The presence we create is beyond the system. – Robert Earl Burton

Creating a Steward

The system of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky describes how to create a steward. The work of the steward is to prepare the household for the master. At the beginning, the “household” of ten thousand chaotic ‘I’s is governed by the law of accident. The student, via the deputy steward, must slowly bring a certain order to their inner chaos. A right working of centers must replace the current wrong work of centers. Each must begin to use its appropriate energy. We need to clean the machine. 

By following the basic suggestions for work on oneself, in the context of a school, one can develop a steward. A steward means that one has accomplished a certain level of inner discipline. There are habitual efforts to divide attention and remember oneself. With this, one is present many times a day, if only briefly. It also means having a capacity to let go of this discipline and step back once the master arrives.

This state comes as a result of your efforts, previous efforts, only it comes not at that time. But if you hadn’t made efforts it wouldn’t come accidentally. The more efforts you make, the more you have these ‘accidental’ moments of self-remembering, of understanding, of being emotional and things like that. It is all the result of effort. – Ouspensky

We have all experienced these moments when, out of nowhere, we become present. It is a miracle. My teacher tells us that the hardest thing is to come out of imagination. Because one does not even realize how it constantly catches one. The work of the steward–repeated efforts be present–produces a certain quantity of fine energy, and this leads to increased moments of presence.

The Work of the Steward

The Dharma is only a collection of words and letters that has to be discarded when we have reached the other shore. – Gampopa

Cultivating a steward is a necessary step to reach a level where one can work more directly on being self-conscious. The steward works on one’s features, on cutting imagination, on not letting negativity escape. This kind of work naturally becomes a passion. One’s life becomes defined by the struggle with chief feature, by repeated efforts to cut imagination, and so on. The steward must keep the attention away from the many ‘I’s. Instead, it directs attention toward our immediate environment, or toward other people, by practicing external consideration. 

So often, the work on the Fourth Way stays at the level of the steward. However, at a certain point, this work does not lead any further. This kind of work can begin, in a subtle way, to strengthen our sense of ‘I’ in the four lower centers. In truth, Real ‘I’ can only belong to higher centers. Once our state goes above a certain point, the steward is no longer necessary. The longing to reach presence also becomes unnecessary. We have arrived at the goal: a state of presence, the Self remembering to be awake.

Beyond the Steward

And in this sense it is possible to speak of the symbolism of speech although this symbolism is not understood by everyone. To understand the inner meaning of what is said is possible only on a certain level of development and when accompanied by the corresponding efforts and state of the listener. – Gurdjieff, In Search of the Miraculous

Finally, there is another level of work that can only occur in schools. This level of work integrates the help of higher forces with the help of a teacher and there are students with mature stewards. In schools, then, there arises a kind of direct transmission and sharing of presence. The symbolism of speech that Gurdjieff mentions is not about communicating symbols and their meaning, but about directly communicating higher states. The point of such communication is not the symbols, but the “carrier wave”, so to speak, of the symbols – of the shared energy of Worlds 12 and 6. Understanding the symbols means being able to recreate a state of wonder, of presence, in oneself. 

A school environment generates the light of presence and reflects it in return. This leads to a much higher level of presence than anyone could create by themselves. While the Steward can create a certain quantity of fine energies, this higher level of work multiplies these energies.  When we touch this kind of teaching, ‘I’ disappears and becomes irrelevant. We become namelessly present–leaving ‘David’ behind. Transcending the system, then, means transcending our ‘I’ and miraculously leaving it far behind.

When this state of presence appears, you have transcended the system. – Robert Earl Burton

David Tuttle, with over forty years in the work, has contributed various articles to the FourthWayToday.org, including Our Sense of ‘I’, Developing Higher Consciousness, School Traditions and the Ideal State, Lost to the World, What is it Then Between Us, An Apollo Walk, and The Cascade Fire, seen here: https://fourthwaytoday.org/author/david/.
David is also the moderator for the Spanish language Fourth Way Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/gurdjieffouspenskyenlapractica