In Search Of The Miraculous (Harvest Book)

I have made it a point to read all of the reviews of this book, and most of the reviews of the books by this author and many of the others in the Gurdjieff-Ouspensky line of Teaching or System.This seems indeed a good forum in which many views on the subject can be expressed, and through which a general gist for a variety of reactions to the subject can be discerned.Almost all those exposed to the whole pantheon of literature on the Fourth Way (as the system is known) agree that this is the most profound, objective and complete account available. It is almost a necessity in order to begin the process of understanding The Work, The Fourth Way etc.First let it be said that Gurdjieff was The Teacher, not the other way around.Although in this book Ouspensky candidly explains why he departed from his teacher (as a result of Personality differences really), Ouspensky never denied Gurdjieff as the source of the ideas he put forth and from the beginning (as this account makes clear) fervently embraced his remarkable synthesis of Eastern and Western religious traditions.At the end of his life it is said that he told his followers to pursue other approaches, but that was just because he felt The System like all ideas do had run its course, at least for him).During the lifetimes of the two teachers Ouspensky had far more followers numerically. And his books are far better known and thought to be more "accessible", tho "difficult". This accounts for the confusion as to whom is the primary teacher.Thousands attended his lectures in Moscow on "Theosophical" and "Esoteric" subjects and read his newspaper columns on the same subjects before he was ever exposed to G. This was just prior to the Bolshevik Revolution, which began just before 1915.He then attracted a similar following in the 1920's (when he first came to England) until his death in the late 40s.But now upon his arrival in England (at the invitation of a wealthy sponsor, who had read his best-selling book Tertium Organum in its English translation), after years of study under G., he had a more or less complete body of impressive ideas and methods to present.Ideas that rang truer to many than those available in conventional approaches to psychology, science and religion.These contemporary and better known ideas were represented by "cutting edge" thinkers like Einstein, Freud and various religious teachers of the day (from Theosophical circles for example).Included among his followers were many prominent "intellectuals" at that time who attended his well-received lectures and who saw something within them deeper and more resonant than the usual.Aldous Huxley, Gerald Heard, J.G. Bennett (the English Ambassador in Turkey at the age of 23 who had met G. in Constantinople), Nicoll (formerly a follower of Jung), Collin, Nott, Orage, Bragdon, de Ropp and many others were among them. Even Einstein was asked his opinion of certain of these ideas, on which he made a favorable comment reportedly.One of the most admired writers at that time, Katherine Mansfield, lived in London (tho from New Zealand)became enamoured of the ideas and moved outside of Paris to G.'s magnificent Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man, where under his tutelage controversially she died a short time later.Both Ouspensky and G. traveled to America frequently. Ouspensky moved there during the worst years of World War 2, leaving his wife to instruct there when he moved back to England after the war.G. however frequently traveled there in the 1920s, especially to New York. There he became known as a "dance instructor", staging many demonstrations of mind-reading, magic tricks and dances that were performed as meditative exercises really by his pupils. These were hypnotic, well-received by the public and well-reviewed in newspapers, including one in Carnegie Hall in 1924.Dance exercises are still practiced by several "Gurdjieff Groups" (beware of the many phony ones).G. instructed A.E. Orage, the most prominent literary critic and publisher in London, to move to New York and begin groups there. One of his students was the wife of Frank Lloyd Wright, who had become a pupil of G. in the Middle East, long before her marriage and residence in America.G. and Wright met at the latter's "commune" in Wisconsin. There were also followers of the teachings in Taos, New Mexico at that time or shortly after as well.Ouspensky and Gurdjieff maintained contact with each other through their pupils while G. was in France and Paris and O. in England. Ouspensky sent his pupils and financial support to G. during this period. Many pupils studied personally under both men. However at one time or another, it is said, Ouspensky may have imposed a temporary "moratorium" on this exchange, out of pique or whatever.Madame Ouspensky, who was a formidable teacher of The System (The Fourth Way or The Work), made it clear that G. was the real teacher, not her husband. There has never been any report that this was not accepted by Ouspensky himself.And yet there is a misconception that O. denounced G. if not his ideas, but this is not entirely true. He simply separated himself from G. in the sense he no longer was part of his immediate circle (starting after 1918), but generally maintained contact, especially through his pupils.He also submitted the manuscript of In Search of the Miraculous to G. for his approval before its first publication, and he and those he trusted honored G.'s desire not to publish it until G. himself had died. As it happened, O. died two years before G., but G.'s magnus opus All and Everything was published first. The manuscripts of both works circulated among pupils, however, long before publication.It is remarkable that negative views of this book and those of the more important progenitors of these ideas (Bennett, Nicoll, Collin and many others) are generally scarce.This attests to the transformative, positive and powerful effect of these ideas on so many people.I am struck by how many reviewers have revealed that the influence of In Search of the Miraculous has stayed with them for decades, so much so that many have after all these years written articulate, objective and informed reviews of this book so many years later.Essentially, as I have said, In Search of the Miraculous is universally considered, by those on whom the book has had a lasting effect, to be the best and most profound introduction to G.'s ideas.What are these ideas? They are not the rantings of a charlatan or "rascal-sage", as is sometimes ignorantly believed.Instead they are designed to be a representation of Cosmology, Science and Psychology (adapted to the Western Mind and sometime in parable form), but PRIMARILY a practical method of Self-Evolution.The parallels between the meditative practices of Buddhism and other religions are noted in many of these reviews.Prominent pupils of both men, though not Ouspensky himself, converted to Roman Catholicism later in their life (Collin and Bennett e.g.), and others went on to follow other religions and practices (Zen, Indian teachers etc.). G. himself was buried, amidst a throng of thousands of mourners, in Paris at a Russian Orthodox Church.There is no contradiction between G.'s "system" and those of all the great "religious" traditions.This life is a trial, a burden, a lesson. Guidance and Wisdom are necessary, not mere Faith or Belief, to help us along the way. These ideas provide it for those receptive and ready for it.

great book, and quality paper/print

One of the most remarkable discoveries one can make during a lifetime of stumbling and searching in darkness for the light switch to flip on and make sense out of life happened to me 30 years ago. Imagine a room you are perfectly familiar with in daylight turning at night into a virtual booby trap of stumbling over shoes, bumping against chairs, banging ones shin against footstools -- all familiar in the light, but not in darkness. And cursing. That is what my life had become 30 years ago -- long before Amazon existed -- when a friend recommended In Search of the Miraculous...Until then I was banging against the most ordinary things in life-- friendships, love affairs, colleagues at work who irritate me, bosses who blank, blank me off, etc. -- and hurting myself grievously. In Search was the light switch I turned on blindly, desperately 30 years ago... Chapter after remarkable chapter confirmed then what I know now: There is a light, we just have to find the light switch.In Search of the Miraculous teaches us how to do precisely that -- by the power of the example of its author himself, mathematical philosopher Peter Ouspensky. It is Ouspensky's personal search, transformed into a manual for awakening conscience in the rest of us who try. And the light? Georg Gurdjieff's compression of the teachings of the Ancient Egyptians, the Desert Fathers, and Sufi Masters into a system of self-observation Ouspensky called the Fourth Way. Reading it over the years, ordinary objects in this room of blind mechanical ignorance I kept hurting myself on -- negative emotions, lying needlessly, negative imagination, resentment, greed, etc --, which is my life, slowly became visible, I could see and avoid them before being hurt by them. Nothing in the room changed, just my vision of it. Problem is too much of a good thing is sometimes not good for the thing itself. Entropy takes over. I read and dog-eared my one paperback copy of In Search of the Miraculous and re-read it so much, it fell apart, forcing me to buy this copy on Amazon I am reviewing for you now.Buy it, read it, dog-ear it, re-read it again. Find the light switch within...And if you flip on the switch and enjoy In Search, maybe you will enjoy another favorite of mine: Through the Eye of a Needle: Studies from An Ancient Hermetic Teaching