June 2025 - Fourth Way Today

Where the Light Comes In

Scientifically, light doesn’t need matter to exist, though it often interacts with it. It’s the same with divine light. It exists and does not need anything to exist. But sometimes it interacts with us, our souls. Illumination literally means light, and here we are referring to illumination as the divine light or consciousness. It has […]

by Rowena Taylor

The Magnetic Center’s Path

Sensitivity to light distinguishes all forms of life: plant, animal, and human, too. Indeed, what the Fourth Way calls the “magnetic center” can be seen as a sensitivity to light, an impulse searching out higher energies, higher hydrogens. A way to live differently, as described by other authors featured in this issue on illumination. Over […]

by William Page

On the Awakening of Meher Baba

To begin I should make it clear that Meher Baba considered himself an avatar, and that what I have to say here is partially an attempt to understand what that means. In simple terms, an avatar is a god who became a man, rather than a man who, through efforts in his life, evolves into […]

by Benjamin B

Celestial Light

Illumination implies a wordless state. For light to enter, a vessel must be clear and empty, or at least transparent. How does this connect with spiritual evolution? Thoughts comprise our inner world, known in the Fourth Way as the many ‘I’s. Not all ‘I’s are thoughts. We register many emotions, movements, and bodily sensations as […]

by Radhika Shah

Staying with the Light

“Reality spontaneously shines throughout, with no “I” or “they” — one need not seek it thought after thought.” – Zhang Boduan The sun does not choose where to shine. It simply shines. It belongs to another realm. When the sun shines on the worlds below, it touches everything. It is quite astounding that even shadows obey the […]

by Klaus Labuttis

Are you ready to illuminate your life?

The path toward illumination is thick with false illusions and traps of imaginary perceptions. My inner journey started with a book. Although, in hindsight, I can now see previous experiences as brief conscious episodes, nothing made sense at the time. The book was In Search of the Miraculous by P. D. Ouspensky. It changed my […]

by Walther Sell

The Fire of Illumination「明」

“By observing himself, a man notices that self-observation itself brings about certain changes in his inner processes. By observing himself he throws, as it were, a ray of light onto his inner processes which have hitherto worked in complete darkness.” — Gurdjieff, In Search of the Miraculous Interestingly, this mirrors a truth found in quantum mechanics: […]

by Susan Rainer

Enlightenment

Enlightenment means the experience of your life has crossed the limitations of the physical, Tapping into a new dimension of wordless Divine Guidance, Too beautiful for words, moment to moment, So that though you use your mind, you are not it. Though you live in the world, you are not it, or in other words, You […]

by Ruth Atkins

Quotes on Illumination

The following quotes on illumination come from the Fourth Way and Sufi traditions, Indian, Chinese, and early Christian writers, among others. “Lumen de Lumine.” (Latin) “Light comes from Light.”) – Eusebius of Caesarea “Four thousand years before God created these bodies, He created the souls and kept them beside Himself and shed a light upon […]

by Shel Patrickson

Light was here before the Light

“Heart, you cannot see me but you know when I am here. Never doubt it. The almost nothing. Sudden companion. Breathing together. Never doubt it is me.” Looking back over one’s journey on planet Earth, presence today recognises itself throughout one’s life. The soul, higher centers, the divinity within, whatever name one prefers to use, […]