[James Cummins]

<div>Some notes and comments mostly gleaned from internet sources, about the importance of the book with a short summary on the relationship between Ouspensky and Gurdjieff.</div>
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<div>”The many ideas covered in ISOM span philosophy,cosmology,psychology,mythology,symbolism and religion.Gurdjieff often starts a lecture drawing from ancient sources and gleaning from it psychological conclusions.These conclusions may either be on a practical level that instructs his students how to work on rhemselves,or on a theoretical level that enables them to form a more objective understanding of themselves and their place in rhe world.</div>
<div>As Ouspensky becomes more familiar with Gurdjieff and his methods ,it transpires that Gurdjieff has travelled extensively throughour the east and had spent much time gathering hidden knowledge.In expounding these ancient ideas,Gurdjieff adds the missing link of their practical application.Ouspensky realizes that this link is the effort of self remembering,a deliberate effort by a person to be conscious of himself,the other ideas of the system revolve around this central effort,as spokes around a wheel.”</div>
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<div>So the lectures given by Gurdjieff are inseperable to the students experience of practically applying them.Ouspensky shares with us his own experiences with these efforts.</div>
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<div>”In Essentuki Gurdjieff unfolds the plan of the whole work to a small group of his students,he then decides to disperse the entire group.Ouspensky’s confidence in Gurdjieff begins to waver from this moment onward.When Gurdjieff changes his mind again and regathers everyone a few months later,Ouspensky observes changes in the direction of Gurdjieff’s work and realizes his own impossibility of continuing as Gurdjieff’s pupil.”</div>
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<div>One explanation Ouspensky gave in 1937  was…”When i met Gurdjieff I began to work with him on the basis of certain principles which I could understand and accept,Gurdjieff had said “First of all you must not believe anything and second you must not do anything that you do not understand” I accepted him because of that.Then after 2 or 3 years,I saw him going against these principles.He demanded from people to accept what they did not believe and to do what they did not understand.Why this happened,I dont pretend to have any theory.”</div>
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<div>We cannot understand completely what happened and perhaps its wiser to avoid speculation on the nature of  the Solar drama that  occured between the two men.</div>
<div>What is known is that for some time afterwards,there was still a  Work oriented relationship between them. Ouspensky continued monitering  Gurdjieffs work in Paris and made a few attempts to collaborate with him,but he eventually resolved for a complete disassociation.He then gave his own English students the option to follow his own work or Gurdjieff’s.</div>
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<div>Some comments from Nicol and Bennet students of both Ouspensky and Gurdjieff:</div>
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<div>/When Ouspensky was sent by Gurdjieff to England to start teaching he gave Ouspensky the task of putting Gurdjieffs teaching in writing,and in the earlier chapters of the book ISOM,which was written in the earlier days of the Work in England,Ouspensky gave a very good portrayal of Gurdjieff and how he met him and what he was taught by him./   Maurice Nicol</div>
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<div>The above comment by Nicol apparently shines a different light on the Gurdjieff,Ouspensky relationship.</div>
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<div>/Fortunately,Ouspensky recorded and subsequently published the greater part of what Gurdjieff taught during the four years they were in contact.So far as I am concerned this material which Ouspensky used for his own teaching in the years from 1922 to 1940 when he had his groups in London,constitute the most valuable corpus of ideas and methods that I have come across in fifty years of searching./   John Bennet</div>
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<div>And a comment from Rodney Collin a pupil of Ouspensky:</div>
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<div>/According to my understanding,the “system” that Ouspensky said he abandoned in the last stage of his life was the system developed in ISOM,it was rather the language and manner of presentation,the exterior form of this system which had to be abandoned.The laws and principles that were indicated there cannot be abandoned,because they are the laws of the universe itself./                                                          Rodney Collin</div>
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<div>posted 25.04.2022</div>
<div>james cummins</div>
 

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