Quien Es Usted, Señor Gurdjieff?

by ZUBER R.

René Zuber (1902-1979) formó parte del primer grupo de alumnos franceses reunidos alrededor de Gurdjieff por iniciativa de la Sra. de Salzmann después de la segunda guerra mundial.

Fotógrafo, cineasta, por vocación observador de las diferentes formas de civilización, ha realizado un buen número de películas documentales en Grecia, en el Medio Oriente y África.

Sin ninguna duda su encuentro con Gurdjieff en 1943 no fue fruto del azar sino más bien el resultado de una larga búsqueda inconsciente: “Tú no me buscarías si no me hubieras encontrado

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Spirituality, Biography, Philosophy

Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

Reviews

[Fred Jenkins]

I read the English translation of this something like a decade ago, now reading the original. My French is somewhat rusty, so to be accurate, partly reading directly and partly translating. Zuber seems to be at least partly attempting to answer his question for himself. He does not assume that other students of G would have the same answer: "Mais je sais que chacun de ceux qui l'ont rencontré, s'il consentait à parler, en donnerait une image bien à lui, différente de celle du voisin."

Much of the book consists of vignettes of Zuber's encounters with G. The story of Zuber hanging a Christmas tree from the ceiling by its roots at G's directon is truly hilarious. You have to think that some of Gurdjieff's outrageous demands were to see how far he could push someone before they would think for themselves and say that it doesn't make sense. There are also some spots where Zuber simply gives long passages from Ouspenksy's In Search of the Miraculous; better to just read it in context in Ouspensky. Zuber is also far too concerned with trying to make Gurdjieff's teaching entirely Christian. There are clearly a lot of parallels with Orthodox mysticism and G spent time on Athos, but he also spent a lot of time studying various traditions in Central Asia and draws on them. As Zuber himself observes "Juive, chrétienne, bouddhique, lamaïque, islamique... dès qu'on va jusqu'à la moelle de l'os on touche, sous les appellations differents, la même vérité." So why? Better to look at it for what it is and not try to map it to something else to make it more comfortable (it isn't supposed to be).

The explication of the toasts to the idiots in the supplementary materials is one of the few by someone who actually spent time with G; it is possibly the most valuable part of the book.

Zuber thinks he wrote this for others, but he clearly wrote it for himself. Still a useful contemporary account.

[Scot]

Over the last year or so I have been consuming as many first hand accounts of those that were direct students of GI Gurdjieff after having read all of his writing including Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, Meetings with Remarkable Men, etc.

Though I would not put this one at the top of my list as I preferred Tshekovitch, Peters and the de Hartmann's accounts, I quite enjoyed Zuber's take on working and being in the presence of Gurdjieff. He gave you a taste of what he was able to elicit from those that worked from him and obviously had a huge amount of respect.

I found his take on Gurdjieff as an esoteric Christian fascinating as he was not only able to dispel the normal negative associations one has with the modern version of the religion, but also made quite an interesting case for his point of view. It was clear the author's love of hierarchy and be raised christian colored his point of view. But since Zuber was a relatively famous documentary filmmaker at the time who specialized in places off the beaten path that held many different faith traditions, it is clear there is more to his argument than meets the eye.

As another reviewer noted, the introduction by PL Travers was otherworldly and may have been worth the price of admission alone.

Not recommended for anyone that is not well steeped in the 4th Way work or the writing of Gurdjieff himself.

[Maureen]

Rene Zuber was a cameraman and documentary filmmaker who studied with Gurdjieff during WWII, a treacherous time to be in Paris. Everything outside the door of the apartment in the Rue de Colonels Reynard is left behind when Zuber enters Gurdjieff's domain. This delightfully meandering memoir recounts both experience and questions about Gurdjieff and his teachings. Even in translation, Zuber's character, and his teacher's, shine through.

P.L. Travers, author of the Mary Poppins books, wrote the forward, which is worth the price of the book itself. All in all, this is a successful foray into the world of Fourth Way ideas.

[Lina Slavova]

Review to follow.

[Dean Paradiso]

Interesting read that offers many personal anecdotes and memories by the author. The author's speculation on Christianity and it's relation to Gurdjieff is a little too subjective/irrelevant for my liking. On the whole, a short read from someone who lived with G in the latter stages of his life.