An important book on liberating ourselves from the state of “waking sleep” in which we live our lives, as taught by one of the most influential spiritual teachers of the 20th century

As the closest pupil of the charismatic spiritual master G. I. Gurdjieff (1866–1949), Jeanne de Salzmann was charged with carrying on his teachings of spiritual transformation. Known as the Fourth Way or “The Work,” Gurdjieff’s system was based on teachings of the East that he adapted for modern life in the West. Now, some twenty years after de Salzmann's death, the notebooks that she filled with her insights over a forty-year period (and intended to publish) have been translated and edited by a small group of her family and followers. The result is this long-awaited guide to Gurdjieff's teaching, describing the routes to be traveled and the landmarks encountered along the way. Organized according to themes, the chapters touch on all the important concepts and practices of the Work, including:

• Awakening from the sleep of identification with the ordinary level of being
• Self-observation and self-remembering
• Conscious effort and voluntary suffering
• Understanding symbolic concepts like the Enneagram
• The Gurdjieff Movements, bodily exercises that provide training in Presence and the awareness of subtle energies
• The necessity of a "school," meaning the collective practice of the teaching in a group

Madame de Salzmann brings to the Work her own strong, direct language and personal journey in learning to live that knowledge of a higher level of being, which, she insists, “you have to see for yourself” on a level beyond theory and concept. De Salzmann consistently refused to discuss the teaching in terms of ideas, for this Fourth Way is to be experienced, not simply thought or believed.

Based on notebooks kept by G.I. Gurdjieff's closest follower, this book offers new insight on his spiritual teachings-a way of gnosis or "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.

“A work that offers a long-needed clarification and exploration of what G. I. Gurdjieff called the Fourth Way. Madame de Salzmann’s writing style will strike outsiders as having the clarity of reporting and the concentration of poetry. The light she shines is a watershed event in the development of the teaching, and in spiritual search in the West. With the publication of her book, she joins Gurdjieff and other great masters from other times and traditions who have dedicated their lives to bringing the incomparable gift of true consciousness, true love, and true being to the world.”—Tracy Cochran, Parabola magazine