What inner conflict we can expect to experience when we begin to work on ourselves with an aim to unify our state?

“Blessed is he who has a soul, blessed is he who has none, but woe and grief to him who has it in embryo.” – Gurdjieff

Is Awakening Harmonious?

When we hear about higher states, or have glimpses of them ourselves, we learn that they are a state of harmony, of bliss and peace, a state of contentment with the present, and so on. This leads to the expectation that the process of awakening should have these same characteristics.

The chief characteristic of awakening is, however, inner conflict. This means a conflict between the ‘I’s that want to be present, and the ‘I’s that oppose this aim.

The life of a man number four, which consists not of all moments of the day, but of the moments when they are awake or trying to be, is usually a struggle. Inner work is often described as a battle or war.

Inner Conflicts and the Work towards Unification

All of us have conflicting groups of ‘I’s. We see them when we have to make a decision. If the emotional part of the emotional center is involved, the arguments can be quite intense and violent. This kind of struggle will not lead to awakening.

“Nobody lives without inner conflicts, they are normal and always there. But when we begin to work, conflict increases.” “The creation of unity is not the result of conflict—it is the result of struggle with conflict.” So comments Ouspensky, in The Fourth Way.

Yes, inner conflict will increase as a result of having the aim to work on ourselves. This means that we must learn to not identify with inner conflict. We must learn to hold the observer apart from it. This is what it is to struggle with conflict, and it helps create consciousness.

My teacher uses the phrase, “evolution as we experience it.”  The actual experience of working on oneself is, for the most part, conflictive and not harmonious. It’s not what we read about in the books.

David Tuttle is the author of a Facebook page and has a closed group discussion on using the Fourth Way. For more, see his Gurdjieff Ouspensky Self Observation group. Other articles by David for the Fourth Way Today include The Uncarved Block, An Apollo Walk and The Cascade Fire.

Image: Fresco of warriors from the mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut (1479-1458 BCE) at Deir el-Bahri, Egypt