Gurdjieff International Review

Ouspensky on Love

by Claude Bragdon

The fifteenth chapter of Tertium Organum is devoted to a discussion of love. We have had Freud on love, and Schopenhauer on love, but what dusty answers do they give to the soul of a lover! Edward Carpenter comes much nearer the mark, but Ouspensky penetrates to its very center.

We all know, in our secret hearts, that love is a mystical experience, however much we belittle it and degrade it, and strive to use it for our own ends. It is because of our egotisms, our cautions and our cowardices that we rot and smoulder instead of bursting into purifying flame.…

[The complete text is available in the printed copy of this issue.]