“- In what relation to Christianity is the teaching that you expound? - asked one of those present.
“I don’t know what you know about Christianity,” replied Gurdjieff, emphasizing the last word.
“It will take a lot of conversations over time to figure out what you mean by this word. But for the sake of those who already know, I will say that this is esoteric Christianity.”[1]
The teachings of Gurdjieff, about which today there are many prejudices based on an elementary misunderstanding, are compared with many traditional teachings, and, above all, with Sufism.
This is not surprising, since Gurdjieff's practical methods are indeed akin to those used by Sufi teachers. However, it is worth remembering here that, on the one hand, these methods themselves are not the invention of Sufi sheikhs, and in many cases came to Sufism from ancient pre-Islamic traditions; on the other hand, the very essence of the “Gurdjieff system” or the teachings of the “Fourth Way”, obviously, does not lie in the “technical” side and methods, but in the metaphysics that underlies the system, and in that depth psychology that forms the strategy paths to “the integrity of being”.
The metaphysics and ontology of Gurdjieff's teaching are determined by two fundamental "sacred laws" known as "The Law of Three" and "The Law of Seven" or "Triamazikamno" and "Heptaparaparshinok" (as Gurdjieff himself called them in his book "Everything and Everything or Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson”).
Without dwelling in this work on the “Law of Seven”, which is the basis of the ontology and cosmology of the “Fourth Way”, we cannot, at least briefly, consider the “Law of Three”, since it is he who clearly indicates the Christian (from a metaphysical point of view) character of this teaching.
Indeed, among all Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), it is in Christianity that the sacred triad ("Trinity") is presented in the most explicit form, and even at the exoteric level of church doctrine, while in Judaism and Islam this triad is present only latent on an esoteric level.
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True, the dogmatics of even the most “metaphysically complete” Christian denomination - Orthodoxy - speaks of “three hypostases of the One God, inseparable and non-merged”, without specifying the essence and nature of this “inseparability and non-merger”. The works of Orthodox philosophers only partially shed light on this problem. Here, of course, one cannot but agree with the Church Fathers that “this mystery is great,” and that rational thinking, in principle, cannot comprehend it.
However, we are talking about something else: the expression of this law (albeit in a dogmatic form) at the exoteric level of the Christian religion indicates its special “status” and its metaphysical priority.
In this article, there is no way to analyze the metahistorical reasons for this state of affairs; however, it can be stated that it is the “trinity” that is characteristic of Christianity as such, although it should be borne in mind that at the esoteric level this idea is present in all traditional teachings.
Gurdjieff's “Law of Three” is, in a sense, analogous to the Christian trinity [2]. The difference here is that, as in the esoteric ontology of any tradition, the “Law of Three” acts not only as the highest metaphysical principle, but also as a dynamic factor involved in all levels of existence.
It is the interaction of the three forces (“affirming”, “denying” and “reconciling” or “balancing”) that creates the structural integrity of all stable formations without exception, in which, in turn, the same three forces begin to act, but on a different scale, determined both by the hierarchical level of a given formation, and by the way of its interaction with the space environment.
The stable cosmic formations in question fill all the hierarchical levels of universal existence (“Cosmos”) and correspond to the entire “scale of scales” - from the Universe, galaxies, planetary systems to cells, molecules, elementary particles; naturally, a person is included in this “scale of scales”.
Here the specificity of Gurdjieff's teaching is already manifested, which is expressed by the following formula: “the action of every existential factor, every force, every Sacred Law, a person must know both in the entire cosmos, and in himself, and above all in himself”.
This also applies, of course, to the “Law of Three”; only his knowledge of man “within himself” can fill the biblical formula with real content, which says that “man is the image and likeness of God”. From this point, from real self-observation, self-exploration and self-knowledge, begins, so to speak, “practical esotericism” - Gurdjieff’s “work”, that is, the spiritual Path leading a person “inside himself”, to the Spirit, to God and to the integrity of being.
* * *
Here it is necessary to dwell on the relationship between the exo- and esoteric aspects of tradition. As Gurdjieff notes, these two aspects are separated not only along the line of knowledge (that is, in relation to fundamental ontology and cosmology), but also along the line of being (that is, in relation to the existential situation of a person, his "Way", his depth psychology).
In the Christian tradition, the exoteric teaching of the church, accepting the metaphysical doctrine of the One God in His tri-hypostasis, emphasizes the “creation” of the whole universe and man in particular, that is, on the complete separation of the Creator and Creation, on the total transcendence of the Absolute.
This doctrine of "creation", which is characteristic of all religions of the Abrahamic cycle (as opposed to the religions of the previous metahistorical cycles), forms not only church dogma, but also, so to speak, the "spiritual practice" of the Christian religion. Man always remains a "creature", a part of the universe alienated from God. The “reunion” of the world and God occurs only “at the end of time” at the moment of the “Last Judgment”, when the fate of the human soul (its “salvation” or “destruction”) will be finally decided.
In contrast to exoterism, esoteric teachings of any tradition never speak of the complete separation of the Creator and Creation, God and the Cosmos, but, on the contrary, emphasize the unity of being. “One, manifested in many things,” is the ontological pathos of all esoteric traditions, which, however, does not contradict the doctrine of the Transcendence of the Absolute, also adopted by esotericism.
Here, however, it is worth mentioning the fact that all verbal formulations very weakly reflect the nature of reality related to the higher planes of being. Therefore, all exoteric "metaphysics" have very little value from an esoteric point of view.
Gurdjieff never tired of repeating that true metaphysics is revealed only in higher states of consciousness (where the “higher intellectual center” is turned on), while the ordinary intellect “works” only with words, for the most part completely alienated from reality. So, the ancient traditional formula "One in many things" is, rather, a spiritual guideline of the awakening mind than the final "metaphysical truth" [3].
As for the “separation” of God from the world, esotericism speaks, rather, of remoteness. “Separation” arises already in existence itself, within the framework of its own ontology; many myths (the Gnostic myth of the “evil demiurge”, the teachings of Kabbalah, etc.) speak about the reasons for this “separation”, about the distortions and “breaks” of the world cosmic process. There is a similar myth in the book “Everything and Everything”, but here there is no way to dwell on it in detail [4].
From the above, it is clear that Christian esotericism, like the esotericism of any other tradition, does not accept the doctrine of “creation”, which from an esoteric point of view can only correspond to a certain “cosmic moment”, a certain socio-cosmic situation that arises at the end of the Manvatara cycle, to use Hindu terminology, or shortly before the “end of the world”, to use the Christian terminology, and determined by the ultimate distance of God from cosmic life.
However, it does not follow from this that the esoteric doctrine is in conflict with the teaching of the church (not at the formal-logical level, but in essence); moreover, considering exoteric religion (in its adequate, that is, not degraded, form) as a private aspect of its teaching, esotericism accepts it as a “starting point”, primarily in relation to the real human situation.
From this point of view, the “createdness” of a person is not “the ultimate truth”, but a reflection of the real existential situation in which an ordinary person is (that is, finds himself) and which he must really realize.
* * *
Leaving now metaphysics and ontology, let us turn directly to man as he is; here, first of all, it is necessary to state that for real “work”, for genuine self-examination, he definitely “lacks something”, not to mention that not everyone is able to realize the importance and necessity of such self-observation.
It should be emphasized that we are not talking about "intellectual speculation", not about self-reflection and not about emotionally colored "experiences." It is about whether a person, sincerely and honestly observing himself in all his manifestations, is able to recognize himself as he is, that is, to withstand the severe test of self-exposure, and, then, try to find in his inner reality the factors for which he was able to lean firmly in the search for knowledge and the search for being.
At this point, for the first time, a person must consciously strive to be sincere and honest with himself, that is, rely on his conscience. The illusion lies in the fact that most people believe that they already have a conscience, while they have only the rudiments (or remnants) of what Gurdjieff calls an objective conscience, that is, conscience in the true sense of the word, conscience in all its essential "Volume" of this concept.
Gurdjieff speaks of a significant degradation of man over the past few thousand years, and especially over the past few centuries; here he completely coincides with all traditional teachings. However, a certain specificity, and the specificity is precisely Christian, arises in that point of the Gurdjieff teaching, where it is about the "Sacred Ways" of Faith, Hope and Love, open to man in previous metahistorical epochs, but closed in the present, which has its own reasons, about which, for lack of space, we are unable to speak.
Today, faith, hope, love for the overwhelming majority are just words, behind which there is no real content. Yes, behind each of them there are some "experiences", but what is their nature, a person hardly thinks, and, most importantly, he hardly thinks about how conscious these experiences are. It is not about a simple rational statement, but about the awareness of the whole experience, its nature and essence. And this is where difficulties arise.
“God is love”, says the Christian teaching, but is it this “love” that is being voiced from the stage today, is it this “love” that soap opera heroes are talking about, and does this “love” mean a person in his relations with his neighbors ?! “Jesus commanded to love enemies. And you cannot really love even your friends!” Gurdjieff repeated. And so it is with hope and faith.
With “faith” the inquisitor brings a torch to burn the “heretic”, with “faith” the fanatic blows up houses, with “faith” they oppress and oppress, humiliate and kill; with “faith” people want neither to be aware nor to understand. So what is this “faith”? And what is faith in general ?! What should this word indicate, what is it about ?!
Gurdjieff argues that true Faith (like Love, Hope and Conscience) is not ethical or “psychological” concepts; these are concepts, rather, ontological, these are concepts related to being. “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed and say to this mountain, 'Move!' It will move,” says Jesus. But does this belief mean an ordinary person or an average “Christian” ?!
Genuine Faith, says Gurdjieff, can only take root in the conscious parts of the human being. True Faith cannot be unconscious and “blind”. It is not directly related to the mind, but is directly related to consciousness.
To be is to be conscious, it is to remember all of yourself. And only in conscious existence can Faith be crystallized. “Faith of consciousness is freedom, faith of feelings is weakness, faith of the body is stupidity,” writes Gurdjieff [5]. But the path to conscious being, to “remembering oneself” is not short and not easy. And this path begins with the self-disclosure that has already been discussed.
This is the experience of "one's own insignificance", the experience of "oneself-as-a-creature"; here the teaching of the Fourth Way literally coincides with exoteric Christianity, which is not surprising, because in order to “find the Way,” one must pass the “outer fence,” the exoteric level, and go not intellectually, but in experience, in being.
You need to be aware of your real situation, and this awareness should not be just a glimpse, insight, intellectual enlightenment.
This awareness can be revealed to a person as an emotionally acute and long-term experience, as suffering that must be endured and experienced, because it begins the path to intentional suffering, the need for which Gurdjieff constantly reminds. This experience should “crystallize” in a person, become a constant “background” of consciousness, remaining on its edge, but constantly reminding: “I, dust and ashes” [6].
Only then does the real possibility arise of acquiring the “third force” (in the Christian religion - “grace”) as a psycho-energetic basis for “work” and spiritual growth; only then does the true conscience begin to awaken, and its scattered "parts", mainly located in the unconscious of a person, begin to integrate into that real Objective Conscience, which a person can and should possess even in the current metahistorical situation and on the basis of which only spiritual growth is possible and the discovery of the “Sacred Ways” of Faith, Love and Hope.
“Truth is known with the blood of the heart,” says ancient wisdom. “A grain that falls into the ground must die in order to germinate,” says Jesus in the Gospels. “It takes a tremendous effort for a person to 'germinate', repeats Gurdjieff. - "Conscious effort and intentional suffering."
Isn't it easier to keep sleeping ?!
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[1] P. Uspensky. In search of the miraculous. - SPb, 1994, ch. 6.
[2] The first or “Holy affirming” power in the metaphysical plane is God the Father, the second or “Holy denying” power is God the Son, the third or “Holy reconciling” power is God the Holy Spirit. One of the main Orthodox prayers (according to legend, “came straight from heaven”), “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us”, directly points to these three hypostases and “three powers”: Holy God is “the first power”Or the Father, the Holy Mighty - the“second power”or the Son, the Holy Immortal - the“third power”or the Holy Spirit. - See G. Gurdjieff. Beelzebub's stories to his grandson. - M.: Fair-Press, 2000, pp. 105, 510.
[3] See “In Search of the Miraculous,” chapter 14.
[4] We are talking about a certain "deviation" in the evolution of the planet Earth, associated, according to Gurdjieff, with the violation of a certain cosmic law, as a result of which a catastrophe occurred with the Earth, and the Moon (formerly part of the Earth) broke away from it. This, in particular, led to the emergence of an organ “kundabuffer” in humans, which was the cause of the subsequent degradation of humanity as a whole. See “The Tales of Beelzebub …”, chapters 9,10.
5 “Tales of Beelzebub …”, p. 265.
6 Genesis 18:27.