I am putting this one here early as I believe it may be one of the most important books I will read, I first bought it a while ago but I was pretty amazed when I started reading it at the high level of wisdom I was trying to digest, my first reaction was that it was a bit above my level of understanding so I was just reading it in fits and starts. It is a publishing of Jeanne de Salzmann's personal notebooks so it doesn't flow like a proper book should, which could be one reason why I have taken so long to read it, but strangely I always found myself falling asleep when trying to read it, but I don't mean it is boring rather for some reason I couldn't get my mind involved in it like there was some sort of resistance for a reason I don't know or understand, even though the content I think is very important, so I am about half way through at the moment.
I think many of the ideas within the book would be very hard to understand without a good understanding of the Gurdjieff system so I wouldn't recommend it to a beginner, but for someone in the Fourth Way or interested in that area I think it is a must read as it opens up so much of the teaching, or at least the teaching as it now being presented. But amazingly I saw it in my local Heffers bookshop recently which I didn't expect.
After doing a bit of digging myself there is a bit of controversy over this book as some say that that Jeanne wouldn't have wanted it published, others say it is too high level so people will misunderstand it and distort the teachings. Others say that it is a deviation from Gurdjieff so is a new teaching in itself and isn't the real Fourth Way, as de Salzmann seems to emphasise the meditative practises over almost everything else except maybe the dances, but Gurdjieff didn't include much of this meditative emphasis in his own books.
I was always surprised at the lack of meditation in Gurdjieff's teachings seeing as just about every other esoteric teaching regards it so highly so why not include meditation along with all the other teachings? there were certain sensing exercises within his third series of writings to do with sensing the fingers and trying to distinguish between sensing and feeling, plus there is an exercise to do with saying "I AM" while sensing the solar plexus then imagining it vibrating, but there was no formal sitting like Zazen or Buddhist type meditation. I recall in 'Beelzebubs Tales' a story about "deep sea diving" which I later found out was a reference to diving into the subconscious ie meditation, he was in some sort of experimental contraption wearing a diving suit but through some linkage he could observe how his essence was reacting to such diving and he said it was like watching a puppy desperately trying to stay afloat in water, so my understanding of this is that this is a critique of doing meditation without first developing your essence to a mature level otherwise it will panic like a puppy trying to swim. I will have to look up this story again when I have time for a quote.
I feel the Gurdjieff meditation presented in The Reality of Being may be easier on your essence than Buddhist meditation because it revolves around sensing the body, so you are sensing your arms and legs while repeating affirmations such as "I AM" or "Lord have mercy" alternating between feeling and sensing, or sensing the whole body in this way, and my subjective experience of this is that through contact with your body on this level you are grounding yourself as you are connecting with your body even down to the level of bone which is very grounding to the emotional/energetic level of your being bringing it to the level of the earth, so your essence will not be panicked by it, so this level of exercise is more about integration rather than "deep sea diving".
Gurdjieff's third series is meant to be the instruction book of his teaching but many say it was unfinished, which I find strange as 'Beelzebub's Tales' is such an epic book I doubt he wouldn't have made any mistakes with his book 'Life is only real then when I AM', so maybe he felt that people weren't ready for the later teachings, so maybe this book is a continuation of sorts of Gurdjieff's third book as people are more ready now to receive it. I don't really have any answers as I am not involved in the official Fourth Way society and the book was not published by de Salzmann herself, but personally I am glad it was published as it clarifies many questions I had and shows that Gurdjieff had at least one disciple who gained great development from his system.
tbc
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