The Fourth Way and Esoteric Traditions
In Search of the Miraculous Why, when we travel or study, do such monuments as the Sphinx, the pyramids and temples of Egypt, the Parthenon, Delphi, and statues of Greece attract us emotionally and psychologically? Because they are miraculous. Monuments like these tell us stories and show us truths beyond our scope. They bring a clarity […]
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Stuck in the First Line of Work You recently learned about the idea of self-remembering and tried it for the first time. You had a taste of awakening to higher states and realized that this was who you really wanted to be. But something is not quite right. The time that elapses between your efforts […]
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A School Requires Special Efforts It is not necessary to awaken to satisfy all the demands of life on the planet earth. Consequently, awakening requires that one make efforts beyond those one would make in life. This is the idea of “super-effort.” Ouspensky describes, in In Search of the Miraculous (page 347), when a man, after […]
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Quotations from Fourth Way authors Gurdjieff and Ouspensky on unity–and our innate multiplicity. Acknowledging Plurality Man has no individual I. But there are, instead, hundreds and thousands of separate small I’s, very often entirely unknown to one another, never coming into contact, or, on the contrary, hostile to each other, mutually exclusive and incompatible. Each […]
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Editor’s Note: How does our experience of memory expand in higher states? This writer explores the traces of higher states upon lower centers in the Fourth Way today. And here also is God!!! Again God!… I am man, and such as I am, in contrast to all other outer forms of animal life, created by […]
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Editor’s Note: In the Fourth Way today, how do we untie the Gordian knot of sleep? How can lower centers convey messages from higher states? And what role does objective art or music play in awakening? Objective Art, Beauty and the King of Hearts How does an artist use the various lower centers—instinctive, moving, emotional and […]
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– What do we have of human knowledge and divine knowledge? “Chickens cackle and dogs bark — This is what men know. Although they may have great knowledge, They cannot explain whence they have evolved. Nor can they surmise with ideas what they will become.” – Chuang Tzu Such is human knowledge. For awakening, we need […]
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How to deal with contradictions on the path to awakening? The Fourth Way describes the lack of unity of man, and his many contradictions. What challenge does this fact pose on the path to awakening? “Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself.” – Walt Whitman These words from Walt Whitman have long […]
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Are we unified? Or are we a multiplicity? It is the greatest mistake to think that man is always one and the same. A man is never the same for long. He is continually changing. He seldom remains the same even for half an hour. ~ G. I. Gurdjieff, writing on the multiplicity of man […]
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What is essence? – Essence is the real part of one and is often compared to a child within. While it is childlike, it is not childish. Young children have this state. Essence includes our type and center of gravity. Ouspensky says it includes the structure and capacities of the lower centers, while the contents […]
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