The Fourth Way and Esoteric Traditions
I used to keep two diaries, one about my normal everyday life (college, friends, relationships, career) and one about the spiritual and mystical life (higher influences, awakening and understandings about it). Last month, while writing in my everyday diary I ended up writing about a spiritual understanding. And then I understood that I cannot keep […]
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“Die before you die, so that you do not die when you die.” – Sufi saying – Many spiritual traditions speak of abandoning one’s old life, to begin separating the real from the unreal. The Fourth Way does not require abandoning external situations. In the Fourth Way, we work to minimize personality in favor of […]
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When I was a young child I had a vision in which I saw angels around me. It created a magical higher state and a feeling of lightness that I can still remember. Growing up, a few questions often surfaced in my mind. Why do we need to have a physical body? Why do we […]
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There is a famous Greek paradox known as the Ship of Theseus. The Greek hero Theseus has a ship that he has sailed on the seas for many years. From time to time, a mast breaks and must be replaced. A worn sail is torn by a strong wind and wood in the stern has […]
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As a contemporary spiritual teacher assures us, essence is more real than personality. Dimensions of essence are one’s center of gravity[1], body type, and alchemy, the degree of refinement of the impressions[2] one takes in. Essence is the part in us that can grow into presence, or self-remembering. Alongside essence, each one of us has a […]
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Quanawi: Perfect Man is the bridge, the mirror, without which nothing of the cosmos would receive the divine energy of joyful union, because of the lack of interpenetration. Meister Eckhart: The eye with which I see God is the very eye with which God sees me. Zen master Sokei-An: The Buddha said that there is […]
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Scientifically, light doesn’t need matter to exist, though it often interacts with it. It’s the same with divine light. It exists and does not need anything to exist. But sometimes it interacts with us, our souls. Illumination literally means light, and here we are referring to illumination as the divine light or consciousness. It has […]
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Sensitivity to light distinguishes all forms of life: plant, animal, and human, too. Indeed, what the Fourth Way calls the “magnetic center” can be seen as a sensitivity to light, an impulse searching out higher energies, higher hydrogens. A way to live differently, as described by other authors featured in this issue on illumination. Over […]
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To begin I should make it clear that Meher Baba considered himself an avatar, and that what I have to say here is partially an attempt to understand what that means. In simple terms, an avatar is a god who became a man, rather than a man who, through efforts in his life, evolves into […]
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Illumination implies a wordless state. For light to enter, a vessel must be clear and empty, or at least transparent. How does this connect with spiritual evolution? Thoughts comprise our inner world, known in the Fourth Way as the many ‘I’s. Not all ‘I’s are thoughts. We register many emotions, movements, and bodily sensations as […]
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