*This is a preliminary and test material with the objective to show the graphic proposal, the presentation of what we propose and the contents of the “Búsquedas” Magazine.
George Ivanovich Gurdjieff was born in 1877 in Alexandropol, to a Greek father and an Armenian mother. His childhood was filled with stories and poems of an ancient oral culture, which were passed down to him by his father. In his years of study he received both a religious and scientific education.
His quest for knowledge convinced him that in the past there was a real knowledge of man and nature. Accompanied by other “Seekers of Truth”, Gurdjieff organized risky expeditions and managed to contact isolated communities in Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and Tibet, from which he recovered various elements of a traditional teaching. He managed to live them and to reconstitute the unity of knowledge he was looking for.
Gurdjieff passed away on October 29, 1949, but his thought was transmitted and the knowledge for which he fought so hard remains.
As Gurdjieff put it, his purpose in Meetings with Remarkable Men was to provide “the material necessary to evoke the sensation of a new world,” a sensation that illuminates one’s life from a different perspective. At the same time, this book, written in autobiographical form, offers the only information available about his early years and the sources of his wisdom.
During these talks Father Giovanni told us a great deal about the inner life of the brethren there and about the principles of daily existence connected with this inner life; and once, speaking of the numerous brotherhoods organized many centuries ago in Asia, he explained to us a little more in detail about this Cofradía Universal, which any man could enter, irrespective of the religion to which he had formerly belonged.
As we later ascertained, among the adepts of this monastery there were former Christians, Jews, Mohammedans, Buddhists, Lamaists, and even one Shamanist.
All were united by God the Truth.
(…)
“In our confraternity there are two very old Brothers; one is called Brother Ajel, the other Brother Sez.
“These Brothers took on the obligation, of their own free will, to periodically visit each of the monasteries of our order and to expound various aspects of the essence of divinity.
‘Our brotherhood has four monasteries, one of them ours, the second in the valley of the Pamir, the third in Tibet, and the fourth in India.
“Brothers Ajel and Sez are thus continually going from one monastery to another and preaching with the word.
‘They come to us once or twice a year. Their arrival at our monastery is considered among us a very great event.
“During the entire time we are consecrated, the soul of each of us experiences a truly heavenly ecstasy and fullness.
“The sermons of these two Brothers, who are saints in almost equal degree and who speak the same truths, produce a very different effect on all of us and particularly on me.
“When it is Brother Sez speaking, one thinks one hears the song of the birds of paradise. from what he says one is quite, so to say, turned inside out; one becomes as though entranced.
“His word flows like the murmur of a river and one desires nothing else in life but to hear Brother Sez’s voice.
‘But Brother Ahl’s speech has almost the opposite effect. He speaks badly and indistinctly, evidently because of his age. No one knows how old he is. Brother Sez is also very old—it is said three hundred years old— —but he is still a hale old man, whereas in Brother Ahl the weakness of old age is clearly evident.
“If Brother Sez’s sermons suddenly produce a strong impression, on the other hand, this impression disappears with time and, in the end, there is absolutely nothing left.
“As for Brother Ajel’s word, it makes almost no impression at first. later, the gist of it takes on a definite form, more and more each day, and is instilled as a whole into the heart and remains there for ever.
“Impressed by this demonstration, we began to seek why this was so, and came to the unanimous conclusion that Brother Sez’s sermons arose only from his intellect and therefore acted only upon our intellect, while Brother Ajel’s sermons came from his being and acted upon ours.
“Well, yes, my dear professor, knowledge and understanding are two entirely different things. Only understanding can lead to being, whereas knowledge is but a passing presence in it. New knowledge displaces the old and the result is, as it were, a pouring from the empty into the void.
One must strive to understand; this alone can lead to our Lord God.
“And in order to understand the phenomena, whether or not they conform to the laws, that occur around us, we must first of all consciously perceive and assimilate a multitude of information concerning both objective truths and real events that took place on earth, in the past. Furthermore, we have to consciously carry within us all the results of our experiences, voluntary or involuntary”.
*Gurdjieff, Georges Ivanovitch. Meetings with remarkable men. Translated by Nathalie de Etievan and Dr. Castor S. Goa. 3rd ed. .
