Paul E.

Anderson
18971983
by Russell Huff
In the year 2000 a manuscript of the collected talks of Paul E. Anderson
was accepted into the permanent library collection of Harvard
University. This manuscript is a samplingin no way exhaustivetaken
from Mr. Andersons talks during the period from 1972 through 1975.
As such, these talks represent a small fragment of the teachings of Paul
and Naomi Anderson, whose lives were devoted to the sharing of the
Gurdjieff Work with others.
There is an anecdote regarding Mr. Gurdjieff, that once while working
on his monumental legominism, All and Everything, he remarked that he
would have to bury the dog deepernot, in this case, the dogs bone,
but the dog itself. With this he conveyed that the ideas he was concerned
with were living entities with their own vitality and instinctive potency,
and they were not meant to come into our possession without
exceptional efforts, sustained efforts of the sort that only those who
valued them most would ever put forth.
On his last visit to America, Mr. Gurdjieff chose Paul Anderson as his
last American Secretary, stating He not only has eaten one dog, but

swallowed whole packs of dogs and I rest very contented when I

leave because you are my special American Secretary.1
The Group to which these talks were given had its earliest beginnings
around 1969 with a small gathering at Clark University in Worcester,
Mass. Our introduction to the Andersons came by way of a letter from
John G. Bennett in Englanda man who was, and who will be
increasingly recognized as, one of the most important Western spiritual
figures of modern times. Mr. Bennetts recommendation was: get on
to Paul Anderson. He is one of the very few who have attained the level
of true teacher the barakha has entered him.2 During the early days
of the Group we had significant personal contact with Mr. Bennett, as
the Andersons had agreed to help with efforts to launch Bennetts
Sherborne Academy.
In his book, Gurdjieff: Making A New World,3 Bennett mentioned the
Andersons in connection with three key events. First, he noted that the
Andersons organized the first printing (in mimeographed edition) of
Beelzebubs Tales to His Grandson,4 an issue of 102 copies. Secondly, it
is noted the Mr. Anderson was responsible for arranging the muchanticipated meeting which was to occur between Gurdjieff and Senator
Bronson Cutting of New Mexico. The aim of this meeting was evidently
to have been the obtaining of finances for resurrecting the Institute for
the Harmonious Development of Man in France, but it never occurred
due to the mid-air plane explosion in which the Senator perished. And
thirdly, it is noted that Gurdjieff requested Paul Anderson to approach
the Russian Embassy with the critical question as to whether Gurdjieff
would be allowed to return to Russia.
The Andersons were, first and foremost, dedicated to the Work as Mr.
Gurdjieff himself had passed it on to them. Mr. Anderson had been with
Gurdjieff at the Institute in France during the time when only Americans
were to come. The Andersons were members of the Orage Group in
New York, and they remembered well how that group had been
dissolved, and all that followed. Gurdjieff visited them in Washington,
D.C.where they were instructed to organize and run groupsand
Gurdjieff brought with him all of his manuscripts for reading to their
students. Among the original members of the Gurdjieff Foundation in

New York, the Andersons later went their own way in keeping with their
own instructions from Mr. Gurdjieff.
Mr. Anderson was not a public figure. He worked quietly, and with an
unwavering focus. He often seemed to intentionally obscure his own
significance and revealed himself fully only to his close studentswhen
he had perceived that they were sufficiently prepared. His devotion to
Gurdjieffs Beelzebubs Tales was also steadfast and profound. He had
read and pondered Beelzebubs Tales since the first pages became
available, and on several occasions he spoke of having brought Gurdjieff
coffee throughout days spent in a cafe while Gurdjieff worked on his
book. Gurdjieff would stop to have some coffee, smile at Mr. Anderson,
and say: You like what I write. Mr. Anderson regarded the book as the
foundation stone for the Work and constantly referred us back to it.
Mr. Anderson always spoke of Gurdjieff in terms that reflected not only
a great love, but a fine and natural understanding of the man and his
teachings. One never received from Mr. Anderson the ideas of Gurdjieff
as cold, remote, or enigmaticas some have written of him. Clearly their
relationship was of the first order. I recall a very critical meeting which
marked a turning point both for the Andersons and for the group. Mr.
Anderson spoke quite definitely of Gurdjieff, saying that he was as
directly present to him at that moment as in the moment when I
first looked into his eyes and knew that he was my teacher. Naomi
Anderson
The Andersons were among a few who, after their connection with
Gurdjieff, had had the many years necessary to reapply and to absorb the
Work, time to overcome more and more of the obstacles to
understanding and the development of being. They had come to
understand and practice the absolutely necessary process of becoming
an ordinary man.
However, as we discovered, working with teachers who have reached
this degree of what has been termed invisibility presents strong and
unremitting demands upon those who would, or who think they would,
be students. To be such a student requires considerable discrimination
and attentiveness. The complexity of the situation was further increased
by the fact that the Andersons often utilized a very deceptive manner of

teaching, in which one was deftly placed off guard before a shock was
given.
Around their meetings there was a physically palpable energy within the
arena of which time seemed to cease, vistas of meaning opened, and
there came upon one the certainty that new possibilities were coming
within reach, that enablement was present. One felt as well that every
hidden aspect of oneself, every covert attitude and inner lie, were now
dragged out into the light. Lying was utterly useless, and, yet every
statement one uttered was so easily a total lie. It was as if raw Conscience
had entered the room like an intimidating Angel.
Every aspect of the meeting seemed capable of sudden turns of
implication. The extraordinary teaching partnership between Mr. and
Mrs. Anderson gave an effect, a taste, which none who experienced will
ever forget. It remains indelibly fixed in the deepest part of them, the
part touched only by the certainty of ones own death. They had the
ability to enter completely into the unfolding quality of the moment, and
to partake of its primordial creativity.
It would be less than honest to omit recording of the fact that Mr.
Anderson had achieved a different quality of perception from that which
we accept as ordinarily possible. Here I shall give two instances from my
own experience:
It was customary for one to have a private interview with the Andersons
early on in ones membership in the group. During the evening prior to
my first interview I had spent some time in preparation so as not to miss
anything during my opportunity to ask questions. At the end of my
period of self-preparation I had come at last to a single question which
to me expressed the essence of what I wanted to know. I then stated this
question to myself. The next day, as my interview drew to a close, I had
asked questions for hours, questions that had been incubating within me
for years, and on many topics. However, I had not asked the question I
had so carefully formulated that evening before in Connecticut. I had
forgotten to ask that question. As the interview was about to close, Mr.
Anderson looked at me and stated very quietly, But, of course, none of
this was your original question, which was He then stated the
question in the exact phrasing that I had given it.

This sort of experience can act as a severe shock, and ones reaction can
be the sort of test that one can easily failnot having the presence of
mind remaining to recognize the need for a particular kind of effort. Mr.
Anderson knewI was quite sure, and later confirmedthat I had a
very sincere need to know about the possibility of such extraordinary
perceptions. In short, he knew that I needed to know this in order to
unlock something within myself that would give a proper response to
him as a teacher. It was because of my need that he gave me this proof.
On another occasion, perhaps two years later, I had had a dream.
Dreams were not specifically discussed in our meetingsfor reasons
which I partially understood and partially had misinterpreted. But this
was not an ordinary dream. Without elaboration, this was both an
important signpost in my own development in the Work, and an
experience which convinced me that there are instances when other quite
different and independent states can be reached from the dream state. I
did not mention the dream during the group meeting. I had discussed it
with no one. I was uncertain how to approach the matter, and I also
wanted to see whether Mr. Anderson would notice anything unusual in
my state as a result of the experience. I had never been in his private
study, a small room off the living room area where we had our meetings,
but that day he asked me into the study, sat me down, and asked me to
tell him about my dream.
Here I have chosen two out of many such experiences. I know that
others could provide their own of equal or greater weight. I should say
here that it was not only that such experiences occurred, but that one
invariably had the feeling in Mr. Andersons presence that nothing in
oneself was hidden, and that such was fitting with this man. Mr.
Anderson himself always regarded these faculties as of little
consequence in comparison to the essential goal that of becoming a
man without quotation marks.
In his later years Mr. Anderson would say only super-efforts count,
which sent a chill through the marrow of those who heard and could
understand. He had a way of making the most extraordinary revelations
in an off-hand manner, so that they would be heard only by those who
were relatively awake and listening. He would say these things once, and
only once.

In the last years of his life, already in his eighties, Paul Anderson began a
period of intensified exertion in his teaching. During this period, which
undoubtedly shortened the number of his remaining years, he completely
altered the outward form and attachments of his life. He threw at
everyone the necessity to confront their reactions according to type and
to reevaluate their relationship with the Work. It seemed to many a
merciless period. I did not personally participate in many of the events.
However, I do know from some conversations we had toward the end of
his life that one motivation was to provide an avenue of refuge for those
students who were in many ways his responsibility to provide for
although, as he said, there are no guarantees. From this standpoint
then, there was first the necessity of letting everyone knowin ways
they could not ignorethat time was growing short and that soon
nothing would be left the same.
Putting aside the turmoil of those times, we can attempt to state at least
the most apparent element of Mr. Andersons final years of teaching. He
undertook, and did indeed accomplish, the building of a most creative
connection with Tibetan Buddhist teachers. It was a project of rare
quality. During those years he met many Tibetan Buddhist lamas, and
they unfailingly evidenced the highest regard for him and for Mrs.
Anderson as well.
Mr. Anderson was particularly involved with the Maha Siddha
Nyingmapa Center in Hawley, Mass. I associate him especially with the
building and dedication of a chorten there. Later he met the
extraordinary Dzochen Master, Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, with whom
Mr. Anderson had such an extraordinary relationship in his final years.
I have, at second hand, an anecdote that Mr. Anderson had at one point
met with a great Tibetan lama who was visiting somewhere in the area.
As he had been told that it was customary to bring an offering of a scarf
to such a man on meeting with him, Mr. Anderson had brought one with
him and presented it. After the meeting the lama gave him back the
scarf. To me it would seem that if there is any hope for a universal
understanding it must lie in such meetings and mutual recognitions by
men of such development along the Way.

Mr. Anderson died on February 24, 1983. Since his passing, two Tibetan
lamas have dedicated written works to his memory. The first of these
was The Short Preliminary Practice of Long-chen Nying-Thig,5
compiled by the Fourth Dodrup Chen Rinpoche. And the second was
The Cycle of Day and Night,6 written by Chgyal Namkhai Norbu.
It is difficult to penetrate the intentions of one who is no longer
motivated by the egoism which so permeates our world. Even when
approaching the end of his life, at a time when speech was no longer
possible for him, Paul Anderson remained uncompromisingly present
giving testimony to what is essential in humanity and in the Way:
presence, effort, and compassiona testimony to that maligned particle
of Divinity within us all. By the end of his life he had moved beyond any
limitations regarding the outer form of Teachings, and spoke of the goal
of the Work as freedom beyond human comprehension. This had been
foreshadowed by a toast he gave once at a meeting in Wendell,
Massachusetts: To Man, who has been given such possibilities that
even God is envious.
Mrs. Anderson passed away on August 13, 1984. By the time of her
death there was no doubt that she had met all of her challenges, leaving
nothing undone. There was at the end a visible radiance, apparent to all
who saw her, about the presence of this truly remarkable woman to
whom all of her students owe a great debt.
This is only the barest outline of the story of two people who should be
remembered for the sake of all who choose to confront the mystery and
challenge of their own existence. It is important that we should know,
and remember, that even in our time and in our culture, there were those
who have achieved the Goal.
Notes
1 Excerpt from a Letter to [Bernard] Metz in Paul Andersons familys
possession and read as part of Mr. Andersons memorial service.
2 Excerpt from a letter by John G. Bennett to Donald ODell, 1969.
3 John G. Bennett, Gurdjieff: Making A New World, London / New
York: Turnstone, 1973, 320p.; Harper & Row, 1973, 320p.

4 G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebubs Tales to His Grandson, New York:

Harcourt Brace, 1950, 1238p.; London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1950,
1238p.
5 Fourth Dodrup Chen Rinpoche, The Short Preliminary Practice of
Long-chen Nying-Thig, Hawley, Massachusetts: Maha Siddha Nyingma
Center, circa 1984, translated by Tulku Thondup, compiled by Harold
Talbott, dedicated to Paul Anderson, double-sided pamphlet, 31p.
6 Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, The Cycle of Day and Night, Barrytown,
NY: Station Hill Press, 1987, translated and edited by John Reynolds,
128p.