P. D. Ouspensky | |
---|---|
Born | Pyotr Demyanovich Uspensky (1878-03-05)5 March 1878 |
Died | 2 October 1947(1947-10-02) (aged 69) Lyne Place,Surrey, England, UK |
Pyotr Demyanovich Uspensky (Russian:Пётр Демьянович Успенский; 5 March 1878 – 2 October 1947), known in English asP. D. Ouspensky,[1] was a Russian philosopher andesotericist known for his expositions of the early work of the Greek-Armenian teacher of esoteric doctrineGeorge Gurdjieff. He met Gurdjieff inMoscow in 1915, and was associated with the ideas and practices originating with Gurdjieff from then on. He taught ideas and methods based in the Gurdjieff system for 25 years in England and the United States, although he separated from Gurdjieff personally in 1924, for reasons that are explained in the last chapter of his bookIn Search of the Miraculous.
Ouspensky studied the Gurdjieff system directly under Gurdjieff's own supervision for a period of ten years, from 1915 to 1924.In Search of the Miraculous recounts what he learned from Gurdjieff during those years. While lecturing in London in 1924, he announced that he would continue independently the way he had begun in 1921. Some, including his close pupilRodney Collin, say that he finally gave up the system in 1947, just before his death, but his own recorded words on the subject ("A Record of Meetings", published posthumously) do not clearly endorse this judgement.[2]
Ouspensky was born inMoscow,Russian Empire in 1878. In 1890, he studied at the Second Moscow Gymnasium, a government school attended by boys aged 10 to 18. At the age of 16, he was expelled from school for painting graffiti on the wall in plain sight of a visiting inspector. From then on he was more or less on his own.[3] In 1906, he worked in the editorial office of theMoscow daily paperThe Morning. In 1907 he became interested inTheosophy. In the autumn of 1913, aged 35, he journeyed tothe East in search of the miraculous. He visited Theosophists inAdyar inTamil Nadu, India, but was forced to return to Moscow after the beginning ofthe Great War. In Moscow he met Gurdjieff and married Sophie Grigorievna Maximenko. He had a mistress by the name of Anna Ilinishna Butkovsky.[4]
During his years in Moscow, Ouspensky wrote for several newspapers and was particularly interested in the then-fashionable idea of thefourth dimension.[5] His first work, published in 1909, was titledThe Fourth Dimension.[6] It was influenced by the ideas prevalent in the works ofCharles H. Hinton,[7] which treat the fourth dimension as an extension in space.[8][9] Ouspensky treats time as a fourth dimension only indirectly in a novel he wrote titledStrange Life of Ivan Osokin[10] where he also explores the theory ofeternal recurrence.
Ouspensky's second work,Tertium Organum, was published in 1912. In it he denies the ultimate reality of space and time,[11] and negatesAristotle's Logical Formula of Identification of "A is A", concluding in his "higher logic" that A is both A and not-A.[12] Unbeknown to Ouspensky, a Russian émigré by the name of Nicholas Bessarabof took a copy ofTertium Organum to America and placed it in the hands of the architectClaude Bragdon, who could read Russian and was interested in the fourth dimension.[13]Tertium Organum was rendered into English by Bragdon, who had incorporated his own design of thehypercube[14][15] into theRochester Chamber of Commerce building.[16] Bragdon also published the book, and the publication was such a success that it was finally taken up byAlfred A. Knopf. At the time, in the early 1920s, Ouspensky's whereabouts were unknown. Bragdon located him inConstantinople and paid him back some royalties.
Ouspensky traveled in Europe and the East —India,Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) andEgypt — in his search for knowledge. After his return to Russia and his introduction to Gurdjieff in 1915, he spent the next few years studying with him, and supporting the founding of a school.
Prior to 1914, Ouspensky had written and published a number of articles. In 1917, he updated these articles to include "recent developments in physics" and republished them as a book in Russian entitledA New Model of the Universe.[17] The work, as reflected in its title, shows the influence ofFrancis Bacon andMax Müller, and has been interpreted as an attempt to reconcile ideas fromnatural science andreligious studies with esoteric teachings in the tradition of Gurdjieff andTheosophy.[18] It was assumed that the book was lost to theRussian Revolution's violence, but it was then republished in English (without Ouspensky's knowledge) in 1931. The work has attracted the interest of a number of philosophers and has been a widely accepted authoritative basis for a study ofmetaphysics.[citation needed] Ouspensky sought to exceed the limits of metaphysics with his "psychological method", which he defined as "a calibration of the tools of human understanding to derive the actual meaning of the thing itself" (paraphrasing p. 75.). According to Ouspensky, "The idea of esotericism ... holds that the very great majority of our ideas are not the product of evolution but the product of the degeneration of ideas which existed at some time or are still existing somewhere in much higher, purer and more complete forms" (p. 47). The book also provided an original discussion on the nature and expression ofsexuality; among other things, he draws a distinction betweenerotica andpornography.[citation needed]
Ouspensky's lectures in London were attended by such literary figures asAldous Huxley,T. S. Eliot,Gerald Heard and other writers, journalists and doctors. His influence on the literary scene of the 1920s and 1930s as well as on theRussian avant-garde was immense but remains very little known.[19] It was said of Ouspensky that, though nonreligious, he had one prayer: not to become famous during his lifetime.
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After theBolshevik revolution, Ouspensky travelled to London by way ofIstanbul. In London, a number of eminent people became interested in his work. Lady Rothermere, wife ofHarold Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere, a press magnate, was willing to promoteTertium Organum. The influential intellectual and editorA. R. Orage became deeply interested in Ouspensky's ideas and promoted their discussion in various circles. Prominent theosophist and editorG. R. S. Mead became interested in his ideas on the fourth dimension.
By order of the British government, Gurdjieff was not allowed to settle in London. Gurdjieff eventually went to France with a considerable sum of money raised by Ouspensky and his friends, and settled down near Paris at the Prieuré inFontainebleau-Avon.[20] It was during this time, after Gurdjieff founded hisInstitute for the Harmonious Development of Man in France, that Ouspensky came to the conclusion that he was no longer able to understand his former teacher and made a decision to discontinue association with him. He set up his own organisation,The Society for the Study of Normal Psychology, which is now known as The Study Society.[21]
Ouspensky wrote about Gurdjieff's teachings in a book originally entitledFragments of an Unknown Teaching, published posthumously in 1947 under the titleIn Search of the Miraculous. While this volume has been criticized by some of those who have followed Gurdjieff's teachings as only a partial representation of the totality of his ideas, it provides what is probably the most concise explanation of the material that was included. This is in sharp contrast to the writings of Gurdjieff himself, such asBeelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, where the ideas and precepts of Gurdjieff's teachings are found very deeply veiled inallegory. Initially, Ouspensky had intended this book to be published only ifBeelzebub's Tales were not published. But after his death, Mme. Ouspensky showed its draft to Gurdjieff, who praised its accuracy and permitted its publication.
With the effect of the commencement of the Second World War on Britain, Ouspensky emigrated, with his wife, to the U.S. They settled on a farm in New Jersey.[22] The Ouspenskys moved back to their former home region in the U.K. after the war was over. Ouspensky died inLyne Place,Surrey, in 1947. Shortly after his death,The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution was published, together withIn Search of the Miraculous. A facsimile edition ofIn Search of the Miraculous was published in 2004 by Paul H. Crompton Ltd. London. Transcripts of some of his lectures were published under the title ofThe Fourth Way in 1957; largely a collection of question and answer sessions, the book details important concepts, both introductory and advanced, for students of these teachings.
Ouspensky's papers are held atYale University Library's Manuscripts and Archives department.
After Ouspensky broke away from Gurdjieff, he taught the "Fourth Way", as he understood it, to his independent groups.
Gurdjieff proposed that there are three ways of self-development generally known in esoteric circles. These are the Way of theFakir, dealing exclusively with the physical body, the Way of theMonk, dealing with the emotions, and the Way of theYogi, dealing with the mind. What is common to all three ways is that they demand complete seclusion from the world. According to Gurdjieff, there is a Fourth Way which does not demand its followers to abandon the world. The work of self-development takes place right in the midst of ordinary life. Gurdjieff called his system a school of the Fourth Way in which a person learns to work in harmony with his physical body, emotions and mind. Ouspensky picked up this idea and continued his own school along this line.[23]
Ouspensky made the term "Fourth Way" and its use central to his own teaching of the ideas of Gurdjieff. He greatly focused on Fourth Way schools and their existence throughout history.
Among his students wereRodney Collin,Maurice Nicoll,Robert S. de Ropp,Kenneth Walker, andRemedios Varo.[24]
Ouspensky personally confessed the difficulties he was experiencing with 'self-remembering' - the practice of a deep state of mindfulness, rooting one in the present moment, whatever one is doing. (The present definition of the term in the teachings ofAdvaita is “to be in awareness”, or “being aware of being aware”, while inBuddhism the corresponding practice is 'mindfulness'). 'Self-remembering' was a technique to which Ouspensky had been introduced by Gurdjieff himself, the teacher having explained to him that self-remembering is the key to all else in ‘the Work’. While in Russia, Ouspensky experimented with the technique with a certain degree of success, and in his lectures in London and America he emphasized the importance of its practice. The technique requires a division of attention, so that a person not only pays attention to what is going on in the exterior world but also in the interior. A. L. Volinsky, an acquaintance of Ouspensky in Russia, mentioned to him that this was whatWundt meant byapperception. Ouspensky disagreed and commented on how an idea so profound to him would pass unnoticed by people whom he considered intelligent. Gurdjieff explained that in order to bring about a result or manifestation, three things are necessary. With self-remembering and self-observation two things are present. The third one is explained by Ouspensky in his tract on Conscience: it is the non-expression of negative emotions.[25][26]
The meaning of life is an eternal search.
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