Understanding Understanding

Understanding Understanding

Understanding in the Fourth Way has a special meaning, like many terms used in the Work. It is incumbent upon a student of the Fourth Way to stretch his or her level of being and to personally dive into the knowledge of the system with the intention of increasing his or her understanding. Understanding in this context refers to a deeper apprehension of the obstacles that stand in my way and a revelation of the opportunities to experience higher states of consciousness.

Because the system is not faith-based, that is, a system requiring belief as a starting point, I try to verify and understand all that I take in as knowledge and record my observations as my life unfolds. Faith and belief have their role in human affairs, but for my purposes, I want to build the Work on a sound foundation, one that is grounded in personal investigation, practice, and hard work. It is not easy seeing who I truly am and the extent of my sleep, or working on becoming something different.

As I study myself and the system, I find that my level of understanding increases incrementally and correspondingly. Sometimes I understand one thing to have one meaning only to find that at a deeper or inner level, it has quite another meaning and understanding. For instance, I work with various exercises to interrupt the momentums and mechanicalities of my machine. When I catch myself breaking the exercise, I view this as a moment for clarity and an opportunity for self-remembering. The exercise helps me to be present. The aim is not to do the exercise perfectly. Perfection is more connected with higher consciousness than with our lower functions. This is one level of understanding.

Continuing with my example, let's say I'm working with an exercise given by my Teacher to not use the word “very.” And I'm conversing with a fellow student who hears me say the word “very,” and the student then offers me a “photograph.” Basically, the metaphorical photograph or the snapshot is a reminder to do the exercise, to remember not to say “very.” In the ideal, I would use this interruption and be present.

What I have found on occasion is that exercises are not just serving to break the momentum of the mechanics of my machine; they are also working on the non-expression of negative emotions. In my example, I was irritated by the student who reminded me that I said “very” (or even that the student who reminded me might be irritated that I'm not working well with the exercise). In either scenario, what my understanding has now become in this case is that the Work has deeper, non-linear dimensions and layers. My understanding broadens, deepens in mysterious or unpredictable ways.

I thought the exercise was to interrupt me and bring me into the moment, but it also helps me to practice the non-expression of negative emotions. The transformation of that negative emotion, that irritation, can be thought of as a moment of voluntary or intentional suffering or the transformation of suffering. The poet Rainer Maria Rilke writes in one of his works that humans are wasters of sorrow.

Well, in the Work, I want to use my moments of sorrow, my moments of humility to become something higher. I do not want to waste them. Returning to the idea of understanding, this example serves to illustrate how understanding grows over time, as we become more experienced in the Work. As my valuation grows, my understanding grows, deepening my realizations and into more practical steps for awakening.

To grow esoteric understanding, I must constantly renew and press forward on my level of understanding, making deeper work fundamentally necessary. There are days for me when it is like walking through a door and realizing that I am in a palace and that there's a huge, beautiful room before me. A hall of golden mirrors. At other times, it is like the smallest detail has the deepest meaning, or that I am humbled by my nothingness. Esoteric understandings happen over time and sometimes in a flash. Slow or fast, deep realizations go to my core and help propel me to make new efforts and to pursue even deeper understandings.

What do you understand right now, and what do you want to understand?

Join the discussion

Hall of Mirrors, Versailles Palace, France.