The Gurdjieff Work (Library of Spiritual Classics)

Gurdjieff tells there are many levels and stages of man, and specifies. That's the part of Speeth's book I find the most interesting. His understanding of mankind is quite something. Useful for educators.

I believe this books stands closest in the vigor of it's inquiry to the intent of The Work, of the six books on the subject I've read so far. Anyone approaching a process ostensibly designed to 'awake' and whose founder deemed it appropriate to become a master hypnotist and in effect put people to 'sleep', should be forewarned that not everything is as it appears in The Work.I have had a recent five month experience in a Gurdjieff Group, and find her observations accurate. I saw lack of courage in making The Work one's own; a clinging to established practices, even when they do not produce results for decades; and a defensiveness whenever anything of the process is questioned.I believe this book is a good starting point to The Work precisely because of its brevity. It requires further inquiry to put together daily practice, and that in turns offers some protection from the dilution of the material when it is held and guarded be devotees.At the same time, the way The Work would be taught today by Gurdjieff is likely to be very different from the way it was taught in years past. He himself used what was available not clinging to he 'ancient' as the only source.

Hard book to read, but good

This book is unrivalled as the clearest presentation of Gurdjieffian mythos, ethos & logos. For anyone seeking transparent elucidation of the "work", this is the best starting point. Instead of meandering through the ponderous & subjective musings of Nicoll, Bennet, Orage and Ouspensky, here you got in a nutshell:1.GIG's cosmology: a highly original ( this is an understatement ) variant of Neoplatonist emanationism combined with Blavatskyan planes/worlds; all set in a pseudoscientific lingo using ordinary chemical symbols ( Carbon, Oxygen, etc.) in a bizarre quasi-alchemical setting.2.GIG's psychology: a modern-day gnosticism without "divine spark". His famous "centres" ( physical/vital, emotional, intellectual ) are old Platonic & Thomist archaic psychology recast in a deceptively "oriental" mode- in fact, Gurdjieffian esoteric physiology is Western ( his centres having little in common with chakras ), while the entire raison for the "work" is Eastern: in essence, this is activation & empowering of the already existent, but numb & deluded jiva ( Tantric tradition ), spiritual seed ( Valentinian gnosticism ) or vijnana ( Vajrayana Buddhism ). GIG's emphasis on non-existence of "I" is just a pedagogic trick.3. And, last: it was GIG who has brought enneagram to the West. This ancient Hermetic symbol, serving primarily as a glyph delineating stages of alchemical transmutation of a psyche, has become, due to hilarious unpredictable New Age ravings, a sort of universal bestseller on the pop-psychological supermarket.What to say at the end ? Read it- it's a truly delightful mystery story on the search of the miraculous.

I found this to be exactly what I was looking for to intellectually understand the premise of Gurdjieff's Work. It may still be a difficult read for someone who is new to becomming aware, but it is the best source I found to date.

ok

From looking at the reviews here it seems they love this book or hate it. As someone outside of "The Work" and who is collecting data to make a decision to delve into the work I may have a more objective view. This is the second book I've read on "The Work" and have read one more since. This book seems to accurately (although briefly) portray "the work". There are plenty of names dropped in this book as Kathleen explores the ancestry of the work and gives plenty of information on current groups. One tidbit I took away was about the value of the practice of the daily review. By reviewing one's day at the end of it this strengthens the practice of "Self Observation" as being a delayed observation of self.

The content of this book is excellent! But the paper quality of this edition is way off the mark. This edition has paper that is only slightly thicker than an american newspaper but, it is readable. Otherwise, everything else is excellent.