The Fourth Way and Esoteric Traditions
A Moderate Defense of Multiplicity The concepts of unity and multiplicity in the Fourth Way may seem in diametric opposition, with unity being the goal of our work, and multiplicity being the denying force, presented by the many ‘I’s. Buddhism casts a strong shadow of disapproval on multiplicity, contrasting the concept of maya, the world […]
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What inner conflict we can expect to experience when we begin to work on ourselves with an aim to unify our state? “Blessed is he who has a soul, blessed is he who has none, but woe and grief to him who has it in embryo.” – Gurdjieff Is Awakening Harmonious? When we hear about […]
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How do we go about rekindling the light of awareness? In Taoist texts, the ‘light of awareness’ must return to its root. How can we recognize its loss and return to this light? The Magic of the Monkey King The Fourth Way teaching is clear in stating that man doesn’t have will, unity, or self-awareness. […]
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[In this English fairy tale of a master and his pupil, aspects of multiplicity and unity are shown to be a matter of life and death.] A Wizard of the North Country THERE was once a very learned man in the north country who knew all the languages under the sun, and who was acquainted […]
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Quotations from Fourth Way authors Gurdjieff and Ouspensky on unity–and our innate multiplicity. Acknowledging Plurality Man has no individual I. But there are, instead, hundreds and thousands of separate small I’s, very often entirely unknown to one another, never coming into contact, or, on the contrary, hostile to each other, mutually exclusive and incompatible. Each […]
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What are the differences between personality and essence in terms of unity? The Fourth Way advises us that the study of man (or woman) must go hand-in-hand with study of the world. That man is a microcosmos[1], with traits identical to those of a higher cosmos. Therefore, man can be compared to the higher cosmos […]
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In this concluding part, we shall touch on the meaning of ‘dying’ and ‘being reborn’. This cannot be a very deep description because this writer has hardly any experience of it. By ‘dying’, Gurdjieff explained that it was dying to your old self, to recognise your own nothingness, and to abandon completely any notion of […]
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