Gurdjieff and the Awakening of Being: A 20th-Century Socrates

The so-called Fourth Way , condensed by Gurdjieff through travels and encounters with ancient spiritual traditions, presents itself as a system learned not only with the mind but with the flesh, with the body dancing and becoming a vehicle of knowledge. In this sense, Gurdjieff presents himself as a contemporary Socrates, a philosopher who does not simply propose doctrines but builds a school capable of destabilizing certainties and opening doors to inner transformation. Human beings, he said, are machines conditioned by external, planetary, and social influences, and precisely for this reason must learn to die to themselves, recognize their own slumber, and be reborn in a new awareness. In an era marked by political and cultural revolutions, Georges Ivanovich Gurdjieff appears as a figure who challenges the traditional categories of philosophy and spirituality, a master who is not content to transmit abstract concepts but who aims to shake the human being in his entirety, forcing him to confront his own state of slumber and the need for a radical awakening. His arrival in pre-revolutionary Russia , with dance performances and study groups, was not a simple episode of esotericism, but rather the beginning of a journey aimed at revealing the falsity of constructed personalities and encouraging the emergence of an authentic essence, capable of harmonizing intellect, emotion, and instinct.

His rejection of academic standards and his self-definition as a "sacred trickster" prevented his thought from penetrating mainstream philosophical debate, especially in Italy, where his influence remained confined to spiritual and artistic circles. Yet, the strength of his teaching lies precisely in his ability to integrate the rational with the emotional and motor dimensions, avoiding the risk of reducing man to a fragment, a dispersed self. It is no coincidence that today many of his insights are confirmed by neuroscience, which recognizes the plurality of states of consciousness and the fragmentary nature of the self as constitutive elements of the psyche.

His most evident legacy is manifested in art : from the music of Franco Battiato, Keith Jarrett, and Robert Fripp , to the theater of Jerzy Grotowski and Peter Brook , Gurdjieffian thought has found fertile ground in creative practices, where the experiential and corporeal dimension has been able to accommodate its most radical lesson. However, reducing Gurdjieff to a simple artistic inspirer would mean overlooking the philosophical significance of his message , which invites us to recognize our state of sleep and to undertake a path of evolution that is never merely individual but concerns all of humanity.

Gurdjieff 's thought is more relevant today than ever: it reminds us that true emancipation does not consist in multiplying opinions or chasing cultural trends, but in carrying out an inner work that integrates reason, emotion, and instinct, restoring to human beings the possibility of becoming what they truly are.

Among all the convictions formed in my "integral presence" during my rather singularly ordered responsible life, there is one unshakable one according to which all men—whatever their stage of development, their understanding, and whatever form of manifestation the factors that arouse ideals of all kinds in their individuality have assumed—feel, always and everywhere on earth, the need to pronounce aloud, or at least to themselves, when they begin a new undertaking, an invocation understandable to everyone, even the most ignorant individual, which has changed in its words from age to age until today it sounds like this: "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen." And so I too, having to embark on an entirely new adventure like that of writing a book, begin with this invocation and pronounce it clearly, or rather, to use the words of the ancient Tulosites, "with a high and solemn intonation." To the extent, of course, that the data already formed in my integral presence and firmly rooted in it allow it: that is, the data that are formed in human nature during the preparatory age, and which later, in the course of his responsible life, determine the character and life-giving power of this intonation. After such a debut, I can rest assured—indeed, I should, according to the conceptions our contemporaries have of "religious morality"—that in my new enterprise "everything will go swimmingly." In short, this is how I begin. And for the rest, I can only repeat to the blind man: "We'll see!"

Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson:
An Objectively Impartial Criticism of Human Life 

In the vast and often confusing horizon of modernity, where voices overlap and certainties seem to dissolve in a sea of ​​ephemeral opinions, the figure of Georges Ivanovich Gurdjieff stands out as a stern yet liberating reminder, an invitation to recognize that human life cannot be reduced to a succession of mechanical gestures and unconscious habits, but rather requires a ceaseless work of awakening, an exercise in integral presence that embraces the totality of being and restores dignity to the time we are given to live.

His philosophy, far from being a closed system or a doctrine to be passively learned, is presented as a journey, a process of transformation that requires discipline, self-observation, and the ability to recognize one's state of inner sleep, to then courageously undertake the arduous journey toward waking consciousness. In this sense, Gurdjieff does not propose an external morality, nor a set of rules to follow to conform to an abstract ideal, but rather a concrete practice rooted in personal responsibility and unfolding in everyday life, where every gesture, even the simplest, can become an opportunity for awakening and invoking the sacred.

Man and his integral presence

He reminds us that if man does not work on himself, he remains a prisoner of automatisms that make him similar to a machine , incapable of choosing and living authentically; but if he accepts the effort of inner work , if he commits himself to unifying body, mind and emotions in a dynamic balance , then he can access that freedom which does not consist in doing what one wants, but in becoming fully present to what one is .

Thus, his voice still resonates today as a warning and a promise: a warning against the distraction and inertia that drag us away from ourselves, a promise of a life that, despite its unpredictability, can be lived with intensity and awareness, if only we have the courage to pronounce, at the beginning of every undertaking, an invocation that is not a mere ritual formula, but a tangible sign of the will to awaken.