The Fourth Way and Esoteric Traditions
We embody what is higher by being present. We can learn to hear if our hearts are in the temple or in the bazaar. When we identify for ourselves the flavor of those virtues–courage, prudence, humility and moderation–which Plato associates with the Ideal State, our work with others will be stronger: more direct and more compassionate as required.
Read More…
In the faces of men and women I see God and in my own face in the Glass. ~ Walt Whitman
Read More…
In the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, Jesus says: “For no one Lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, nor in a hidden place, but rather he sets it on a lamp stand so that everyone who enters and leaves will see its Light.” This passage implies that that men and women who receive […]
Read More…
Reflecting the Light is not a passive or automatic process. It appears within the attitudes and choices we make. What we focus on expands. To create good habits that bring us forward on our path, we need time, effort, and daily practices to support our aim.
Read More…
It was as if everywhere he looked was illuminated by a bright light. Inexplicably, every impression he beheld glowed and seemed to present itself in its entirety. He was dazzled by how completely he perceived the minutest detail of all he saw. The world around him was no longer shrouded in mystery.
Read More…
Objective knowledge exists, diffused within us, in contact with our own higher centers. Such knowledge shakes us to leave behind the world of “I”, “me” and “mine”.
Read More…
We imagine “freedom” means being able to follow whatever ‘I’s the machine happens to have, and “will” a way to actualize any desire that comes into the machine. In reality, however, freedom and will begin from being able to separate from the machine, and this separation begins with the ability to do what it does not want to do.
Read More…
We need to construct our lives around the effort to increase consciousness, or presence. We do this through working to deconstruct, transform, and transcend whatever within us resists or distracts us from acceleration into higher worlds. We come to realize, with time, that every moment of presence is a triumph, and a reason to be grateful.
Read More…
Rodney Collin was a student of P.D. Ouspensky in the last decade of Ouspensky’s life. He was with Ouspensky at Lyne Place, England, at Franklin Farms, New Jersey, and lived with him until Ouspensky’s death in 1947. The following excerpts are from letters written by Rodney Collin to his friends and students in the Fourth […]
Read More…
What do Fourth Way authors say about going beyond knowledge, going beyond the system, and changing the location of our sense of ‘I’? From Views from the Real World, Gurdjieff: Beyond this world, beyond the limits of our knowledge, there lies a world, incomprehensible for us, of noumena—a shadow, a reflection of which is the […]
Read More…