Toward Awakening: An Approach to the Teaching Left by Gurdjieff

I found this book to be an extremely helpful adjunct to Gurdjieff/Ouspensky material. For anyone doing serious study of The Work, it's a valuable resource

No book is going to explain what this great possibility is: books, art, song if they are doing what they ought to do, give encouragement to that voice in the wilderness you may hear, but it can't be explicit. Nevertheless, this is a serious exposition of the general problems facing anyone with an inkling of a greater reality beyond the obvious, and how one may establish a inner presence. A very valuable book.

Vaysee covers the basics, but from the enlightened perspective of an insider. I was absolutely delighted that he gave practical advice in the closing chapters--although stressing the need to have a personal connection to a teacher in the work. Short of that critical need, this is a book that compares favorably with Ouspensky's magisterial, encyclopedic "In Search of the Miraculous." But it is easier to read.

This is one of the most important contributions to personal growth literature to appear this century. It is a vital primer for new pupils - in some ways it is more practical than Ouspensky's "Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution". Ouspensky's book is sometimes adamant, terse and over-simplified in a manner with can repel prospective pupils unnecessarily. But Vaysse's introduction to the Gurdjieff teaching is patient, sensitive and practical. Although essentially a primer, it has real depth. Every new pupil of the Work should study it thoroughly annd every group leader should stock up on copies. Reprinting of this work is in critical need, and should be tagged for the psychology shelves.