The Fourth Way and Esoteric Traditions
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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“Reality spontaneously shines throughout, with no “I” or “they” — one need not seek it thought after thought.” – Zhang Boduan The sun does not choose where to shine. It simply shines. It belongs to another realm. When the sun shines on the worlds below, it touches everything. It is quite astounding that even shadows obey the […]
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“By observing himself, a man notices that self-observation itself brings about certain changes in his inner processes. By observing himself he throws, as it were, a ray of light onto his inner processes which have hitherto worked in complete darkness.” — Gurdjieff, In Search of the Miraculous Interestingly, this mirrors a truth found in quantum mechanics: […]
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The following quotes on illumination come from the Fourth Way and Sufi traditions, Indian, Chinese, and early Christian writers, among others. “Lumen de Lumine.” (Latin) “Light comes from Light.”) – Eusebius of Caesarea “Four thousand years before God created these bodies, He created the souls and kept them beside Himself and shed a light upon […]
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“Heart, you cannot see me but you know when I am here. Never doubt it. The almost nothing. Sudden companion. Breathing together. Never doubt it is me.” Looking back over one’s journey on planet Earth, presence today recognises itself throughout one’s life. The soul, higher centers, the divinity within, whatever name one prefers to use, […]
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