Lower Centers and Higher Centers Archives

External Consideration – An Aspect of School Work

Editors’ Note: A student in the Fourth Way today shares what it is like to work towards external considering, an aspect of treating others consciously, in the context of school work. Working with Others – Moving Past Mechanics Self‐remembering, the pursuit of presence, is a personal experience. A person cannot nurture and sustain presence entirely […]

by William Page

Memory and Higher States

Editor’s Note: How does our experience of memory expand in higher states? This writer explores the traces of higher states upon lower centers in the Fourth Way today. And here also is God!!! Again God!… I am man, and such as I am, in contrast to all other outer forms of animal life, created by […]

by Walther Sell

The Four Heavenly Kings of Buddhism

Editor’s Note: Studying objective symbols such as the four heavenly gods in Buddhism, one can better understand the concept of the four “kings” of centers in the Fourth Way today. The Four Kings of Centers and the Four Heavenly Kings One of the basic concepts of the Fourth Way is the idea that man has […]

by Ruth Atkins

Solving the Gordian Knot of Sleep

Editor’s Note: In the Fourth Way today, how do we untie the Gordian knot of sleep? How can lower centers convey messages from higher states? And what role does objective art or music play in awakening? Objective Art, Beauty and the King of Hearts How does an artist use the various lower centers—instinctive, moving, emotional and […]

by David Tuttle

An Apollo Walk

An Apollo Walk Apollo is the name of the place my school has created. In almost fifty years, we have transformed a rude environment, adding roads, gardens, palm trees and roses, buildings and fountains—even a Greek-style theater. But all this is only external. More importantly, we have transformed ourselves and created a society worthy of […]

by Roger Kent

Playing Music: Do Lower Centers Lead to Higher Centers?

Learning to play music: Does “raising up” the lower centers lead to higher centers? Some decades ago, after I began to work in a Fourth Way school, I returned to music. I needed to study the cello to play in a nascent community orchestra. I had stopped playing in my teens and my beautiful instrument […]

by Charles Sharp

Decisions

Editor’s note: How do we take decisions? Each of the lower centers has its own needs and desires. How do we decide what is right action? How do our external choices affect our inner life? From a student of the Fourth Way today. Decisions Every day, indeed, every second, one is making decisions. The instinctive […]

by The Editors

Quotations on the Lower Functions and Higher Parts of Man

These quotations chosen by the editors of the Fourth Way Today illustrate how our lower functions relate to our higher parts. Basically, the lower functions, or four lower centers, are part of our being. But how do they serve consciousness? Are they our servant or our master? Ouspensky and others on Using the Lower Functions […]

by Benjamin B

Balancing the Lower Centers to Reach Higher Centers

Editors‘ note: In the Fourth Way today, understanding our lower centers and how they can work together in balance is key. This article describes the lower brains or centers in each person, and how balancing of these functions leads to experiencing higher states. The Seven Centers of the Human Machine The Fourth Way describes the […]