Review of Three Gurdjieff-Related Books
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.31337Keywords:
G.I. Gurdjieff (c.1865-1949), biography, Jeanne de Salzmann, Contemplation, Kathryn Hulme, Solita SolanoAbstract
Three recent Gurdjieff-related volumes are reviewed: Women of the Rope comprising diary notes chiefly by Solano and Hulme; The Reality of Being by Jeanne de Salzmann (generally regarded as his leading pupil); and Questions and Answers along the Way which transcribes group meetings with Hugh Ripman. These flesh out Gurdjieff’s ideas and methods in important ways. Most significantly, a good deal of light is shed on Gurdjieff’s introduction of contemplation-like inner exercises. The most important of these is the daily “meditation” which he called “the Preparation”. Also, it is suggested that Gurdjieff’s system, originally designed to harmonise “Eastern” and “Western”, underwent a process of “Easternization” after his death in 1949.
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References
Adie, George M., and Joseph Azize 2007 George Adie: A Gurdjieff Pupil in Australia. Lighthouse Work Books, London.
----- 2015 George Adie: A Gurdjieff Pupil in Australia. 2nd revised and expanded edn. By the Way Books, Waukee.
Anderson, Margaret 1991 [1962] The Unknowable Gurdjieff. Arkana, London (original edn Routledge & Kegan Paul).
Azize, Joseph 2002 “The Word ‘Relax’.” Stopinder 9: 60–64.
----- 2013 “The Four Ideals”: A Contemplative Exercise by Gurdjieff. ARIES 13: 173–203. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15700593-13130202
----- 2016 The Practice of Contemplation in the Work of Gurdjieff. International Journal for the Study of New Religions 6(2): 139–58. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/ijsnr.v6i2.28944
Bennett, John G. 1997 [1962] Witness: The Story of a Search. Bennett Books, Santa Fe (original edn Hodder & Stoughton, London).
Benson, Martin 2011 Martin Benson Speaks. Edited by C. Lehmann-Haupt. Codhill Press, np.
Butkovsky-Hewitt, Anna 1978 With Gurdjieff in St Petersburg and Paris. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.
Byrd, Rudolph P. 1990 Jean Toomer’s Years with Gurdjieff. University of Georgia Press, Athens.
Campbell, Colin 2007 The Easternization of the West. Paradigm, Boulder.
Claustres, Solange 2003 La prise de conscience et G.I. Gurdjieff. Eureka Editions, Utrecht.
----- 2005 Becoming Conscious with G.I. Gurdjieff. Eureka Editions, Utrecht (a translation of Claustres 2003).
Edwards, Helena 2009 All This—and Heaven Too? Crucible Publishers, Bath.
de Etievan, Nathalie 2008 A Sense of Wonder When I Do Not Know. Ganesha, Caracas.
Firestone, Lillian 2008 The Forgotten Language of Children. Indications Press, New York.
Fremantle, Christopher 1993 On Attention. Edited by L. F. Boal. Indications, New York.
Gurdjieff, George I. 1930 Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson. Private publication, reissued by Book Studio, London.
----- 1993 [1950] Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson. Two Rivers Press, Aurora (original edn Routledge & Kegan Paul, London).
----- 1985 [1963] Meetings with Remarkable Men. Arkana, London (original edn Routledge & Kegan Paul, London).
----- 1973 Views from the Real World: Early Talks of Gurdjieff (anonymously edited). E.P. Dutton & Co. Inc., New York.
----- 1975 Life Is Real Only Then, When “I Am.” Privately printed by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc. for Triangle Editions, Inc., New York.
----- 2009 Transcripts of Gurdjieff’s Meetings 1941–1946 (anonymously edited). Book Studio, London, 2nd edn (with one additional transcript).
----- 2014 Gurdjieff’s Early Talks (anonymously edited). Book Studio, London.
Hands, Rita 1991 Diary of Madame Egout pour Sweet. Two Rivers Press, Aurora.
de Hartmann, Thomas and Olga 1992 Our Life with Mr Gurdjieff (definitive edition). Arkana, London.
Heap, Jane 1983 Notes. Edited by A.-L. Staveley and D. Kherdian. Two Rivers Press, Aurora.
----- 1994 [1983] The Notes of Jane Heap. Edited by Michael Currer-Briggs. Private publication, London. New edition by Two Rivers Press, Aurora.
Howarth, Jessmin and Dushka 1998 It’s Up to Ourselves. Gurdjieff Heritage Society, New York.
Hulme, Kathryn 1997 [1966] Undiscovered Country. New expanded edn. Natural Bridge Editions, Lexington.
Hulme, Kathryn, and Solita Solano 2012 Gurdjieff and the Women of the Rope. Book Studio, London.
Lannes, Henriette 2002 Inside a Question. Paul H. Crompton, London.
----- 2003 This Fundamental Quest. Far West Institute, np.
Leblanc, Georgette 1947 The Courage Machine. Book Studio, London. Originally published as La Machine à courage, 1947.
March, Louise G. 2011 [1988] The Gurdjieff Years 1929–1949. Edited by A. McCorkle. Expanded edn. Eureka Editions, Utrecht.
Moore, James 1991 Gurdjieff: The Anatomy of a Myth. Element, Rockport, MA.
----- 1994 Moveable Feasts: The Gurdjieff Work. Religion Today IX(2): 11–16. http://dx.doi. org/10.1080/13537909408580710
Needleman, Jacob (ed.) 2008 The Inner Journey: Views from the Gurdjieff Work. Morning Light Press, Sandpoint, ID.
Needleman, Jacob, and George Baker 1996 Gospel: Essays and Reflections. Continuum, New York.
Nicoll, Maurice 1952 Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky. Robinson & Watkins, London.
Nott, C. S. 1990 [1961] Teachings of Gurdjieff: Journal of a Pupil. Arkana, London (original edn Routledge & Kegan Paul, London).
Orage, A. R. 2013 Orage’s Commentary of Gurdjieff’s “Beelzebub’s Tales to his Grandson.” Book Studio, London.
Ouspensky, Piotr D. 1949 In Search of the Miraculous. Harcourt Brace, New York.
Pentland, John 1997 Exchanges Within. Continuum, New York.
Peters, Fritz 1964 Boyhood with Gurdjieff. E.P. Dutton, New York.
----- 1965 Gurdjieff Remembered. Gollancz, London.
Phillpotts, Dorothy 2008 Discovering Gurdjieff. AuthorHouse, Bloomington.
Popoff, Irmis B. 1969 Gurdjieff: His Work on Myself …. with Others … for the Work. Vantage, New York.
----- 1983 Gurdjieff Group Work with Wilhem Nyland. Samuel Weiser, York Beach.
Ravindra, Ravi 1999 Heart without Measure: Work with Madame de Salzmann. Shaila Press, Halifax.
Rawlinson, Andrew 1997 The Book of Enlightened Masters. Open Court, Chicago.
Romilly, Rita 2014 Gurdjieff Group Work with Rita Romilly Benson. Edited by Marshall May. Lulu, np.
de Salzmann, Jeanne 2010 The Reality of Being: The Fourth Way of Gurdjieff. Shambhala, Boston and London.
de Salzmann, Michel 1985 A Footnote to the Gurdjieff Literature. In J. Walter Driscoll and the Gurdjieff Foundation of California, Gurdjieff: An Annotated Bibliography, xvi–xxv. Garland Publishing, New York.
Segal, William 1998 Opening. Continuum, New York.
----- 2003 A Voice at the Borders of Silence. Overlook Press, Woodstock.
Sinclair, Frank R. 2005 Without Benefit of Clergy. Xlibris, np.
Taylor, Paul Beekman 2008 Gurdjieff: A New Life. Eureka Editions, Utrecht.
Tchekhovitch, Tcheslaw 2006 Gurdjieff: A Master in Life. Dolmen Meadow Editions, Toronto.
Tracol, Henri 1994 The Taste for Things that are True. Element, Shaftesbury.
----- 2003 Further Essays and Talks. The Guild Press, Bray.
de Val, Nicolas [Nikolai de Stjernvall] 1997 Daddy Gurdjieff: Quelques souvenirs inédits. Georg, Geneva.
Vaysse, Jean 1979 Toward Awakening. Harper & Row, San Francisco.
Walker, Kenneth 1951 Venture with Ideas. Neville Spearman, London.
Webb, James 1980 The Harmonious Circle: The Lives and Work of G.I. Gurdjieff, P.D. Ouspensky, and Their Followers. Thames & Hudson, London.
Welch, Louise 1982 Orage with Gurdjieff in America. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.
----- 2012 Meetings with Louise Welch in Toronto. Traditional Studies Press, Toronto.
Welch, William 1972 What Happened In-Between. George Braziller, New York.
Wellbeloved, Sophia 2003 Gurdjieff: The Key Concepts. Routledge, London and New York.
Zuber, René 1980 Who Are You, Monsieur Gurdjieff? Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.
----- 2015 George Adie: A Gurdjieff Pupil in Australia. 2nd revised and expanded edn. By the Way Books, Waukee.
Anderson, Margaret 1991 [1962] The Unknowable Gurdjieff. Arkana, London (original edn Routledge & Kegan Paul).
Azize, Joseph 2002 “The Word ‘Relax’.” Stopinder 9: 60–64.
----- 2013 “The Four Ideals”: A Contemplative Exercise by Gurdjieff. ARIES 13: 173–203. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15700593-13130202
----- 2016 The Practice of Contemplation in the Work of Gurdjieff. International Journal for the Study of New Religions 6(2): 139–58. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/ijsnr.v6i2.28944
Bennett, John G. 1997 [1962] Witness: The Story of a Search. Bennett Books, Santa Fe (original edn Hodder & Stoughton, London).
Benson, Martin 2011 Martin Benson Speaks. Edited by C. Lehmann-Haupt. Codhill Press, np.
Butkovsky-Hewitt, Anna 1978 With Gurdjieff in St Petersburg and Paris. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.
Byrd, Rudolph P. 1990 Jean Toomer’s Years with Gurdjieff. University of Georgia Press, Athens.
Campbell, Colin 2007 The Easternization of the West. Paradigm, Boulder.
Claustres, Solange 2003 La prise de conscience et G.I. Gurdjieff. Eureka Editions, Utrecht.
----- 2005 Becoming Conscious with G.I. Gurdjieff. Eureka Editions, Utrecht (a translation of Claustres 2003).
Edwards, Helena 2009 All This—and Heaven Too? Crucible Publishers, Bath.
de Etievan, Nathalie 2008 A Sense of Wonder When I Do Not Know. Ganesha, Caracas.
Firestone, Lillian 2008 The Forgotten Language of Children. Indications Press, New York.
Fremantle, Christopher 1993 On Attention. Edited by L. F. Boal. Indications, New York.
Gurdjieff, George I. 1930 Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson. Private publication, reissued by Book Studio, London.
----- 1993 [1950] Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson. Two Rivers Press, Aurora (original edn Routledge & Kegan Paul, London).
----- 1985 [1963] Meetings with Remarkable Men. Arkana, London (original edn Routledge & Kegan Paul, London).
----- 1973 Views from the Real World: Early Talks of Gurdjieff (anonymously edited). E.P. Dutton & Co. Inc., New York.
----- 1975 Life Is Real Only Then, When “I Am.” Privately printed by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc. for Triangle Editions, Inc., New York.
----- 2009 Transcripts of Gurdjieff’s Meetings 1941–1946 (anonymously edited). Book Studio, London, 2nd edn (with one additional transcript).
----- 2014 Gurdjieff’s Early Talks (anonymously edited). Book Studio, London.
Hands, Rita 1991 Diary of Madame Egout pour Sweet. Two Rivers Press, Aurora.
de Hartmann, Thomas and Olga 1992 Our Life with Mr Gurdjieff (definitive edition). Arkana, London.
Heap, Jane 1983 Notes. Edited by A.-L. Staveley and D. Kherdian. Two Rivers Press, Aurora.
----- 1994 [1983] The Notes of Jane Heap. Edited by Michael Currer-Briggs. Private publication, London. New edition by Two Rivers Press, Aurora.
Howarth, Jessmin and Dushka 1998 It’s Up to Ourselves. Gurdjieff Heritage Society, New York.
Hulme, Kathryn 1997 [1966] Undiscovered Country. New expanded edn. Natural Bridge Editions, Lexington.
Hulme, Kathryn, and Solita Solano 2012 Gurdjieff and the Women of the Rope. Book Studio, London.
Lannes, Henriette 2002 Inside a Question. Paul H. Crompton, London.
----- 2003 This Fundamental Quest. Far West Institute, np.
Leblanc, Georgette 1947 The Courage Machine. Book Studio, London. Originally published as La Machine à courage, 1947.
March, Louise G. 2011 [1988] The Gurdjieff Years 1929–1949. Edited by A. McCorkle. Expanded edn. Eureka Editions, Utrecht.
Moore, James 1991 Gurdjieff: The Anatomy of a Myth. Element, Rockport, MA.
----- 1994 Moveable Feasts: The Gurdjieff Work. Religion Today IX(2): 11–16. http://dx.doi. org/10.1080/13537909408580710
Needleman, Jacob (ed.) 2008 The Inner Journey: Views from the Gurdjieff Work. Morning Light Press, Sandpoint, ID.
Needleman, Jacob, and George Baker 1996 Gospel: Essays and Reflections. Continuum, New York.
Nicoll, Maurice 1952 Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky. Robinson & Watkins, London.
Nott, C. S. 1990 [1961] Teachings of Gurdjieff: Journal of a Pupil. Arkana, London (original edn Routledge & Kegan Paul, London).
Orage, A. R. 2013 Orage’s Commentary of Gurdjieff’s “Beelzebub’s Tales to his Grandson.” Book Studio, London.
Ouspensky, Piotr D. 1949 In Search of the Miraculous. Harcourt Brace, New York.
Pentland, John 1997 Exchanges Within. Continuum, New York.
Peters, Fritz 1964 Boyhood with Gurdjieff. E.P. Dutton, New York.
----- 1965 Gurdjieff Remembered. Gollancz, London.
Phillpotts, Dorothy 2008 Discovering Gurdjieff. AuthorHouse, Bloomington.
Popoff, Irmis B. 1969 Gurdjieff: His Work on Myself …. with Others … for the Work. Vantage, New York.
----- 1983 Gurdjieff Group Work with Wilhem Nyland. Samuel Weiser, York Beach.
Ravindra, Ravi 1999 Heart without Measure: Work with Madame de Salzmann. Shaila Press, Halifax.
Rawlinson, Andrew 1997 The Book of Enlightened Masters. Open Court, Chicago.
Romilly, Rita 2014 Gurdjieff Group Work with Rita Romilly Benson. Edited by Marshall May. Lulu, np.
de Salzmann, Jeanne 2010 The Reality of Being: The Fourth Way of Gurdjieff. Shambhala, Boston and London.
de Salzmann, Michel 1985 A Footnote to the Gurdjieff Literature. In J. Walter Driscoll and the Gurdjieff Foundation of California, Gurdjieff: An Annotated Bibliography, xvi–xxv. Garland Publishing, New York.
Segal, William 1998 Opening. Continuum, New York.
----- 2003 A Voice at the Borders of Silence. Overlook Press, Woodstock.
Sinclair, Frank R. 2005 Without Benefit of Clergy. Xlibris, np.
Taylor, Paul Beekman 2008 Gurdjieff: A New Life. Eureka Editions, Utrecht.
Tchekhovitch, Tcheslaw 2006 Gurdjieff: A Master in Life. Dolmen Meadow Editions, Toronto.
Tracol, Henri 1994 The Taste for Things that are True. Element, Shaftesbury.
----- 2003 Further Essays and Talks. The Guild Press, Bray.
de Val, Nicolas [Nikolai de Stjernvall] 1997 Daddy Gurdjieff: Quelques souvenirs inédits. Georg, Geneva.
Vaysse, Jean 1979 Toward Awakening. Harper & Row, San Francisco.
Walker, Kenneth 1951 Venture with Ideas. Neville Spearman, London.
Webb, James 1980 The Harmonious Circle: The Lives and Work of G.I. Gurdjieff, P.D. Ouspensky, and Their Followers. Thames & Hudson, London.
Welch, Louise 1982 Orage with Gurdjieff in America. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.
----- 2012 Meetings with Louise Welch in Toronto. Traditional Studies Press, Toronto.
Welch, William 1972 What Happened In-Between. George Braziller, New York.
Wellbeloved, Sophia 2003 Gurdjieff: The Key Concepts. Routledge, London and New York.
Zuber, René 1980 Who Are You, Monsieur Gurdjieff? Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.
Published
2016-11-07
Issue
Section
Review Article
How to Cite
Azize, J. (2016). Review of Three Gurdjieff-Related Books. Fieldwork in Religion, 11(1), 104-120. https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.31337
