Created and Uncreated Light

The concept of mankind’s efforts to reach higher states as the difference between “created and uncreated light” abounds in the writings of the medieval Christian church. Bernard of Clairvaux is only the most famous of the orators and writers of that time. His conception of God as the ground of the universe aligns with Gurdjieff’s description of the Absolute. This highest energy that exists, from which emanates the created world:

God himself is love, and nothing God creates can satisfy the man who is made in the image of God, except the God who is love, who alone is above all of creation. – Bernard of Clairvaux, from the Sermons on the Song of Songs

This issue dwells on the role of effort, and the potential results that can come. Effort here stands as “Created Light”–separate from higher states that enter us, not of our own volition–as “Uncreated Light.”

Ordering One’s Inner World

Basically, the Fourth Way is about effort and higher states. It describes work on oneself as a set of specific efforts, and points to higher states that may come. Students of the Fourth Way embark on the work of developing observing I’s and, later, a steward. The steward can quiet the many I’s, for example, and support their right work in the lower centers. This “work” creates more harmony and order across body, heart, and mind.

Yet we do not stop here. While “created light” is a prerequisite, higher states are not in our control.

A dying friend wrote, “By looking up I am not saved: I am created.”

Higher states may come as a result of our cumulative efforts. As P. D. Ouspensky writes, the Ray of Creation represents the scale of energies among which we exist. If we do not waste our finest energies, we can start to perceive higher states. From our own created light, it is possible to rise–to touch a light that exists beyond time and space.

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Rowena Taylor is one of the editors of https://www.fourthwaytoday.org. For a translation from the Latin of Bernard of Clairvaux’s sermons On the Song of Songs, see: https://archive.org/details/St.BernardOnTheSongOfSongs. And for a related article, see: https://fourthwaytoday.org/higher-centers/.