Travels in The Middle East
In 1953, he undertook a long journey to the Middle East, visiting Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Persia. His search, chronicled in his book Journeys in Islamic Countries brought him into contact with Sufis of extraordinary accomplishment, such as Emin Chikou and Farhad Dede, but he found in none of them the quality he perceived in Gurdjieff, of universal understanding transcending local conditioning.
During 1954, there were increasingly evident differences of opinion between Bennett and Madame de Salzmann regarding the promulgation of Gurdjieff's teachings, and Bennett came to realise that an effectual working relationship with her groups was not possible. Bennett wished to execute Gurdjieff's last directives literally, by disseminating his ideas and writings as widely as possible, especially Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandson, which Madame de Salzmann wanted to keep away from the public eye.
In 1955, he initiated a project to build an unusual nine-sided meeting hall at Coombe Springs for the performance of Gurdjieff's sacred dance movements. This, together with his public lectures in London, completed the rift with Madame de Salzmann. The project took two years to complete. At the opening in 1957, Bennett commented that the real value of such a project was in building a community rather than the building itself.
Read more about this topic: John G. Bennett
Famous quotes containing the words middle east, travels in, travels, middle and/or east:
“During the first formative centuries of its existence, Christianity was separated from and indeed antagonistic to the state, with which it only later became involved. From the lifetime of its founder, Islam was the state, and the identity of religion and government is indelibly stamped on the memories and awareness of the faithful from their own sacred writings, history, and experience.”
—Bernard Lewis, U.S. Middle Eastern specialist. Islam and the West, ch. 8, Oxford University Press (1993)
“Take the instant way,
For honor travels in a strait so narrow,
Where one but goes abreast. Keep then the path,
For emulation hath a thousand sons
That one by one pursue. If you give way,
Or hedge aside from the direct forthright,
Like to an entered tide, they all rush by
And leave you hindmost.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“In all my travels I never met with any one Scotchman but what was a man of sense: I believe everybody of that country that has any, leaves it as fast as they can.”
—Francis Lockier (1668–1740)
“Perhaps if the future existed, concretely and individually, as something that could be discerned by a better brain, the past would not be so seductive: its demands would be balanced by those of the future. Persons might then straddle the middle stretch of the seesaw when considering this or that object. It might be fun.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“If the east wind doesn’t prevail over the west wind, then the west wind will prevail over the east wind.”
—Chinese proverb.