unity Archives - Fourth Way Today

Multiplicity and Unity: Personality and Essence

What are the differences between personality and essence in terms of unity? The Fourth Way advises us that the study of man (or woman) must go hand-in-hand with study of the world. That man is a microcosmos[1], with traits identical to those of a higher cosmos. Therefore, man can be compared to the higher cosmos […]

by The Editors

Quotations on Will and Unity

Biblical Quotations What does it mean to possess unity or will? In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus speaks: Father, if it be thy will, take this cup from me. Yet not my will but thine be done. – Luke 22:42 And in Matthew 7:21: Not everyone who calls me Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom […]

by Girard Haven

Will, Consciousness, and Being

Will, unity and the many I’s In the Fourth Way, a student learns to understand the difference between will and mechanicality. What is the unifying principle to overrule the many parts of our being? The work is upside down and backwards to life. To life, “freedom” means being able to follow the many ‘I’s the […]

by Suzanne Patterson

Creating Being and Will

How do we create being, and what is will? P. D. Ouspensky said, Only when one is conscious does one have unity, will, and the ability to love. In my own experience, working with the Fourth Way for half a lifetime, moments of will come from outside of our normal sense of self. They come […]

by The Editors

Forging “Real ‘I'” – the Story of Pinocchio

The Story of Pinocchio The tale of the puppet Pinocchio who becomes a real boy begins in Tuscany. A carpenter named Master Antonio has found a block of pinewood to carve into a leg for his table. When he begins, however, the log shouts out. Frightened by the talking log, he gives it to his […]

by Ernst Newman

Forging One’s Being

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 […]

by Jelalludin Rumi

Cooking a Soul – The Fairy Tale of the Chickpea

Rumi on the Transformation of a Soul through the Story of the Chickpea In the collected sayings of Rumi from the Mathnawi III, 4159-421, he describes how a chickpea is consumed by fire to become another kind of food altogether. Look at a chickpea boiling in the pot, leaping up when it feels the fire. […]

by Klaus Labuttis

Dealing with Contradictions

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 […]

by William Page

Observing the Many I’s – the Lack of Unity

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 […]