I. VAMA MARGA Foundations Of The Left-Hand Path - staticfly.net

student of the Western sinister current must contend with. This connection of
de Naglowska, who we will investigate later, with Randolph's influential sex
magical writings, illuminates the previously neglected role that the distinctive
but little-known Russian strain of the magical revival played in the
development of the Western sinister current. Madame Blavatsky, one of the
originators of the magical renaissance, was only the first of a series of
Russian occultists who were important bridges between the Western and
Eastern esoteric traditions.
G.I. Gurdjieff And The Sexual Center
I certainly have an aim of my own, but you must permit me to keep
silent about it. —G.I. Gurdjieff to P.D. Ouspensky
No analysis of the left-hand path in the West can ignore the teaching of the
enigmatic Russian known as Georgei Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (1874—1949).
Those who have studied Gurdjieff's system of spiritual awakening,
alternately called the Fourth Way, the Way of the Sly Man, or simply the
Work, without comparing it to earlier traditions, may be surprised to find him
in the company of left-hand path sex magicians. But the similarities between
Gurdjieff's system and that posited by the traditional left-hand path are
unmistakable. Indeed, the Fourth Way appears to be a Tantra consciously
adapted for modern Europeans, a condensation of the central left-hand path
concepts, less most of the Eastern terminology. Gurdjieff himself made no
claim to originality, acknowledging that he was merely the herald of a
nameless ancient tradition to the West. This vaguely described teaching had
supposedly been mastered by Gurdjieff during a period of wanderings in the
East. In this, he was little different than his predecessor Madame Blavatsky,
who also spoke cryptically of secret initiations conferred in Tibet, or the
claim of Theodor Reuss that the secret sexual doctrine of his O.T.O. was
conveyed by Eastern sages.
If one eye-witness account, reported by Gurdjieff's disciple
Maurice Nicoll, can he believed, at least one traditional practice of the
Tibetan Buddhist branch of the left-hand path was known to Gurdjieff.
Nicoll claimed that he once accidentally caught a glimpse of his teacher,
who was unaware of being observed, murmuring to himself: "I am dordje, I
am dordje." Dorje is Tibetan for Vajra, the thunderbolt that descends from
the celestial region to the earth (luring the sexual rites of the vajrayana.
According to Tantra, he or she who becomes dorje or vajra has walked the
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left-hand path to reach a sovereign and indestructible state of being. This
incident, if true, suggests that Gurdjieff privately incorporated left-hand path
methods into his own self-initiation, even if he did not include such
doctrines in his teaching to others.
It has been suggested that Gurdjieff actually cobbled together his
teaching from a simplified amalgamation of Tantric Buddhism learned in
Tibetan monasteries and Sufi principles obtained through encounters with
Islamic Dervish orders. Less glamorously, the Work might just as easily
have adapted from occult books that would have available in the Russia of
Gurdjieff's youth. Whatever the actual origin of the Fourth Way, even a brief
outline of the most important elements reveals strong left-hand path
influence.
Gurdjieff's most influential disciple, P. D. Ouspensky, when pressed
to define his Master's chief lesson, summed it up succinctly: "Man is asleep.
He must wake up." Gurdjieff's hypothesis that the natural state of humanity
is a nearly comatose spiritual sleep, a listless daydream through which he or
she moves mechanically, seems to reflect the Tantric left-hand path concept
of Supta, or sleep. The adherents of the Fourth Way, in their difficult
striving to wake up, are compelled to build up an unnatural "super-effort", a
force within themselves which they utilize to counter the heavy weight of
sleep. The Vama Marga adept is also taught to violently assault his or her