Fundamentally, if one views the Gurdjieff Work as a dynamic and mystical methodology of 'spiritual search' that is highly adaptive to modern life, then, What is its future?
Gurdjieff's own life attests to his continual exploration in bringing the Fourth Way to the Western world. It was always a work in progress, always alive to the situation.
Gurdjieff's eventual presentation of his 'system' in written form, compared to Ouspensky's earlier record from World War 1, is radically different. Why?
While experimenting with his 'Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man' in France, he resisted institutionalism. Towards the end of his life his work was with individuals and small groups.
After his death, he envisaged 'Clubs' that would be established to publicly explore and discuss his ideas, managed by those sufficiently 'prepared' to put them into practice and support the spiritual life of others.
Since Gurdjieff's death in 1949, a lineage of institutes, societies and foundations have been established. Many more 'Groups' have sprung up unconnected to Gurdjieff or his pupils. The efficacy of all these communities is a mixed bag - yet Gurdjieff's legacy continues to have an impact.
In the last 70 years much has changed. Globalization and digitalization have interconnected the world like never before. No one is immune from their influences. The last 20 years has seen an acceleration of this change, with further acceleration to come.
The whole of human life is now becoming a series of crisis reactions as these interconnected threads ripple around the world at lightning speed, like the tiny movements of a caught fly through a spider's web.
Human egotism is on display like no other time in history - everyone can be a social media superstar, and fake news and distrust of everything is now normal.
For the 'seeker after truth', the journey can be lonely. Yet, the same technology that is an instrument of monstrosity, can also be an instrument of salvation. Like-minded Souls can now connect in ways never before imagined, and so, 'Online Groups' are proliferating.
For the authentic Gurdjieff Work, compelled to find a way to adapt to meet the needs of the future, a critical question presents itself:
How to sustain the indispensability of oral transmission that is historically local, concentrated and linear, through the necessity of digital transmission that is now global, distributed and exponential?
One response to this question lies in the direct application of the laws of spiritual economics - that humanity's or individuals' transformation rests on the generation, accumulation and distribution of the necessary quantities of the qualities of energies that enable it to happen. This requires no less than a complete Science of Being.
In the end, there is now a great need to support the genuine development of humans who are called, and have the capacity, capability and commitment, to endure the stresses and strains of the current melting pot of the world - to act as good midwives for future generations and create that indestructible 'something' for themselves that only a matured Soul can provide.
Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." Mark 9: 37-38 KJV
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