From “Gurdjieff - A Very Great Enigma” by JG Bennett... There is one other characteristic of Gurdieff that I must refer to and that is, his adoption of a deliberate disguise in the form of putting himself in a bad light. He put on a mask that would tend to put people off, rather than draw them towards him. Now, this method - which is called by the Sufis, the Way of Malamat or the methods of Blame - was highly esteemed in old times among the Sufis, who regarded the Sheikhs or Pirs who went by the Way of Blame, as particularly eminent in spirituality. Such people represented themselves to the outside world under a bad light, partly in order to avoid attracting praise and admiration towards themselves, and also partly as a personal protection. This way of Malamat has been lost to sight in modern times... There is a particular reason for following the Way of Malamat connected with the powers that surround people destined for a high eminence in the world or in spirituality. In the old Zoroastrian teaching, there was recognition of a certain power called Hvareno. This was a mark of kingship, and whoever had Hvareno had the power of attraction over people. He had the royal touch... If a man... having the power called Hvareno, wished to follow the way of spirituality, then he had to protect himself against being drawn into Messiahship, or the outward exaltation of his person... A man who adopts that particular procedure is very hard to understand in terms of his external behaviour, and this has obviously been the case with Gurdjieff. People have tended to form judgments about him in terms of his outward behaviour, and have failed to take into account the possibility that this outward behaviour was deliberately adopted for the very purpose of which I am speaking now.
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 23:40:36 +0000