Gurdjieff, A Beginner's Guide: How Changing The Way We React To Misplacing Our Keys Can Transform Our Lives Paperback – January 1, 2003

Gil Friedmen's Gurdjieff A Beginner's Guide is a concise introduction to Gurdjieff's teachings collectively known as the Fourth Way or the Work. The Fourth Way is about raising our level of being by changing the way we respond to external events. Beginner's Guide in itself is an excellent self-help book. If I implement even a handful of ideas from the book I would a become a better person. But the power of this book lies in providing a map to the wealth of literature on the Fourth Way.Twenty two years ago one of my friends introduced me to Gurdjieff's teachings and suggested  Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson: All And Everything: 1st Series (Compass) . I could not go past the first chapter of Beejlebub's tales to his grandson. I wanted to learn the Fourth Way only from the writings of Gurdjieff and it stayed inaccessible to me. Friedman's Beginner's Guide gave me the knowledge and terminology to read the other more comprehensive works on the Fourth Way and practice.Friedman's writing is very concise and up to the point. The book reads like a thriller seamlessly moving from chapter to chapter. His ideas are very accessible and inspiring. The best to learn about a subject is to write a book about it - this idea inspired me to start working on two books related to my career. Half way through the book I started to practice self-observation and see things differently albeit in a small way. After reading Beginner's Guide I was able to pick up a random chapter from  Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky 1  and understand every single line because now I know what each term means. Friedman warns that it takes a long time to internalize the principles of the Work and truly transform ourselves. Thanks to Friedman I just took the first step by reading his book.

This is a fantastic beginners guide and I also found it enjoyable to read. It's a very grounded and down to earth approach to extremely intellectually rich esoteric teachings. I found Gil Friedman's, "Gurdjieff A Beginner's Guide" to be the door opener for deeper exploration of teachings from Gurdjieff. Since I was introduced to Gurdjieff I've been wrapping my mind around Gurdjieff's books, and books written by others, such as Bennet, Nicoll, and Ouspensky.  The "new" language, definitions, and basic ideas to observe yourself and life events, i found to be stimulating and challenging, yet I was overwhelmed doing it on my own.  Friedman's book gave me the basic outline organized in a way I could follow and make sense of. Gil's book has helped me embrace the teachings by giving me some the basic terminology to digest and in this way, the bigger picture of esoteric teachings became clearer and within reach. Its helped me to make the first steps in the Work as seen by Gurdjieff. I was also inspired by Gil's book to start my own Gurdjieff reading group, which is one of the best things that came for me by reading it. Friedman even gives some suggested methods for meetings. I'm very grateful that Gil has taken the time to put this guide together.  And i thank two of my dearest teachers who recommended this book to me. They themselves have a Gurdjieff group and everyone has added Gil Friendman's A Beginner's Guide to their reference materials for the Work.AlaskaSharon

I found this book very helpful in understanding my growth in life and tools to grow. It teaches the same principles as the bible in my opinion but from a different angle. It made me realize again that life is a pursuit. As a Christian I would call this the pursuit of Holiness. As a human being I would call the work the pursuit of joy and contentment. The one thing that I believe that is not heavily pointed out is the need for God in the process. I think to achieve higher states man is not capable. So we need Gods Spirit to help us. That is what Jesus said....my summary of that is I can do nothing without God and that Jesus sent all of us a helper by the Holy Spirit. Note the word helper, we need to do the work to grow still...we can't just kick back and think it will be done for us.

This is a great starter book for those who are wanting to study "The Work" and get to know more about Gurdjieff's concept. It's easy to understand and yes it is very down to earth. I don't think this book is intended for those used to big words and intellectual terms that are often indecipherable. It is a beginner's book geared towards audiences that are looking for a change using simple and practical approaches. As you read this, you will feel the sincerity of the author and the simplicity of his explanation. It is for these reasons that attracted me to read the book and, as a matter of fact, I also bought the Audible version and would listen to it when driving or when I have my quiet moments. I am now halfway through reading The Fourth Way by P.D. Ouspensky and have also read the Meetings With Remarkable Men and In Search For The Miraculous. Talking about indecipherable books, these 3 takes time to read because one must digest it's contents very carefully and so I would sneak in the Gurdjieff, A Beginner's Guide book in between when I needed to take a break and have a KitKat :) It also helps me to come back down to the ground and feel my feet. ;)Thank you and best wishes!

Brilliance of the ideas=5Organization of the thinking=1How can we think and and productively discuss transformation. TRANSFORMATION (other than the exact nature of the Boson particle) is there a more key topic?Some great thoughts are a start. But it seems impossible to move past esoteric cult without internal derivation of concepts and external links to parallel work. Multiple identities clearly maps to splitting. I apologize, I am sure this is above Friedman's pay grade. The ideas are remarkable. I hope that more effective integration and incorporation emerges

First time I rate a book because I was looking for a accessible book to provide me an overview of this subject and it more then accomplished the task!

Very well simplified. Must for beginners.

Gurdjieff's thought could be very difficult to understand if you are not familiar with. This book is easy to read and very explanatory too.

Superb introduction to "The Work'.I would have bought this book first had i been aware of it.(Gurdjeff and Ouspensky are hard work without a guide ).I was so impressed by this that i went on to buy the Maurice Nicholl set of Psychological Commentary's , a serious financial commitment ( no regrets there) a move i would have been unlikely to have made without first reading Friedman.

Gurdjieff work can be overwhelming. This book helped me establish a foundation of knowledge in the work. I was helped by the accessible explanations of the work practices. It then gives suggestions of what to do and read beyond this book which I found very helpful. I find myself coming back to this book when I’m a bit lost in the complexity and nuances of other Gurdjieff material.