In Search of the Miraculous
In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching is a 1949 book by Russian philosopher P. D. Ouspensky about the teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff. It is widely regarded as the most comprehensive single volume account of Gurdjieff's system of thought.
Contents |
[edit] Contents
The author recollects the teachings of an individual to whom he refers only as "G.", known to be G. I. Gurdjieff, and the author's relationship with "G.", leading to his break with him.
He meets "G." in Saint Petersburg before the Russian Revolution of 1917 and follows him through the Caucasus mountains to Constantinople (present day Istanbul), and then to western Europe.
[edit] Publication
Ouspensky originally titled the book simply Fragments of an Unknown Teaching but the publisher insisted on adding the prefix In Search of The Miraculous (an expression that appears on the first page of the book) to improve sales. What became the subtitle referred to the fact that Gurdjieff did not reveal the exact provenance of his teachings[citation needed].
Originally published at the time of G. I. Gurdjieff's death and authorized by Gurdjieff himself, it is considered one of the best expositions of the structure of Gurdjieff's ideas on consciousness, self-remembering, the three-brained nature of human beings, and his cosmological structure of the universe as nested worlds.
The 2001 edition has a foreword by writer Marianne Williamson.
[edit] Further reading
- In Search of the Miraculous: The Definitive Exploration of G. I. Gurdjieff's Mystical Thought and Universal View, Harvest Book; New edition, 2001. ISBN 0156007460.
