The Reality of Being: The Fourth Way of Gurdjieff Paperback – December 6, 2011

This is perhaps one of the most powerful and extraordinary books I've ever read in the field of transformation or the Fourth Way.I was introduced to the Gudjieff Work as a teenager forty some years ago and have read all of the most important published books. My favorites have always been "In Search of the Miraculous" by P.D. Ouspensky and "Beelzebub's Tales" and "Meetings with Remarkable Men" by Gurdjieff. A few months ago I read "Heart without Measure" by Ravi Ravindra about his several-years work with Madame de Salzmann. I found it especially profound and moving.So when I heard about the publication of "The Reality of Being" I ordered it immediately. I am almost finished reading it (the first time). I notice that I am reading rather quickly so I can get a gist of the content but plan to start re-reading it again much more slowly to let in sink in deeper. I expect this is will be a book I'll be re-reading for the rest of my life.The essence of the book is actually very similar to Ekhart Tolle's "The Power of Now." It is about presence, being in the now, seeing one's "ordinary I" from a higher perspective and tapping into higher energies. Tolle's book is excellent. However, "The Reality of Being" goes ten times deeper. Every sentence, every paragraph, every chapter is permeated with profound substance. The Power of Now is a good primer. This is the the advanced course.Of course, no book can, by itself, give you the depth of experience and understanding that working directly with "a teacher who knows" can. But in every single part of the book Madame de Salzmann calls on us to do the inner work necessary to awaken. And her instructions are in no way vague or ambiguous. However they are so deep that it may take a good degree of attention and focus to grasp their meaning.This book is quite like any other I've read in my life. It has more transformative power packed into a single page than the average library of self-help or spiritual books.If you are a follower of the Fourth Way or seriously interested in personal transformation, this book is a must.

Have bought several books about the practices Gurdjieff taught his pupils and the objectives of such practices, along with the different experiences of different students in following the practices. I had a hard time getting into the book, but then I read a paragraph by the author where she said it didn't matter if one just opened it at random or started from the beginning or whatever. I had tried starting from the beginning and failed totally, but in fact seemed to very often pick it up at random and then, about half of the time I did that, I would get totally absorbed, miss a meal, be late for work, and so on. So on this account I deemed this book my find of the year. And so it has proved to be. I came to it through reading another book, by Ravi Ravindra, which I found helpful but more of a personal writeup of his own experience with this teaching. This book is more from the viewpoint of one trying to provide information that will throw some light on the practices, including the dances, that Gurdjieff advised and taught, and what kind of results one might fairly expect, thus guidelines. To talk about being isn't easy - just try it sometime! So to talk about any kind of increase in awareness of being, well, either the reader is absorbed in 2 seconds or it remains opaque. If the latter, do come back later; if the former you're gone anyway, call us when you come back!

In reading this remarkable book I understood for the first time the reaction of a friend (who was interviewed in GIG) on his first reading of Beelzebub - he threw the book away in anger!This also remains me of a Movements class about five years ago in which a man of my age, then 63, taking part first time in a Movements seminar, in the middle of the class took his clothes (which were on the floor) and started throwing them furiously around the studio.I managed to abstain from throwing the book and could later go on reading without any such nonsense.I am not sure of the others, but my "reaction that happened only in imagination" seems to have been to the continuous repetitive form that the book has. I agree also to the advice in another review to read slowly, in small pieces, as the ideas are concentrated and not easily digested.Having written all that, I will hasten to claim that this book really is "The Relaunch of the Gurdjieff Work" for our time!It does have hardly any of the "toys" that were given to us by Gurdjieff and Ouspensky. Instead, it is about being, "I am", Reality, the two states (higher and lower), consciousness, sleep etc.So one may ask: what is new?There really is nothing new under the sun! However, some things in this book are repeated so many times, on and on, that they actually get through!To take some sentences out of their context would not give the right picture of the book. It is a whole, and in my view should be treated and read as a whole.