New Book by Executive Director 2 September 2009

Our Executive Director, Professor Eric Charoux, has written and published a new book, The Triumph of Self-mastery (Telfair Press). Here are excerpts from a recent interview.



Professor Charoux, why did you decide to write this book?

I wanted to bring to the attention of the public at large the unique contributions of the Greek-Armenian mystic and spiritual teacher, G.I. Gurdjieff, in the areas of self-awareness and self-mastery. More than ever before, the world has come to accept that without self-awareness and its corollaries, self-knowledge and self-mastery, we are all doomed to live miserable and shoddy lives. Gurdjieff and his Fourth Way 'school' have so much to offer that it's about time we all become became more acquainted with his teachings.

You are focusing on self-mastery. What do you mean by this term?

In the first few pages of the book, I go to great lengths in defining carefully and operationally my usage of this term. You'll see that self-mastery implies our ability to holistically, unconditionally, and continuously observe specific manifestations in ourselves in order to acquire self-knowledge. We can then use this self-knowledge to struggle successfully against our mechanicalness in the here and now so that we transform ourselves into conscious and free human beings, concerned not only with welfare but also with that of others'.

It sounds complicated...

In reality, it is not - and an example will make this clearer. As you observe yourself over and over again, you begin to realize that you have, say, a strong need to "inner consider" - a Gurdjieffian term which implies that you often worry about what others think of you and believe that they 'owe' you something. Using this self-knowledge, you can now struggle against this deeply-seated need in you until it loses all its emotional energy.

Can one truly acquire self-mastery, at least the way you define it here?

Yes. Provided that

  • our machines have not been too damaged through our education
  • we are prepared to spend many years undoing the damage and
  • we use the context of a group - alone it cannot be done.

The book has international appeal. Why publish it here in Mauritius?

Because I spent four years writing out and validating its concepts right here in Mauritius. We are planning to launch it world-wide early next year.

What is the next step after this book?

To turn the concepts, techniques, and case studies it contains into a workbook. Next, to demonstrate how, in turn, organisations can acquire self-mastery.

 

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