Artuad, Antonin – The Theater and its Double, translated from the French by Mary Caroline Richards, Grove Press, 1958 “We must believe in a sense of life renewed by the theater, a sense of life in which man fearlessly makes himself master of what does not yet exist, and brings it into being.”
Attar, Farid ud-Din – The Conference of the Birds, Mantiq Ut-Tair, translated by C. S. Nott, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1954 “Mantiq Ut-tair was composed in the twelfth century by the Persian poet Farid ud-Din Attar, in the form of an allegorical poem, based on the teaching of the Sufis, of whom Attar was one of the greatest. The birds assemble together to discuss how to set out on the pilgrimage to the court of the Simurgh – the City of God. Each of them, according to his type, speaks to the Hoopoe about his difficulties. In her discourse, the Hoopoe tells anecdotes and stories, gay as well as grave, to point to her teaching. Eventually they set out and reached the court of the Simurgh, where they finally attain union with him.”
Bennet, J. G. – Enneagram Studies, Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1983 “The science of the Enneagram was taught by G.I. Gurdgjieff in fragments. He claimed that it was the key symbolic device of the Sarmaun Brotherhood, a mystic order that existed in Central Asia for thousands of years. Many of his followers, including J. G. Bennet, devoted themselves to unravelling its mysteries. In this book there are many examples of the ‘work in progress’ of Bennet and some of his students. There exists nowhere else such a collection of lucid explanations and worked out applications.”
Bennet, J. G. – The Enneagram, Coombe Spring Press, 1974 “During many years of research on the nature of man and the possibility of his transformation, the Institute for the Comparative Study of History, Philosophy and the Sciences, directed by the late J. G. Bennett, has studied the system brought from the East by G.I. Gurdjieff together with techniques used by the Sufi Dervishes and other Spiritual Leaders.”
Burton, Robert Earl – Self-Remembering, Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1995 “Perhaps Robert Burton’s greatest contribution to the Fourth Way tradition is his unerring ability to grasp the core of the teaching. Although the system offers an array of theories, he has resisted all temptations to deviate from its highest application: the creation of higher consciousness within his students. He has never ceased to repeat that this work is simple, although it is not easy. Out of the great storehouse of knowledge in the Fourth Way, he has extracted and exalted two principles above all the others: self-remembering and the transformation of suffering.”
Collin, Rodney – The Mirror of Light, Watkins Books, Ltd, 1959 “Composed of notes found among Rodney Collin’s papers after his death, this book centers around the system of ideas taught by G.I. Gurdjieff, P.D. Ouspensky, Maurice Nicoll and others of the same tradition. The ‘Fourth Way’ is concerned with the balanced combination of the three traditional ways of reunion with God – those of the physical, emotional and mental control – through a development of the whole man situated in the ordinary circumstances of daily life, and dedicated to the realization of his highest possibilities.”
Garcia Lorca, Federico – Deep Song and Other Prose, A New Directions Book, 1954 “In his short life, Lorca produced an astonishing quantity of poems and plays but few essays. His creative powers were best stimulated by the immediate presence of an audience, and it was on the lecturer’s platform where the bulk of his prose writings had their initial exposure rather than on the printed page he so mistrusted.”
Gurdjieff, G.I. – Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson, An Objectively Impartial Criticism of the Life of Man, E.P. Dutton, 1973 (1950 original), Three Volumes
Gurdjieff, G.I. – Meetings with Remarkable Men, Library of Alexandria, 1963 “The book takes the form of Gurdjieff’s reminiscences about various “remarkable men” that he met, beginning with his father. They include the Armenian priest Pogossian; his friend Soloviev, and Prince Lubovedsky, a Russian prince with metaphysical interests.”
Gurdjieff, G.I. – “Life is Real Only Then, When ‘I Am”, Library of Alexandria, 1965 “To assist the arising, in the mentation and in the feelings of the reader, of a veritable, non-fantastic representation not of that illusory world which he now perceives, but of the world existing in reality.”
Gurdjieff, G.I. – Views from the Real World, Early Talks of Gurdjieff, E.P. Dutton, 1973 “Great changes have taken place in the quarter-century since the death of G.I. Gurdjieff, yet much of the mystery that surrounded him in his lifetime still remains. This book satisfies the demand to ‘hear’ his actual voice and direct instructions – in the form of convesations between Gurdjieff and his pupils.”
Hesse, Hermann – Siddhartha, Bantam Books, 1971 (1951 original) “In the novel, Siddhartha, a young man, leaves his family for a contemplative life, then, restless, discards it for one of the flesh. He conceives a son, but bored and sickened by lust and greed, moves on again. Near despair, Siddhartha comes to a river where he hears a unique sound. This sound signals the true beginning of his life – the beginning of suffering, rejection, peace, and finally wisdom.”
Jung, Carl G. – Man and His Symbols, Dell Publishing Co., Inc., 1964 “This book, which was the last piece of work undertaken by Jung before his death in 1961, provides a unique opportunity to assess his contribution to the life and thought of our time, fir it was also his first attempt to present his life-work in psychology to a non-technical public . . . What emerges with great clarity from the book is that Jung has done immense service both to psychology as a science and to our general understanding of man in society, by insisting that imaginative life must be taken seriously in its own right, as the most distinctive characteristic of human beings.”
Lefort, Rafael – The Teachers of Gurdjieff, Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1966 “Gurdjieff, a major teacher, mystic and prophet to his followers, a charlatan to those who rejected him. Much has been written about the teachings of this extraordinary man and the movement he established that has continued to grow since his death in 1949. With this book, Rafael Lefort fills in a portion that has remained essentially unexplored – researching the origins of this teaching by finding and meeting with the teachers of Gurdjieff.”
Nicoll, Maurice – Living Time and the Integration of the Life, Shambala, Boulder & London, 1976 (1952 original) “Living Time presents a new understanding of time from a psychological and spiritual perspective. Dr. Nicoll shows that a different view of time opens up a continuum of more dimensions than our senses ordinarily record, in which our normally narrow reality broadens into higher levels of consciousness. The book is geared toward the understanding of the ‘invisible’ nature of man and the corresponding ‘invisible’ side of the world, dealt with from the standpoints of temporal dimension and higher awareness.”
Nicoll, Maurice – Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff & Ouspensky, Shambala, Boston & London, 1984 (1952 original), Five Volumes “Here is the classic work on the fundamental ideas of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, expounded by own of their foremost students. The Commentaries, concerned with the immediate processes of applying certain principles in daily life, have come to be known and loved by entire generations of people interested in the ongoing evolution of psychological transformation. Some of the topics discussed include the emotions, suffering, awareness, man as a self-developing organism, what it means to work on oneself, effort, prayer, dreams, cosmology, self-love, memory, violence and understanding, relationship, and habitual patterns.”
Nietzsche, Friedrich – Thus Spoke Zarathustra, A Book for Everyone and No One, Penguin Books, 1961 “Nietzsche loathed mediocrity; his chief purpose in writing was to restore the quality of any individual’s life. His ideas are often harsh and uncompromising, but rarely negative in intent.”
Orage, A. R. – On Love and Other Essays with some Aphorisms, Samuel Weiser, 1974 “These Essays were written by Orage after he had worked with Gurdjieff and his system of ideas. The aphorisms are from those given his groups of pupils in New York, to who he taught the Gurdjieff method and system from 1924 to 1930. There are three essays: On Love, On Religion, and What is the Soul? These are treated from the point of view of self development and work on oneself. They are practical, timely and of great use to those who are actively pursuing the understanding of man.”
Ouspensky, P. D. – Conscience, The Search for Truth, Arkana Penguin Books, 1979 “The Russian thinker P. D. Ouspensky pursued knowledge beyond the point where traditional disciplines ran into brick walls. The five works in this collection, published together for the first time to meet the increasing demand for Ouspensky’s insights, make an excellent introduction for lay readers, aware, however vaguely, that there is more to existence than would appear to be revealed by the humdrum patterns of everyday life.”
Ouspensky, P. D. – In Search of the Miraculous, Fragments of an Unknown Teaching, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1977 (1949 original) “The noted author combines the logic of a mathematician with the vision of a mystic in his quest for solutions to the problems of Man and the Universe.”
Ouspensky, P. D. – The Fourth Way, A Record of Talks and Answers to Questions based on the Teaching of G.I. Gurdjieff, Vintage Books, 1971 (1957 original) “The Fourth Way is concerned with a new way of living. It shows a way of inner development to be followed under the ordinary conditions of life – as distinct from the three traditional ways that call for retirement from the world: those of the fakir, the monk, and the yogi. It is a guide for those who seek a true way of inner growth under conditions open to the men and women of today.”
Ouspensky, P. D. – The Psychology of Man’s Possible Evolution, Vintage Books, 1974 (1950 original) “The psychology Ouspensky sets forth in these introductory lectures has existed in one form or another for thousands of years and, unlike modern psychology, studies man from the point of view of what he may become. Once man realizes how little control he has over his reactions to external circumstances and internal stimuli, he may wish to find a way to become free of his mechanical living. Ouspensky describes how a man must work simultaneously on his knowledge and his being to find inner unity and why although his development depends on his own efforts, this is very difficult to achieve without guidance from a ‘School.’”
Pearce, Jane, M. D. and Newton, Saul – The Conditions of Human Growth, The Citadel Press, 1963 “The fundamentals of personality expansion in the context of Inter-personal Psychoanalysis. A program toward productivity and love against the forces of despair and deterioration.”
Speeth, Kathleen Riordan – The Gurdjieff Work, Pocket Books New York, 1976 “It is now clear that George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff ushered in a controversial ‘New Age’ in the contemporary human growth movement, that tens of thousands worldwide have become his disciples over the past half-century, and that his personal magnetism was extraordinary. It is also true that his teachings, intentionally complex to assure careful reading, have never been easily mastered. A noted psychologist and Gurdjieff disciple combines her own personal and professional experience with the views of Orage, Oscar Ichazo, Claudio Naranjo, and others, to illuminate the most obscure facets of this enigmatic man and his writings. It is a lucid, revealing introduction to the man, his life, and his works.”
Stanislavski, Constantin – An Actor Prepares, Theatre Arts Books, 1936 “Generally recognized a great classic in the Field, An Actor Prepares has been helpful not only to persons working in the theatre, but to novelists, composers, sculptors, to anyone, in fact, anxious to understand himself and other people. Stanislavski’s simple exercises have fired their imaginations, have helped them not only discover their own conception of reality but how to reproduce it.”