The Fourth Way and Esoteric Traditions
Recently on a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York I wandered into a room full of Katanas. Katana are Japanese samurai swords, exquisite objects that seamlessly integrate lethal utility and beautiful design. I read a little about the labor-intensive process used for forging these blades. It occurred as an obvious analogy […]
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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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– The way of dividing man into three parts, personality, essence, and consciousness is from the Gurdjieff / Ouspensky system. In reality personality and consciousness can be further divided. Personality can be divided into false and true personality and consciousness can be divided into higher emotional center and higher intellectual center. These five levels can […]
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Suffering is a fact of human life. Some people suffer more than others, but no one completely avoids it. Have we any choice about suffering? Though a good amount of the suffering we experience is unnecessary –– the result of our identifications, our sleep, our vices— much is unavoidable, part of the human condition. Esoterically […]
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