Eight Meetings in Paris, 1943, 1944, 1946

Transcripts of eight group meetings held by G. I. Gurdjieff with his Paris pupils on April 8, July 22, September 18, and December 9, 1943; January 18, May 25, and July 13, 1944; and December 9, 1946. The format is question-and-answer: named pupils (Lebeau, Philippe, Aboulker, Simone, Luc, Tracol and others) bring their difficulties and observations from practical work, and Gurdjieff responds directly, often bluntly, redirecting questions he considers theoretical or subjective back toward the questioner's own experience. The exchanges cover where and how self-remembering can be practiced in ordinary circumstances, the meaning of 'sacrifice thy suffering' as voluntary suffering borne for others, the distinction between love and sexual function and the conservation of sexual substance for the formation of a second body, the role of negative emotions and inner struggle, and above all the difference between ordinary effort and the 'super-effort' Gurdjieff insists is required for real change. These are working notes from the last years of Gurdjieff's teaching in occupied and postwar Paris, circulated in English translation via the Gurdjieff Bibliography archive rather than issued as a commercially published book.