Olemisen todellisuus - Gurdjieffin neljäs tie - Jeanne De Salzmann

Man is a mystery to himself. He thirsts for Being, longs for durability, permanence, absoluteness - he longs for being. Participation in a deeper reality awakens as a question: "Who am I - who am I in this world?" This is the first step on the path.

Based on the notebooks of GI Gurdjieff's closest follower, this book offers new insight into his spiritual teaching - the path of gnosis, or "knowledge of being," which has been passed down since ancient times. The Truth of Being is a complete and uniquely authoritative guide to the ideas and methods of the great teacher.

Gurdjieff valued traditional religious practices, which he saw as falling into three general categories: the way of the fakir, which is concerned with mastery of the physical body; the way of the monk, which is based on faith and emotion; and the way of the yogi, which focuses on the development of the mind. Gurdjieff presented his teachings as the Fourth Way, which unites the different aspects of these three ways into a single path of self-knowledge. Progress in the Fourth Way is made through conscious effort toward a quality of thought and feeling that brings about a new capacity to love and see things clearly.

Jeanne de Salzmann (1889-1990) met Gurdjieff in Tbilisi in 1919 and became his student. Before his death, Gurdjieff instructed Madame de Salzmann to live “to be over 100 years old” in order to establish his teachings in the world. He gave de Salzmann the rights to all her writings and dance exercises. Madame de Salzmann died in Paris at the age of 101, after forty years of fulfilling Gurdjieff’s wishes through books and Gurdjieff centers.