Ṣūfism and the Gurdjieff ‘Work’: A Contested Relationship

The origins of ‘the Work’, the system taught by the Greek-Armenian esoteric spiritual teacher, George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (c. 1866–1949) remain obscure, and its sources have been sought in a range of religious traditions, most commonly Buddhism, Christianity, and Ṣūfism.1 This chapter interrogates the claim that Gurdjieff ’s teaching is broadly derived from Islamic sources, in particular central Asian Ṣūfism. Gurdjieff spoke of his system as “esoteric Christianity,” and his cosmology owes a debt to neo-Platonism, in particular the works of Iamblichus (Azize 2010). However, his pupil John Godolphin Bennett (1897– 1974) believed that Ṣūfism was the ultimate source of Gurdjieff ’s teaching. In this chapter Ṣūfi influence is identified in four areas of the Work. First, Gurdjieff ’s travels in search of wisdom, chronicled in a fictionalised form in Meetings with Remarkable Men (1963), seemingly led him to Ṣūfi monasteries in Central Asia, where he learned the meditative techniques of “self-remembering” and the “Movements” (Hunt 2003). Gurdjieff ’s magnum opus, Beelzebub’s Tales To His Grandson (1950) also features Ṣūfi characters and teaching stories. Second, the sacred dances or Movements that Gurdjieff taught have been presumed to originate in dervish dances (Barber 1986). Third, his pupil John Godolphin Bennett (1897–1974) identified Gurdjieff ’s distinctive persona and teaching method, involving insults and “shocks,” as deriving from the Ṣūfi malamatiyyah or “way of blame” (Bennett 1973). Bennett’s involvement with soi-disant Ṣūfi master Idries Shah (1924–1996) and with Indonesian new religion Subud (founded by Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo, 1901–1987), itself influenced by (Javanese) Ṣūfism, is discussed (Geels 1997), as is the Bennett lineage’s links with contemporary Ṣūfism. Fourth and finally,