Georges Ivanovitch Gurdjieff
(1866-1949)
He
appeared in Russia shortly before the First World War from somewhere in Central
Asia, a charismatic teller of tall tales, and convinced a circle of people that
he had spent twenty years collecting esoteric wisdom from vaguely described
monasteries in remote regions. These people paid him money to have him wake
them up by treating them in ways that were, according to one scholar,
"shocking, mysterious, frightening, magical, delicately gentle, and
omniscient."1 “I wished to create around myself,” he wrote, “conditions in
which a man would be continuously reminded of the sense and aim of his
existence by an unavoidable friction between his conscience and the automatic
manifestations of his nature.”2 What's known for sure is this: he was a
choreographer, excellent chef, author of several odd books that some very
intelligent people think are works of genius, founder of a school, and inventor
of a complicated system of teachings which is not quite like anything else. 1
1. Taken from Realization
website G.I. Gurdjieff at http://www.realization.org/page/topics/gurdjieff.htm
"In
order to know the future it is nessary to first know the present in all it's
details, as well as to know the past. Today is what it is because yesterday is
what it was. And if today is like yesterday, tomorrow will be like today. If
you want tomorrow to be different, you must make today different. "2
2. Taken from Futureverse
website. No longer online. (hard copy available upon request)