Gurdjieff Canberra helps members follow the way of transformation taught by G. I. Gurdjieff.
If you have found this site, you already know something about this man.
Gurdjieff was a Master—a man of being—a powerful, even frightening figure who devoted his life to helping people wake from the dream they complacently call living.As he explained, we live in a kind of waking sleep created by the self-defence mechanism called ego. In this we fight wars, pass laws, marry, write books, invent theories, wreck the ecology and foul our nests wherever we go. Lost in habits and daydreams, we exist simply as a series of reactions that control us utterly. We do nothing. We are done. We are the symptoms, not the cause. This mechanistic level of consciousness has familiar names. Personality. Violence. Greed. Pride. Vanity. Envy. Ambition. Inertia. Self-satisfaction. Hope. And fear.
As, from childhood, we've been taught to trust our thoughts, we live almost entirely in our heads. Unfortunately, the moment we think about things—editorialize in this way—our minds rob us of reality and we receive impressions at second hand.
The first step toward freedom is to clearly see that we are no more than a chaos of thoughts, tensions and emotions. Then, in theory, possibilities begin.
To buy the pearl of great price, as the Gospels decree, we have to sell all we have. This originally referred not to money and possessions but to what we cling to most—the psychological baggage we dignify as 'ourselves'. In other words, to find ourselves we have to lose 'ourselves'. All authentic traditions assert this.
So the path is not an accumulation but a relinquishment or letting go. Not self-improvement but self-transformation. Gurdjieff groups provide an approach to this work, using the methods transmitted by Gurdjieff and his immediate pupils.
Extracts from Views from the Real World. Talks of G. recorded by his pupils.
From a talk given in Essentuki in 1918: Go out one clear starlit night and look up at the sky, at those millions of worlds over your head. The earth cannot even be called a grain of sand in this infinity. It dissolves and vanishes and, with it, you. Where are you? And is what you want simply madness?
Before all these worlds, ask yourself what are your aims and hopes, your intentions and means of fulfilling them.
A long and difficult journey is before you. You are preparing for a strange and unknown land. The way is infinitely long. Weigh up your strength. Is it sufficient for the whole journey? How soon can you start?
Every minute is precious. Once having decided to go there is no use wasting time.
Do not reckon on trying to come back. This experiment may cost you very dear. The guide undertakes only to take you there. And if you wish to turn back, he is not obliged to return with you. You will be left to yourself. And if you weaken or forget the way, you will never get back.
From a talk given in Fontainebleau in 1922: Our development is like that of a butterfly. We must 'die and be reborn' as the egg dies and becomes a caterpillar; the caterpillar dies and becomes a chrysalis, the chrysalis dies and then the butterfly is born. It is a long process and the butterfly lives only a day or two. But the cosmic purpose is fulfilled. It is the same with man. We must destroy our 'buffers' (the defences we have built to blind us to our contradictions). Children have none. Therefore we must become like little children.
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