Gurdjieff: His Work on Myself with Others for the Work

GURDIIEFF his ruorh

on mgself...

tuith othelt... for the worh

IRMIS B.POPOFF

THE AQUARIAN PRESS Wellingborough, Northamptonshire

First published in the U.S.A. by Samuel Weiser, Inc. First English edition 1978

THE AQUARIAN PRESS Wellingborough, Northants. England

Copyright @ Irmis B. Popoff 1969

FORBWORD Shortly before he died, Pyotr D. Ouspensky told pupils wbo were at his side that he was abandoning the "System" he had taught them and others; that each one was to forget everything in the manner in which he had heard it and then try to reconstruct it all as he understood it personally, starting from the very beginning. These wordi were not spoken within my hearing. This took place in London, after Mr. Ouspensky had left New York, some-time before he came to the point in his life circle where death claimed him.

I

ISBN 0-8503U163-',l

Printed in U.S.A. Noble Offset Printers, Inc. New York, N.Y. 10003

ffrst leamed of them by mail. A close friend was among

those who went with him from New York to London on his return iourney. She spoke in her letter of the general dismay

prevailing among our people in England as a result of Mr. Ouspensky's statement and said that he had been asked to re' consider, to explain how it would be possible for them to forget and to live without something that had become an integral part of their being, but he had merely answered: "The System iS greater than any man." It was long after the dawn, which heralded the glorious coming of Mr. Gurdjieff's day in New York, began to disperse the night in which I and those who were in my group at Mr. Ouspensky's departure were elgulfed, that Rodney Collins, present -close pupils who were in I-ondon at our teacher's among the death, wrote his book The Theorg of Celestial Influence in wlich he, too, speaking of the change in being that Mr. Ouspensky had attained, mentions that he had urged all of them to recustruct their understanding of the Work. Kenneth Walker's book, A Study of Gurdiieff's Teaching, came much later. Here, without refening to the words that I have mentioned, he also gives many of the diagrams and some of the material which had by now appeared in Mr. Ouspensky's posthumous book, In Search of the Miracalous.

It

was while discussing this book of Walker's with young persons in the Work, who never knew either of the two "great old men," that my attention was arrested by their statement that "it'seems nonsensical to repeat in difierent words what Mr. Ouspensky has said already, without adding anything new to what las been told to us." I said aloud, less to them than to myself, "There can be but one version of the ideas. Each one reiterates what he heard according to what he made his own. It is all lhat matters to oneself, at any event." It was then that I recalled that Mr. Ouspensky, just recently arrived in New York in 1941, gave me as one of my very ffrst tasks to write for him a R6sum6 of what I thought that I had heard at his lectures. I had heard them repeated thrice. His book, The PsgcLnlogg of Man's Possible Eoolution, had not yet been published; we had no books at the time concerning _the System, for they did not see the light until after Mr. Ouspensky's death.

I had written my report for him. In it I repeated all that I thought I had heard and memorized from the lectures in the manner in which I had understood it. Sometime later, when he refurned my papers to me, Mr. Ouspensky said, "This is_yours.' It was a-simple statement. I never gave it any thought until the time of which I have iust spoken, when I was discussing Kenneth Walker's book with some of our young people. Now I understood his words differently. I did not have to sbuggle with my imagination to realize that Mr. Ouspensky's statement remained as simple as he had made it. But I understood it difierently, that is all. And then, through association, another incident came to my mind-this time involving the Master Magician, the beloved Mr. Gurdjieff himself. I had come to Childs' at 57th Street and Fifth Avenue early one morning during his last visit to New York, hoping to see him alone. Faithful to in old custom, it was at Childs' that he held "office" every morning at breakfast time. He came into the restaurant shortly after my arrival, and my wish was granted. No one else had come in as yet. He saw me, and motioned for me to sit at his table. I sat by him. On the previous evening at the Movements he had told us that we must t]rink about all that we were receiving, that we must ask ourselves how much we valued it, what we would sacriffce lv

for i! in what way we could pay for it. And my wish was keen to show my deep appreciation of the Work in some- way,- so that

this question-*ai-nppermost in my mind when he asked me, "What is your question?" "How does oie pay for what one receives?" I asked' He looked at me] ftis look was long, integrating. This, too, I was grateful to receive. Then he sai{ "Is this your question'i' The answer is in my book." "But I cannot buy your book," I told hirn. "I don't have that kind of monev." Subscriotions ha