It’s not easy to speak about Gurdjieff,  nor is it easy to reach an understanding of his doings.

He wasn’t a teacher nor a disciple in the strict meaning of the terms, but rather an adept in the original meaning of the term, “adeptus”: attaining, obtaining, touching, catching… and he not only caught, but also represented the meaning of seeker, Seeker of the Truth, a Truth he sought, even risking his life.

Through his early life, he travelled seeking for the lost knowing, and he found something. And he did all that was possible to transmit what he found to the world, even if it seems that what he tried to transmit wasn’t totally understood by people who followed his words; but a man can do only what is in the field of his possibilities, and he did all what was in the field of his possibilities.

Even if I was born in a familial environment where the ideas of Gurdjieff were… familiar, and even if I use terms that can relate to the Gurdjieff “teaching” (why not, they are terms which perfectly match), I am not a strict follower of his ideas. But, in my opinion, what he did is not a little thing, considering the period when he was born and that he shared what he discovered through two World Wars. And people, especially in such a troubled period,  (but not only in this period), were interested-“distracted”- from other things.

In order to understand something about George I. Gurdjieff , it isn’t enough to read all his books or all that has been written about and concerning him. One should himself become a seeker- pay attention, not as a follower of his ideas, but as a seeker. There’s a huge difference between the two attitudes- and having the “fortune” to find true Teachers. Then, maybe something could be achieved.

Between the thousands of descriptions and definitions about what such a Caucasian man sought and then tried to communicate to  others, there is one written by Margaret Andreson in her book , “The Unknowable Gurdjieff”. As I had read this book in Italian, I’ll make a free translation of what she wrote about him:

“Man is born as slave of Nature, with a passive supernatural field that is totally unknown to him. So, even a man with the maximal degree of intelligence, will be unable to find it inside of himself, except only a mind, feelings, and senses.

Only with help, a teaching and a “revelation” in addition to faith, the fire of desire and an intention that doesn’t admit deviations, he will succeed in being reborn.”

Enjoy the Gurdjieff voice from the below link: