A Fourth Way author muses on this work of sharing the light and the creation of a new foundation for our presence.

What is it then between us?
What is the count of the scores or hundreds of years between us?
Whatever it is, it avails not—distance avails not, and place avails not…. 
– Walt Whitman

Yes, what is it between us? What connects us? How can we help each other? How do we share the light?

One person tall, another short; one a nurse, another a businessman; a mother strolling her child, one homeless, one with a mansion; one a strong character, another non-existent; man or woman; old or young. These are the differences of life. 

Whoever you are, I fear you are walking the walks of dreams,
I fear these supposed realities are to melt from under your feet and hands,
Even now your features, joys, speech, house, trade, manners, troubles, follies, costume, crimes, dissipate away from you.
– Walt Whitman

Preparatory Work in a Fourth Way School

School work begins with a preparatory work. I imitate the external aspect of the school. Dressing nicely for meetings, being on time, helping to maintain the meeting place, washing dishes after the common dinner, following various exercises – this is the form of the school. I mold myself to it, in the hopes of getting to the kernel of the teaching, of understanding better in a personal way what the work of self-remembering is. 

I learn of my body type, center of gravity and chief feature. While only labels, through self-observation I verify them. They define what is in the way of being present. I begin to see what is mechanical in human behavior, our shared stimulus-response character. This is not in a general, abstract way, but very specific – my stimulus-response nature. I begin to classify others not on external differences, but along the lines of the Fourth Way system. The mechanical and predictable nature of human interaction becomes more and more clear. 

When I speak with other students of the work, the conversation is about how to work on our features, our mechanics. The focus is on cleaning the machine, removing the obstacles. My relationship with others becomes the mirror of my mechanics. 

You must understand that the people you meet here are as necessary for you as the system itself. – Ouspensky

Increasing the Light through Work on Ourselves

We offer other students photographs, or observations, of the mechanical patterns we see in them. In turn, we receive the same. Following the rules and exercises of the school, we slowly refine our personality. As we reduce the sharp points, we become humbler. 

Indeed, our relationship to other students is that of fellow laborers, working to escape the prison of sleep. How often does a little push from outside unveil a group of ‘I’s that has been standing in our way? A kind of companionship grows over the years. Sharing the light means shining the light on sleep, bringing light to darkness. 

Your true soul and body appear before me.
They stand forth out of affairs, out of commerce, shops, work, farms, clothes, the house, buying, selling, eating, drinking, suffering, dying.
– Walt Whitman

The Emergence of Essence as an Active Force in the Work

Then, as a parallel process, essence begins to come to the surface. Under school conditions, the me, as I was as an infant, begins to emerge. Non-expression of negativity is key. Gradually reducing the time every day that I am imprisoned in my features and trapped in the endless turning of imagination clears a certain neutral, human space. Essence once again looks out of my eyes. Thus a different relation to other people begins, a more real one. 

Then, as we uncover essence through work on ourselves, experiences of presence and transformation enter more deeply in. No longer deflected by an over-active personality, the essence of a child begins to develop. Ultimately, a new being is built on this foundation. Essence begins to know and to recognize itself. Soon, efforts to self-remember arise from this new growth of essence.  Essence is capable of sharing the light of presence.

What is more subtle than this which ties me to the woman or man that looks in my face?
Which fuses me into you now, and pours my meaning into you?
We understand then do we not?
– Walt Whitman

The experience of essence being present, the return to the “me” of infancy, this time with self-awareness, begins to color my relationship with others. When I am in this state, I interact with others in a wordless way. It calls out the same in them, and their presence calls out the same in me. Truly, this new relationship to other people is a simple state, one of sharing the light.

David Tuttle, with over forty years in the work, has contributed various article for the Fourth Way Today include The Uncarved Block, An Apollo Walk, and The Cascade Fire. He led a blog on the work of the Fourth Way for several years, at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1394109020622401/. He has also created podcasts on basic Fourth Way subjects, available at this website, iTunes and the Fourth Way Today YouTube channel.