How does one change level of being? First, by knowing oneself.

“Self-remembering needs the best work you can produce, so the more centers that take part in it the better the result… But if you put all centers to the work there is nothing that can stop it… Permanent ‘I’ has quite different functions, quite a different point of view from anything we are accustomed to.” 

The Fourth Way, P. D. Ouspensky

Real Esoteric Knowledge Begins with the Desire and Courage to Know Thyself                    

Once upon a time, my grandmother said to me, “When you wash your head, let your hands move from left to right.” With passing years, an incalculable loss brought a surprising invaluable profit to my life. It was my discovery of the Fourth Way system that can enlighten ‘All and Everything.’

Working to change my being, I verified that some of the lower centers could be reset to their right function (so to speak, from “left” to “right”). While other centers could stop acting. I began to understand what Mr. Ouspensky says: “Self-remembering needs the best work you can produce.”

So the more centers that take part in this work, the better the result; if we put all centers to the work there is nothing that can stop self-remembering.

My work on self-transformation was, first, to make a sincere internal effort to be a ‘good householder.’ I wrote down my most bizarre challenges and impressions. I did this in my struggle to transform ‘passions’ into serenity. But what tools and which ‘impressions’ should I take to make ‘serenity’ a ‘positive emotion’? Whatever courage and will I had helped me find a way to practice these efforts. They brought me under the sway of a Fourth Way school.

Work in a Fourth Way School on Three Lines

Willing to understand the higher right and universal laws, a strong group of ‘I’s within me started to work with limiting identification and negative emotions. Using all three lines of work in a school, soon I found a new ‘center of gravity’ within me. Truly, a change of being. It constantly boosts my greatest task: cultivating an emotional state that does not regress into misery. 

Now I understand better that “Positive emotions include very much, whereas our emotions are very narrow.” And that “Permanent ‘I’ has quite different functions, quite a different point of view from anything we are accustomed to.” 

Changing the Triad: Essence over Personality

I realize that, over time, the strongest mechanical features of my personality can be brought under control of an observing ‘I.’ This helps to allow essence to emerge. Then, essence, like a newborn child, can receive specific guidance–to develop and  enjoy the rich impressions available to a student in the real life of the Fourth Way.

Changing Level of Being to Change One’s Life

It is true that by applying the three lines of the work to our lives, we transform our being, our School, and our fate. As Gurdjieff taught from the beginning, to change one’s life, one must change one’s level of being.