Voices From Antiquity

Voices From Antiquity

From our friend Charles R.

We don’t know when conscious evolution first occurred among men. Neither do we know when a method to create consciousness in individuals was first systematized. Yet throughout history, books, poetry, musical works, paintings, sculptures, architecture, in fact just about any and every human endeavor has been a vehicle for the teaching and transmission of higher consciousness.

There can be no limitation of gratitude to George Ivanovich Gurdjieff and Pyotr Demyanovich Ouspensky for rediscovering, codifying and bringing the Fourth Way into the modern era, as well as to those who followed, such as Rodney Collin and Alex Horn, to name just two, who further promulgated it’s practice.

But what of those who went before? We are familiar with the language of the system, but how did those who preceded us in previous millennia transmit this knowledge? With the few extant works available to us, even a cursory study of these documents, when viewed against the backdrop of the the Fourth Way, what may have seemed like platitudes from old dead guys dressed in king-size bedsheets, is actually profound wisdom that is surprisingly and delightfully relevant for the Fourth Way student today.

One such ‘school’ were the Stoics. They produced some of the wisest counsel for men and women, that have survived the centuries. Do we wish to know whether or not a school is necessary for conscious evolution? Seneca, a Stoic in the 1st century would tell us ‘Yes’. He is quoted as saying “No man was ever wise by chance.” That’s right. We learn how to be present only in a school.

One of the weaknesses of the lower self is unnecessary talk. We’ve covered this in previous posts. Would it surprise us to learn this was a known factor for those pursuing consciousness over two-hundred years before Jesus Christ? “The reason why we have two ears and only one mouth is that we may listen the more and talk the less.” says Zeno of Citium. And what of school and three lines of work? Epictetus, one of the giants of the school of Stoics reminds us in no uncertain terms: “Keep company with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth yours.”

At the pinnacle of Stoic wisdom, and the last of the Stoic school, is Marcus Aurelius, who’s Meditations have served as guiding principles for two-thousand years for students working on consciousness. It was given to him to utter one of the best and most profound imperatives that any Fourth Way student could hope for. For us here and now, for myself here at my keyboard and for you reading these lines, his quiet and direct counsel is “Confine yourself to the present.”

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Image:Detail from engraved frontispiece of Edward Ivie’s Latin translation of Epictetus’ Enchiridon

Printed in Oxford, 1715