Setting Forth a Canon of the Gurdjieff Work. Issue 2 (1st February 2022)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Setting Forth a Canon of the Gurdjieff Work. Issue 2 (1st February 2022)
- Main Title:
- Setting Forth a Canon of the Gurdjieff Work
- Authors:
- Seamon, David
- Abstract:
- Abstract : This article considers whether there might be a canon of the Gurdjieff Work and, if so, what that canon might include. The author emphasizes that any canonical explication must incorporate two complementary aspects: first, texts that describe the psychological, philosophical, metaphysical, and cosmological structure of Gurdjieff's system of self-transformation; second, an integrated set of guidelines, procedures, and techniques that provide the experiential and spiritual engine for actualizing potential self-transformation. Taking this twofold canonical definition into account, the Gurdjieff canon is defined as an ensemble of texts, methods, and performative media that when, engaged sincerely and persistently, might facilitate self-transformation psychologically and spiritually. This article gives attention to written texts because the starting point of Gurdjieff's system is intellectual understanding. These written texts are overviewed in terms of seven categories: (1) Gurdjieff's Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson and Ouspensky's In Search of the Miraculous; (2) additional texts by Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, including Gurdjieff's Meetings with Remarkable Men and Ouspensky's The Fourth Way; (3) commentaries on Beelzebub's Tales; (4) commentaries on the Gurdjieff Work as presented in Maurice Nicoll's Psychological Commentaries and Jane Heap's Notebooks; (5) biographies of Gurdjieff; (6) memoirs of Gurdjieff; and (7) works that extend Gurdjieffian ideas in innovativeAbstract : This article considers whether there might be a canon of the Gurdjieff Work and, if so, what that canon might include. The author emphasizes that any canonical explication must incorporate two complementary aspects: first, texts that describe the psychological, philosophical, metaphysical, and cosmological structure of Gurdjieff's system of self-transformation; second, an integrated set of guidelines, procedures, and techniques that provide the experiential and spiritual engine for actualizing potential self-transformation. Taking this twofold canonical definition into account, the Gurdjieff canon is defined as an ensemble of texts, methods, and performative media that when, engaged sincerely and persistently, might facilitate self-transformation psychologically and spiritually. This article gives attention to written texts because the starting point of Gurdjieff's system is intellectual understanding. These written texts are overviewed in terms of seven categories: (1) Gurdjieff's Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson and Ouspensky's In Search of the Miraculous; (2) additional texts by Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, including Gurdjieff's Meetings with Remarkable Men and Ouspensky's The Fourth Way; (3) commentaries on Beelzebub's Tales; (4) commentaries on the Gurdjieff Work as presented in Maurice Nicoll's Psychological Commentaries and Jane Heap's Notebooks; (5) biographies of Gurdjieff; (6) memoirs of Gurdjieff; and (7) works that extend Gurdjieffian ideas in innovative directions. … (more)
- Is Part Of:
- Postscripts. Volume 12:Issue 2(2021)
- Journal:
- Postscripts
- Issue:
- Volume 12:Issue 2(2021)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 12, Issue 2 (2021)
- Year:
- 2021
- Volume:
- 12
- Issue:
- 2
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2021-0012-0002-0000
- Page Start:
- 20837
- Page End:
- 20837
- Publication Date:
- 2022-02-01
- Subjects:
- Religious literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals
Sacred books -- History and criticism -- Periodicals
Religion and society -- Periodicals
201.705 - Journal URLs:
- http://www.equinoxjournals.com/ojs/index.php/POST ↗
- DOI:
- 10.1558/post.20837 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 1743-887X
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store
- Ingest File:
- 24584.xml