Gurdjieff strongly condemned masturbation, contraception and homosexuality as affronts to the proper order of nature. (LINK)

Perhaps that helps to explain why he was such a prolific procreater. According to Mark Pilkington, "He was highly charismatic and a notorious womaniser, said to have fathered over 100 children."

Much has been written about what "the Work" is (see here, here, and here). My intention is not to restate that which has been well defined.

I've been trying to come up with a suitable allegory for the Work, and what first came to mind is an automobile factory in which new cars are manufactured (new-born human beings), but soon after being driven off the assembly line the air filter is removed, the tires are slashed, it's then run on the rims, later crashed into a concrete wall, and finally gasoline is poured inside and ignited. The car is somehow driven for 20 or 30 years, and only then taken to a repair shop (the Work).

A reoccurring question for me is why has most of this secret information (the Fourth Way, for example) been out of the public domain for thousands of years and why is it now becoming more freely available (albeit some of which is being sold and not strictly free). The advent of the Internet has greatly increased the dissemination of knowledge, but Gurdjieff's information was first disseminated 70 years or more prior to the Internet – why?

A deliberate and rigorous obscurity …
   of confusing terms and tangential
   associations in interminable sentences

Jargon-ridden and intentionally obtuse

For several reasons, including the unique difficulties presented by Gurdjieff’s writing style, little commentary has been written on Beelzebub’s Tales.

Without a determined decision on the part of the reader to make great efforts to understand these writings, without the reader’s constant and conscious participation in the act of reading, little if any sense can be gotten from the Tales.

The Sly Man and the Devil — Something Different?

Previous Introduction    Limited Hangout Is it possible the Fourth Way is but another limited hangout? It undoubtedly was a release of previously hidden information, but was it done in order to prevent a greater exposure of more important details? If so, what are the missing details? Could there possibly be missing information that is even more important for a seeker to understand than the fundamental concepts of self-remembering, identification, unnecessary talk and negative emotions? Here we examine the story The Sly Man and the Devil. —  Gurdjieff's reply to questions about the origins of the Fourth Way. The story can be found under the "Excerpt" tab below. Apparently, due to the wealth of information contained and the verifiable results produced, its origins are of little consequence to those who study and practice "the work".

At the risk of removing all doubt, I'll use this topic to express some wide-ranging thoughts on what is commonly referred to as the "Fourth Way", which expands upon previous work.