New York USA Fourth Way NEWS

"How strange! *I* and in this place!" (P.D.O)

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email:         devoutprogress@hotmail.com
 
 
 
This webpage is being put up due to the express wishes of those genuinely in THE WORK of the Fourth Way. It is the beginning of an octave to help seekers of useful guidance. The date of this entry is January 1st 2008. There are a number of individuals behind this octave. There is one individual doing the writing. This web location will have its content expanded gradually. The main thing for now is that this page be online as a beacon, so people can discover it and tell others about it.

Our Mission

THE FOURTH WAY is a real path and the SYSTEM elucidated by eminent Teachers Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, and Collin...is a real and coherent system. It is not an anachronism. People seeking Fourth Way School Work are correct in seeking it, and it can be available for those sincere and ready for it. This webpage is the beacon of a new octave. But something does not come out of nothing. One may wonder WHO is behind this octave? WHERE DOES IT COME FROM? It comes from a number of individuals but it is most useful to say...for pragmatic purposes...is COMES FROM THE WORK OF MR. GURDJIEFF AND MR. OUSPENSKY and MR. COLLIN...it is a legitmate legacy of their Work. If you have been seeking a legitimate and living connection to their work, this is a place you may find it.
 
On the subject of The Fourth Way...Peter Ouspensky was asked "You said that one can learn how to escape only from those who have escaped before?" He replied: Quite right — in the allegory of "prison". And this means a school can only start from another school. This system can have value only if it comes from higher mind. If we have reason to believe that it only comes from an ordinary mind, like ours, it can have no value and we cannot expect anything from it. Then better sit down and write your own system.
 
The collection of energy and work behind THIS WEBPAGE is being called (for now) THE BEACON HILL LIVING ROOM....in honor of Boston's historical Beacon Hill section. Perhaps some other name may come to supplant this, but that is the name for now.
 
Some who will discover this web address and read its content may be quite surprised. Initial "I"s may be....how did this octave seem to come "out of the blue"?
 
It hardly came "out of the blue" at all. Or quickly. It is the result of a long stream of work, many people's work on themselves, and a long stream of subscription to Higher Inspiration.
 
In the Fourth Way, octaves of work may be rather out of the public view for some phases, and come into the public view at others. It is no accident that the Work behind this webpage has been brought into public view at this juncture. Such has taken place for the good of The Work, and for the good of those who sincerely subscribe to The Fourth Way mode of spiritual development.
 
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Historical material and angles of thought:
 
First, some notes on Peter Ouspensky and his work with George Gurdjieff:
 

Mr.Ouspensky's first published book, The Fourth Dimension, appeared in 1909; his second book, Tertium Organum, in 1912; and A New Model of the Universe in 1931. This last work introduced the idea of esotericism, a belief that there exist centers in the world where ancient esoteric knowledge and wisdom are not only preserved, but taught to initiates. He also wrote the novel Strange life of Ivan Osokin, which explored the concept of eternal return. His travels throughout Europe and the East, looking for centers of esoteric knowledge, were unproductive. Upon his return to Russia, however, he was introduced to Gurdjieff and spent the next few years studying with him.

After the Bolshevik revolution Ouspensky travelled to London by way of Istanbul. It was during this time, after Gurdjieff founded his Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man in France, that Ouspensky came to the conclusion that he was no longer able to understand his former teacher and made a decision to discontinue association with him. Nevertheless, he wrote about Gurdjieff's teachings in a book originally entitled Fragments of an Unknown Teaching, only published posthumously in 1947 under the title In Search of the Miraculous. While this volume has been criticized by some of those who have followed Gurdjieff's teachings as only a partial representation of the totality of Gurdjieff's ideas, it nevertheless provides what is probably the most concise explanation of the material that was included. This is in sharp contrast to the writings of Gurdjieff himself, such as Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandson, where the ideas and precepts of Gurdjieff's teachings are found very deeply veiled in allegory. It's also important to note that Ouspensky did receive permission from Gurdjieff for the publication of In Search of the Miraculous, something that was seemingly withheld from almost every other student of Gurdjieff, even in instances where the material being written about was much less complete or clear.

 

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"Speaking generally, you will never understand what I wish to convey if you merely listen."
G. I. Gurdjieff

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Now...BELOW ARE EXCERPTS FROM THE WRITINGS OF * PD Ouspensky
 
One of the American reviewers of the first edition of "New Model of the Universe" remarks that two ideas in this book presented particular difficulties for him: the idea of esotericism and the idea of the psychological method.

In general, these ideas are very far from modern thought.

Both ideas need the recognition of the fact that human thought can work on very different levels.

The idea of esotericism is ...the idea of higher mind. We must ... our ordinary mind (including the mind of a genius) is not the highest possible order of human mind. The human mind can rise to a level almost inconceivable for us, and we can see the results of the work of higher mind, those most accessible to us in the Gospels, and then in Eastern Scriptures; in the Upanishads,in the Mahabharata; in the works of art such as the Great Sphinx at Gizeh, and in other memorials though they are few in literature and art. The true valuation of the meaning of these and similar memorials and the realisation of the difference by a genius, needs experience, knowledge and a special training of the mind and perception and, perhaps, special faculties not possessed by everyone. In any case nothing can be proven.

So that the first step towards understanding the idea of esotericism is the realisation of the existence of a higher mind, that is, a human mind, but one which differs from the ordinary mind as much as, let us say, the mind of an intelligent and educated grown up man differs from the mind of a child of six. A genius is only a "Wunderkind." A man of higher mind possesses a new knowledge which ordinary man, however clever and intelligent, cannot possess. This is esoteric knowledge.

Whether people of higher mind exist now and have existed always, or whether they appear on earth only at long intervals, is immaterial. The important point is that they exist and that we can come into contact with their ideas and, through these ideas, with esoteric knowledge. This is the essence of the idea of esotericism.

In order to understand what I mean by the "psychological method" it is necessary to realise first that the ordinary human mind, the one we know, can also work on very different levels and then to find the relation of the "psychological method" to the "esoteric method."

 
If a man of logical mind hears about esotericism he will at once want to know where the people are who belong to the esoteric circle, who has seen them, and when and how he can see them himself. And if he hears that for him this is not possible he will then say that it is all nonsense and that no esoteric circle exists at all.

Logically he will be quite right. But psychologically... it is clear that with such demands he will not go far in his acquaintance with esotericism. A man has to be prepared, that is, he must realise the limitedness of his own mind and the possibility of the existence of another, better mind.

Nor will esoteric ideas, that is, ideas coming from higher mind, say much to a logical man. He will ask, for instance: where are the proofs that the Gospels were written by people of higher mind?

Where indeed are the proofs? They are there, everywhere, in every line and in every word, but only for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. But the logical mind can neither see nor hear beyond a very small radius or the most elementary things.

This limitedness of the logical mind renders it powerless even before quite simple problems of ordinary life once they go beyond the limits of its accustomed scale.

But [so-called logical] "proofs" are by no means always necessary--- in order to accept or to deny a given proposition. There are "psychological proofs" which mean much more than facts, because facts can "lie" and psychological proofs cannot lie. But one must be able ...to feel them.

The psychological mind can see the limitations of the "logical mind" and the absurdities of the "defective mind" -- it can understand the reality of the existence of a higher mind and of esoteric knowledge, and see it in its manifestations. This is impossible for a merely logical mind.

 

The term "psychological method" ...[of development] comes from "psychological proofs." On the basis of these proofs it is possible to see the defects of logical thinking in regions inaccessible to it or in questions too big for it... Real solutions can come only from higher mind possessing higher knowledge, that is, from esotericism. This is the difference between the psychological method and the esoteric method.

Let us try to imagine the four methods of observation and reasoning in relation to the room in which I am writing this. The defective method is based upon glance at the room through the keyhole or through a narrow slit and its characteristic feature is the certainty that what is seen through the keyhole or the slit represents all there is and that there is and can be nothing else in it except what is visible in this way. Given a certain imagination and a tendency toward superstition the defective method can make something very strange or monstrous out of an ordinary room.

The logical method is based upon glance at the room from one definite spot, at one definite angle, and usually without enough light. Too big a confidence in it and the defence of this angle of vision makes the logical method defective.

The psychological method compared with the first two would be like a view of the room in daylight, moving about in it in various directions, knowing the objects in it and so on. It is quite clear that it is possible to learn more about the room in this way than by the logical method, and that it is possible to find many mistakes and wrong conclusions of the defective method.

The esoteric method of approach to the study of the room would include not only the the whole room with everything it contains but the whole house, all the people in it with all their relationships and their occupations; and further, the position of the house in the street, of the street in the town, of the town in the country, of the country on the earth, of the earth in the solar system, and so on. The esoteric method is limited by nothing and always connects every given thing, however small it may be, with the whole.

Examples of "psychological," "logical" and "defective" thinking abound around us. Occasionally we meet with the psychological method in science. In psychology itself the "psychological method" leads inevitably to the recognition of the fact that human consciousness is merely a particular instance of consciousness and that an intelligence exists which is many times superior to the ordinary human intelligence. And only a psychology which starts from this proposition and has this proposition as its foundation can be called [truly]... scientific.

In other spheres of knowledge psychological thinking lies at the root of all real discoveries, but it usually does not keep long. I mean that as soon as ideas which have been found and established by the psychological method become everybody's property and begin to be looked upon as permanent and accepted they become logical and, in their application to phenomena of a greater size, ...defective.

The danger of the logical method in all possible spheres of life lies in the fact that at first glance it is the easiest and the most effective way.

The psychological method is much more difficult and, in addition, it is often very disappointing because, by following the psychological method a man often sees that he does not understand anything and does not know what to do. Whereas by following the logical method he always understands everything and always knows what to do.

1934---PD Ouspensky

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Regarding the teachings of MEHER BABA:

In a written chapter on Good and Evil, Meher Baba takes a unique position. What we call evil, according to Meher Baba, is most often a misapplied relic of a past good. For instance, an act which was beneficial to a lower species in evolution becomes detrimental to the individual and society in a human cultural context. Similarly, the ego, which plays a vital role in the process of evolving self-awareness, becomes a spiritual hindrance once full awareness (in human form) is achieved. Still, Baba asserts that good actions (judged as good in their context) are preferable to so-called bad actions, in that they are far less binding to the soul. According to Baba, both good and bad actions are binding in the sense that they leave impressions (sanskaras) that must be worked out or balanced by ongoing experience in reincarnation. But even in this context, good actions are preferable and less binding. He gives the analogy that bad actions are like ropes which bind both feet and hands, but good actions bind only the feet, and thus can more easily be disentangled.

 

In the Discourses, love is mentioned in many forms. Love pervades the universe. The first fundamental force known to have split as an independent principle from the original primordial unity in recent Cosmology is gravity. Baba says that gravity is the reflection of love. All the forces of attraction and of repulsion in every level (from small particles to material objects to living organisms) are expressions of love. In the animal kingdom this love becomes explicit in conscious processes through instinctive drives. The drive to look for nutrition is love. Sex-attraction is love. Actually anything that drives an organism to fulfill a bodily impulse or desire is love.

In the human level, with the development of consciousness, love, although continuous with its lower forms, attains a higher form because of its relation to reason. In the beginning these two factors are in a natural harmony, but the one doesn't have conscious access to the other. Each one operates almost separately from the other. Then comes a stage where reason and love come in rapport and conflict with each other, yet the important factor is that they start coming simultaneously in the conscious sphere. Then comes a third stage where a synthesis of love and reason is achieved to bring an altogether new type of consciousness, best described as superconsciousness.

Obviously the longest part of human development deals with the second phase. Yet from the effort to resolve the conflicts brought about between love and reason there arises spiritual progress. As lower forms of love come in conflict with higher ones, human love is limited by many factors. Lust, greed and anger are limiting factors mentioned in many philosophies. The only hope of breaking these limits is the appearance of a pure form of love, called Divine love. This love can only arise through the grace of spiritual Masters. This is not a momentary event. The Avatar comes to awaken humanity to this higher love. An individual has to develop a conscious longing for this love and has to give up all forms of desires except for the desire to attain it. In human love the duality of the lover and the Beloved persist. In Divine love, lover and Beloved are indivisibly one.

 

 

Who is Meher Baba?


Here is part of what the Encyclopedia Britannica, 1987 Edition, had to say:

Meher Baba, also called The Awakener, original name Merwan Sheriar Irani. (born Feb. 25, 1894, Poona, India—died Jan. 31, 1969, Ahmednagar, India), spiritual master in western India with a sizable following both in that country and abroad. Beginning July 10, 1925, he observed silence for the last 44 years of his life, communicating with his disciples at first through an alphabet board but increasingly with gestures. He observed that he had come "Not to teach but to awaken."

He was born into a Zoroastrian family of Persian descent. He was educated in Poona and attended Deccan College there, where at the age of 19 he met an aged Muslim woman, Hazrat Babjan, the first of five "perfect masters" (spiritually enlightened or "God-realized" persons) who over the next seven years helped him find his own spiritual identity. That identity, Meher Baba said: " I am the same Ancient One come again into your midst," he told his disciples, declaring that all major religions are revelations of "that One Reality which is God."

Meher Baba saw his work as awakening the world through love to a new consciousness of oneness of all life. To that end he lived a life of love and service.

Meher Baba never sought to form a sect or proclaim a dogma.

His books include Discourses (1938-1943; the earliest dictated on an alphabet board, the other by gesture), God Speaks: The Theme of Creation and Its Purpose (1955), and The Everything and the Nothing (1963).

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Commentary:

"It is interesting to note PRAYER is rarely spoken about in the writings of Ouspensky and Gurdjiff. Pehaps that is because "life" has so much indentification mixed with ideas of prayer. Prayer above the level of A Influence (utilizing prayer verses created by Real Schools from earlier eras)... is an attempt to have the machine attract and subscribe to Conscious Influence. In such a state, one may notice the moving centre emits at times... impulses to assist this state with certain movements which SEEM innate. This is quite mysterious and miraculous. It may explain the "why" ---of certain dance movements and yoga movements in Real Schools of the past."

 

(Author of his site)

 

 

"The (elucidated knowledge called THE SYSTEM is) a summons, a summons toward another (perceptual) world, a call from (those) who know and (are) able to show us the way... But 'transformation of being' requires more (than hearing knowledge). It can only be achieved if there is a (synthesis) between actual conscious influence and  (the responding medium of a human who ardently seeks and desires) it. This brings about a fusion."

 

(edited - from the JDS forward to 'Views from the real World')

 

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poem excerpts

WALT WHITMAN:

from "Song of Myself"

(written - 1855)

 

I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.

My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this soil, this air,
Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same,
I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,
Hoping to cease not till death.

Creeds and schools in abeyance,
Retiring back a while sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten,
I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard,
Nature without check with original energy.

Houses and rooms are full of perfumes, the shelves are crowded with perfumes,
I breathe the fragrance myself and know it and like it,
The distillation would intoxicate me also, but I shall not let it.
The atmosphere is not a perfume, it has no taste of the distillation, it is odorless,
It is for my mouth forever, I am in love with it,
I will go to the bank by the wood and become undisguised and naked, :
I am mad for it to be in contact with me.

The smoke of my own breath,
Echoes, ripples, buzz'd whispers, love-root, silk-thread, crotch and vine
My respiration and inspiration, the beating of my heart, the passing of blood and air through my lungs,
The sniff of green leaves and dry leaves, and of the shore and dark color'd sea-rocks, and of hay in the barn,
The sound of the belch'd words of my voice loos'd to the eddies of the wind,
A few light kisses, a few embraces, a reaching around of arms,
The play of shine and shade on the trees as the supple boughs wag,
The delight alone or in the rush of the streets, or along the fields and hill-sides.
The feeling of health, the full-noon trill, the song of me rising from bed and meeting the sun.

Have you reckon'd a thousand acres much? have you reckon'd the earth much?
Have you practis'd so long to learn to read?
Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?
Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of all poems,
You shall possess the good of the earth and sun, (there are millions of suns left,)
You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in books,
You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me,
You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self.

I have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the beginning and the end
But I do not talk of the beginning or the end.
There was never any more inception than there is now,
Nor any more youth or age than there is now,
And will never be any more perfection than there is now,
Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.

Urge and urge and urge,
Always the procreant urge of the world.
Out of the dimness opposite equals advance, always substance and increase, always sex,
Always a knit of identity, always distinction, always a breed of life.
To elaborate is no avail, learn'd and unlearn'd feel that it is so.

Sure as the most certain sure, plumb in the uprights, well entretied, braced in the beams,
Stout as a horse, affectionate, haughty, electrical,
I and this mystery here we stand.

Clear and sweet is my soul, and clear and sweet is all that is not my soul.

Lack one lacks both, and the unseen is proved by the seen,
Till that becomes unseen and receives proof in its turn.

Showing the best and dividing it from the worst age vexes age,
Knowing the perfect fitness and equanimity of things, while they discuss I am silent, and go bathe and admire myself.

Welcome is every organ and attribute of me, and of any man hearty and clean,
Not an inch nor a particle of an inch is vile, and none shall be less familiar than the rest.

I am satisfied--I see, dance, laugh, sing;
As the hugging and loving bed-fellow sleeps at my side through the night, and withdraws at the peep of the day with stealthy tread.
Leaving me baskets cover'd with white towels swelling the house with their plenty,
Shall I postpone my acceptation and realization and scream at my eyes,
That they turn from gazing after and down the road,
And forthwith cipher and show me to a cent,
Exactly the value of one and exactly the value of two, and which is ahead?

Trippers and askers surround me,

People I meet, the effect upon me of my early life or the ward and city I live in, or the nation,
The latest dates, discoveries, inventions, societies, authors old and new,
My dinner, dress, associates, looks, compliments, dues,
The real or fancied indifference of some man or woman I love,
The sickness of one of my folks or of myself, or ill-doing or loss or lack of money, or depressions or exaltations,
Battles, the horrors of fratricidal war, the fever of doubtful news, the fitful events;
These come to me days and nights and go from me again,
But they are not the Me myself.

Apart from the pulling and hauling stands what I am,
Stands amused, complacent, compassionating, idle, unitary,
Looks down, is erect, or bends an arm on an impalpable certain rest,
Looking with side-curved head curious what will come next,
Both in and out of the game and watching and wondering at it.

Backward I see in my own days where I sweated through fog with linguists and contenders,
I have no mockings or arguments, I witness and wait.

 

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"After some time one comes to a position where nothing is independent of the work, where there are very few actions that are not connected with the work."


P. D. Ouspensky

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excerpt from the writings of RANIER RILKE

“A billion stars go spinning through the night, blazing high above your head. But in you is the presence that will be, when all the stars are dead.” … Rilke

 

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COMMENTS * From the AUTHOR OF THIS SITE:

 

"Plan as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today."

"Imagination emanates from the feeling of, the buffered illusion of... 'I'...The more you can weaken the illusory sense of ONENESS, of 'I' being 'real' (in a measured not histrionic way...) the more you weaken the power of imagination. Likewise, as you weaken imagination, you see thru the illusion of 'I'..and see factually the existence of (the) MANY I's from the centres of the machine"

"The instincitve center has many I's within it that will provide formidable denying force for your Work I's. Yet one has to live with it. And treat it with respect. It has a lot of work to do every day and you'd be in quite a pickle without it doing what it does. What you want to do is curb wrong work. False personality does have residence in the instinctive centre too. Plus, the lower story brain feels threatened by the work I's to some considerable extent, because the instincitve centre is used to running the machine (pretty much). The main thing, the principal thing is YOU HAVE TO WANT TO WAKE UP. Grammar, the work language, is a roadmap for the intellectual centre...but do not lose clear understanding to labels and phrases. Your magnetic center matures and gains mass, and hopefully becomes higher incarnations of the Work. But for practical purposes of giving this commentary...your magnetic centre is the beginning of YOU. And as it grows in mass...so do your future possibilities."

(Author of this site) --- January 2008

 

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Additional subject matter:

 

Rodney Collin

[from Wikipedia]

 

Rodney Collin (aka Rodney Collin-Smith) (born April 26, 1909; died May 3, 1956) was a British writer in the area of spiritual development. His work was heavily influenced by his teacher, P. D. Ouspensky, and through him, G. I. Gurdjieff, and their system of spiritual development. Rodney Collin is one of the most well known of Ouspenky's students, and a prolific writer. He met Ouspensky in the autumn of 1946. "Rodney Collin immediately recognised that he had found what he had been searching for in his reading and travels. From then on he dedicated all his time to the study of Mr Ouspensky's teaching." [1] Collin's best known work, The Theory of Celestial Influence, is an ambitious attempt to unite astronomy, physics, chemistry, human physiology, and world history with Collin's version of planetary influences.

Within his most relevant contributions, it is the emphasis in the idea of Fourth Way school existing in different times. He says: "Schools of the fourth way have existed and exist, just as schools of the three traditional ways existed and exist. But they are much more difficult to detect, because - unlike the others - they cannot be recognized by any one practice, one method, one task, or one name. They are always inventing new methods, new practices, suitable to the time and conditions in which they exist, and when they have achieved one task which was set them they pass on to another, often changing their name and whole appearance in the process."[2]

Rodney Collin studied the sequence of European Civilizations, finding a pattern which would follow a planetary scale where the times are 10 times longer than in the case of human life. His sequence starts following Toynbee's but soon he changes some aspects, trying to follow his said pattern. Thus, his list begins with the Greeks (with roots on the Egyptian, which he considers the last one in the previous sequence), then the Romans, the Primitive Christians, the Monastic Christians, the Medieval Christians, the Renaissance, and the Synthetic. He also quotes the influence of an extra-European civilization, the Arabic one, upon the Medieval Christian Civilization.[3]
He establishes a relation between fourth way schools and the origin and development of these civilizations. He says: "Thus schools of the fourth way were undoubtedly behind the designing and construction of the great Gothic cathedrals, though they had no special name and adapted themselves to the religious organization of the time. For a time the Cluniacs sheltered them, for a time the Freemasons. In the seventeenth century, similar schools were responsible for much of the new scientific and medical research, sometimes under one name and sometimes under another. In the eighteenth century again, fourth way schools borrowed many of the discoveries of Greek and Egyptian archeology to clothe their ideas and their organization, while some of their leaders - in order to penetrate the luxury-loving and sophisticated circles where they had work to do - might even appear in the guise of fashionable magicians or mesmerists."[4]

The conceptual foundations for this project are the Law of Three, arguably similar to the triad of thesis/antithesis/synthesis of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and the Law of Seven, the idea that the notes of the Western musical scale encode universal stages in essentially all developmental processes. Collin unites both of these schemata geometrically using the enneagram.

Collin's other work includes The Theory of Eternal Life, which uses some of the ideas of The Theory of Celestial Influence as a point of departure to formulate a theory of the cycles and potentials of souls, e.g. reincarnation. His works The Theory of Conscious Harmony and The Mirror of Light are more emotional explorations of humanity: faith, acceptance and forgiveness in contrast to the philosophical scope of his earlier works.

Publications

  • Palms and Patios
  • The Theory of Eternal Life
  • Hellas
  • The Theory of Celestial Influence
  • The Christian Mystery
  • The Herald of Harmony
  • The Pyramid of Fire
  • The Whirling Ecstacy
  • A Programme of Study
  • The Theory of Conscious Harmony (published posthumously)
  • Mirror of Light (published posthumously)

 References

  1. ^ The Theory of Conscious Harmony" by Rodney Collin, Introduction.
  2. ^ The Theory of CelestialInfluence - Penguin Books, 1997 - Chapter 15 "The Shape of Civilization"
  3. ^ The Theory of Celestial Influence - Penguin Books, 1997 - Chapter 16 "The Sequence of Civilizations"
  4. ^ The Theory of Celestial Influence - Penguin Books, 1997 - Chapter 15 "The Shape of Civilization"

External links

 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING OF INTEREST..go to our myspace pages at:

 

 

http://myspace.com/nycfourthway

 

SOME PRINTED MATERIALS OF NOTE 

Gurdjieff, G. I. Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson: An Objectively Impartial Criticism of the Life of Man. New York: Dutton, 1978.

—————-. Views from the Real World: Early Talks in Moscow, Essentuki, Tiflis, Berlin, London, Paris, New York and Chicago. As recollected by his pupils. New York: Dutton, 1975.

—————-. Life is Real Only Then, When “I Am.” New York: Dutton, 1982.

—————-. Meetings with Remarkable Men. New York: Dutton, 1969.

Ouspensky, P. D. In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1949.

—————-. The Psychology of Man’s Possible Evolution. New York: Random House, 1981.

—————-. A New Model of the Universe. New York: Random House, 1971.

—————-. Tertium Organum. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1981.

Product search results for books by rodney collin
The Theory of Celestial Influence **
The Herald of Harmony **
The Theory of Eternal Life **

Nicoll, Maurice. Living Time. Boulder and London: Shambhala, 1984.

—————-. The New Man. Boston and London: Shambhala, 1986. Gurdjieff is sometimes aslo spelled:

 

FOOTNOTE:


Gurdief, gurdjiev, gurdjef, gurdjev, gurdieff, gurdief, gurdiev, dorjieff, georgiades. gurdjief, grudjief, grudief, gurdjew,gurdijef, grudjiev, gurdjiefff, gurdijef, grudiev, gurdev, dorjief,
.

 

OTHER references

 

A FEW -- MAGNETIC CENTRE PRIMERS:

 

 

The Only Dance There Is -- by Ram Das

The Crack in the Cosmic Egg - by Joseph Chilton Pearce

On Having No Head - by DE Harding

The Outsider - by Colin Wilson

 

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTARY:

Gurdjieff said that the Fourth Way is a quicker means than the first three ways because it simultaneously combines work on all three centers rather than focusing on one as is done in the first three ways, and that it can be followed by in everyday life, requiring no retirement into the desert.

The Fourth Way does involve whole-hearted acceptance of certain conditions imposed by a teacher. The Way requires supreme effort to devote oneself continuously to inner work, even though one's outward worldly roles may not change much. In spite of his insistence that work without a teacher is next to impossible, Gurdjieff stressed each individual's responsibility:

"The fourth way differs from the other ways in that the principal demand made upon a man is the demand for understanding. A man must do nothing that he does not understand, except as an experiment under the supervision and direction of his teacher. The more a man understands what he is doing, the greater will be the results of his efforts. This is a fundamental principle of the fourth way. The results of work are in proportion to the consciousness of the work. No "faith" is required on the fourth way; on the contrary, faith of any kind is opposed to the fourth way. On the fourth way a man must satisfy himself of the truth of what he is told."

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Below are comments written by "H" ...who had been (directly) a student of both Mr. Gurdjieff and Mr. Ouspensky. He wrote about the difficulty of acquainting people with THE TEACHING:

 

 

"The difficulty of passing on understanding appalled me. The dangerous results of the mistakes I seemed likely to make discouraged me. During the past years I had brought many people into contact with the teaching. Since I felt myself to be getting so much profit from it, I persuaded other people to try it. In this early enthusiasm I had made many mistakes.

Experience had shown me how difficult it was to find people who could benefit. Some people came only seeking confirmation for what they already believed, and so could not hear anything new. Some people were repelled by the strangeness of the ideas and rejected them without testing their truth. Some people were filled with an initial enthusiasm, but as soon as it came to the point of making any effort for themselves, gave up at once. Some people demanded quick results. I came to recognise all the types symbolised by the seeds that fell upon different kinds of ground.

It was useless to argue with people, to try to persuade them. One had to discover people who had a need and were aware of that need, however inarticulately: people who were dissatisfied in a right way—primarily with themselves, but also with the usual aims of life. Some people were made restless by a feeling that some unknown element was missing from their life, without which life made no sense. Some people had succeeded in their ambitions, only to find that success did not bring either peace or happiness. Some felt themselves to be caught in a vicious circle, and realised how they repeated the same mistakes again and again in spite of all regrets and resolutions. Others were seeking something to satisfy their inherent need for faith, but had found nothing but disappointment and disillusionment.

By experience, by making many mistakes, I gradually learned what kinds of people to look for. It was not enough that people needed the healing and liberating power of the truth; they had themselves to feel this need, and had to be prepared themselves to sacrifice their well-loved illusions."

 

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"This system is not 'popular' , is very difficult to understand, and even more difficult to work with, because of its negative truths told. It tells you that what you have tended to think is your LIFE, is illusion, and the truth of your life is unpleasant....AS IT IS. You have great possibilies IF YOU USE THE KNOWLEDGE rightly, but AS YOU ARE NOW your life is a mess, EVEN IF you seem 'successful' in 'life'. Should your inner psychology be fully bared to you it is more than a little shocking. AND..if one truly, sincerely, works with the system for many years, there will come a point in your work where there are (essentially) TWO PEOPLE in the same space in you. The WORK trying to progress, and all your lower I's trying to resist loss of space and mechanical control. This is a very delicate and dangerous place. ONE MUST NOT IDENTIFY with ANY of the I's observed, all are just I's, and one must not identify with emotions of fear which do arise. IT IS A DEFINITE STEP OF PROGRESS to observe CLEARY the pervasiveness of the mechanicaly of one's daily 'life'. And the random order of I's arising from the machine. It is grossly unpleasant, but it is a necessary stage. Even after a lot of Work, YOUR LIFE is almost entirely mechanics, and MOST OF THE TIME randomly unfolding mechanics at that. BUT AWARENSS, CONSCIOUSNES, OBSERVATION does change the character of what's happening inside. WHEN YOU SEE HOW BAD THINGS ARE, curiously, you are on the way to being better off. KEEP OBSERVING and do NOT identify with I's or emotions that come alongside them. BE HERE NOW..and do NOT identify with anything you see. Try to note WHAT you are observing ACCORDING to the knowledge of the system. REGISTER observations inside and STAY AWAKE. In sleep, the instinctive centre is the machine's boss. AWAKE, things are changing"

 

(Author of this site)

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"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."

 

(Thomas Edison)

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"Your life is a mirror image of what you are"

 

(George Gurdjieff)

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Feeding the Moon

(edited essay ...by general-life writer, Jason Keehn) :

Gurdjieff's quest was guided by the basic question, "what is the sense and significance of human life on earth?"

His conclusion, expressed in writing toward the end of his life, was that humanity does not exist for itself, but to supply the planet, the moon, and the solar system with a particular gradation of energy which they need to thrive and grow. At times he called this principle, "feeding the Moon," though it is not clear whether he meant this literally or merely as a handy symbol.

He believed that the entire universe is in some sense alive and in a process of continuously evolving (and if not evolving, actively devolving). In what could be compared to a cosmic fractal, the universe is in a process of unfolding and giving birth to itself, each birth at a new level mirroring in its unique way that of other levels (known nowadays as the principle of self-similarity). In what Gurdjieff called "the ray of creation," "God" or the Absolute gives birth to universes; universes give birth to stars, which give birth to planets, which give birth to organic life (viruses, bacteria, plants and animals) and to moons. Eventually a planet may become a star, its moon may become a planet in its turn, and "give birth" to its own moon, and so on, ad infinitum.

Just as all plants and animals need a variety of nutrients to exist, grow and reproduce, so our world and its siblings need a very specialised type of substance to fuel their processes--their planetary metabolisms, if you will. Supposedly, this special energetic substance can be produced only by human beings.

Reciprocal Maintenance

Gurdjieff's answer fits into what he called "the doctrine of reciprocal maintenance", the idea that every thing exists only insofar as it supports or "feeds" something else. Everything is part of a vast, interconnected and mutually reinforcing web of life. Or, "everything is something else's lunch," as ecologists like to say. This idea anticipated the science of ecology by at least half a century.

Examples: Bees don't just exist for themselves, they live to pollinate flowers. Algae exists to turn sunlight into more complex molecules, and feed other small creatures, such as plankton and krill. Krill feeds other slightly larger creatures, and even whales. Plants exist to turn sunlight and raw matter into organic compounds, and to feed animals. Worms exist to loosen soil for plants. Bacteria recycle waste into useable raw matter. Predators help to increase the strength and fitness of the herds they prey on by eliminating the weak and sick. Etc. etc.

In the scheme of things, humanity's essential role is that of a transformer of energy.

Human beings, according to this view, exist to serve the cosmic evolutionary process--and not the opposite, as the Bible would have it: that all of creation is merely a resource for us to use and abuse as we see fit.

Our possibilities as human beings are dependent on the degree to which we fulfil this function, a kind of "obligation" which nature imposes on us.

* * *By Gurdjieff's view, this special energy could be produced two different ways: either involuntarily, at the moment of death, when a small "packet" is released into the atmosphere, or voluntarily, in greater or lesser amounts, through spiritual work.* * *

Since Mother Nature, or Gaia, needs a definite quota of this energy from us, she will do whatever is necessary to make sure she gets it. If we don't provide the required intensities while alive, the total number of deaths will have to be increased in such a proportion as to yield the needed amount.

Devolution

Gurdjieff further believed that rather than progressing, the overall quality of human being (as opposed to externalizations like technology, culture, institutions, etc.) has actually been deteriorating over the last umpteen thousands of years, especially in "civilised" societies such as our own. He believed that in the very distant past, before the earliest recorded history, human beings had a much greater presence and power; in a sense, they were bigger, spiritually and existentially, than the vast majority of us today. He also believed that people once had a much greater life-span.

They were energy-pumps.

Gurdjieff had his speculations about what caused this decline in the quality of human being in the very remote past, perhaps even before the destruction of Atlantis (his theory of the "kundabuffer," explored at length in All and Everything). The upshot, though, is that humanity as a whole has "forgotten" how to perform its ecological function in the world--or simply no longer has the necessary juice to do it, which pretty much amounts to the same thing.

So if this is in fact the case--that we human beings generally no longer have the knowledge or ability to "pump" this energy intentionally--Gaia will be forced to increase the total quantity of human death to meet her needs.

This can be accomplished, of course, by 1) increasing the number of human births, and eventually deaths, and 2) by shortening the life-span of existing individuals, or 3) a combination of the two. The net results: Population increase. . . disease, and war.

Following this line of thinking, our increasing inability to properly transform and pump energy means that we have to be treated... the same way we treat plants and animals, as something to be farmed, bred and harvested. Not a very dignified state of affairs!

So as the qualitative level of human being goes down, the number of human beings, and thereby of human deaths, goes up to account for the difference in energy. And of course, since organisms grow at different rates, with different energy requirements depending on their activities, we can imagine that there might be major fluctuations in the needs for our energies.

The Terror of the Situation

This suggests a radical, and terrifying, view of contemporary history: that the population explosion, famines, plagues, wars and massacres might not be due just to accidental or sociological and political causes but may be induced by the needs of the solar "eco-system" as a whole, with human beings acting for the most part unwittingly to effectuate these needs.

Think about all the horror and insanity that has gone done in the twentieth century, even just in terms of cold numbers: millions killed in World War One, hundreds of thousands wiped out in seconds at Hiroshima and Nagasake alone, millions massacred one way or another in the Nazi concentration camps; supposedly as many as twenty million Russians dying in combat in World War Two, not to mention another twenty million who died in the same period as a result of Stalinist persecution and forced famine. Millions died in the Chinese civil war, six or seven million in Cambodia under Pol Pot. Don't even bother counting all the famines in Africa and South East Asia over the last few decades.

Why the incredible surge of violent death all over the world, paralleled by an equally incredible population explosion? What is up with those peculiar humanoid beings living on the surface of Sol-III?

I'm not going to try to argue the merits of this scheme against other theories. Just chew on it for a while and see how it fits.

And so the picture painted is one of a race of hapless, deluded slaves to some kind of a cosmic food-chain the existence of which we don't even recognise. This is definitely insulting to all our best images of ourselves. But then how do we reconcile all our great assets, our supposed free will, intelligence, and creativity with the dismal facts of what we've done to each other for all of recorded history?

Are we really anything more than automatons most of the time?

Gurdjieff had what might seem to many a horribly bleak, cynical view:

that our ideas of free-will and individuality are a delusion, an image of our potential mistaken for a general fact of our existence. Bluntly put, we are blind products of genetics, conditioning and external influence; on an energetic level, we are next to nothing. We are less, in that sense, than most mammals even.

We have become experts at consuming energy and resources, parasites.

As a civilisation, we no longer transform energy into higher gradients and radiate it back out to the world, we just circulate like little ants in our vast urban hives and manufacture stuff, endless quantities of stuff. We know how to suck energy, make objects, and how to kill. Even if we're not killing each other off at a given moment, we're decimating untold numbers of living beings without even being grateful for their existence.

Sure, for the most part we don't feel ourselves that way, but anybody who's tripped a few times in public places probably had disturbing glimpses--at least--along these lines. We don't see other people--or ourselves--that way, because it's just too hard a vision to live with.

The path of return

This perspective provides a definite way of understanding the connection between our amazingly (messed) up global situation and "spirituality"--or the lack thereof. [edit].

If it is true that we have been suffering a generalised decline over millennia, all our human institutions must participate in and reflect that decline. So everything we associate with religion, in all its multifarious forms, would generally be a product and mirror of a messed up situation; in other words, just another part of the (self deluding malaise).

At its best, the spiritual component of religious traditions points to a return to what should be our natural base-line of being, something so distant we can barely remember or taste it except at moments of "peak experience," or with the help of psychedelic drugs, or as a result of long, intensive discipline.

Our so-called "salvation" is really more a matter of somehow pulling ourselves back up out of a dysfunctional, disenabled, alienated state to something like a natural way of being--not transcendence or cosmic consciousness or union with God[edit]. We need to re-learn "how to be and to do."

According to Gurdjieff, the two key principles to following this "path of return," were intentional suffering and conscious labour. Through engaging in intentional sufferings and conscious labours we begin again to release the kinds of energies we were intended to give off.

[edit]

Intentional suffering. Again, if it's true that we exist in a chronic low-energy state, one of inertia and stasis, it makes sense that in order to get back to a point of being able to consciously transform energy we would need to somehow exercise an enormous effort just to break out of our passivity. "Only super-efforts count." If you're physically weak from illness, it usually takes an extra effort to get to the point of being able to exercise on a regular basis, to return to your previous level of strength. Or as they say, no pain no gain.

This can apply on a lot of levels other than just the physical. Pain can take the form of a kind of moral or spiritual suffering deriving from, say, breaking habits, or confronting bad traits in one's character, or doing exactly that which you least like to do. Suffering in the form of sacrifice is necessary to be there for others, to truly love.

Conscious labour assumes that most of the "work" we do, of whatever nature, is not really conscious to begin with. We are driven by culturally programmed priorities, survival, automatic emotional needs, obsession, neurosis, ego, (and genetics). To work consciously assumes that one must first have become aware of how unconscious one is most of the time, of how automatic most of how our thoughts, feelings, perceptions and actions really are.

To even get to this point itself requires a lot of intentional suffering, because what could make us suffer more than waking up to how we really don't "own" ourselves?

 

(from essay writer - Jason Keehn)

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(The following are excerpts from writings by Carlos Castaneda.                           Mr. Castaneda is not a student in a Fourth Way School... His "teacher" may possibly be attempting to lead him to higher states via a form of the third way... but neither the level nor the degree of correctness of his teacher is readily discernable.):

 

"The sorcerers of ancient Mexico ... did discover something transcendental.   They discovered that we have a companion for life," don Juan said. "We have an (invisible) predator that rules our lives. Human beings are its prisoners. It has rendered us docile, helpless. If we want to protest, it suppresses our protest. If we want to act independently, it demands that we don't do so."

[edit]
"Why has this predator taken over in this fashion, don Juan?" I asked. "There must be a logical explanation."

"There is an explanation," don Juan replied, "which is the simplest explanation in the world. They took over because we are food for them, and they squeeze us mercilessly because we are their sustenance. Just as we rear chickens in chicken coops, the predators rear us in human coops. Therefore, their food is always available to them."

"No, no, no, no," I heard myself saying. "This is absurd, don Juan. What you're saying is something monstrous. It simply can't be true, for sorcerers or for average men, or for anyone."

"Why not?" don Juan asked calmly. "Why not? Because it infuriates you."


[edit]
"The only alternative left for mankind, " he continued, "is discipline. Discipline is the only deterrent. But by discipline I don't mean harsh routines. I don't mean waking up every morning at five-thirty and throwing cold water on yourself until you're blue. Sorcerers understand discipline as the capacity to face with serenity odds that are not included in our expectations. For them, discipline is an art: the art of facing infinity without flinching [edit]... (and doing so) because they are filled with awe."

 

(Carlos Castaneda)

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Morpheus: The Matrix is everywhere. It's all around us; even in this very room . . . It's the world pulled over your eyes to blind you from truth.
Neo: What truth?
Morpheus: Of that you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you are born into bondage; into a prison which you cannot smell, taste, or touch: a prison for your mind.

(dialogue from film - The Matrix)

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Edited Precis of KUNDABUFFER comments:

In the Tales, Beelzebub explains the unfortunate events which happened on planet Earth–the cosmic disruptions that led to the implanting and removal of the organ Kundabuffer–and how these events brought about the degeneration of the human psyche:
 “... when various consequences of the properties of the organ Kundabuffer had already begun to be crystallized in their presences, a being impulse began to be formed in them which later became predominant.
    “This impulse is now called ‘pleasure’; and in order to satisfy it they had already begun to exist in a way unbecoming to three-centered beings, namely, most of them gradually began to remove this same sacred being-substance from themselves only for the satisfaction of the said impulse. ... most of them ceased to utilize this sacred substance consciously for coating their higher being-bodies ... .”  (p. 276)

 

(excerpt from writings of Gurdjieff)

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 The Magician and his Flock (In Search of the Miraculous: 219)

Ouspensky quotes Gurdjieff as saying...

"There is an Eastern tale that speaks about a very rich magician who had a great many sheep. But at the
same time this magician was very mean. He did not want to hire shepherds, nor did he want to erect a fence
about the pasture where the sheep were grazing. The sheep consequently often wandered into the forest, fell
into ravines and so on, and above all, they ran away, for they knew that the magician wanted their flesh and
their skins, and this they did not like.

"At last the magician found a remedy. He hypnotized his sheep and suggested to them, first of all, that they
were immortal and that no harm was being done to them when they were skinned; that on the contrary, it
would be very good for them and even pleasant; secondly he suggested that the magician was a good master
who loved his flock so much that he was ready to do anything in the world for them; and in the third place,
he suggested that if anything at all were going to happen to them, it was not going to happen just then, at any
rate not that day, and therefore they had no need to think about it. Further, the magician suggested to his
sheep that they were not sheep at all; to some of them he suggested that they were lions, to some that they
were eagles, to some that they were men, to others that they were magicians.

"After this all his cares and worries about the sheep came to an end. They never ran away again, but quietly
awaited the time when the magician would require their flesh and skins.

"This tale is a very good illustration of man's position."
 

An Armenian parable of the Wolf and the Sheep (In Search of the Miraculous: 366)

Ouspensky quotes Gurdjieff as saying...

"Ones there lived a wolf who slaughtered a great many sheep and reduced many people to tears.
At length, I do not know why, he suddenly felt qualms of conscience and began to repent his life; so he decided
to reform and to slaughter no more sheep.

In order to do this seriously he went to a priest and asked him to hold a thanksgiving service.

The priest began the service and the wolf stood weeping and praying in the church. The service was long.
The wolf had slaughtered many of the priest's sheep, therefore the priest prayed earnestly that the wolf would
indeed reform.

Suddenly the wolf looked through the window and saw that sheep were being driven home. He began to fidget
but the priest went on and on without end.

At last the wolf could contain himself no longer and he shouted: "Finish it priest! Or all the sheep will be driven
home and I shall be left without supper!"

This is a very good fairy tale, because it describes man very well. He is ready to sacrifice everything, but after all
today's dinner is a different matter A man always wishes to begin with something big, but that is impossible; there
can be no choice, we must begin with the things of today".

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Commentary:

"False Personality is world 96 (you are under 96 levels of laws in the universe), it is a burdensome and chaotic state of being. It is walking sleep and worse. Your walking sleep is false personality and all its devices, imagination, identification, negative emotions, wasteful leaking of precious energies. To do real Work, Work is in the moment each moment. You must work with the weakness of the moment, the imagination of the moment, the negativity of the moment, the identification of the moment. It is a second by second effort. This is the first force and second force struggle. Your internal friction. First force in this struggle is your work I's. Second force, denying force, is your FP; your Kundabuffer. The force of the moon making you a mechanical automaton leaking energy wrongly. An unconscious machine wrongly functioning.

Third force is what? Self remembering, separation of emotional attention and consciousness from your organic machine. And (...you must try to muster it also increasingly over time)... along with self remembering, the emotionality of your innate conscience.

Your spiritual self realizes with these processes. It is a long and patient, difficult journey. So relax and resolve, this is not easy work, nor rapid. It is for years, and you must hold dearly to the idea that YOU CAN evolve if you want to enough, and work consistently enough, and attract the right influences (and help). You heart certainly must be in the right place (you must have a properly formed magnetic centre). But also, your mind (intellectual and emotional centers in concert) must not be naive; your magnetic center/inner Work- must be properly informed and attuned."

(Author of this site)

 

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gurdjieffyoung.jpg

Organization News

Additionally however, AT THIS TIME...the individuals behind this webpage have the unpleasant duty of addressing some unpleasant subject matter (in addition to lighting this beacon for searchers).

The unpleasant comments relate to a group which has historically declared connection to THE FOURTH WAY.

That is a self-declared "school" headquartered in northern Calfornia, which has been operating since 1970.

One of the individuals behind this webpage was a student within that group for 12 years. We do not wish to name that group at this time. People aware of it and having any kind of internal "I"s about it, know of what group we speak. At this time it will be unmitigatedly declared here, said Northern California group is not AT THIS TIME an appropriate connection to The Fourth Way. Said group WAS A MEDIUM for conducting some very important influences, for some degree of time. However it was ALSO apparently tainted with some improperly developed influences from within. There has been considerable crime effected within the body of the group (moral/ethical crime) - over substantial time...and this does not comport with the Fourth Way...either in teaching or in fact.
 
 
 
******************Below Quote from George Gurdjieff ******************************
Throughout BEELZEBUB'S TALES, Gurdjieff gave certain meaning to many of his original words such as Triamazikamno - law of three, Heptaparaparshinokh - law of sevenfoldness, Solioonensius - certain cosmic law, and so on.

Gurdjieff applied these words to minor concepts, as well as some major ones. One of the major concepts is where Gurdjieff applies the word Hasnamuss to certain types of people. According to Beelzebub's Tales, Hasnamuss is a being who acquires "something" which creates certain harmful factors for himself, as well as for those around him. According to Gurdjieff this applies to "average people" as well as to those who are on "higher levels".

This "something" is formed in beings as a result of the following manifestations:

1) Every kind of depravity, conscious as well as unconscious

2) The feeling of self-satisfaction from leading others astray

3) The irresistible inclination to destroy the existence of other breathing creatures

4) The urge to become free from the necessity of actualizing the being-efforts demanded by nature

5) The attempt by every kind to artificially conceal from others what in their opinion are one's physical defects

6) The calm self-contentment in the use of what is not personally deserved

7) The striving to be not what one is

******************Above Quote from George Gurdjieff ******************************
 
 
 
 
******************Below Quote from Dr. Martha Stout ******************************
 
"Sociopaths"  are unable to forge emotional attachments, and as a result they fail to connect with conscience; that's it. They are remorseless and shameless. Your average sociopath is otherwise as random as your random American. One may spend his life lazily and shamelessly leeching off others; one may end up a pathetic middle manager whose only joy is abusing her modest power; another is a greedy, lying CEO; another is a carping old hag; still another is Vice-President. You've certainly met at least one in your lifetime.

Although sociopaths do not suffer the burden of a conscience, they are not blind to social mores or the emotions of others. They cannot feel, but they can imitate. Consequently, they are able to expertly blend in among us feelers — even to use our feelings against us. Pity, remorse, and love are the poison tipped arrows in the psychopath's arsenal. Robbed of the deeper human satisfactions, their motivations are basic, animal. They live to gain. With 96 percent of the population distracted from their own self-interest by inexplicable emotional impulses, the able sociopath can manipulate or steamroll almost anyone in the way.

******************Above Quote from Dr. Martha Stout ******************************

 

 

The morality of a properly developed Teaching/Teacher in any of THE WAYS, must exist on higher planes than the moral philosophies/practises common to Influences A or B. If you find this principle hard to verify, you have encountered a group you should view with careful discernment.
 
It must be noted however, the morality of the Fourth Way, while above that of "ordinary life" cannot be understood without preparation and a considerable digestion of the System's cosmology. Some precepts may seem harsh at first, only to be understood later. It takes much work within The System, to be able to evaluate a teacher or a group posturing as the Fourth Way.
 
A defective teaching-group/teacher is an extremely sensitive subject. And to make the statement a teacher/teaching is tainted is a very serious statement. For most people, hearing it/reading it will feed the wrong part of one's machine. In the case being spoken about, considerable inner Work and exposure to Higher information have been faciltated through that California-based group and by its leader (over time). One cannot and should not view it in 'black and white' terms. That is formatory and counterproductive. Yet crime has overshadowed both appropriate Leadership and the large scale view of The Way. Personal eccentricities have negated proper evolution of the group, both in form and substance. The time to speak out unequivocally ---has arrived. Just be clear in reading these words, the implication is NOT that real Work has not been afforded to many through that group. Rather, what is now being stated is---- crime has been given sway to an intolerable extent.
 
Certain crimes ignite one's conscience and agitate even the most rudimentary grid of common sense. At times one must jolt oneself out of self-delusion and see what is in one's face.
 
It is only after quite long-term analysis of troubling facts about the California group we refer to...the individuals behind THIS webpage believe it is accurate to say...said California-based group is not AT THIS TIME a proper connection to the Fourth Way stream of light, Teaching, help and guidance.

[These are stern words and are articulated with a most serious, lengthy, and careful emotional consideration...]

Simultaneously, the individuals behind this wepbage stop short of saying WHETHER there are OTHER legitimate Fourth Way connections to be had on earth at this time. There may be. In all sincerity, we HOPE THERE ARE. Currently, we are not aware of any, or we would happily mention them. We honestly just simply are not aware of any, but if they exist it is our hope we will be made aware of them, and we certainly shall talk of them. There are many written accounts of people experiencing Higher States and activations of Higher Centres... both in factual narratives, and in literature...
["...I was supremely happy, for I had seen. Nothing could ever be the same. I have drunk at the clear and pure waters and my thirst was appeased. ...I have seen the Light. I have touched compassion which heals all sorrow and suffering; it is not for myself, but for the world. ...Love in all its glory has intoxicated my heart; my heart can never be closed. I have drunk at the fountain of Joy and eternal Beauty. I am God-intoxicated." --- J Krishnamurti  ***  "Words started to have no meaning, A state began happening. This state.... this magical state of not wanting. Euphoric. Perfection: the moment, this moment was all and everything" -- A USA Fourth Way student]... The question is though, can you make this a permanent reality, and do so in a properly evolving way? That is a big question and not one which invites a reactive answer.
 
We are very open to new knowledge of spiritual success though.

The Fourth way is not a competition. It is a spirtual pathway.

That is all for now. More will be added soon (within the month). If you believe you are following the Fourth Way Teaching/System, and have felt hunger for a legitimate connection... breathe a little easier. Help is on the way.

And at all times, in all circumstances, TRY TO REMEMBER YOURSELF.

As Mr Gurdjieff & Mr. Ouspensky advanced... that is the beginning, the center, and the end of the system.

May serenity be with you. Unrest is usually the product of some kind of identification.

The earth exists under many difficult laws. You are lucky to know what you know.
 
 
 
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January 4th, 2008  some Q and A:
 
 
(The answers are given by the operating leader of the group of individuals behind this webpage)
 
Q: The subject you raised about the California-based group is very controversial...and for the most part, most groups who say they are WORKING with the Fourth Way and trying to help people awaken through it, have tended to stop short of public denouncement in speaking of that California (based) organization's leadership. Without judging the merit of you doing this, of course, it is provocative... Can you say more about why you do so at this time?
 
A: Crime and The Work are incompatible. It is blasphemy to use the name of The Fourth Way, which is a sacred spiritual path, and be a criminal at the same time.
 
Q: Life has varying criteria to define crime. What is your definition of crime?
 
A: Crime is an action of any part of an eco-system that is against the well-being and best interests of the larger whole.
 
Q: Why do you think others who claim to be guiding Fourth Way Work have not been publicly outspoken about that California (based) group..whereas you are now willing to be? Also why are you doing so -- AT THIS TIME?
 
A: HAVING (previously) BEEN IN THAT group (for 12 years)... creates a different reponsibility.
 
Departure was not due to conflicts with or rebellions against exercises or tasks or rules. FOR ME it was a useful work group while within it. And departure was not rebellion against lines of work.
 
BEING IN THAT GROUP gave me a great deal. My debt to that gift is large. So it is not a blanket / formatory denouncement being made here, as we are careful in  stating. THIS IS VERY SENSITIVE SUBJECT MATTER. My efforts along the line of The Fourth Way benefitted greatly due to that group. But one's allegience in The Fourth Way must always be to the Higher Right, not letting any incarnation of media one works with [form] -- dominate over conscienable truth [substance].
 
SPEAKING ABOUT THAT GROUP in the comments issued now is being done AT THIS TIME because analysis here feels quite conclusive... AND because due to having been a part of that group for so long, an obligation is felt regarding it---TO THE HONOR and INTEGRITY of THE WAY
 
 
A group attempting to work with Fourth Way guidance CAN BE MISLED, and people striving to help others CAN DO WRONGS. People of somewhat developed capacities --are not, and should not be presumed ..to be perfect.
 
 
ONE MUST BE CAREFUL and not let fear of mechanicality end up creating formatory devotion. Wrongs are wrongs. Rights are rights. Each has karma. Wrongs attract bad karma. Rights attract better karma. But the Fourth Way, FOR SOMEONE TRYING TO AWAKEN, is a volatile path and people are often in very vulnerable positions.
 
People confident they are in a right place with the Teaching, have a responsibility to lookout for others who are sincere seekers/students.
 
 
Q: You say a man with Higher Centers functioning..can.... be wrong, do wrong?
 
A: Yes...being can fail. One is not infallible on earth.
 
 
Q: How is that possible? Mr. Gurdjieff seemed to say Consciousness cannot be mechanical.
 
A: That is correct, consciousness is not mechanical...but our developing Higher Self lives within a lower machine, and even when Higher Centres may activate, one's False Personality and Lower Parts of the machine do not pack up their bags and move to Arizona. THEY ARE STILL HERE...It is possible to have Higher Centers activate and one's Work to become corrupted. That is a possibility. THAT IS ALSO why Mr. Gurdjieff warned against blind adherence and said UNDERSTANDING is precept #1.You must verify everything you are told and take nothing on faith.
 
 
 
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This next section of text borrowed from Gurdjieff-Legacy:
 
SPEAKING OF AMERICANS, MR. GURDJIEFF, IN HIS INIMITABLE WAY, SAID "there remains among them the largest percentage of beings in whose presences the said possibility [for the acquisition of Being] is not entirely lost." He was quite familiar with America, having visited it nine times. He liked Americans but found them immature, "like an infant 'peaches and cream.'"

America's Chief Weakness

He saw our existence as "feverish" and declared our chief personaliy-being-flaw, was our "love of 'dollar business' and of dollars themselves." In the chapter "Beelzebub in America," he speaks of our Americanisms, two in particular being especially detrimental: the media, whose "conscience," he says, "is completely atrophied"; and advertising, which he calls a "maleficent invention." He goes to the heart of the matter with a saying —"that man will become a friend of the cloven-hoofed who perfects himself to such Reason and such being that he can make an elephant out of a fly."

But it is our unmitigated passion for food and sex that Gurdjieff warned could lead to long term social impolosion. Our strange and destructive eating habits—the canned and processed foods of his day ---our abnormality with food will be the cause of digestive disorders that will weaken our constitution (he said); while sex—in objective reality "the most sacred of all sacred Divine sacraments"—which we use for titillation and worse.... will lead to (personal and social degeneracy).

If these digestive and sexual disorders were allowed to proliferate throughout society, Gurdjieff foresaw [American Sociey] being destroyed. "The process of the destruction will come from the 'stomach and sex' of its beings....it is precisely these two functionings necessary to their common presence, which are now both going in the direction of complete (abuse); and moreover, at a highly accelerated (pace) [i.e.- physical health and sexual wholesomeness]."

 

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BELOW ARE some potentially USEFUL COMMENTS / QUOTES
 
 
 
 
'THE GATES TO A NEW WORLD LIE WITHIN ONE'S FINDING...'
 
 
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The capacity to LOVE Consciously (when developed) marks the highest achievement in earthly life for a human being **** **** **** The Fourth Way is... a means of contacting "Higher influence".. and connecting with it... for the purpose of WORK to "awaken" your soul.
 
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"The sun is seen to pour down and expend itself in all directions, yet is never exhausted. For this downpouring is but a self-extension; sunbeams, in fact, derive their very name from the word signifying 'to be extended'. To understand the property of a sunbeam, watch the light as it streams into a darkened room through a narrow chink. It prolongs itself forward in a straight line, until it is held up by encountering some solid body which blocks its passage to the air beyond; and then it remains at rest there, without slipping off or falling away. The emission, and the diffusion, of thought should be the counterpart of this; not exhausting, but simply extending itself; not dashing violently or furiously against the obstacles it encounters, nor yet falling away in despair; but holding its ground and lighting up that upon which it rests. Failure to transmit it is mere self-deprivation of light."

(Marcus Aurelius)

"The possibility of higher states of consciousness (in the human organism) precisely depends upon certain fine matters produced by the body... being subject to the person's ATTENTION."

" Worldly 'powers' have nothing to do with 'being'. A strong person is not necessarily a good person. A strong human may use their strength to labor for others, or to force others to work for them, or again he or she may be too lazy to use their power at all. These three possibilities refer to difference in (inner) being.

(Rodney Collin - Fourth Way Teacher - 1950's)

(Comment from author of this site: "Strength is required for this work, increasing accumulation of strength, but COMBINED with rightness of being, and growing ascention of being. Otherwise, imbalance of inner being results and further development is threatened or negated.")

* * * *

"What initially provided in the machine, during childhood... the notion of a SEEMINGLY 'real I'... was sensations... physical sensations, from the instinctive centre. IF YOU CAN TRY TO REMEMBER YOURSELF AND DIVIDE ATTENTION with consistent inner will... WHILE EXPERIENCING any notable physical sensation(s), it will produce good results ....over time. TRY TO SEPARATE FROM the misleading experience of ---- "ME" ... *I*.... that goes with sensations -- when you are in waking sleep (second state of consciousness)."

* * * *

"The word of the day is yearning.

There is no yearning in a state of consciousness, but one must yearn to get there. - - - - - - - We must yearn to return to our original pure state of humanity, which lies dormant within us, and is covered over, denied, and threatend, by the 'false' personality we inherited from the other misguided and lost beings around us. Longing, yearning...for what is real.. is crucial, or we shall have what is false --and no more. The true world must be paid for, by giving up what is false. But that is easier said than done. Awakening ...... is a difficult process."

(Author of this site)

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"But if nothing seems better to you than the deity which dwells within you... leave yourself no room for any rival pursuits."

(Marcus Aurelius - Meditations)

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"The WAY A PERSON LIVES has to do with mentation (viewpoints, and thinking), feeling (emotions, attitudes, discernment), sensing (instinct) and movement (physical orientatation and activity within the environment).

If you watch, listen to, and discern people carefully...you can see that people in general.. are without God in their lives.

Can you say this is the fault of God? Has not God (the word of God, the messengers of God, the works of God)...been given plentifully to man?

What have we as a species done with the awareness of God we have? Essentially...denied it.

What is the peril of this? Can you imagine what it could be for us?

One who is devout and honoring of the beauty of God's creation does not rightly call others to discover the vibrance of Higher Influence with an UNDUE injunction of fear, but SOMETIMES fear is appropriate.

What will become of man and woman, if they do not consciously SERVE God?

The clear indication God wants something from you OF A SPECIAL DISTINCTION .. is that you were given the power to reflect.

If your judgement on matters of mental/emotional/instinctive UNDERSTANDING were not critical to your purpose for being, you would have been given ONLY genetic programming. Nature is frugal. And wise. In general, wiser than man.

What propels man to clone sheep, but ignore God?"

(Author of this site)

"Probabaly the most useful thing for you to understand of the Fourth Way... is that it is a means by which you may become closer to God."

(Author of this site)

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One of the highest things Mr. Gurdjieff ever said is that - The Fourth Way (as he acquainted us with it) IS -- esoteric Christianity.

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Inpsiration is needed... if your soul hungers.

Your soul is material. Incomplete. Undeveloped. A potential "being" within your body, but of separate, higher matter, and higher consciousness.

It must be fed. Or it will not grow. It will not become... a complete being (distinct from your earthly body).

Soul grows from your "essence" (not your "personality"). Your personality comes from people around you. Your essence comes from nature. Your essense is more "real". More "you".

It is of ... different energy and "being" than your personality.

The means to feeding (your soul) is your "conscience". When personality is bypassed, and your conscience is contacted, food can go to your soul. Your soul can enliven, grow.

Some teachers say you have no "soul" as you are. This means, you only have a potential for a completed soul.

Your FATHER in heaven is trying to speak to you, but you cannot hear, because of the state of being with which you currently exist. To hear you have to BE. To BE, you have to learn, sacrifice, understand, and care... to serve... the "magnificence" of the universe. Finding out what is the "magnificence" of the universe, is a big job. But it begins... day by day, inch by inch, moment by moment, second by second. Try to "REMEMBER YOURSELF"... right now. You are closer to something Higher, each moment that you.. "wake up".

(Author of this site)

"Does the baby decide-- to become a child, the sprig-- to become a tree? All HAPPENS"

(Rodney Collin)

"There are two streams of 'life' among humans. Those in the 'mainstream' where everything 'happens', life to death... and those seeking to "awaken", beginning to 'awaken', or 'awakened'. The FOURTH WAY is a 'way' to awakening."

(Author of this site)

"(He or she) who tries to go by the Fourth Way, must learn to be brave, good, and wise (simultaneously)..."

(Rodney Collin)

"If you lived as if the time of Jesus were at hand -- and The Master might come by you on the street at any time -- and know your thoughts - and see your actions - and know what is in your heart - and know the truth about you... ... you might live better.

He or she who does a turn of true good, does it before the eyes of divine consciousness. All good is good. Likewise, bad is bad. You must decide... what (level of person) do you want to be? Either the Devil shall have you, of the earth shall have you, or the Lord may."

(Author of this site)

"WHERE I GO YOU KNOW. AND THE WAY, YOU KNOW."

(Jesus - according to Gospel of St. John - Chapter 14)

"A burning question... what is that? One that forges a direction, and orientation, a magnetism, an axis in you. You must form your own... burning question. This is what Ouspensky was trying to say at the end of his earthly life. That at some point you must make the work personal not just technically effortful... but intimate, with your deeper essence of being and individual reality. I have a theory that part of awakening is forming your question rightly, then living the process to answer. Poet Ranier Maria Rilke said 'Live the question'.. that is a very high thing to be able to do, if your question is good, sincere, and profound."

(Author of this site)

"You have presumably come here because you are curious... to find Higher influence. The Fourth Way is Higher influence. The only way to understand this material is to gradually become it. You cannot understand THE FOURTH WAY staying the same as you were yesterday. When George Gurdjieff, and Peter Ouspensky said man is a sleeping machine and all the people you know are asleep, they were not using metaphor, they were speaking facts. Facts so hard to digest, they are literal shocks. There are many people discussing knowledge that was left by Mr. Gurdjieff and Mr. Ouspensky and trying to "work" with it. This is good at a certain stage, but can only take you so far. If you are serious... you must seek Higher guidance than fragments of knowledge. Mr. Ouspensky did and it brought him meaningful results. At the same time this is not "the Gurdjieff work". The Fourth way is.. the Fourth Way, and truthfully, Mr. Gurdjieff would not have wanted it called the "Gurdjieff" work. He called it (his nomenclature)... the Fourth Way. In perspective though, what's in a name? The more important issue is... can you (wake up)... remember yourself? Do you know what it means? Can you do it?

(Author of this site)

"The 'machine' (ones lower centres/one's body and its lower functions) has a very difficult time with transformation of being through Fourth Way Work... It is under considerable pressure by one's inner WORK, because the instinctive centre is programmed by nature to have earthly concerns... It is tied to and responsive to A Influence. Transformation is an alchemical process of gradual but radical change...creating and collecting higher substances within. One must be understanding of the fact that this puts a tremendous pressure on the instinctive centre, since this process takes space inside the machine...and prior to the WORK, the instinctive centre is used to controlling all of one's inner being. One is not only 'moving in' new *I's* when one begins the Work, one is instigating alchemical transformation.... hoping to launch a new being within. The (higher) centres to guide this being are already (inside, dormant but..) there, however the (higher-substances body of the...) being ---has yet to be created. The WORK, is radical, but it must be approached in a gradual, careful manner. To put it simply, one needs help from a higher level."

(Author of this site)

"The (person who has succeeded in this Work--the Fourth Way)... will "remember himself"... for him consciousness will not be dependent on special associations, but will be that which accompanies them always, fasting or drinking wine, alone or in a crowd, laboring or meditating. It will be that which... lights up all that happens."

(Rodney Collin)

"What is the first characteristic of self-remembering? In this state (the individual person) is not the center. He or she is not 'separate'. Sitting in a room... they are aware of the WHOLE ROOM, of themself as only one of the objects in it. They are likewise aware of others and do not put themself above others, or criticize or judge. This is not love but is the beginning of love. In this state a person has no 'self' as they usually are aware of it. It is quite impossible for them to consider or become negative, for they moment they do, the state will vanish."

(George Gurdjieff )

"A student must search out and select the 'Teacher', as much as the teaching individual must discern and 'accept' who they feel is a capable and valuable 'Student'. Be aware not just of what you seek; be equally as curious as to what you offer. Do you have within what deserves a Teacher's time, attention, and giving... from the fountain of this historical, sacred, and great Work?"

"It is a new era. One must not dwell too much on the form of the work of Messrs. Gurdjieff and Ouspensky... although one ought to pay great attention to what they left and brought forward. Now though, listen to the wind... and feel the particular breeze of the moment. What you are being taught this second is less a matter of words, than how to part the clouds of your false personality and see with your genuine eyes of childlike clarity. Be here... and be clear. See what you know. It is simple, and high, and marvelous. This is a moment you have been waiting for, but a moment without waiting."

(Author of this site)

 

 

FOR THOSE SEEKING ---LIGHT THROUGH THE FOURTH WAY