In Search of the Miraculous: The Definitive Exploration of G. I. Gurdjieff's Mystical Thought and Universal View (Harvest Book) [Paperback]

Gurdjieff teaches self-awareness through self observation. Notice that you notice, ask what is doing the noticing and then remember that point which notices in each and every moment. Then you will begin to function as a person rather than a thing which responds only to internal and external stimuli.

Gurdjieff then explores the nature of what a person is: a complex layer of being, of various levels which he describes using often confusing metaphors from music (octaves as layers of being) and chemistry (hydrogens as the materials; of a physical or existential sort which noursih these levels)

The point of life is to realise ourselves fully; a path which cannot be isolated and requires us to help others.

Gurdjieff is often mischievous in his teaching style, exposing pomp mercilessly, but never cruelly, and demanding an authenticity worthy of a follower of Kierkegaard. You often feel he is deliberately challenging you, throwing in random absurdities to check you are of independent mind and not a blind proselyte, and even gently taking the piss.

A book to read many times.

The teacher of this system was G.I.Gurdjieff. The origins of both the man and his teaching are obscure, and Gurdjieff did his best to make the teaching itself obscure to the point of absurdity. The reason for this, as stated in the introductory chapter of Gurdjieff's own book, 'All and Everything,' was to shake up our habitual thinking, to prevent the ideas being simply amalgamated with our habitual ways of thought. Gurdjieff having achieved this, it fell to Ouspensky to untangle the system again and present it for the modern mind. This he achieved not merely by an intellectual effort, but by verifying the system in himself. This book records the unfolding of the teaching almost in the style of a novel.

It is in this book that Ouspensky states most clearly one of the core ideas of the fourth way system: 'we do not remember ourselves.' Contrary to all our usual assumptions, we do not possess consciousness. Ouspensky's achievement of this initial and very humbling realisation is recorded with great candour. Yet this is the foundation of all that follows: a programme for the psychological and spiritual development of human beings.

In the opinion of this reviewer, this book, together with the much more intellectual 'The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution,' are Peter Ouspensky's greatest books. They contain insights, obvious to those who have studied the system seriously, which remain entirely absent from mainstream psychology and philosophy.