The Fourth Way
Encyclopedia
The Fourth Way refers to a concept used by G.I. Gurdjieff to describe an approach to self-development that combined what he saw as three established ways, or schools: that of the body, the emotions, and the mind. Gurdjieff referred to the concept as "The Work," "Work on oneself," or "The System." The term "The Fourth Way" was used by P.D. Ouspensky in his lectures and writings. Posthumously, Ouspensky's students published a book entitled Fourth Way
, based on his lectures.
According to this system, the chief difference between the three traditional schools, or ways, and the fourth way is that "they are permanent forms which have survived throughout history mostly unchanged, and are based on religion. Where schools of yogis, monks or fakirs exist, they are barely distinguishable from religious schools. The fourth way differs in that it is not a permanent way. It has no specific forms or institutions and comes and goes controlled by some particular laws of its own."
It always has some work of a specific import, and
The Fourth Way mainly addresses the question of people's place in the Universe, their possibilities for inner development, and transcending the body to achieve a higher state of consciousness. It emphasized that people live their lives in a state referred to as "waking sleep", but that higher levels of consciousness and various inner abilities are possible.
The Fourth Way teaches people how to increase and focus their attention and energy in various ways, and to minimize daydreaming and absentmindedness. According to this teaching, this inner development in oneself is the beginning of a possible further process of change, whose aim is to transform a man into what Gurdjieff taught he ought to be.
; a human being who is fully awake or enlightened
. He was also seen as an esotericist
or occult
ist. He agreed that the teaching was esoteric but claimed that none of it was veiled in secrecy; rather, Gurdjieff claimed that many people either don't have an interest or the capability to understand certain ideas. When asked about the teaching he was setting forth, Gurdjieff said, "The teaching whose theory is here being set out is completely self supporting and independent of other lines and it has been completely unknown up to the present time." The exact origins of Gurdjieff's teachings are unknown, but people have offered various sources.
The Fourth Way teaches that humans are not born with a soul, and are not really Conscious, but only believe they are Conscious because of the socialization process. A person must create/develop a soul through the course of his life by following a teaching which can lead to this aim, or he will "die like a dog," and that men are born asleep, live in sleep and die in sleep, only imagining that they are awake. The system also teaches that the ordinary waking "consciousness" of human beings is not consciousness at all but merely a form of sleep, and that actual higher Consciousness is possible.
As exercises in attention, Gurdjieff taught his pupils "sacred dances" or "movements", now known as Gurdjieff movements, which they performed together as a group. Gurdjieff left a body of music inspired by what he heard in visits to remote monasteries and other places, which was written for piano in collaboration with one of his pupils, Thomas de Hartmann
.
Gurdjieff insisted that these paths - although they may intend to seek to produce a fully developed human being - tended in actuality to cultivate certain faculties at the expense of others. The goal of religion, the goal of spirituality was, in fact, to produce a well-balanced, responsive and sane human being capable of dealing with all manner of eventualities that life may present to them. Traditional methods as such generally failed to achieve this end. Gurdjieff therefore made it clear that it was necessary to cultivate a way that integrated and combined the traditional three ways. Gurdjieff saw himself as being one who presented such a teaching.
rather than focusing on one as is done in the first three ways, that it could be followed by ordinary people in everyday life, requiring no retirement into the desert
and it utilizes sexual energy not only in procreation but also in sublimation.
The Fourth Way does involve certain conditions imposed by a teacher, but blind acceptance of them is not encouraged. Each student is advised to do only what they understand, and to verify for themselves the veracity of the teaching's ideas.
By bringing together the way of the Fakir (Sufi tradition), the way of the Yogi (Hindu
and Sikh
traditions) and the way of the Monk (Christian
and Buddhist traditions, amongst others) Gurdjieff clearly places the Fourth Way at a crossroads of differing beliefs. However, the Fourth Way bears striking similarities with such integral paths as, for instance, Natya Yoga
, where the "divine acting" is one of the core concepts too.
One of the notable factors in Gurdjieff's teachings is that all different subjects fit together and relate to each other. Thus by studying one thing, Gurdjieff said that the person simultaneously studies many other subjects.
Ouspensky documented Gurdjieff as saying that "two or three thousand years ago there were yet other ways which no longer exist and the ways now in existence were not so divided, they stood much closer to one another. The fourth way differs from the old and the new ways by the fact that it is never a permanent way. It has no definite forms and there are no institutions connected with it.
In the book, In Search of the Miraculous
, it was noted that Gurdjieff taught that once the initial school with the real teacher is finished, all the other schools which try to continue the work presented by the initial school are no longer real.
Conscious Labor is an action where the person who is performing the act is present to what he is doing; he is not absentminded during his act, and or is "remembering himself." At the same time he is striving to perform the act more efficiently.
Intentional suffering is the act of struggling against the desires of the physical body such as daydreaming, pleasure, food (eating for reasons other than real hunger), etc... In Gurdjieff's book Beelzebub's Tales he states that "the greatest 'intentional suffering' can be obtained in our presences by compelling ourselves to endure the displeasing manifestations of others toward ourselves"
Gurdjieff claimed that these two acts were the basis of all evolution of man.
The Fourth Way's focuses on raising the level of consciousness a person can experience, with the ultimate aim of creating a permanent higher level of consciousness. Specific methods are employed to achieve this aim, some of which are described below.
Self-Observation
One aspect is to strive to observe in one's self the certain behaviors and habits which are usually only observed in others, and to observe them in one's self as dispassionately as one may observe them in others; to observe one's self as an interesting stranger. Another aspect is to attempt to discover in one's self an attention that can differentiate between the actual thoughts, feelings, and sensations that are taking place at the moment, without judging or analyzing what is observed.
The Need for Efforts
Gurdjieff emphasized that awakening results from consistent, prolonged efforts. These efforts are the ones that are made after a person is already exhausted and feels that he can't go anymore, but nevertheless he pushes himself.
The Many 'I's
Many I's is a term which indicates the different feelings and thoughts of ‘I’ in a person: I think, I want, I know best, I prefer, I am happy, I am hungry, I am tired, etc. These feelings and thoughts of ‘I’ usually have nothing in common with one another, and are present for short periods of time. They tie in directly with Gurdjieff's claim that man has no unity in himself. This lack of unity results in wanting one thing now, and another, perhaps contradictory, thing later.
Centers
Gurdjieff classified plants as having one center, animals two and humans three. Centers refer to apparatuses within a being that dictate specific organic functions. There are three main centers in a man: intellectual, emotional and physical, and two higher centers: higher emotional and higher intellectual.
Body, Essence and Personality
Gurdjieff divided people into three independent parts, that is, into Body, Essence and Personality.
Cosmic Laws
Gurdjieff focused on two main cosmic laws, the Law of Three and the Law of Seven .
How the Law of Seven and Law of Three function together is said to be illustrated on the Fourth Way Enneagram
, a nine-pointed symbol which is the central glyph of Gurdjieff's system.
and the Ray of Creation
. Gurdjieff said that "the enneagram is a universal symbol. All knowledge can be included in the enneagram and with the help of the enneagram it can be interpreted ... A man may be quite alone in the desert and he can trace the enneagram in the sand and in it read the eternal laws of the universe. And every time he can learn something new, something he did not know before." The ray of creation is a diagram which represents the Earth's place in the Universe. The diagram has eight levels, each corresponding to Gurdjieff's laws of octaves.
Through the elaboration of the law of octaves and the meaning of the enneagram, Gurdjieff offered his students alternative means of conceptualizing the world and their place in it.
" or "movements" which they performed together as a group, and he left a body of music inspired by what he heard in visits to remote monasteries and other places, which was written for piano in collaboration with one of his pupils, Thomas de Hartmann
.
Gurdjieff laid emphasis on the idea that the seeker must conduct his or her own search. The teacher cannot do the student's work for the student, but is more of a guide on the path to self-discovery. As a teacher, Gurdjieff specialized in creating conditions for students - conditions in which growth was possible, in which efficient progress could be made by the willing. To find oneself in a set of conditions that a gifted teacher has arranged has another benefit. As Gurdjieff put it, "You must realize that each man has a definite repertoire of roles which he plays in ordinary circumstances ... but put him into even only slightly different circumstances and he is unable to find a suitable role and for a short time he becomes himself."
Ouspensky
relates that in the early work with Gurdjieff in Moscow
and Saint Petersburg
, Gurdjieff forbade students from writing down or publishing anything connected with Gurdjieff and his ideas. Gurdjieff said that students of his methods would find themselves unable to transmit correctly what was said in the groups. Later, Gurdjieff relaxed this rule, accepting students who subsequently published accounts of their experiences in the Gurdjieff work.
during the early 1950s and was led by her, in cooperation with other direct pupils. J. G. Bennett ran groups and also made contact with the Subud
and Sufi schools to develop The Work in different directions. Maurice Nicoll
, a Jung
ian psychologist, also ran his own groups based on Gurdjieff and Ouspensky's ideas.
The French institute was headed for many years by Madam de Salzmann - a direct pupil of Gurdjieff. Under her leadership, the Gurdjieff Societies of London and New York were founded and developed.
There is debate regarding the ability to use Gurdjieff's ideas through groups. Some critics believe that none of Gurdjieff's students were able to raise themselves to his level of understanding. Proponents of the continued viability of Gurdjieff's system, and its study through the use of groups, however, point to Gurdjieff's insistence on the training of initiates in interpreting and disseminating the ideas that he expressed cryptically in Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson
. This, combined with Gurdjieff's almost fanatical dedication to the completion of this text (Beelzebub's Tales), suggest that Gurdjieff himself intended his ideas to continue to be practiced and taught long after his death.
Other proponents are not concerned with external factors, but focus on the inner results achieved through a sincere practice of Gurdjieff's system.
Jeanne de Salzmann
, originally a teacher of dance, recognized as his deputy by many of Gurdjieff's other pupils. She was responsible for transmitting the movements and teachings of Gurdjieff through the Gurdjieff Foundation
of New York, the Gurdjieff Institute of Paris and other groups.
Willem Nyland was, after Jeanne de Salzmann, Gurdjieff's closest pupil; he was appointed for an undisclosed special task by Gurdjieff in the USA. At present, Mr. Nyland's groups exist in small concentrations across the United States, most notably at two locations, one termed "The Barn" in rural New York, and another termed "The Land" in Northern California. These groups are thought to be unique amongst recognized Gurdjieff groups, in that they are the only groups to have recorded their original meetings, resulting in an audio library in excess of many thousands of hours featuring almost exclusively talks by an first-hand student of Gurdjieff.
Henry John Sinclair, 2nd Baron Pentland
was a pupil of Ouspensky for many years during the 1930s and 1940s. He began to study intensely with Gurdjieff in 1948. He was appointed by Gurdjieff as his representative to publish Beelzebub's Tales, and then Gurdjieff appointed him to lead the Work in North America. He became president of the Gurdjieff Foundation when it was established in New York in 1953 and remained in that position until his death.
Jane Heap
, an American publisher met Gurdjieff during his 1924 visit to New York, and set up a Gurdjieff study group at her apartment in Greenwich Village. In 1925, she moved to Paris, to study at Gurdjieff’s Institute, and in 1935 to London in 1935 to set up a new study group.
Peter D. Ouspensky, a Russian esoteric philosopher met Gurdjieff in 1916 and spent the next few years studying with him, later forming his own independent groups which also focused on the Fourth Way. Author of In Search of the Miraculous
.
Thomas de Hartmann
, a Russian composer and prominent student and collaborator of Gurdjieff; first met Gurdjieff in 1916 in Saint Petersburg. From 1917 to 1929 he was a pupil and confidant of Gurdjieff. During that time, at Gurdjieff's Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man near Paris, de Hartmann transcribed and co-wrote much of the music that Gurdjieff collected and used for his movements exercises. Olga de Hartmann was Gurdjieff's personal secretary for many years. Olga collected many of Gurdjieff's early talks in the book Views from the Real World (1973).
Alfred Richard Orage
, a British intellectual, now best known for editing the magazine The New Age. In 1924 Orage was appointed by Gurdjieff as the assistant of another old follower of Gurdjieff to lead study groups in America, but due to Gurdjieff’s near to death automobile accident, the one who was supposed to lead the groups never went to US and Orage decided to lead the groups on his own initiation.
Maurice Nicoll
became a pupil of Gurdjieff in 1922. A year later when Gurdjieff closed his institute, he joined Ouspensky's group. In 1931 he followed Ouspensky's advice and started his own groups in England. He is perhaps best known as the author of the five volume series of texts on the teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky: Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Boston: Shambhala, 1996 and Samuel Weiser Inc., 1996).
John G. Bennett
, a British technologist, industrial research director, and author best known for his many books on psychology and spirituality, and particularly the teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff, whom Bennett met in Istanbul in 1921.
Fourth Way (book)
The Fourth Way is a book about the Fourth Way system of self-development as introduced by Greek-Armenian philosopher G.I. Gurdjieff and is a compilation of the lectures of P. D. Ouspensky at London and New York, 1921-1946, published posthumously by his students in 1957...
, based on his lectures.
According to this system, the chief difference between the three traditional schools, or ways, and the fourth way is that "they are permanent forms which have survived throughout history mostly unchanged, and are based on religion. Where schools of yogis, monks or fakirs exist, they are barely distinguishable from religious schools. The fourth way differs in that it is not a permanent way. It has no specific forms or institutions and comes and goes controlled by some particular laws of its own."
It always has some work of a specific import, and
The Fourth Way mainly addresses the question of people's place in the Universe, their possibilities for inner development, and transcending the body to achieve a higher state of consciousness. It emphasized that people live their lives in a state referred to as "waking sleep", but that higher levels of consciousness and various inner abilities are possible.
The Fourth Way teaches people how to increase and focus their attention and energy in various ways, and to minimize daydreaming and absentmindedness. According to this teaching, this inner development in oneself is the beginning of a possible further process of change, whose aim is to transform a man into what Gurdjieff taught he ought to be.
Overview
Gurdjieff's followers believed he was a spiritual Master, possessing higher consciousnessHigher consciousness
Higher consciousness, also called super consciousness , objective consciousness , Buddhic consciousness , cosmic consciousness, God-consciousness and Christ consciousness , are expressions used in various spiritual traditions to denote the consciousness of a human being who has reached a...
; a human being who is fully awake or enlightened
Enlightenment (spiritual)
Enlightenment in a secular context often means the "full comprehension of a situation", but in spiritual terms the word alludes to a spiritual revelation or deep insight into the meaning and purpose of all things, communication with or understanding of the mind of God, profound spiritual...
. He was also seen as an esotericist
Esotericism
Esotericism or Esoterism signifies the holding of esoteric opinions or beliefs, that is, ideas preserved or understood by a small group or those specially initiated, or of rare or unusual interest. The term derives from the Greek , a compound of : "within", thus "pertaining to the more inward",...
or occult
Occult
The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...
ist. He agreed that the teaching was esoteric but claimed that none of it was veiled in secrecy; rather, Gurdjieff claimed that many people either don't have an interest or the capability to understand certain ideas. When asked about the teaching he was setting forth, Gurdjieff said, "The teaching whose theory is here being set out is completely self supporting and independent of other lines and it has been completely unknown up to the present time." The exact origins of Gurdjieff's teachings are unknown, but people have offered various sources.
The Fourth Way teaches that humans are not born with a soul, and are not really Conscious, but only believe they are Conscious because of the socialization process. A person must create/develop a soul through the course of his life by following a teaching which can lead to this aim, or he will "die like a dog," and that men are born asleep, live in sleep and die in sleep, only imagining that they are awake. The system also teaches that the ordinary waking "consciousness" of human beings is not consciousness at all but merely a form of sleep, and that actual higher Consciousness is possible.
As exercises in attention, Gurdjieff taught his pupils "sacred dances" or "movements", now known as Gurdjieff movements, which they performed together as a group. Gurdjieff left a body of music inspired by what he heard in visits to remote monasteries and other places, which was written for piano in collaboration with one of his pupils, Thomas de Hartmann
Thomas de Hartmann
Thomas Alexandrovich de Hartmann September 21, 1885March 28, 1956 was a Russian composer and prominent student and collaborator of George Gurdjieff.-Biography:...
.
Three ways
Gurdjieff taught that traditional paths to spiritual enlightenment followed one of three ways:- The Way of the fakirFakirThe fakir or faqir ; ) Derived from faqr is a Muslim Sufi ascetic in Middle East and South Asia. The Faqirs were wandering Dervishes teaching Islam and living on alms....
- The fakir works to obtain mastery of the attention (self-mastery) through struggles with the physical body involving difficult physical exercises and postures.
- The Way of the monkMonkA monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
- The monk (or nun) works to obtain the same mastery of the attention (self-mastery) through struggle with the affections, in the domain, as we say, of the heart, which has been emphasized in the west, and come to be known as the way of faith due to its practice particularly by Catholic religious.
- The Way of the yogiYogiA Yogi is a practitioner of Yoga. The word is also used to refer to ascetic practitioners of meditation in a number of South Asian Religions including Jainism, Buddhism, and Hinduism.-Etymology:...
- The yogi works to obtain the same mastery of the attention (as before: 'self mastery') through struggle with mental habits and capabilities.
Gurdjieff insisted that these paths - although they may intend to seek to produce a fully developed human being - tended in actuality to cultivate certain faculties at the expense of others. The goal of religion, the goal of spirituality was, in fact, to produce a well-balanced, responsive and sane human being capable of dealing with all manner of eventualities that life may present to them. Traditional methods as such generally failed to achieve this end. Gurdjieff therefore made it clear that it was necessary to cultivate a way that integrated and combined the traditional three ways. Gurdjieff saw himself as being one who presented such a teaching.
The Fourth Way
Gurdjieff said that his Fourth Way was a quicker means than the first three ways because it simultaneously combined work on all three centersCenters (Fourth Way)
In G.I. Gurdjieff's Fourth Way teaching, also known as The Work, centers or brains refer to separate apparatuses within a being that dictate its specific functions. There are three main centers: intellectual, emotional, and moving...
rather than focusing on one as is done in the first three ways, that it could be followed by ordinary people in everyday life, requiring no retirement into the desert
Hermit
A hermit is a person who lives, to some degree, in seclusion from society.In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Christian who lives the eremitic life out of a religious conviction, namely the Desert Theology of the Old Testament .In the...
and it utilizes sexual energy not only in procreation but also in sublimation.
The Fourth Way does involve certain conditions imposed by a teacher, but blind acceptance of them is not encouraged. Each student is advised to do only what they understand, and to verify for themselves the veracity of the teaching's ideas.
By bringing together the way of the Fakir (Sufi tradition), the way of the Yogi (Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
and Sikh
Sikh
A Sikh is a follower of Sikhism. It primarily originated in the 15th century in the Punjab region of South Asia. The term "Sikh" has its origin in Sanskrit term शिष्य , meaning "disciple, student" or शिक्ष , meaning "instruction"...
traditions) and the way of the Monk (Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
and Buddhist traditions, amongst others) Gurdjieff clearly places the Fourth Way at a crossroads of differing beliefs. However, the Fourth Way bears striking similarities with such integral paths as, for instance, Natya Yoga
Natya Yoga
Natya Yoga may refer to:* Bharata Natyam, classical dance form in India* Natya Yoga, dance yoga practiced in Classical Indian musical theatre* Natya Yoga, first practiced by Narada, a divine sage from the Vaisnava tradition of Hinduism...
, where the "divine acting" is one of the core concepts too.
One of the notable factors in Gurdjieff's teachings is that all different subjects fit together and relate to each other. Thus by studying one thing, Gurdjieff said that the person simultaneously studies many other subjects.
Ouspensky documented Gurdjieff as saying that "two or three thousand years ago there were yet other ways which no longer exist and the ways now in existence were not so divided, they stood much closer to one another. The fourth way differs from the old and the new ways by the fact that it is never a permanent way. It has no definite forms and there are no institutions connected with it.
In the book, In Search of the Miraculous
In Search of the Miraculous
In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching is a 1949 book by Russian philosopher P. D. Ouspensky about the teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff. It is widely regarded as the most comprehensive single volume account of Gurdjieff's system of thought....
, it was noted that Gurdjieff taught that once the initial school with the real teacher is finished, all the other schools which try to continue the work presented by the initial school are no longer real.
Fake schools
Ouspensky quotes Gurdjieff that there are fake schools and that "It is impossible to recognize a wrong way without knowing the right way. This means that it is no use troubling oneself how to recognize a wrong way. One must think of how to find the right way."Origins
In his autobiography, Gurdjieff credited certain people in Asia for many of his ideas, while he nevertheless did not divulge the origins of his system. For the origins of his system and his teachings various intellectual and spiritual debts have been suggested:- Technical vocabulary first appeared in early 19th century Russian freemasonry, derived from Robert FluddRobert FluddRobert Fludd, also known as Robertus de Fluctibus was a prominent English Paracelsian physician, astrologer, mathematician, cosmologist, Qabalist, Rosicrucian apologist...
(P.D. Ouspensky) - Esoteric ChristianityEsoteric ChristianityEsoteric Christianity is a term which refers to an ensemble of spiritual currents which regard Christianity as a mystery religion, and profess the existence and possession of certain esoteric doctrines or practices, hidden from the public but accessible only to a narrow circle of "enlightened",...
(Boris Mouravieff) - NaqshbandiNaqshbandiNaqshbandi is one of the major Sufi spiritual orders of Sufi Islam. It is considered to be a "Potent" order.The Naqshbandi order is over 1,300 years old, and is active today...
Sufism, (Idries ShahIdries ShahIdries Shah , also known as Idris Shah, né Sayed Idries el-Hashimi , was an author and teacher in the Sufi tradition who wrote over three dozen critically acclaimed books on topics ranging from psychology and spirituality to travelogues and culture studies.Born in India, the descendant of a...
) - CaucasianCaucasusThe Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
Ahmsta Kebzeh (Murat Yagan) - Tibetan BuddhismTibetan BuddhismTibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet and certain regions of the Himalayas, including northern Nepal, Bhutan, and India . It is the state religion of Bhutan...
, (Jose Tirado ) - in principle to Zoroaster, and explicitly to the 12th century Sufi leader, Abdulkhaliq Gujduvani (J. G. Bennett )
Similarities with other teachings
There are some similarities between the Fourth Way teaching and other spiritual teachings.- The stop exercise is similar to the Uqufi Zamani exercise in Omar Ali-ShahOmar Ali-ShahOmar Ali-Shah was a prominent exponent of modern Naqshbandi Sufism who lived from 1922 to 2005. He wrote a number of books on the subject, and was head of a large number of sufi groups, particularly in Latin America, Europe and Canada.- Life and work :...
's book on the Rules or Secrets of the NaqshbandiNaqshbandiNaqshbandi is one of the major Sufi spiritual orders of Sufi Islam. It is considered to be a "Potent" order.The Naqshbandi order is over 1,300 years old, and is active today...
Sufi Order. - The insistence on the realization in the waking state, the "waking up" techniques are very similar to those used in Karma yogaKarma YogaKarma yoga , or the "discipline of action" is a form of yoga based on the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita, a sacred Sanskrit scripture of Hinduism. Of the four paths to realization, karma yoga is the science of achieving perfection in action...
- Well after the promulgation of Gurdjieff’s ideas throughout the 1920s and '30s, subsequent writers have adopted various aspects of Gurdjieff’s teaching. Such is the case with Carlos Castaneda Don JuanDon Juan MatusDon Juan Matus is a major figure in the series of books on Nagual 'Sorcery' by Carlos Castaneda.Matus is described as a Yaqui Indian to whom Castaneda was first introduced at a bus depot in Yuma, Arizona in the early 1960s. He turns out to be a 'Man of Knowledge' who imparts much of his wisdom and...
's teaching. An example of this type of adaptation is Gurdjieff's moon symbolism, which asserts that humans aren't aware because of the moon. Don Juan taught that humans' awareness is eaten by higher beings. In Gurdjieff, an undeveloped soul is annihilated at the moment of physical death and becomes "food for the Moon"; in Castaneda, "the Eagle" is the metaphor used for the consciousness-begotting and -destroying cosmic force. The only way to keep one's awareness to oneself after death is to offer an exact duplicate of one's every memory to the Eagle. - The teachings on psychology by Samael Aun WeorSamael Aun WeorSamael Aun Weor , born Víctor Manuel Gómez Rodríguez, Colombian citizen and later Mexican, was an author, lecturer and founder of the 'Universal Christian Gnostic Movement' with his teaching of 'The Doctrine of Synthesis' of all religions in both their esoteric and exoteric aspects...
also seems to have adopted similarities to those of the previously established ideas of Gurdjieff except on KundaliniKundaliniKundalini literally means coiled. In yoga, a "corporeal energy" - an unconscious, instinctive or libidinal force or Shakti, lies coiled at the base of the spine. It is envisioned either as a goddess or else as a sleeping serpent, hence a number of English renderings of the term such as 'serpent...
which is where they have radically different views. - The integral yoga of Sri AurobindoSri AurobindoSri Aurobindo , born Aurobindo Ghosh or Ghose , was an Indian nationalist, freedom fighter, philosopher, yogi, guru, and poet. He joined the Indian movement for freedom from British rule and for a duration became one of its most important leaders, before developing his own vision of human progress...
and the MotherMirra Alfassa-Early life:Mirra Alfassa was born in Paris in 1878, of a Turkish Jewish father, Maurice, and an Egyptian Jewish mother, Mathilde. She had an elder brother named Matteo. The family migrated to France the year before she was born. For the first eight years of her life she lived at 62 boulevard...
comprises similar techniques and a holistic way.
Basis of teachings
The Fourth Way focuses on the ability to constantly perform "conscious labors" and "intentional suffering."Conscious Labor is an action where the person who is performing the act is present to what he is doing; he is not absentminded during his act, and or is "remembering himself." At the same time he is striving to perform the act more efficiently.
Intentional suffering is the act of struggling against the desires of the physical body such as daydreaming, pleasure, food (eating for reasons other than real hunger), etc... In Gurdjieff's book Beelzebub's Tales he states that "the greatest 'intentional suffering' can be obtained in our presences by compelling ourselves to endure the displeasing manifestations of others toward ourselves"
Gurdjieff claimed that these two acts were the basis of all evolution of man.
The Fourth Way's focuses on raising the level of consciousness a person can experience, with the ultimate aim of creating a permanent higher level of consciousness. Specific methods are employed to achieve this aim, some of which are described below.
Self-Observation
One aspect is to strive to observe in one's self the certain behaviors and habits which are usually only observed in others, and to observe them in one's self as dispassionately as one may observe them in others; to observe one's self as an interesting stranger. Another aspect is to attempt to discover in one's self an attention that can differentiate between the actual thoughts, feelings, and sensations that are taking place at the moment, without judging or analyzing what is observed.
The Need for Efforts
Gurdjieff emphasized that awakening results from consistent, prolonged efforts. These efforts are the ones that are made after a person is already exhausted and feels that he can't go anymore, but nevertheless he pushes himself.
The Many 'I's
Many I's is a term which indicates the different feelings and thoughts of ‘I’ in a person: I think, I want, I know best, I prefer, I am happy, I am hungry, I am tired, etc. These feelings and thoughts of ‘I’ usually have nothing in common with one another, and are present for short periods of time. They tie in directly with Gurdjieff's claim that man has no unity in himself. This lack of unity results in wanting one thing now, and another, perhaps contradictory, thing later.
Centers
- Main article Centers (Fourth Way)Centers (Fourth Way)In G.I. Gurdjieff's Fourth Way teaching, also known as The Work, centers or brains refer to separate apparatuses within a being that dictate its specific functions. There are three main centers: intellectual, emotional, and moving...
Gurdjieff classified plants as having one center, animals two and humans three. Centers refer to apparatuses within a being that dictate specific organic functions. There are three main centers in a man: intellectual, emotional and physical, and two higher centers: higher emotional and higher intellectual.
Body, Essence and Personality
Gurdjieff divided people into three independent parts, that is, into Body, Essence and Personality.
- Body is the physical functions of a body.
- Essence - is a "natural part of a person" or "what he is born with"; this is the part of a being which is said to have the ability to evolve.
- Personality - is everything artificial that he has "learned" and "seen".
Cosmic Laws
Gurdjieff focused on two main cosmic laws, the Law of Three and the Law of Seven .
- The Law of Seven is described by Gurdjieff as "the first fundamental cosmic law". This law is used to explain processes. The basic use of the law of seven is to explain why nothing in nature and in life constantly occurs in a straight line, that is to say that there are always ups and downs in life which occur lawfully. Examples of this can be noticed in athletic performances, where a high ranked athlete always has periodic downfalls, as well as in nearly all graphs that plot topics that occur over time, such as the economic graphs, population graphs, death-rate graphs and so on. All show parabolic periods that keep rising and falling. Gurdjieff claimed that since these periods occur lawfully based on the law of seven that it is possible to keep a process in a straight line if the necessary shocks were introduced at the right time. A piano keyboard is an example of the law of seven, as the seven notes of the major scale correspond exactly to it.
- The Law of Three is described by Gurdjieff as "the second fundamental cosmic law". This law states that every whole phenomenon is composed of three separate sources, which are ActiveActiveActive may refer to:Human Activity* An active lifestyle, a lifestyle characterized by frequent or various social, intellectual, and physical activities* An "active" in a fraternity or sororityComputers and electronics...
, PassivePassivePassive may refer to:* "Passive" , by A Perfect Circle* Passive voice, a grammatical voice common in many languages* Passive house, a standard for energy efficiency in buildings* Passive psi, psychic abilities involving cognition...
and Reconciling or NeutralNeutrality (philosophy)Neutrality is the absence of declared bias. In an argument, a neutral person will not choose a side.A Neutral country maintains political neutrality, a related but distinct concept.-What neutrality is not:...
. This law applies to everything in the universeUniverseThe Universe is commonly defined as the totality of everything that exists, including all matter and energy, the planets, stars, galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space. Definitions and usage vary and similar terms include the cosmos, the world and nature...
and humanHumanHumans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
ity, as well as all the structureStructureStructure is a fundamental, tangible or intangible notion referring to the recognition, observation, nature, and permanence of patterns and relationships of entities. This notion may itself be an object, such as a built structure, or an attribute, such as the structure of society...
s and processes. The Three Centers in a human, which Gurdjieff said were the Intellectual Centre, the Emotional Centre and the Moving Centre, are an expression of the law of three. Gurdjieff taught his students to think of the law of three forces as essential to transforming the energyEnergyIn physics, energy is an indirectly observed quantity. It is often understood as the ability a physical system has to do work on other physical systems...
of the human being. The process of transformation requires the three actions of affirmation, denialDenialDenial is a defense mechanism postulated by Sigmund Freud, in which a person is faced with a fact that is too uncomfortable to accept and rejects it instead, insisting that it is not true despite what may be overwhelming evidence.The subject may use:* simple denial: deny the reality of the...
and reconciliation.
How the Law of Seven and Law of Three function together is said to be illustrated on the Fourth Way Enneagram
Fourth Way Enneagram
The Fourth Way enneagram is a figure published in 1947 in In Search of the Miraculous by P.D. Ouspensky, and an integral part of the so-called Fourth Way esoteric system associated with George Gurdjieff...
, a nine-pointed symbol which is the central glyph of Gurdjieff's system.
Use of symbols
In his explanations Gurdjieff often used different symbols such as the EnneagramFourth Way Enneagram
The Fourth Way enneagram is a figure published in 1947 in In Search of the Miraculous by P.D. Ouspensky, and an integral part of the so-called Fourth Way esoteric system associated with George Gurdjieff...
and the Ray of Creation
Ray of Creation
The Ray of Creation is an esoteric cosmology which was taught by G. I. Gurdjieff. It is a diagram which better represents the place which Earth occupies in the Universe...
. Gurdjieff said that "the enneagram is a universal symbol. All knowledge can be included in the enneagram and with the help of the enneagram it can be interpreted ... A man may be quite alone in the desert and he can trace the enneagram in the sand and in it read the eternal laws of the universe. And every time he can learn something new, something he did not know before." The ray of creation is a diagram which represents the Earth's place in the Universe. The diagram has eight levels, each corresponding to Gurdjieff's laws of octaves.
Through the elaboration of the law of octaves and the meaning of the enneagram, Gurdjieff offered his students alternative means of conceptualizing the world and their place in it.
Working conditions and sacred dances
To provide conditions in which attention could be exercised more intensively, Gurdjieff also taught his pupils "sacred dancesMovements (sacred dances)
The Gurdjieff movements are the name given to the collective body of sacred dances that were collected or authored by G. I. Gurdjieff and taught to his students as part of the work of self observation and self study....
" or "movements" which they performed together as a group, and he left a body of music inspired by what he heard in visits to remote monasteries and other places, which was written for piano in collaboration with one of his pupils, Thomas de Hartmann
Thomas de Hartmann
Thomas Alexandrovich de Hartmann September 21, 1885March 28, 1956 was a Russian composer and prominent student and collaborator of George Gurdjieff.-Biography:...
.
Gurdjieff laid emphasis on the idea that the seeker must conduct his or her own search. The teacher cannot do the student's work for the student, but is more of a guide on the path to self-discovery. As a teacher, Gurdjieff specialized in creating conditions for students - conditions in which growth was possible, in which efficient progress could be made by the willing. To find oneself in a set of conditions that a gifted teacher has arranged has another benefit. As Gurdjieff put it, "You must realize that each man has a definite repertoire of roles which he plays in ordinary circumstances ... but put him into even only slightly different circumstances and he is unable to find a suitable role and for a short time he becomes himself."
Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man
Having migrated for four years after escaping the Russian revolution with dozens of followers and family members, Gurdjieff settled in France and established his Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man at the Château Le Prieuré at Fontainebleau-Avon in October 1922. The institute was an esoteric school based on Gurdjieff's Fourth Way teaching. After nearly dying in a car crash in 1924, he recovered and closed down the Institute. He began writing All and Everything. From 1930, Gurdjieff made visits to North America where he resumed his teachings.Ouspensky
P. D. Ouspensky
Peter D. Ouspensky , , a Russian esotericist known for his expositions of the early work of the Greek-Armenian teacher of esoteric doctrine George Gurdjieff, whom he met in Moscow in 1915.He was associated with the ideas and practices originating with...
relates that in the early work with Gurdjieff in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
and Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
, Gurdjieff forbade students from writing down or publishing anything connected with Gurdjieff and his ideas. Gurdjieff said that students of his methods would find themselves unable to transmit correctly what was said in the groups. Later, Gurdjieff relaxed this rule, accepting students who subsequently published accounts of their experiences in the Gurdjieff work.
After Gurdjieff
After Gurdjieff's death in 1949 a variety of groups around the world have attempted to continue The Work. The Gurdjieff Foundation, the largest organization directly spawned by Mr. Gurdjieff, was organized by Jeanne de SalzmannJeanne de Salzmann
Jeanne Matignon de Salzmann born Jeanne Allemand often addressed as Madame de Salzmann was a close pupil of G. I. Gurdjieff, recognized as his deputy by many of Gurdjieff's other pupils...
during the early 1950s and was led by her, in cooperation with other direct pupils. J. G. Bennett ran groups and also made contact with the Subud
Subud
Subud is an international spiritual movement that began in Indonesia in the 1920s as a movement founded by Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo. The basis of Subud is a spiritual exercise commonly referred to as the latihan kejiwaan, which was said by Muhammad Subuh to represent guidance from...
and Sufi schools to develop The Work in different directions. Maurice Nicoll
Maurice Nicoll
Maurice Nicoll was a British psychiatrist, author and noted Fourth Way teacher. He is best known for his Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, a multi-volume collection of talks he gave to his study groups.- Life and work :Nicoll was born at the Manse in Kelso,...
, a Jung
Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of Analytical Psychology. Jung is considered the first modern psychiatrist to view the human psyche as "by nature religious" and make it the focus of exploration. Jung is one of the best known researchers in the field of dream analysis and...
ian psychologist, also ran his own groups based on Gurdjieff and Ouspensky's ideas.
The French institute was headed for many years by Madam de Salzmann - a direct pupil of Gurdjieff. Under her leadership, the Gurdjieff Societies of London and New York were founded and developed.
There is debate regarding the ability to use Gurdjieff's ideas through groups. Some critics believe that none of Gurdjieff's students were able to raise themselves to his level of understanding. Proponents of the continued viability of Gurdjieff's system, and its study through the use of groups, however, point to Gurdjieff's insistence on the training of initiates in interpreting and disseminating the ideas that he expressed cryptically in Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson
Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandson
Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson or An Objectively Impartial Criticism of the Life of Man is the first volume of the All and Everything trilogy written by the Greek-Armenian mystic G. I. Gurdjieff...
. This, combined with Gurdjieff's almost fanatical dedication to the completion of this text (Beelzebub's Tales), suggest that Gurdjieff himself intended his ideas to continue to be practiced and taught long after his death.
Other proponents are not concerned with external factors, but focus on the inner results achieved through a sincere practice of Gurdjieff's system.
Gurdjieff's pupils
Gurdjieff's notable pupils include:Jeanne de Salzmann
Jeanne de Salzmann
Jeanne Matignon de Salzmann born Jeanne Allemand often addressed as Madame de Salzmann was a close pupil of G. I. Gurdjieff, recognized as his deputy by many of Gurdjieff's other pupils...
, originally a teacher of dance, recognized as his deputy by many of Gurdjieff's other pupils. She was responsible for transmitting the movements and teachings of Gurdjieff through the Gurdjieff Foundation
Gurdjieff Foundation
The Gurdjieff Foundation is a variety of organisations based on the ideas of George Gurdjieff.Gurdjieff inspired the formation of many groups after his death...
of New York, the Gurdjieff Institute of Paris and other groups.
Willem Nyland was, after Jeanne de Salzmann, Gurdjieff's closest pupil; he was appointed for an undisclosed special task by Gurdjieff in the USA. At present, Mr. Nyland's groups exist in small concentrations across the United States, most notably at two locations, one termed "The Barn" in rural New York, and another termed "The Land" in Northern California. These groups are thought to be unique amongst recognized Gurdjieff groups, in that they are the only groups to have recorded their original meetings, resulting in an audio library in excess of many thousands of hours featuring almost exclusively talks by an first-hand student of Gurdjieff.
Henry John Sinclair, 2nd Baron Pentland
Henry John Sinclair, 2nd Baron Pentland
Henry John Sinclair, 2nd Baron Pentland was a Scottish peer. He inherited the title from his father, John Sinclair, 1st Baron Pentland, in 1925.- Family :...
was a pupil of Ouspensky for many years during the 1930s and 1940s. He began to study intensely with Gurdjieff in 1948. He was appointed by Gurdjieff as his representative to publish Beelzebub's Tales, and then Gurdjieff appointed him to lead the Work in North America. He became president of the Gurdjieff Foundation when it was established in New York in 1953 and remained in that position until his death.
Jane Heap
Jane Heap
Jane Heap was an American publisher and a significant figure in the development and promotion of literary modernism. Together with Margaret Anderson, her friend and business partner , she edited the celebrated literary magazine The Little Review, which published an extraordinary collection of...
, an American publisher met Gurdjieff during his 1924 visit to New York, and set up a Gurdjieff study group at her apartment in Greenwich Village. In 1925, she moved to Paris, to study at Gurdjieff’s Institute, and in 1935 to London in 1935 to set up a new study group.
Peter D. Ouspensky, a Russian esoteric philosopher met Gurdjieff in 1916 and spent the next few years studying with him, later forming his own independent groups which also focused on the Fourth Way. Author of In Search of the Miraculous
In Search of the Miraculous
In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching is a 1949 book by Russian philosopher P. D. Ouspensky about the teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff. It is widely regarded as the most comprehensive single volume account of Gurdjieff's system of thought....
.
Thomas de Hartmann
Thomas de Hartmann
Thomas Alexandrovich de Hartmann September 21, 1885March 28, 1956 was a Russian composer and prominent student and collaborator of George Gurdjieff.-Biography:...
, a Russian composer and prominent student and collaborator of Gurdjieff; first met Gurdjieff in 1916 in Saint Petersburg. From 1917 to 1929 he was a pupil and confidant of Gurdjieff. During that time, at Gurdjieff's Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man near Paris, de Hartmann transcribed and co-wrote much of the music that Gurdjieff collected and used for his movements exercises. Olga de Hartmann was Gurdjieff's personal secretary for many years. Olga collected many of Gurdjieff's early talks in the book Views from the Real World (1973).
Alfred Richard Orage
Alfred Richard Orage
Alfred Richard Orage was a British intellectual, now best known for editing the magazine The New Age. While working as a schoolteacher in Leeds, he pursued various interests, including Plato, the Independent Labour Party, and theosophy...
, a British intellectual, now best known for editing the magazine The New Age. In 1924 Orage was appointed by Gurdjieff as the assistant of another old follower of Gurdjieff to lead study groups in America, but due to Gurdjieff’s near to death automobile accident, the one who was supposed to lead the groups never went to US and Orage decided to lead the groups on his own initiation.
Maurice Nicoll
Maurice Nicoll
Maurice Nicoll was a British psychiatrist, author and noted Fourth Way teacher. He is best known for his Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, a multi-volume collection of talks he gave to his study groups.- Life and work :Nicoll was born at the Manse in Kelso,...
became a pupil of Gurdjieff in 1922. A year later when Gurdjieff closed his institute, he joined Ouspensky's group. In 1931 he followed Ouspensky's advice and started his own groups in England. He is perhaps best known as the author of the five volume series of texts on the teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky: Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Boston: Shambhala, 1996 and Samuel Weiser Inc., 1996).
John G. Bennett
John G. Bennett
John Godolphin Bennett, was a British mathematician, scientist, technologist, industrial research director, and author. He is perhaps best known for his many books on psychology and spirituality, and particularly the teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff...
, a British technologist, industrial research director, and author best known for his many books on psychology and spirituality, and particularly the teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff, whom Bennett met in Istanbul in 1921.