Gurdjieff Books

Hidden Meanings and Picture-form Language in the Writings of G. I. Gurdjieff

(Excavations of the Buried Dog)

Note: The “Foreword” and the first three chapters of this book are herewith declared to be under “Free Copyright,” and, so long as accuracy is maintained, they may be copied or reproduced in any medium, and distributed freely without further restriction, permission, or notification, of either the author or the publisher of this book.

John Henderson

Foreword

For well over half a century great Beelzebub has wandered the wilderness of our minds, meeting thousands upon thousands of sincere students who try very hard to understand his message; but in spite of all our efforts, after years and even decades of study, we remain perplexed and mystified by the awesome weight and depth of it all, with no apparent solution in sight.

Still, we are convinced that something of great value is bound up within Gurdjieff’s books; but what is it, and how can we get to it? The answer remains elusive. All in all, and after all this time, it appears we could use some help.

Fortunately for us, Gurdjieff’s carefully laid plan does include a little something to aid us in our attempt to fathom his message, and that help is concerned with what is called language.

In the year 1916 Gurdjieff said that some things such as ‘types’ and the 48 laws:

…cannot be defined in ordinary language, and the language in which they could be defined you do not as yet know and will not know for a long time. (Fragments, p.246)

Now, if ordinary language is inadequate to describe such things as we seek, then what kind of language is needed?

According to several of Gurdjieff’s long-standing and personally prepared “old pupils,” we simply need to learn his picture-form language, the language in which he often spoke and wrote.

And although Gurdjieff may have said that we will not know that language for a long time, given that he made that remark almost a century ago, perhaps the required “long time” has been satisfied. And indeed, it has. So let us see what some of Gurdjieff’s specially prepared “old pupils” have to say on the matter; then we can begin, with their help but by our own labors, to disinter Gurdjieff’s long and deeply buried dog, and finally decipher the true Teachings of Gurdjieff.

Just as Gurdjieff advised, “No one interested in my writings should ever attempt to read them in any other than the indicated order,” so one should apply that same advice to the chapters of this book, and read them, first, only in sequent order.

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