Anybody here ever read Gurdjieff´s Beelzebub´s tales to his grandson, or his other books? Maybe someone even is a part of some Forth Way group, and/or practices the dances?
What are your thoughts on his work?
I first read Beelzebub´s book when I was 16 and it is probably, along Dostoyevsky`s The Brothers Karamazov, the most impactful book i´ve ever read. The book is ´dressed´ as a science fiction, but in it there are many relevant teachings.
Mind you, I´m a naturally skeptical, scientific-minded person, so I never take anything at face value, and I certainly don´t think that all Gurdjieff says should be taken literally and believed in with no question. There´s many things I don´t think are true (like some of the claims about the origin of human beings, claims about cosmology etc), but I think the psychological examinations (multiple I´s, automatism, self-remembering, etc) are spot on. Since very young I´ve been trying to work out how to develop myself, how to develop my consciousness, how to be more awake in daily life, and very few things I´ve read have resonated so much as his writings. I love the fact that he has a very sarcastic, acidic sense of humor, (his recollection of Nasruddin´s tales, all the criticism to the "Hasnamuss" beings, etc ) being critical to occultism and mysticism and all the fake gurus out there, while at the same time giving a sense of how indeed there is hidden knowledge out there, and how we can develop our consciousness. I love that there is a very practical element to developing consciousness in his work. I never tried his dances nor joined a fourth way group, though, I kinda have an aversion of mysticism-related groups, but would be curious if anybody ever tried.
On an interesting note, despite a lot of crazy-woo-woo that you can find in his cosmology ramblings, some things he was right about, for example the fact that back in the beginning of the 1900´s he wrote that the moon was created by asteroid impact on earth, while at the time the dominant theory was that the moon came from earth but in early days of earth´s formation because it was spinning so fast that a chunk flew off. Only years later did the impact hypothesis of the moon´s formation actually became the main theory, as it is nowadays. Not very important but I found that interesting...
Regarding drugs, I can´t remember exact passages but I remember him talking about drugs (hashish and some other?), and I seem to remember he thought that drugs might give you a glimpse of a higher consciousness but that they don´t bring by themselves a lasting knowledge and that they are not a substitute to inner work, which I definitely agree with.
Anyway, anybody ever read his work, practiced his teachings in any way?
What are your thoughts on his work?
I first read Beelzebub´s book when I was 16 and it is probably, along Dostoyevsky`s The Brothers Karamazov, the most impactful book i´ve ever read. The book is ´dressed´ as a science fiction, but in it there are many relevant teachings.
Mind you, I´m a naturally skeptical, scientific-minded person, so I never take anything at face value, and I certainly don´t think that all Gurdjieff says should be taken literally and believed in with no question. There´s many things I don´t think are true (like some of the claims about the origin of human beings, claims about cosmology etc), but I think the psychological examinations (multiple I´s, automatism, self-remembering, etc) are spot on. Since very young I´ve been trying to work out how to develop myself, how to develop my consciousness, how to be more awake in daily life, and very few things I´ve read have resonated so much as his writings. I love the fact that he has a very sarcastic, acidic sense of humor, (his recollection of Nasruddin´s tales, all the criticism to the "Hasnamuss" beings, etc ) being critical to occultism and mysticism and all the fake gurus out there, while at the same time giving a sense of how indeed there is hidden knowledge out there, and how we can develop our consciousness. I love that there is a very practical element to developing consciousness in his work. I never tried his dances nor joined a fourth way group, though, I kinda have an aversion of mysticism-related groups, but would be curious if anybody ever tried.
On an interesting note, despite a lot of crazy-woo-woo that you can find in his cosmology ramblings, some things he was right about, for example the fact that back in the beginning of the 1900´s he wrote that the moon was created by asteroid impact on earth, while at the time the dominant theory was that the moon came from earth but in early days of earth´s formation because it was spinning so fast that a chunk flew off. Only years later did the impact hypothesis of the moon´s formation actually became the main theory, as it is nowadays. Not very important but I found that interesting...
Regarding drugs, I can´t remember exact passages but I remember him talking about drugs (hashish and some other?), and I seem to remember he thought that drugs might give you a glimpse of a higher consciousness but that they don´t bring by themselves a lasting knowledge and that they are not a substitute to inner work, which I definitely agree with.
Anyway, anybody ever read his work, practiced his teachings in any way?
