THE ideas we shall deal with here represent only one aspect of the teaching transmitted during his life by G. I. Gurdjieff. They acquire their real sense only as one of the elements of a greater whole upon which-for every man who recognizes its necessity-the work of inner transformation is based.
我们在此所讨论的观点,它仅代表葛吉夫终其一生所传递的教学的其中一个方面而已。 它们只是作为一个更大的整体的其中一个元素,对于每一个已经认识到:要了解这些观点是必要的人而言,想要获得这些观点的真正意义,非得奠基在内在转化工作之上不可。
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These ideas were expounded, first and foremost, by Gurdjieff himself in his writings’-in the form of hints, to be sure, yet with masterly breadth of vision. They have been echoed with remarkable fidelity in ‘In Search of the Miraculous’ by P. D.Ouspensky
葛吉夫本人是第一个、首位发现这些想法的人,他也在自己的著作里阐述这一切——当然,他以一种暗示的形式表达,而且他的表达具有大师级的广度。 在邬斯宾斯基所著的《探索奇迹》中,这些想法得到了非常忠实的回应。
Actually, their meaning and real importance first became apparent in the living experience which Gurdjieff provided for his students, not only by his explanations and by his direct answers to their questions, or by exercises corresponding to the stages of their development, but also, and above all, by having them participate in the tests offered by life itself.
实际上,它们的意义及其真正的重要性,首先体现在葛吉夫为其学生所提供的生命体验里,不仅通过葛氏的解释,还经由他的口述,直接回应学生们的问题,或通过给予学生练习——呼应其发展阶段的练习而体现出来,而且最重要的是——他让学生们参与生活本身所给予的测试。
It was Jeanne de Salzmann’s achievement to preserve and transmit in all their original authenticity not only the written part, but also the oral and practical parts, of the teaching given by Gurdjieff, which without her would surely have been lost. We owe her everything that has reached us.
萨尔兹曼夫人所取得的成就是——她不仅保存并且传播葛吉夫教学的书面部分,还保留葛氏教学口头和实践的部分,若非她,这些教学肯定会丢失。 我们要感谢她为我们所做的一切。
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Brought to the Western World in this particular period, Gurdjieff’s ideas contain what is probably the truest answer to the questions raised by the tremendous material power now in tape hands of modern man as he questions himself in front of the so-called “options” which its use obliges him to face.
在这个特殊时期,这些被带到西方世界的葛吉夫的思想包含了也许是最真实的答案,它回答了当下人们对现代人手中所拥有的、巨大的物质力量所引起的问题,因为葛氏在所谓的 “选择”面前质疑自己,而这种“选择”生成的用途令他不得不直面之。
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These ideas, fundamentally in accord with the traditional teachings of the Great Knowledge, make strikingly clear the deep chasm that has opened up between what they represent and our contem- porary way of living and thinking. Whoever meets them without prejudice for the first time feels touched to the heart by a force of truth that cannot be denied, and also called on to put into question all the values which until then have supported him through life.
从根本上看,这些思想符合伟大知识的传统教义,它使人清楚地看到一条巨大的鸿沟,它横亘在这些知识所代表种种,与我们当代的生活和思维方式之间。 但凡有人不带偏见地初见这些理论,他的心都会被触动,他会感到被一种不可否认的真理力量所碰触,同时,这些知识也会号召人去质疑所有支持他生活的价值观。
To make this first contact is often difficult, and it is here that the author wishes to make a contribution by helping to get them better known.
令这种首次接触发生往往很困难,正因此,作者在此希望多做贡献,帮助人们更好地了解它们。
Being the work of one man, this attempt to restate in an accessible form the main points of this new “doctrine of awakening” is of necessity limited. The following chapters are the written record of a series of preliminary explanations addressed to people of different backgrounds who had shown a desire to undertake a study of this teaching. That is why a considerable amount of material borrowed from the previously mentioned works will be found here.
去成为一个人的“工作”,我们试图要以一种易懂的形式重述这种工作,而这种重述构成了新的“觉醒学说”的要点,可是这种尝试必然受限。 以下各章节是一系列的、初步解释该“工作”的书面记录,这些解释针对那些来自不同背景,却有意愿研究这一教义的人。 这就是为什么,这里会有大量的、从前述作品借用的材料。
Some redundancy has been allowed in order that each of the following essays should constitute a whole in itself, and for this the author asks to be excused. Since words have a relative meaning, the question of language had to be taken into account. For, while the vocabulary employed by Gurdjieff is very simple, the meaning of some of the words he used is not always the same as that finally imposed on them in other contemporary systems of ideas. Moreover, the meaning of certain words depends on the reader’s level of understanding, and their “real” meaning may be very different from their everyday usage. Words which lend themselves to confusion in one way or another are placed in quotation marks.
为了使以下每篇文章本身构成一个整体,我们要允许有一些赘词,为此,作者请求读者谅解。由于词语具有相对意义,因此,我们必须考虑语言问题。 因为原因是:虽然葛吉夫所使用的词汇非常简单,但是他应用的、某些词汇的含义并不总是与其它当代思想体系中最后强加在词语上的含义相同。 此外,某些词语的含义取决于读者的理解水平,它们的 “真正”含义可能与它们的日常用法相去甚远。在某种程度上,那些容易引起混淆的词会被放在引号内。
We realize that the general form of this book does not make for easy reading, but for various reasons this form seems to us valid. While one may not understand at all how such ideas can appear and develop, it is obvious that a condensation of this kind is the result of a long collective work in front of which personality can only stand aside and make way for the deeper meaning of the thought. By finding again and again in himself the taste of this attitude, may the reader of these pages receive practical help in his own search for an unchangeable truth!