was founded by Jean Toomer in 1927 after he had trained at the Prieuré for a year. Diana Huebert was a regular member of the Chicago group, and documented the several visits Gurdjieff made to the group in 1932 and 1934 in her memoirs on the man. Despite his fund-raising efforts in America,

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