Georges Gurdjieff A Documentary Film Produced by Jean-Claude Lubtchansky terspersed with excerpts from interviews conducted by Henri de Turenne. Produced by Jean-Claude Lubichansky with the patticipation of Philippe ambessédis, Maurice Desselle, Philippe Lavastine, Dr. Miche! de Salzman, Henri Tracol, Dr, Jean Vaysse and René Zuber. Paris, 1976, 50 minutes. Broadcast on September 22, 1978 on TFI (Institute National de I" Audiovisuel). Transcript and translation by Jack Cain and Nicolas Lecerf. T= French language documentary film, nurrated by Pierre Schaeffer, is [While the camere explores the above portrait of Gurciieft, the following quotation from Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson, 9. 261, is read by Philippe Cambessédes:] Faith, Love and Hope Faith of Faith of feeling is weakness Faith of body is stupidity. Love of consciousness evokes tite san in response Love of feeling evokes the opposite Love of body cepends only on type and polarity Hope of consciousness is strength Hope of feeling is slavery Hope of body is disease. Pierre Schaeffer: In the folklore of Central Asia, there is a popular character named Mullah Nasar Eddin, an apparently bumbling figure with an unremarkable manner but abundant common sense, The following story is ascribed to him. One day he is outside looking in the sand under the heat and light of the sun for ¢ lost object, lot's say it'sa key, His neighbours ask him: “Are you sure it’s here that you lost it?” And the Mullah answers magnanimously: “I am certain thet it is not here because I lost it at home.” So they ask him, “But then why are you looking here?” ‘The Mullah answers, “Outside there is plenty of light and at home it's dark—I will find nothing there!” Itis with this image in ming, a vivid image of common sense, full of good-humor, that I wish to dedicate this program te the memory of man for whom this tale is more appropriate and closer to his true spirit than the repwation bused on spiteful, exaggerated storics that heve been spread about him and which present him as a kind of white or black magician, Iam speaking of George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff, Georges Gurdjieff: A French Documentary Fila‘The fact is, that in television we need ¢ label in order to introduce someone and for Gurdjieff. people ha used anything and everything. It is difficult to place Gurdjieff in the usual categories: Is he a writer, a thinker, a poet, a musician, the master of a kind of philosophy or @ source of spiritual inspiration’? Gurdjiet is all of these, but still officially unrecognized as such in any of these fields. He produced significant book that we will talk about later, published in a peculiar French that was translated trom a swange Russian, Gurdjieff—who inspired Reng Daumal and Luc Dietrich, to mention only those French \wniters who are well known—is poorly considered in French literary circles where he is referred to only from hearsay and with more of a predilection for slander than for truth In fact, the memory of Gurdjie(l—a man who has never been perceived in his true dimension—has been obscured by shadows that are growing more and more dense for a variety of reasons. First of all, extemal appearances were against him, He was @ Russian refugee indistinguishable from many others between the two wars. He sported « heavy Caucasian accent, an originality, a particular manner of action and spece iand a taste for well-seasoned food for which he was rarely forgiven, Can a philosopher, a wise man, a scientist be allowed to cook and regale friends?! Could he really be at the same time a guru? An Indian guru is more distinguished! The wey he conducted hhimself, as well as those around him, which included all kinds of people, was not at all reassuring. In speaking of the various religions, he showed respect for them all but also held them all in question—which meant that his spiritual reputation suffered accordingly. And finally, he appeared all too modern while at the same time being also apparently anachronistic He lived with a kind of community surrounding him—people from various disciplines—scientists, doctors, biologists. He was interdisciplinary; which was most striking for the time, not as it would be today when we encounter creativity workshops Nourishing in California, We know very well now what it takes to live that way and to be audacious. [Voice-over quoting one of the aphorisms that were painted on the giass windows of the Study House in Gurdjieff's institute at the Chateau du Prieuré al Avon, near Fontainebleau:] Here there are neither Russians nor English, Jews nor Christians, but only those who pursue one aim—to be able to be Gurdjief¥ was born in Armenia, in a family of Greek origin. His father was a well known Ashokh or bard who possessed large droves of cattle and lost his fortune through massive epizootie disease. Gurdjieff" upbringing was thoroughly scientific and religious; while still young he traveled with a mysterious group he called the “Seekers of Truth,” exploring for over twenty years the inner reaches of India, Tibet, and the Middle East—where he probably met some of the truths he later presented. His biography is in three parts, The first part, very hidden, is evoked in the book Meetings with Remarkable Men which provides, covertly, some autobiographical hints and clues. Then, starts his public life in Moscow and St Petersburg, when he was 37 years old and where he started to transmit a teaching of overwhelming magnitude. During that period and for many years aftcr, P. D. Ouspensky, both philosopher and mathematician, assembled an exceptional transmission of Gurdjieff's ideas, recapturing his words, as in the following passage from his book /n Search of the Miraculous [pp. 66, \44-145|: It may sumprise you if Tsay that the chief feature of a modern man’s being which explains evervthing else that is lacking in him is sleep. A modern man lives in sleep, in sleep he is bom, and in sleep he dies..... And if you think about it and at the same time remember that sleep is the chief feature of our being, it will at once become clear to you that if'a man really wants knowledge, he must first of all think about how to wake, that is, about how to change his being. 2 Georges Gurdjieff- A French Documentary Film‘There is nothing new in the idea of sleep. People have been told almost since the creation of the world that they are asleep and that they must awaken How many times is this said in the Gospels, for instance? “Awake,” ‘watch, “sleep not.” Christ’s disciples even slept when he was praying in the garden of Gethsemane for the last time. Itis all there. But do ‘men understand if? Men take it simply as a form of speoeh, as an expression, as a metaphor They completely fail understand that it must be taken literally.....As he is organized, that is, being such as nature has created him, man can be a self-conscious, being. Such he is created and such he is bom. But he is born among sleeping people, and, of course, he falls asleep among them just at the very time when he should have bogun to be conscious of hiniself, Everything has a hand in this: the involuntary imitation of older people on the part of the child, voluntary and involuntary suggestion, and what is called ‘education,’ Every attempt to awaken on the child's par is instantly stopped. This is inevitable, And a great many efforts and a great deal of help are necessary in order te awaken later when thousands of sleep-compelling habits have been accumulated. And this very seldom happens, In most cases, a man when still a child already loses the possibility ‘of awakening; he lives in sleep all his life and he dies in sleep... What were Gurdjiei?’s sources? Where, in what distant parts of the world, did he find this extraordinary wealth of thought, these allegories which had never before seen the light of day’? This knowledge is so original, connecting at the same time the most modem discoveries and the most distant, probubly lost, sourees of inspiration, Much has been said about these sources. Were, for example, the origins of the tnain principles of Gurdjieff's knowledge inspired trom Indian thought? Some people said that it was closer to Islam, that he encountered the authentic sources of an Islam now lost or buried somewhere in Persia, Others that he brought back from Tibetan monasteries the most important secrets of his Movements: thes istic exercises which are somehow a tuning of mind, body and feeling Someone has even said that he rediscovered the teachings of the Essenes, a Judaic brotherhood that Christ himself had been in contact with 2000 years ago. But all this is of minor importance since I am not about to enter into an archeology of Gurdjiel’s thought. It is already difficult enough to penetrate it, and J must allow his direct pupils 10 give a taste of it. [The follow accounts were related in interviews conducted by Henri de Turenne.} Dr. Jean Vaysse: In really knowing himself, 2 man can reach awakening and a state of presence in life that is completely René Guénon (1886-1951). French philosopher, mathematician, Gnostic esotcricist, scholar of Hinduism snd Islam, Posited the existence of a Primordial Tradition at the heart of every authentic religion, Regarded traditional Christianity and finally Isiam—to which latier he converted—as the only hope for the metaphysical crisis of modem life, [CIR ed.) Copyright © 1976 Jean-Claude Lubichansky / INA This printing © 2001 Gurdjicff Electronic Publishing, Jeorges Gurdjieff: A French Documentary Film