GURDJIEFF'S LIFE AND TEACHING

George I. Gurdjieff (1866-1949) pioneered an approach to questions of contemporary spirituality that synthesizes the great traditions of the East and West.

Born in Asia Minor on the periphery of Western culture, Gurdjieff spent his youth in a setting of cultural, linguistic and religious diversity.  Troubled by a great many questions concerning the sense and aim of man's existence, he embarked upon a twenty year search which led him through central Asia and the Middle East seeking communities that preserved traces of ancient knowledge.  He emerged from his journey with a practical spiritual teaching designed to help man in his pursuit of self-knowledge and to realize his full potential through the development of a new kind of attention.

An essential component of Gurdjieff’s system was the thesis that a spiritual search, to be successful, required the participation of a community of seekers.  Gurdjieff insisted upon work in schools because he found that work in a group supports the conditions necessary for the development of this new attention.  Further, some of the more esoteric aspects of the teaching could be conveyed only by direct oral communication between teacher and pupil.  

Gurdjieff established the first of these schools in St. Petersburg and Moscow in 1912.  He left Russia in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution and established a residence in Paris in 1923, where he began attracting followers to his newly formed Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man.

On Gurdjieff's first visit to the United States in January 1924, he produced a program in New York City at Carnegie Hall, the success of which resulted in the formation of groups interested in his approach to finding an authentic spiritual path within the conditions of everyday life.  He returned often to the U.S., where he opened branches of his institute in New York and Chicago.

Throughout the German occupation of Europe in World War II, Gurdjieff remained in Paris with his groups.  After the war Gurdjieff again visited the United States to meet with his followers in 1948 and 1949.  Prior to his death in 1949, Gurdjieff designated successors to continue the transmission of his ideas and methods.  Consequently, Gurdjieff’s work continues in schools throughout the world today.  In addition, Gurdjieff left a rich legacy of original music, writings and sacred movements.

Copyright 2005 The Gurdjieff Foundation of Texas