Based on notebooks kept by G.I. Gurdjieff's closest follower, this book offers new insight on his spiritual teachings-a way of gnosisor "knowledge of being" passed on from remote antiquity. It is a complete and uniquely authoritative guide to the great teacher's ideas and to his methods for liberating ourselves from the state of "waking sleep" in which most of us live our lives. Gurdjieff respected traditional religious practices, which he regarded as falling into three general categories or "ways": the Way of the Fakir, related to mastery of the physical body; the Way of the Monk, based on faith and feeling; and the Way of the Yogi, which focuses on development of the mind. He presented his teaching as a Fourth Way that integrated these three aspects into a single path of self-knowledge. Progress in the Fourth Way comes through conscious effort toward a quality of thinking and feeling that brings a new capacity to see clearly and to love.

Jeanne De Salzmann (1889-1990) was born in France and pursued a career in music, dance, and theater. She met Gurdjieff in 1919 and became his closest pupil. Before his death in 1949, Gurdjieff directed de Salzmann to continue his work worldwide. She founded centers in New York, Paris, London, and Caracas, Venezuela. Madame, as she was respectfully called, was an esteemed teacher in her own right, transmitting the Gurdjieff Work and especially his "Movements," or sacred dances.