Gurdjieff's unfinished 'Life is real only then, when I Am'

Why did Gurdjieff leave this Third Series unfinished and apparently give up his intention to publish it?
door Tsenne Kikke - woensdag 17 juni 2026 2:24

Begun on the 6th of November 1934, this final volume of Gurdjieff's trilogy, 'All and Everything', is a primary source for Gurdjieff's ideas, methods, and biography. Gurdjieff offers guidance to his 'community of seekers', through a selection of talks given in 1930, autobiographical material crucial to understanding his ideas, and the incomplete essay: "The Outer and Inner World of Man." Available for the first time in paperback, this is the ultimate piece of Gurdjieff's work that his numerous followers have been waiting for.

This books opens a unique window into Gurdjieff’s personal work that is uncommon in other works. The prologue gives a most interesting disclosure of the inner world problems which Gurdjieff had to face and the process of his own spiritual evolution. The final chapter, called the ‘Inner and Outer World of Man’ is incomplete, and it stops tantilizingly when Gurdjieff is about to disclose the secret for the prolongation of human life.

Gurdjieff's friendly advice...

"Read each of my written expositions thrice:

Firstly – at least as you have already become mechanized to read all your contemporary books and newspapers.

Secondly – as if you were reading aloud to another person.

And only thirdly – try and fathom the gist of my writings."

Only then will you be able to count upon forming your own impartial judgment, proper to yourself alone, on my writings. And only then can my hope be actualized that according to your understanding you will obtain the specific benefit for yourself which I anticipate, and which I wish for you with all my being." - Gurdjieff -

Audio reading by Harold. Interested in the pdf? Click here.

"My last book, through which I wish to share with other creatures of our Common Father similar to myself, almost all the previously unknown mysteries of the inner world of man which I have accidentally learned..."

Gurdjieff wrote these words on the 6th of November 1934, and immediately started to work. For the next few months he devoted himself entirely to working out his ideas for this book. Then suddenly, on the 2nd of April 1935, he completely stopped writing.

The book ends with: "And so, among the people with whom I come in contact, the formation of the psychic factors necessary for the manifestation of attitudes diametrically opposed to me must inevitably occur in the following way: ..."

One is bound to ask: "Why did he abandon the project at this point and never return to it again? Why did he leave this Third Series unfinished and apparently give up his intention to publish it?..."

It is not possible to answer these questions unless one has been oneself engaged in the intensive work which Gurdjieff undertook in the last fifteen years of his life with a certain number of pupils, creating for them day after day the conditions necessary for a direct and practical study of his ideas. He let it be clearly understood, on the last page of 'Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, that the Third Series would be accessible only to those who would be selected as capable of understanding "the genuine objective truths which he will bring to light" in this Series.

To be, or not to be...

- He lived until 1949, but Gurdjieff stopped writing in 1935. Now, 91 years later, I stlll do not blame him. Even today it's very hard to find one person striving to 'become awake'. And, even this Spiritualia website hasn't been able to attract a single person over the past 19 years. Did Jesus succeed? I doubt it. Even his own students fell several times asleep when they were supposed to stay awake.

There are of course still thousands of people who are studying Gurdjieff's teachings, but in my opinion hardly no one who's able to practise them in daily life. "Their 'being' doesn't allow it," Gurdjieff would say.

Anyway, back then Gurdjieff was confronted with the same problem, stopped teaching the way he did before, and because the right students were missing, he also stopped writing in order not to publish.

By the way: in the previous blog you could read a bit more about it.

"Vind mensen, die in zichzelf zowel de motivatie als de aangeboren drijfveer hebben om aan hun Innerlijke Zelf te werken, en we zullen hen gidsen."

- DIMschool vzw, de énige gespecialiseerd in Zelfkennis, zijnde: het kennen van het Zelf -

- Ook kunt u via www.deinnerlijkemens.be met al onze activiteiten kennismaken -
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