Another tough to understand piece from Gurdjieff, but a necessary read to try and understand his ideas and what his task at large was here

Difficult getting through run on sentences. This felt like a spoken monologue.. It seems a translation that wasn't edited. One can discern the gist although repetitive and a bit redundant. Three stars = disappointing.

As always pieces of real knowledge if you are able to see.

This short book is very profound and although proposed by Mr. Gurdjieff as a prospectus for the study of his ideas, very much requires some previous background from contact with his own subsequent writings and if possible, contact with people who are already working with the ideas of the Fourth Way, also known as The Work, and The System, to have a practical application for this book.

If it is possible to get in the rhythm of Gurdjieff there is much to be learned especially about the order of publication of the three series.

Historically important as an introduction, by the Master himself, to his work. Written to attract students, but fundamentally the Work, nonetheless. With the great number of books on Gurdjieff and the Work now, I tend to be rereading the words of the man himself.

Gurdjieff may have "recalled" this small book. Read it anyway. As he said, he teaches the way of the "sly man"--the one who sometimes has to "steal" the truth. What I took from the book: Gurdjieff's life prior to the closing of the Prieure was in many ways an intentionally artifical life; he was playing a necessary role. He was experimenting upon the members of the Institute for Man's Harmonious Development. The thought that occurs after reading this is that perhaps many of the "exercises" and "teachings" that pupils from that period have related were actually not intended as exercises or teachings at all; rather, they were tools to create desired experimental conditions. Gurdjieff indicates that he did not get his answers from any religious or monastic orders; rather, he got his answers from his own study of hypnotism and his subsequent experiments (including, but not limited to, those conducted at the Prieure). The book seems to de-emphasize the religious connotations of Gurdjieff's "Work" while emphasizing its psychological nature. The implications given by Gurdjieff are that he gave his "Work" a Theosophical-spiritual garb in order to attract the necessary people for his experiments (Theosophy and spirituality were very popular when Gurdjieff came on the scene). In other words, the "spirituality" apparent in Gurdjieff's teachings is just bait for the fish. Well, be as it may...my recommendation is to read the book and take what you will from it.