A profound new look at Gurdjieffs life, teaching, and role as a spiritual leader through the lens of esotericism.
Gurdjieff warned against taking anything literally or on faith, and he advised accepting only experience that could be lived oneself. He also said that one has to find out how to know and that understanding higher knowledge depends on ones level of being. The aim of the Fourth Way is toward a change of beingfrom the level of man number one, two, and three to that of man number four. Stephen Grant offers a fundamental reassessment of Gurdjieff as a spiritual leader and the Fourth Way as an esoteric teaching. This includes recognizing the Fourth Way as esoteric Buddhism.
This book outlines Gurdjieffs early life and view of ancient history, followed by the itinerant course of his teaching from Russia in 1915 to his death in Paris in 1949. The discussion then focuses on his esoteric missionto bring the Fourth Way to the Westand its three major stages: (1) introducing the system of ideas to and through P. D. Ouspensky; (2) writing his own theory of the teaching, principally in Beelzebubs Tales; and (3) passing on the practical teaching to and through Jeanne de Salzmann. The last five chapters deal with Gurdjieffs relationship with his closest pupils, his system of ideas, his hidden doctrine in Beelzebubs Tales, and the practical knowledge revealed by Mme. de Salzmann.
