Someone asked me why on Earth I'd said on my website that it can be surprisingly easy to find a Work teacher. And my answer is, because that's what happened to me.
I was seeking a Sufi teacher, and was introduced to Marian Davison, who turned out to be not only a Sheikh in the Sufi Order I wanted to join but also a Work teacher in the Nicoll line, authorized by Beryl Pogson to teach the Work. I'd been interested in the Work and had read "In Search of the Miraculous", but had not met anyone actually in it. I was very grateful that suddenly two previously closed doors had opened for me, and I've never looked back. And I've seen this type of meeting happen for several people. I think it illustrates the truth of the old saying that "When the student is ready, the teacher appears".
But it doesn't always happen that way, and sometimes the search for a teacher is part of a student's journey towards finding the Work. The search can strengthen one's determination and commitment, so that when a teacher is eventually found the student appreciates him or her all the more.
So how might someone set about finding a teacher today?
First of all, check the Gurdjieff Foundation websites for London, Paris or New York, depending on where they lived. The Foundation has a number of groups taught by people who've been properly authorized to teach by former students of Gurdjieff, Ouspensky or Maurice Nicoll. If you're sincerely seeking a teacher, you'd contact the relevant Foundation and ask for an interview. Eventually, if you're found suited to the Work - if you're a Good Householder, not merely curious and not mentally unstable - you may be provisionally admitted to a group.
Because I travelled a great deal in my life, I've been privileged to have been in groups affiliated with all three of the Foundations. I was able to take part in Work groups in the US, UK and Israel, and consequently met and studied with a number of teachers.
And the quality and ability of those teachers varied a great deal.
It's really important to have teachers who are themselves Good Householders, who have good will towards their students, and a great love of the Work. But sadly, this isn't always the case. I've seen a new student reduced to tears by the ranting of an insensitive, angry teacher who'd become completely identified with the role of "tyrant king". And I've seen the opposite extreme, too: a group taught by a weak, passive teacher who never called for any real efforts to be made, so that the students were never shown how to make observations, and learned nothing.
A new Work student, lacking the ability to judge the worth of a teacher, is vulnerable to spiritual and emotional abuse. We're told, rightly, that we can't judge the level of Being of our teacher because he or she is at a higher level than we are, and the lower can't assess the higher; it is possible only the other way around. How, then, can a beginner be sure the teacher won't turn out to be abusive?
Similar abuse can happen with counselling clients, but counsellors today are at least trained and certified and most belong to a professional body, so that some sort of reasonable standard may be expected. The same is true of teachers in other fields. But there is no such training for a Work teacher, nor can there be.
The qualification for becoming a teacher in the Work is that of having shown by one's own progress in Being and in Knowledge that one understands the Work well enough to teach it. That assessment is made by one's own teacher, based on his or her knowledge of us. That teacher can then authorize a student to teach the Work. If the teacher has been trained by someone in the line of the original teachers - Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, Nicoll - there's a good chance of the assessment's being accurate. But today, the original successors are very elderly or have passed away, and we have to rely on the successors of the successors - if we're lucky.
So anyone looking for a Work teacher absolutely needs to make sure that the teacher to whom they're assigned is really in the direct line of succession from the original founders, and not simply someone who's decided they are qualified to teach! If the teacher is approached via the Foundations, that qualification will be met.
There are other organizations claiming the Gurdjieff inheritance, ranging from the Renaissance "People of the Bookmark" in California to independent, self-taught groups springing up around the world. None of them are genuine Work teachers, and studying with them could cause all sorts of problems, ranging from simply wasting one's time to being left confused and disoriented, not to mention out of pocket from unscrupulous teachers' demands for money.
The line of succession must be maintained, but on its own, it is not enough.
I'll continue this discussion in the next post.
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