If you would like to submit a book recommendation, simply write it out in the comment section below and I will transfer it to this page.
In Search of the Miraculous ~ P. D. Ouspemsky
It always surprises me that people who have read dozens of new age books don’t know Ouspensky. The Gurdjieff/Ouspensky ‘system’ is a source for scores of modern spiritual books, and In Search of the Miraculous is the story of Ouspensky’s discipleship under Gurdjieff. Perhaps the best book on the fourth way. Highly recommended.
William Page
The Fourth Way ~ P. D. Ouspensky
I understand that this book is out of fashion. That’s a shame, but then Ouspensky said that the Fourth Way will never be popular because it demands effort. This book is of his lectures, with questions and answers.
Ouspensky, the teacher, was not very interested in inspiring his students with the mysteries of the higher worlds. But he was interested in outlining the practices and principles that give us the possibility of changing our ‘being.’ He doesn’t entice; he says: this is what you need to do and these are the laws the govern the process.
If you are disappointed with belief and hope and want answers, this book is for you. Highly recommended.
William Page
Discourses ~ Meher Baba
One of the great, overlooked spiritual books of the twentieth century. It is a eastern work, but concepts like Sanskaras, Karma, and Maya are all explained, so that western readers should have no difficulty understanding what is being talked about. The sections on reincarnation are the best I’ve ever read. There is an objectivity to this work that makes it stand out when compared to so many contemporary spiritual works. For example at the end of the book there is section called ‘The Conditions of Happiness,’ where Meher Baba lays out exactly what a man needs to achieve to be happy. Highly recommended.
William Page
Hi William, perhaps you should review Jeanne de Salzmann’s book The Reality of Being. She was around G for a long time and writes in a more personal, nuanced and in-depth way than Ouspensky did or could in his time.
Ciao, Justin White.
It is fine for anybody to add a review of a book in this section. Just write it and place it in a comment here, and I will look it over and post it. I don’t know know much of de Salzmann’s writing, though from what I have read, I believe her work is of value.
Hi William, I’ve read the Ouspensky books you recommend and certainly they are good ones for learning about the Fourth Way and the esoteric system given by Gurdjieff and transmited to his disciple Ouspensky. But I’m now reading a very interesting book based in these teachings which was wrote by other of the disciples of both of them. I’m reffering to Maurice Nicoll and the book “Psichological Commentaries on Gurdjieff and Ouspensky Teachings”. It is a book in five volumes and I consider it the most exciting book I’ve ever read. For me is like a handbook, a detailed guide to initiate myself in the teaching and adquiring the knowledge needed to make my being stronger by applying this learning to myself, it is to say, working on me according to the ideas of the Work. I merely wanted you to give me your opinion about this book. Thank you for your interesting blog. I’ve just discovered it and I think is going to help me in my long and difficult way.
The Commentaries are excellent. I read many of them in my youth.
i recently encountered a copy of vol. 2 of Nicholl’s
Commentaries.
much material here with fresh treatment and voice,
a little welcome zeal, a real segment of the living vine.
For those interesting in reading The Fourth Way, but who find the original typeset too small to read, there is a large print version!
I find that the slightly different look provides a little shock that helps me to “hear” it in a new way.
I have been greatly educated by two recent finds:
The Breathing Cathedral by Martha Heyneman
Reflections on Gurdjieff’s Whim by Keith Buzzell