“The chief means of happiness in this life is the ability to consider externally always, internally never.” – George Gurdjieff
External considering is the antidote for internal considering. Internal considering is a mechanical relationship to other people, external considering a conscious one.
Henrí Galvão
I’m still getting familiarized with the Fourth Way – and your podcast has been great for me in that regard -, but I got somehow confused with this explanation about what would be external considering, because I’ve heard and read in other places that this would actually consist of taking into account another person’s perspective (and not so much trying to see the situation as a third person would).
So far, I’ve only read The Psychology of Man’s Possible Evolution. What reference could be the most best in order to have a more precise understanding of this particular concept?
David Tuttle
Henrí, thanks for your comment. There is also something on this subject in the words of Gurdjieff in Ouspensky’s In Search of the Miraculous, which I recommend reading. I am sure you can find more in other Fourth Way sources. As with any idea in the Fourth Way, we must verify for ourselves what it actually means, and this will change as our level of being changes. What is in the books, and in the podcasts, are only theories.
Henrí Galvão
Thank you for your response, David. I definitely plan on reading In Search of the Miraculous (although it’s a much longer read than the Psychology of Man’s Possible Evolution), and in the meantime I’ll keep searching more about the topic.
One thing that came to my mind is that both perspectives might be useful, and I guess that, according to the situation, one might be preferable over the other. But, of course, that’s an idea from someone who is not very knowledgeable about the system.