G. I. Gurdjieff Facts

George Ivanovich Gurdjieff, popularly known as G.I. Gurdjieff, a famous mystic and spiritual teacher, is believed to have born on January 14, 1866. His date of birth is, however, not confirmed till date but the conjectures range from 1866-1877. Gurdjieff is said to have born to a Greek father and Armenian mother in Alexandropol.

He got his name, Gurdjieff, on the account of Muslim people around Georgia addressing the Georgian people as “gurdjis”. He described his discipline “The Work” (signifying “work on oneself”) as per Gurdjieff’s principles and instructions, or primarily the “Fourth Way”. He had also described his teachings, at one point, as “esoteric Christianity”. He averred that “Man lives in sleep, and in sleep he dies.” This quote states that, according to Gurdjieff, one cannot see reality in his current state as he does not have power over consciousness but to a certain extent lives in a state of hypnotic “waking sleep”. Above and beyond, Gurdjieff had also given many additional ideas based on his principles. Gurdjieff believed in self-development teachings and described them as “esoteric Christianity”. He denied the traditional methods of self-knowledge where knowledge is gained through pain, devotion, and study via being the “fakir”, “monk”, and “yogi”.

According to Gurdjieff, these, instead, led to varied forms of stagnation and one-sidedness. Gurdjieff believed in augmenting the conventional ways of teaching, through his innovative methods, which moved along the developmental process. The most notable ideas and thoughts of Gurdjieff were – the Fourth Way, Fourth Way Enneagram, Centers, Ray of Creation, and Self-remembering. Gurdjieff’s thoughts have perhaps best acknowledged through his pupils’ published works.

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