Working with Negative Emotions The following piece is from a friend in the School, Dharmesh Shah of the Ahmedabad Center, whose essay...

Harnessing the Instinctive Center Of the four lower centers, the instinctive center is most opposed to conscious evolution because the...

Patience Grows Patience I recall when I first began doing the Work after joining the School, a part of me knew the Work was going to be a...

Patience Ripens the Fruit of a Tre e The more slowly trees grow at first, the sounder they are at the core, and I think the same is true...

Weekly Topic: Patience From our friend, Lindsey V. One of the foundational practices of the Fourth Way is the non-expression of negative...

Shocks Are All Around Us, Are We? A shock has a particular meaning in the Fourth Way as taught by my Teacher. When my sleep is...

Electric Shocks In the Fourth Way, P.D. Ouspensky describes the need for outside guidance to awaken us. He speaks of a higher influence...

The Sour Grapes Buffer A friend told me about someone who was losing their hearing. Even though the person losing her hearing badly...

Becoming Objective to Ourselves From our friend, David Tuttle I once uncovered a buffer, which I began to call the “good boy” buffer. It...

Life Without Buffers Under the title, “A Note on Buffers,” Maurice Nicoll begins a chapter from his second book entitled, “Psychological...

Acceptance Let us explore the idea of acceptance. Often, when we hear this word, we think of giving up our position, submitting to...

Acceptance: -  From our friend, Dharmesh S. Winter is fading and summer gradually is setting in. The change of season is quite...

Acceptance: A Life-Giving Principle Self-observation has illuminated many things about this earthly experience of being human. One...

Do Not Yield to Weakness – Practice   Undoing Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to...

The Architecture of an Inner Temple Before I begin to create something – whether internal or external – I first need to have in mind a...

With a Love Like That Even after all this time The Sun never says to the Earth, "You owe me." Look what happens With a love like that, It...

To be One, Be One with All When the whole world is your friend, fear will find no place to call home. And when you make the mind your...

On Multiplicity and Unity From our friend, Ruth A. A Moderate Defense of Multiplicity The concepts of unity and multiplicity in the...

Kneeling From our friend, Dharmesh S. There was a time, long ago when I used to visit a Jain temple daily for prayers. There would be a...

The Fog From our friend, Dharmesh S. A few days ago, it was very unusual to observe dense fog in the morning in the city. The visibility...

The Clear Waters of Inner Wisdom “The water is clearer than the air and the air is the air that angels breathe.” −  Mark Twain Twain made...

Clarity- Absorbing and Emitting Light From our friend, Benjamin B. Absorbing and emitting light are aspects of spiritual growth. What are...

Clarity: Truths to be Self-Evident There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one’s self. — Benjamin Franklin...

Creating Silence “When the mind is silent, then it can enter into a world which is far beyond the mind.” -  The Upanishads Usually,...

Simplicity is an Amazing Awakening Perfect people are pure and simple, without useless complexity. −  Lao Tzu The following is how I make...

Do One Thing at a Time From our friend, David Tuttle We live in an age of multi-tasking. We feel obligated to talk on the cell phone...

Releasing Accounts [The following essay on accounts was written by our friend, Dharmesh S. You might ask what does this essay have to do...

Judgment: Rejecting What “Is” What are judgment ‘I’s? When I ask myself this question, I can sense a reluctance to reveal how frequently...

Separating the Unreal and the Real From our friend, Rowena T. In the Fourth Way, separation of oneself from oneself is a key step to...

Are You an Egg or a Bird? From dreams we talk to each other about reality. — Jean Toomer (student of G.I. Gurdjieff) Illusions are a form...

Imaginary Picture From 'A Question of Presence' by Sergio Antonio The "Hanged Man" sees upside down. I think we are all willing to admit...

Removing the Unnecessary Diamonds excavated from the mines are rough, uncut, and unpolished. They are formed ever so slowly in the...

Opposite ‘I’s, Judgment ‘I’s, Work ‘I's From 'A Question of Presence' by Sergio Antonio My teacher taught me that when a person says...

Opposite ‘I’s – The Lower Mind’s Trap Try to be happy by always thinking, “This I is nothing. −  Yoga Vasishtha The best animal trap is...

One Chair, Many Worlds I often sit in the back garden when the weather is nice and have done so for many years. I have sat in the same...

The States of Consciousness From our friend, David Tuttle The first state of consciousness is sleep in bed, at night. The second state,...

Identification -A Misplaced Sense of Self “You are the observer, not what you observe.” -The Teacher A fellow student expressed this...

Has IT Become Your ID? To be extremely identified is to be extremely asleep. — The Teacher The modern fascination with the use of IT...

Identification and Divided Attention From ‘A Question of Presence’ by Sergio Antonio What characterizes divided attention is the fact...

The Transformation of Negative Emotions -A New Heart Part III The non expression of negative emotions is the beginning of Conscious Love....

Negative Emotions: Deposits of the Past All life is an effort to attain freedom from self-created entanglement … Only in complete...

Meeting Circumstances Non-expression of negative emotions, self-remembering and transforming suffering are three of the major pillars on...

Consuming My Lion The non-expression of negative emotions is one of the pillars of the Fourth Way and a discipline that is perplexing to...

Divided Attention -Am I Doing it Right? Divided attention is a foundational practice of the Fourth Way. In fact, although it is called...

The Angel in the Marble It is futile to do with more what can be done with fewer. — William of Ockham, medieval philosopher Nowadays the...

Keep the Inner Work Simple The Third Eye is genuinely simple, while the lower self is artificially complicated. −  The Teacher We humans...

The Moving Centre As An Anchor The body is always in the present. Our hearts and minds may wander, but the body is always right here...

Nature Does Not Hurry Lately, I have observed that I am caught in the chaos of compulsive busyness, behaving more like a hamster running...

Self Observation From our friend, David Tuttle Self-observation is a special kind of directed attention, where we pay attention to our...

Who Would You Choose to Awaken You? When I consider answering this question, I first confront the need to know the truth about my own...