Gurdjieff Reconsidered: The Life, the Teachings, the Legacy

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From a master biographer and longtime Gurdjieff practitioner, a brilliant new exploration of the quintessential Western esoteric teacher of the twentieth-century. From a master biographer and longtime Gurdjieff practitioner, a brilliant new exploration of the quintessential Western esoteric teacher of the twentieth-century. The Greek-Armenian teacher G.I. Gurdjieff was one of the most original and provocative spiritual teachers in the twentieth-century West. Whereas much work on Gurdjieff has been either fawning or blindly critical, acclaimed scholar and writer Roger Lipsey balances sympathic interest in Gurdjieff and his "Fourth Way" teachings with a historian's sense of context and a biographer's feel for personality and relationships. Using a wide-range of published and unpublished sources, Lipsey explores Gurdjieff's formative travels in Central Asia, his famed teaching institution in France, the development of the Gurdjieff Movements and music, and, above all, Gurdjieff's fascinating continuous evolution as a teacher. Published on the 70th anniversary of Gurdjieff's death, Gurdjieff Reconsidered delves deeply into Gurdjieff's writings and those of his most important students, including P. D. Ouspensky and Jeanne de Salzmann. Lipsey's comprehensive approach and unerring sense of the subject make this a must-read for anyone with a serious intention to explore Gurdjieff's life, teachings, and reputation.

ROGER LIPSEY is a biographer, art historian, translator, and, for many decades, a participant in the Gurdjieff teaching. He is the author of Coomaraswamy- His Life and Work; An Art of Our Own- The Spiritual in Twentieth-Century Art; Angelic Mistakes- The Art of Thomas Merton; Make Peace Before the Sun Goes Down- The Long Encounter of Thomas Merton and His Abbott, James Fox; and Hammarskj ld- A Life, which has been hailed as the definitive biography of Dag Hammarskj ld. Since the publication of the Hammarskj ld biography, Roger speaks in many parts of the world under the auspices of the United Nations educational service.

"This work is exceptionally well written, limpid in style, terse in expression, and clear in sense. It is more than an excellent introduction to Gurdjieff for readers who know little of him or his work; it is, in effect, Gurdjieff considered as well as re-considered."-Paul Beekman Taylor, author of G.I. Gurdjieff: A New Life and Gurdjieff in the Public Eye "More than Gurdjieff reconsidered, this book is Gurdjieff rediscovered. Behind us are the rumors, shadows, circular repetitions of vague and undocumented criticism. We discover a man of infinite humanity. Gurdjieff was in advance of his time. His extremely innovative thinking, his all-embracing spiritual teaching, his music and Movements are pure gold and pure light for our troubled times."-Basarab Nicolescu, author of From Modernity to Cosmodernity "Lipsey's careful and insightful account of the various periods of Gurdjieff's teaching, beautifully framed by avoiding 'explanations' of his ideas, enables him to bring home to the reader the living, passionate, and grounded man himself. Lipsey's humanity and wide perspective lead him to situate Gurdjieff in the company of many humane revolutionaries, ancient and modern. An exemplary contribution to the conversation."-A. G. E. Blake, author of The Intelligent Enneagram "Lipsey's Gurdjieff Reconsidered is a welcome addition to the field of Gurdjieff Studies and the field of Western esotericism, more generally. The book is an excellent introduction to Gurdjieff's ideas, thanks to the author's use of an abundance of primary sources."-Reading Religion