Why should we work on ourselves when the conflicts of the world seem to urgently demand our attention? Our cultural and political moment echoes the chaos Gurdjieff and his students lived through: civil wars, international wars, ascendant fascism, and military occupation. Yet throughout these crises, Gurdjieff taught something unexpected—that all of these conflicts were the result of planetary influences rather than human decision-making. "Several millions of sleeping people are trying to destroy several millions of other sleeping people," he observed during World War I. "They would not do this, of course, if they were to wake up." 

But what is waking up? Is our passionate political identification actually a form of consciousness, or is it another form of sleep? Can we actively engage injustice without becoming consumed by it? What does impartiality mean when it's not indifference?

Gurdjieff's own life demonstrates the apparent paradox at the heart of this teaching. He navigated his group of students through the ever-shifting front lines of the Russian Civil War while maintaining complete neutrality toward all sides. He fed starving Parisians and hid Jewish refugees during Nazi occupation while declaring himself uninterested in who won the war. His impartiality was not passivity—it enabled more effective action, not less. 

This exchange explores Gurdjieff’s views on the causes of war and the importance of inner work for the world at large.  We will also discuss how Fourth Way concepts such as non-identification and external considering might apply to our own moment of political division and institutional breakdown. What becomes possible when we refuse to let political chaos interrupt the fundamental work of becoming conscious—for our sake of the good of the whole? 

Want to let us know you're coming? RSVP appreciated but not required: info@gurdjieffasheville.org