Gurdjieff’s Last Exercises

The chapter takes two exercises given by Gurdjieff to various people as their last exercise from him. The first, from Solange Claustres, is a discipline for being more conscious as one goes through one’s daily activities by relating them to one’s conscious aim and efforts to remember oneself. The second, given to Helen Adie, harks back to Gurdjieff’s First Assisting Exercise in Life Is Real, Only Then, When “I Am.” The chapter also concludes, as to the form and purpose of Gurdjieff’s contemplative exercises, why he is much misunderstood. Finally, it summarizes what has been said about his sources for his Transformed-contemplation, and the importance of these exercises, and Gurdjieff’s contribution to mysticism. It concludes that what was specific to Gurdjieff’s Transformed-contemplation was the need to consciously sense one’s body in a relaxed state; while having some awareness of one’s feeling; with all this being directed by an undistracted intellect. This aims to maintain a unified calm in one’s common presence; so that higher hydrogens can be received and digested; and the higher being bodies coated, which allow the higher and the lower centers to work together in unison; leading to the exercitants’ achieving their own real “I,” with powers of consciousness, will, expressive of their own individuality, and able to hear and support their conscience.

The First Assisting Exercise from the Third Series

The second exercise in Life Is Real, Only Then, When “I Am,” is the First Assisting Exercise, which is probably adapted from the Jesus Prayer, especially in the form taught by Nicephorus the Solitary in the Philokalia, and evokes the “Ego Exercise” as Gurdjieff told Ouspensky it was practised on Mount Athos. The exercise is set out, and its apparent simplicity is shown to be a highly developed and sophisticated product of much distillation of thought and experience. It is based around the conscious uttering of the words “I Am,” which is central to Gurdjieff’s teaching and techniques. This strengthening the feeling of one’s own presence marks Gurdjieff’s system as what scholars term a “dialogical form” of mystical experience, i.e. one in which one’s sense of individuality is not merged with the Absolute.

Gurdjieff to the Early 1930s

By the end of 1930, a crucial shift had taken place in Gurdjieff’s teaching. He had effectively closed his French operations to concentrate on his writing, and, although it was probably not his intention, he had significantly reduced the operations of the groups that A. R. Orage had been maintaining for him in the United States. Orage had been developing Gurdjieff’s tasks into disciplines and now wanted to produce more developed exercises. Gurdjieff took over that line of research and teaching, but alienated Orage. The first traces of the new theories and methods are found in the often overlooked booklet The Herald of Coming Good.

The Russian Years

While he was in Russia (1911/1912–1919), Gurdjieff taught many ideas and some practices that would come to play significant roles in the development of his methods of Transformed-contemplation. These include his reference to the Ego Exercise of Mount Athos, his exercises for relaxation and sensing, and the Stop Exercise. This chapter examines the early critique of contemplation and meditation made by Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, and shows that his reticence about contemplative exercises was probably due chiefly to their monastic origin, and his desire to bring a method that would be used not in monasteries but in daily social life.

A Biographical Sketch of Gurdjieff

Gurdjieff is described as a man with a rich heritage, that of the Greek-origin inhabitants of Asia Minor, but no home, being disposed by the events of the Russian Revolution. He transplanted his teaching from Russia to Western Europe, eventually adopting France as his permanent base, although he made many trips to the United States, which he considered an important field for his work. This chapter concisely examines his life in several stages, and especially his collaborations with P. D. Ouspensky and A. R. Orage, both of which collapsed. It notes the important final years in Paris, when Jeanne de Salzmann emerged as his lieutenant. The chapter closes with an assessment of the overall trajectory of his life.

The Color Spectrum Exercise

This exercise was taught by George Adie. It is almost certainly an otherwise unknown example of Gurdjieff’s Transformed-contemplation. The theoretical basis for it is evident in Gurdjieff’s writings, especially in the final chapter of his Life Is Real, Only Then, When “I Am.” There it was said that the vibrations given off by one’s presence in a state of relaxation form a sort of atmosphere which was “analogous to the spectrum of colors.” That atmosphere is said to alter as soon as a person starts to think, feel or move. The exercise as taught to Adie was given as a practice for strengthening one’s sense of being, reality, and presence, by sensing the body with the aid of the visualization of colors suffusing different parts of the body in a given sequence, and finally adding consciousness of the breath. At the very least, it aims to strengthen one’s sense of the vibrations of one’s presence.

The Reality of Being

Turning now to exercises taught by Gurdjieff’s pupils, this is the first serious academic study of any aspect of de Salzmann’s The Reality of Being. The volume is an edited collection of translated notes, not always clear even upon investigation. Gurdjieff himself considered de Salzmann his leading pupil in the 1940s, and her critical role in passing on his methods can hardly be overstated. The most important exercises found in this book are examined, and their connection to Gurdjieff’s own efforts shown. In particular, the exercise which she attributes to Gurdjieff for relating the feeling of the words “I Am” to the sensation of the physical body, is a significant addition to the corpus of Gurdjieff’s exercises, and exemplifies several aspects of his teaching. However, a discontinuity from Gurdjieff’s methods is also apparent, e.g. in the “I, Me Exercise” which there is reason to think is not by Gurdjieff, and indeed is at variance with some of his ideas. This is supplemented by a consideration of the “New Work” methods which de Salzmann introduced after Gurdjieff’s death. The deleterious effect of these innovations upon the transmission of the authentic Gurdjieff exercises is noted.

The First Series

A comparison of the 1931 and 1950 versions of Beelzebub’s Tales to his Grandson, brings into focus the development of Gurdjieff’s contemplation-like exercises. In the latter edition, he coins a compound word (Aiëssirittoorassnian-contemplation), and sets out the terms of one exercise: his Genuine Being Duty Exercise. This is the earliest truly contemplative exercise which can safely be attributed to Gurdjieff, and it bears some but not all of the marks of his later exercises. A comparison of the 1939 exercise “Make Strong! Not Easy Thing” with what Gurdjieff says about Aiëssirittoorassnian-contemplation shows that what he means by the latter is exemplified in the 1939 exercise. Gurdjieff’s insistence on the importance of consciously inhaling and digesting the higher-substances in the air, and having a cognised (clear) intention is noted.

The Preparation

The Preparation was the chief practical method used by Gurdjieff in his final years, being attested as early as 1946, while all its elements are known from 1941. It is given here in two versions, as later taught by George and Helen Adie. Together with the Preparation, a daily program would be decided on. The use of a daily program including regular appointments to remember oneself during the day, which are attested in 1943, were linked to the Preparation once it had been formulated and instituted. It was to be used at the very start of the day and, as Adie said, to help the progression from sleep to waking to continue through to the fuller waking which is “self-remembering.” Central to the Preparation is to undertake with an intention and aim, with a helpful posture, and by raising the main faculties (thought, feeling and organic instinct) to consciousness and into a harmonious relationship, crowned by the affirmation “I Am.” The testimony of other pupils of Gurdjieff, most notably Henriette Lannes, Jean Vaysse, and Hugh Brockwill Ripman, is referred to. The range of supportive evidence for the Preparation as taught by the Adies shows that it must have been attributable to Gurdjieff, and given some importance by him.

The Clear Impressions Exercise

This exercise was taught by George Adie. It is almost certainly an otherwise unknown example of Gurdjieff’s Transformed-contemplation, being referred to in nothing which has previously been published. It was given as an exercise to help one come to a sense of one’s own being, reality, and presence by looking about one while sensing parts of the body in a definite order, and stopping thought (stopping what Gurdjieff called “formatory thought” or “mechanical thought”, so as to allow a higher level of thought to operate). According to the theory, by stopping formatory thought while receiving impressions, the impressions can be received more consciously, and so serve as a better quality “food” the alchemical human “food factory.” This also aims to have the effect of allowing a feeling of oneself, rather than negative emotions, to appear. By facilitating consciousness of the sensation of one’s body, freedom from negative emotion and from mechanical thought, we are believed to become more open to higher influences, and hence to a higher state of being.