The Life & Legacy of P.D. Ouspensky |
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October 2, 1997, marks the 50th anniversary of the death of P.D. Ouspensky at 69 years of age. A man of great integrity, blessed with a rare and penetrating intellect, a phenomenal memory and a deep thirst for truth and liberation, Mr. Ouspensky to the very end was a seeker in the best sense of that word. He drew his last breath in the arms of his student Rodney Collin, who believed that he died a conscious death. There is no reason to believe it was not so, given his long and faithful practice of the teaching as it had been given to him by his first and only teacher, George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff. His legacy shines in the remarkable quality of the writing he left behind, a quality of such scale and depth that his books continue to inspire new generations. His best-known work, In Search of the Miraculous, begun in Constantinople in 1921 and rewritten over the years, was not published until two years after his death in 1950. It exerted then, as it continues to do today, a special influence on mind and heart, responsible for enlisting people in all parts of the world in the sacred and ancient quest of self-awakening. May this light never dim. As inspiring as his search and his written works are, they also leave a number of questions that must be answered, if the light that he was for so many is not to fall into shadow with all its attendant confusions. It is undeniable that he left Mr. Gurdjieff because, as he said, "I ceased to understand him." Understanding, as Gurdjieff told Ouspensky, is composed of knowledge and being and, as such, cannot be given but must be earned. The teacher's understanding, by definition, is higher than the student's and therefore the student will not always understand the teacher's actions. Still, he must follow. Ouspensky refused and so broke the octave of the teaching. Worse, limited in understanding, he began to teach, thus initiating what for some people would be a new line, the socalled "Ouspensky line." This line continued through Rodney Collin in Mexico and Dr. Francis Roles in England. There are remnants of Collin's teaching that still exist today in Mexico and South America. Roles continued Ouspensky's work for many years, keeping it free of other teachings. However, in his last years he agreed to mix the teaching with Vedanta. It also became mixed with the late Leon McLaren's London School of Economic Science, as well as its satellite, The School of Practical Philosophy. In effect then, the Ouspensky line, diluted to begin with, has been so mixed that it is no longer a Fourth Way Teaching. The inarguable fact is that there is only one legitimate line of The Fourth Way—the Gurdjieff line. The idea that there could be an Ouspensky line, or Bennett, or Nicoll line is in no way supportable. None of these men were on Gurdjieff's level. None brought a teaching. Each was a pupil of Gurdjieff's. One can only now meet these men through their writings. Ouspensky's books stand head and shoulders over the others, yet even his best is far below the quality of Gurdjieff's All and Everything.
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For the remainder of this article, please order The Gurdjieff Journal Issue #15 |