Looking at the Ideal State of Plato
Plato’s principles of the ideal state apply to our inner world as well. Are we able to form a deputy steward to govern the city? To recognize the true ruler, to enable higher states to visit us?
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‘Right Location’ in the Work
A Practical Choice How do we arrive at a ‘right location’ for our inner work in the Fourth Way? Horace, a Roman poet at the time of Augustus Caesar, said, “In adversity, remember to keep an even mind.” This is not just poetic or philosophical advice. It implies a practical choice to be made: where […]
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The True and the False
True earth arrests true lead;True lead controls true mercury.Lead and mercury return to true earth;Body and mind are tranquil and still.— Zhang Boduan, Four-Hundred Words on the Golden Elixir This little verse contains everything one needs to know to awaken. However, understanding the meaning is not an easy task and requires a conscious teacher. And […]
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Mara attacking Buddha: the unreal and the real
Your own search may lead you to ask the question: what is our existence? You will have to find the answer yourself, feeling it by your own true sense within. Obstacles to understanding the meaning of life are many, and exist both in the external world and in our relationships to things. Further, our own identifications […]
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‘I’ and not ‘I’
Who is this ‘I’ one calls oneself? My teacher recently said to us, “Remember, anything that says ‘I’ is not you.” When first reading about the division into ‘I’ and ‘David’, I did not understand it exactly. Fortunately, it was clear what we were to avoid. When we begin the work, the tendency is to […]
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Quotations on the Changing Sense of Self
Towards a More Real ‘I’ – the Changing Sense of Self through Work in the Fourth Way What is this changing sense of self that can come in the work, and how does it relate to a real ‘I’? Gurdjieff: Liberation is the aim of all schools, all religions, at all times. This liberation can indeed be […]
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The Unreal & the Real: The Way of Love
Every effort to be present comes from essence and is an act of love. The conscious effort to be present The efforts we make to maintain the state of presence are sustained by a deep love. This love, like an uncomfortable and permanently-lit flame, maintains the necessary desire to self-remember, to be present. During the state of […]
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Lost to the World
I quite enjoy one of Mahler’s songs, set to a poem by Friedrich Rückert, “Ich bin von die Welt abhanden gekommen,” or “I am lost to the world.” The piece begins with a beautiful and haunting English horn solo against a background of woodwind and harp, followed by strings. Lost to the world – an […]
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Presence and Imagination
Presence and imagination – are they opposites? Sincere work on oneself is work on being, as well as knowledge. Thus a crucial point in the work is to recognize the difference between presence and imagination. Using these terms can help to understand each other when communicating about this subject. Imagination is the state where our focus is on things […]
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The Struggle of the Magicians in Spiritual Evolution
Struggle of the Magicians – the Battle for the Higher Self Many myths and spiritual traditions describe a struggle between competing inner entities in man or woman. Some term these entities the lower self and the higher self. Gurdjieff described this struggle as ‘the struggle of the magicians.’ Curiously, this struggle becomes apparent when the […]
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