At eighteen, I hitchhiked through Scotland and England, with a friend I met while visiting the Scottish Findhorn commune.  My interest in mysticism was all-consuming. Some of those who offered rides wanted to know more about who we were. I described the high states I was after. One driver asked a question, and I paused, and he said to my friend, “She hasn’t read that book yet.”

When I met a Fourth Way school and entered a meeting hall for the first time, I saw a student at a table reading P.D. Ouspensky’s The Fourth Way.  This was surprising to me.  Weren’t books for the time of knowledge, preparatory work? I thought, now, surely, work on being would begin.

In fact, later we were given many practical lines of personal work to develop being.

‘Being’ is a special term used in the Fourth Way. It refers to a man or woman’s consistency of character, consistency of self-awareness, the ability to ‘be.’ 

In this life, ‘being’ can change. Change of being is a milestone or marker of consciousness. A way to see this is when one’s sense of identity changes. Gradually the growth of a more true identity replaces old likes and dislikes, removes some unhelpful essence preferences. One’s newer identity becomes an observer of higher energies and the great cosmic laws of the universe. The ‘old man’ begins to phase out with this new level of awareness. Indeed, increased receptiveness to higher hydrogens is an indicator of change of being. 

To locate identity in the soul and to live from the soul—the higher energy field available to each of us—is another way of describing the work on oneself that occurs in the Fourth Way.

A man with a high level of being is more able to resist imagination and the expression of negative emotions. A change of being may lead him to abandon habits that do not feed his aim, whether this be excessive watching of television or the news, unnecessary talk, alcoholism, or other substance abuse.  Cleaning the machine, removing the bad habits of the lower centers, is part of this work. With greater awakening comes a reduction in inner considering, the habit of fretting over what other people think, typical of the wrong work of lower centers. 

A man with a high level of being is able to be present to others in the moment, take in the natural surroundings, and maintain an inner silence. Such peace allows higher energies to enter and remain within. Through quietness we can see through ourselves to great Nature and see what the moment requires. Neither preference nor denial. And we encounter and honor the great cosmic laws in view.

Rowena Taylor is one of the editors of FourthWayToday.org. See earlier articles by Rowena here: https://fourthwaytoday.org/author/rowena/.