J.G. BENNETT

JOHN G. BENNETT deserves to be discussed and mentioned for several reasons, which will take up a lot of space and time in order do things justice, that is, rightly and efficiently, and to counteract some impressions others may have on the man and his work, particularly in reference to his relationship with GURDJIEFF...... His book, GURDJIEFF A VERY GREAT ENIGMA, which consists of three lectures he gave and then had published under this title....a copy of which is shown on this blog, is, in my humble estimation, one of the best ever written on Gurdjieff. First, it is not an 'expose' or a complete description of things to be found in Gurdjieff's own books exactly, but more a perspective on Gurdjieff that looks at facets of G in relation to the area where he was born, grew up, received an 'education', and of his possible travels and likely associations with groups and persons of all kinds, amid a region of turmoil,war, hardships, and various political/economic,etc. expansions and conflicts and more importantly, the conflicts between and among religious/mystical/occult groups of all sorts found in that area and elsewhere, with a deep historical basis and mentioned by Bennett, who, unlike some writers, actually spent time in all those regions both before and after his association(s) with Gurdjieff and from experiences he gained from these and from his association with Gurdjieff....which place him in the forefront along with others of note who also deserve to be mentioned....even if they all differed in fact from each other to the total and partisan perspectives of one another...... The reason as to why no one can ever nor ever could agree on anything about Gurdjieff is stated by Bennett in this book and from reading all accounts of the life of Gurdjieff,whether what he wrote or others wrote, separating such from the reports that come from secondary and speculative sources, it is easy to see why Bennett is correct as far as he goes..... This aspect of Gurdjieff is difficult to assess let alone describe in the way most of us expect or demand since none of us are actually on or have been on the path that Gurdjieff personally took.....from his youth to his death......nor shall we ever be.....our lines of transformation and development, our own re-generations and transmutations must go along other lines worked out by us personally and 'suffered' by us with conscious intent in accordance with our AIM(s) which is much more than can be stated in these words, obviously if one has any intelligence or understanding, however limited such may be, about any of this.......many will argue and disagree but one has to verify, as Gurdjieff insisted, for one's own self....and this is the one thing on which most of the 'disciples', 'followers','devotees', etc. can and did agree on, even if they failed to do any of this for themselves or to achieve the aims and results they set for themselves, often due to personal weaknesses, impressions and influences that prevented them from so doing and may have, as some think perhaps, 'died like dogs' without becoming 'immortal within the solar system' and ended up as 'food for the moon', statements that one can only verify for themselves, often when it is far too late.......