James George: In his long public life as Canadian naval historian, ambassador, environmentalist, lecturer and author, Jim George has known a number of remarkable spiritual pioneers and lived in some of the most interesting countries of the world. The Dalai Lama calls him “my old friend.” Chogyam Trungpa called him “a wise and benevolent man, an ideal statesman.” He is credited with having helped to avert a war between India and Pakistan in the 1970s. Later, in the International Whaling Commission, he played a leading role in saving some species of whales from extinction. He is a life-long student of the Gurdjieff Work, having first read about the ideas more than half a century ago, and later living with his family on Mme Ouspensky’s farm in New Jersey in the late 50s. In New York, London, and Paris, he has been a friend and student of many of Gurdjieff’s pupils, and worked directly with Gurdjieff’s successor, Mme de Salzmann, for over 40 years.

In his previous book from 1995, Asking for the Earth, Dr. George wrote an early warning about global warming, which, 14 years later, appears increasingly troubling. Now, in The Little Green Book on Awakening, he not only warns us about our current situation, but points the way toward what is needed more than ever: that we wake up. We need to wake up and stop our careless treatment of our planet before it is too late. “It is the practice of Presence,” he tells us, “that can help to transform humanity from predators to stewards of the Earth, as now required by great Nature.”

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Barbara Wright George is a former vice-president of the Gurdjieff Foundation of California, whose central organization is in San Francisco. Born in Colorado, she discovered the ideas of Gurdjieff there in 1957, and moved to San Francisco in 1961 to find a group that practiced the ideas. For 40 years, she was one of the leaders of the Gurdjieff Work there, and until his death in 1984, was a close pupil of Lord Pentland. Through her association with him, and her role in San Francisco, she visited many Work groups, including those in Australia, the United States, and Europe, and was fortunate to work with many of the early leaders of the Work, including many pupils of Gurdjieff. In 2004, she moved to Toronto. In semi-retirement, while maintaining connections with people in California, she works with groups in Toronto and visits those in Colorado and Philadelphia on a regular basis. She is currently writing a book about her experiences with the Gurdjieff groups in Sydney, Australia in the 1970s.

This is a rare opportunity to hear from Barbara and Jim, and to explore some questions with them, such as the following: Is there anything that one person can do for the planet? What does it mean to wake up? What is our relation to Presence? Is a group necessary? What is life in transition? What place do hope, faith, and love have in our world today?