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What Is the Origin of The Teaching?
by William Patrick Patterson
Those who do not know history are not only condemned to repeat it, but
they also allow history to be distorted. A graphic example is the new edition of
P. D. Ouspensky's In Search of the Miraculous. Its cover shows a Middle Eastern
man, presumably a Sufi, and the book is described as being "The Classic
Exploration of Eastern Religious Thinking and Philosophy." The foreword is by
Marianne Williamson, the millionaire spiritual doyenne of the New Age (now
renamed "New Thought"), teacher of the channeled teaching known as the
Course in Miracles. She tells the reader that if you hadn't read this book "then
you hadn't learned your mystical basics"; Ouspensky's text is just a primer by
which one can evolve into the spiritualism of the mystical channeled teachings.
This reorientation—"repackaging" to use a marketing term—will no doubt
broaden the appeal of this esoteric text and, of course, boost sales.
It will, no doubt, make Gurdjieffians angry as well, but this new "Sufi"
edition is a lawful result. For too long the essential questions—who is Gurdjieff?
and what is the origin of Fourth Way teaching?—have been left unanswered.
Time and again we see Mr. Gurdjieff referred to as "a philosopher and mystic" or
some such safe appellation. Nothing much is said about the teaching's origin, but
the suggestion is it is either a compilation of teachings, or mostly Sufi.
Why is it so difficult for otherwise intelligent people to understand that
Gurdjieff is a Christian and the origin of the teaching is also Christianity (though
the term "Christianity" should be taken in an expanded sense)? Why do people
keep saying Gurdjieff's identity and the teaching's origin cannot be known?
Let it be declared without reservation: Gurdjieff was a Christian. Why? If
a man is baptized a Christian, and his earliest teachers are the dean of the Kars
Cathedral and a priest who later becomes the abbot of an Essene monastery—
what is he? If, when finally establishing the teaching at the Prieuré, he declares
that "The program of the Institute, the power of the Institute, the aim of the
Institute, the possibilities of the Institute can be expressed in a few words: the
Institute can help one to be able to be a Christian"—what is he? If in writing All
and Everything he begins with the Christian prayer "In the name of the Father and
of the Son and in the name of the Holy Ghost. Amen."—what is he? If, at his
death, his funeral is held at the Russian Orthodox Church and his burial is
performed according to that church's prescriptions—what is he?
How, then, could anyone believe that Gurdjieff is anything but a
Christian?
Is there an unconscious bias at work here against Christianity?
The teaching—its approach practical and scientific with its admonition to
believe nothing until one can verify it—has appealed to intellectuals who
disregard Christianity. The people initially attracted—Ouspensky and Orage, for
example—were very much influenced by Theosophy and Nietzsche and had a
low opinion of Christianity (although later on Ouspensky's viewpoint would
change). Considering themselves caretakers of the teaching, intellectuals have
been vigilant about maintaining its "purity." This is both laudable and
understandable, but in doing so have they been blind to its obvious Christian
ancestry?
When asked about the teaching's origin, Gurdjieff says it is "esoteric
Christianity, if you like." The reason he adds the words "if you like" is because he
doesn't know how much the questioner knows about Christianity. For the
Christianity of which Gurdjieff speaks has its origin in prehistoric Egypt. "It will
seem strange to many people," Gurdjieff said, "when I say that this prehistoric
Egypt was Christian many thousands of years before the birth of Christ, that is to
say, that its religion was composed of the same principles and ideas that
constitute true Christianity."
The Christian Church Was a School
And after much discussion he adds:
The question of the origin of the Christian church, that is, of the Christian
temple, is much more interesting than we think. To begin with, the church and
worship in the form which they took in the first centuries of Christianity could
not have been borrowed from paganism because there was nothing like it either
in the Greek or Roman cults or in Judaism. The Jewish synagogue, the Jewish
temple, Greek and Roman temples of various gods, were something quite
different from the Christian church which made its appearance in the first and
second centuries. The Christian Church is—a school concerning which people
have forgotten that it is a school.
The idea that what Gurdjieff brought was the esoteric teaching of a
Christianity that existed before Christ seems to be a taboo subject. Other than in
articles in this journal (see The Gurdjieff Journal vol. 6, no. 2, "Gurdjieff and
Christianity" and the investigation of the subject in the video Gurdjieff in Egypt) it
remains unexplored. If the subject is engaged at all, it's never with intelligent
argument but name calling, which in itself suggests a psychological repression.
Sufi Merchandising
Is this why the covers of Gurdjieff's books frequently show Oriental rugs
or Arabic writing—though Gurdjieff wrote his Legominism in Armenian and
Russian and was fluent in those languages as well as Turkish? Yes, he did sell
rugs, but the usual association of Oriental rugs is to Sufism, not Christianity. Yes,
there are references to Sufis in Gurdjieff's writings, and possibly he was initiated
into one or another of their orders. But the Christianity of which he speaks—and
out of which he teaches—predates Sufism, contemporary Christianity and
Judaism by many thousands of years. In his search, yes, he did visit Mecca, but in
disguise, because he was not Muslim. There are those who would divide Sufism
from its Islamic base, but as William C, Chittick, a noted scholar of Islam and
Sufism, shows in his Faith and Practice of Islam, one can't be a true Sufi and not be
a Muslim.
If a Sufi, then Gurdjieff must have kept the Five Pillars of the Islamic
faithful. Did he? Of course not. Moreover, as we see by the First Series, he
certainly did not accept Muhammad as God's only prophet. Are some of the
songs and dances he taught Sufic in origin? Yes. But this doesn't make The
Fourth Way a Sufi teaching. One could only argue for the teaching's not being
Christian in origin if most of what Gurdjieff lived and wrote is glossed over.
Because the teaching's origin has never been definitely stated, such New Age
exemplars as Williamson feel free to pick and choose what pleases them from
Gurdjieff's teaching and drop the rest (just as Robert Burton, E. J. Gold and a host
of others have done before her).
It can be clearly and unequivocally stated: Gurdjieff was not a Sufi but a
Christian, who, like the teaching that he brought, is centered in a "Christianity
before Christ." These are essential questions that must be argued, if necessary, but
finally and definitively answered. Otherwise what this new edition of In Search of
the Miraculous presumes will be the beginning of both Gurdjieff and the ancient
teaching of The Fourth Way being made Tchik.
Notes
1. Esoteric Christianity. P. D. Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous, p. 102.
2. See Prayers in G. I. Gurdjieff's All and Everything (Fairfax, Calif.: Arete
Communications, 1998).
3. Orthodox funeral and burial. See J. G. Bennett, Idiots in Paris (York Beach,
Maine: Samuel Weiser, Inc.), p. 52. Here, two months before his death,
Gurdjieff recounts, as he did many times before, that Roman Catholicism had
degenerated entirely, only the Orthodox Church had retained at least
something.
4. The program of the Institute. G. I. Gurdjieff, Views from the Real World (London:
Arkana, 1984), pp. 152–54.
5. It will seem strange. Ouspensky, p. 302.
6. Greek or Roman cults or in Judaism. Ibid. The common idea is that Christianity
grew out of Judaism. That it does not changes the relationship entirely. For a
learned discussion of the subject see Karl W. Luckert's Egyptian Light and
Hebrew Fire: Theological and Philosophical Roots of Christendom in Evolutionary
Perspective (Albany, N.Y.: SUNY Press, 1991).
7. Anything but a Christian. Writes Kathryn Hulme in Undiscovered Country
(Boston, Mass.: Little Brown & Co., 1966), pp. 112–13: "Gurdjieff had given us a
pledge to say each time before beginning the new exercise—that we would not
use this for self, but for all humanity. This 'goodwishingforall' vow, so
deeply moving in intent, had a tremendous effect upon me. For the first time in
my life, I was truely doing something for humanity as I strove to make my own
molecule of it more perfect. The meaning of this Work, which at first had
seemed quite egotistical and selfcentered, suddenly blossomed out like a tree
of life encompassing in its myriad branchings the entire human family. The
implications of it were staggering. By my single efforts toward Being, I could
help sleeping humanity one hairsbreadth nearer to God. I believed this. Every
time I said the pledge before beginning my exercise, I believed that if I made
something for my own inner world, I would be making it for 'all humanity.' It
was my first experiencing of the Mystical Body of Christ of which I knew
nothing then, but would encounter many years later like a familiar concept
though always shrouded in its immense mystery."
8. William C. Chittick, Faith and Practice of Islam (Albany, N.Y.: SUNY Press,
1992).
9. Five Pillars. Consists of saying the double Shahadah or testimony that there
is no god but God and that Muhammad is His messenger, performing the ritual
prayer, fasting during the month of Ramadan, paying the almstax, and making
the hajj if one has the means to do so. Ibid. p. 3.
First printed in The Gurdjieff Journal.
William Patrick Patterson is the author of seven books on The Fourth Way, the
latest of which is "Spiritual Survival in a Radically Changing WorldTime."