Add Another’s Light to Your Own The mind has a light of its own, and by it illumines what it recreates. ─ Margaret Fuller From the time I was a child to adulthood, I faced constant learning opportunities (like everyone else). Some of these I figured out by myself, and some of these I needed the help of others, including teachers, to guide me to the truth. In my mind, there are only two ways to learn. I either independently figure it out myself or I ask someone for help. When

A Mirror for Awakening This post is from our friend Lindsey V. of the New York Center. When the student is ready the teacher will appear. When the student is truly ready... The teacher will disappear. ― Chinese Tradition If you are fortunate enough to find a true spiritual friend—a teacher—what becomes of this precious relationship depends as much on your willingness to be a true student as on the teacher's wisdom. We often overlook this side of the relationship. To be a stud

The Path of a Master Teacher Fortunately, the Fourth Way is designed to be practiced in life. I am not required to live in seclusion at a monastery, an Ashram, or a Sufi lodge. In fact, the ordinary, everyday conditions of daily life offer the best possible place for me to work. Why? Because it is where my patterns of sleep have been acquired, these patterns which are intricately connected to my daily life need to be observed rather than avoided. I can begin now, right where

Cheers to three years! Today marks three years of our private group, A Fourth Way School! Thank you for helping keep this engaging and curious community growing. Let us know what else you would like to learn about the Fourth Way System and our School. Join the discussion Jacob's Dream, Giorgio Vasari, Walters Art Museum.

According to my Teacher, “The principal reason man does not awaken is that he does not realize he needs outside help. P.D. Ouspensky, one of the Teachers who is responsible for bringing the Fourth Way tradition into modern times, once said, “Schools are for people who know they need them.” Schools are not for everybody and are often hard to find. I have found that the guidance and encouragement of a conscious Teacher was paramount to my inner development. I could not do this

Outside Help From our friend Lindsey V. of the New York Center. Without recognizing the influence of higher worlds, it is impossible to be a sage. ─ Confucius Many years ago, at my first introductory meeting to the Fourth Way, the meeting leader stressed that the ideas which would be shared during the meeting were not his ideas, they were the not even the ideas of Peter Ouspensky or George Gurdjieff, they were objective knowledge, coming from a higher level, that of C (Consci

The Birth of the Magnetic Center Gurdjieff established a schema that includes all the influences that can reach us, which he called—in his usual unvarnished language—A, B, and C influences. Influences A are born and come to us mechanically, that is, unconsciously. Examples: the desire for wealth; the novelty of fashion. Influences B are born consciously; they originate from enlightened beings, from conscious schools, but are diluted when they enter the current of life and mix

An Appeal to the Youth in All of Us I wonder what happened to the youth of the 60s and 70s who, as they aged, were swept up by the material world, by pursuits contrary to their ”youthful” high ideals? I wonder about this now because I’m of retirement age, and I’ve been fortunate to have encountered a real school when I was young, and after contemplating my life choices, I decided to dedicate myself to awakening. It is never too late to start the personal journey of observatio

Service to the School Members of the school practice what the Fourth Way calls the third line of work. The third line is about work on behalf of the school. To serve the school, I must take initiative; it does not happen without action. The Teacher applies pressure on his students to be less mechanical and more awake, and I must, as a student, learn to take agency for the school and its higher purposes. This is a hard topic for me to describe: the dynamic of serving in a scho

Free to Serve a Higher Purpose Without self-remembering, I cannot sincerely view my efforts as First, Second, or Third Lines of Work anymore than I can say that I have run a marathon just because I dreamt it. Work in the Fourth Way system means to proceed first from the understanding of the need to awaken. In The Tempest , Shakespeare observed the human condition as “… a strange repose, to be asleep With eyes wide open; standing, speaking, moving, And yet so fast asleep."

The Teaching Continuum The presence of a continuum is a common characteristic of many aspects of the Work, as well as in my ordinary life. There are different states of consciousness, and there are degrees within states of consciousness that form a continuum. There are also different levels of understanding and being that range along a spectrum of possibilities. Similarly, there is a continuum of teaching or teachers. In my life I have had many types and qualities of teachers

THE TEACHER Because my experience is limited to the Teacher in the school in which I am a member, I can only offer forty-three years of being a student in the School, and my relationship with him. For some students when they enter the School, they experience an almost immediate close working relationship with the Teacher. For myself, this took about ten years. As described in a previous post, one method the Teacher employs is mirroring the state of the student. He will mirror

In the Footsteps of a Teacher Everything that I am sharing in this post should be thought of as a theory until you are able to verify these things for yourself. In the Fourth Way, students are encouraged to receive ideas without rejection or blind acceptance, but to be open to new ideas and evaluate them through observation to make verifications for themselves. Every true teacher must have eyes like the shooting stars and be able to kill a person’s false self without blinking

Formation of Magnetic Centre – Finding Conscious Influence From my friend Dharmesh Shah of the Ahmedabad Center By popular accounts, it is said that Buddha was born on a full moon day in the eastern part of India. Upon his birth, the king and the queen, his parents, summoned the astrologers to tell them of the future of the prince. There was a consensus among the astrologers that their son would either become a great king or a great ascetic. However, the king wished for his s

Conscious Influence In schools for conscious evolution, as in this school, it is the Teacher who receives and transmits conscious influence. As noted in Marie Michael’s post the source of conscious influence comes from higher mind, or as Rodney Collin described it, Higher School. The Teacher foreshortened the name of this connection to Higher School to C Influence, and often refers poetically to C Influence as Celestial Influence. Even though the Teacher has stated that C Inf

Consciousness: Where the Light Comes In Last weekend our Center of students who live in the Washington, DC area hosted a weekend of events for the North American/Canada East Coast Region. About thirty-three students attended and, as with all activities in our school, the intended purpose of the gathering was to promote and sustain an internal presence through various external planned events. Every event in the school is a celebration of consciousness. —The Teacher To that end

Schools This post, written by my friend and fellow student, Sergio Antonio of the Modena, Italy Center, is excerpted from his book, A...

Schools are Lighthouses for Humanity When thinking about the topic of Schools, I was pondering how I could write about the palpable yet...

SCHOOL Why is a school necessary for conscious evolution? Given all that’s been written in books, or posted on various websites and...

From my friend and fellow student, Astha of the Toronto Center Weekly Topic: Schools We have all heard the famous saying that we live in...

NEW BOOK ALERT! "The Pocket Book on Gurdjieff’s Fourth Way: Reaching Man's Hidden Possibilities" David Tuttle, a long-time practitioner...

BE The Miraculous Kindle Edition by Charles Robertson Order your eBook here: ttps:// a.co/d/bL1MUbU From the Foreword: P.D. Ouspensky’s...

Please join us for a three-part series hosted by A Fourth Way School to explore the Spiritual Wisdom contained in Fairy Tales. Over the...

Be The Miraculous P.D. Ouspensky’s book In Search of the Miraculous was, and still is, one of the principle publications available to...

The Divine Contrast Rodney Collin theorized that animal life on Earth are experiments. A dog is an experiment in the function of the...

The Fourth Way and Gnosticism Greetings Friends of the Fourth Way. In a previous post entitled, The Fourth Way and Kabbalah, we noted...

The System Unlocks Religions It occurred to me that in many civilizations throughout history, there seems to have come a point at which...

The Fourth Way and Kabbalah As P.D. Ouspensky shared in The Fourth Way , the knowledge contained in his book came from Higher Mind. The...

The Thousand Natural Shocks “Schools are for ordinary people” says Peter Ouspensky. This unassuming observation carries far-reaching and...

Sharing the Light Among Friends I received a lovely, encouraging text from a dear friend the other day. It was not only heartwarming, but...

The Tarot Card Number X From our friend, Benjamin Y. This post offers a glimpse into the esoteric wisdom from the school or tradition...

The Scaffolding of Esoteric Schools Prose needs to be built like a cathedral. There, one is truly without a name, without ambition,...

School Influence is Life “A practical school produces Higher Centers in its students.” – The Teacher Reflecting on the history of...

Who Needs A School? Schools are for ordinary people, Ouspensky tells us. Schools are for people who need them and who know they need...

Words of Love From our friend Charles R. What the great Egyptian dynasties were to the cultural genesis of most of what we experience...

Remembrance and Love: Links to Sufism In the heart of a lover of God, remembrance of God is always fresh, without effort, for what a man...

Stoic Being Marcus Aurelius, perhaps the most well-known name from the Stoic school, said “Perfection of character is this: to live each...

Stoicism: A Practical Fourth Way Tradition “If a discussion arises among the multitude on some principle, keep silent for the most part …...

Voices From Antiquity From our friend Charles R. We don’t know when conscious evolution first occurred among men. Neither do we know when...

Theoretical Study is Not Sufficient From our friend, Joan No one is concealing anything; there is no mystery whatsoever. But the...

The Divine Mirror From our friend, Charles R. Perhaps you remember we wrote about A, B and C influences. A influence relates to basic...

Who Is My Teacher? From a friend When I first joined the School, I was afraid to meet “The Teacher” because I knew he would be able to...

From Presence to Presence From our Friend, Irene C. The teaching passes from Third Eye to Third Eye—from Presence to Presence. — The...

Inner Learning through Interacting with Others Another semester recently wrapped up and has given me a chance to reflect. I teach...

Living Presence Today https://www.facebook.com/livingpresencetoday Living Presence – North America https://www.facebook.com/LivingPresenc...

The Will to Evolve From our friend, Charles R. It’s simple. Surprisingly simple. So simple in fact, that when we’re told about...

We are Alone Without Outside Help We take for granted that we know with certainty the path of a solar eclipse that will be crossing North...

Edmund Blair Leighton - Abelard and his Pupil Heloise

Outside Help From our friend, Charles R. We know that there’s a state of being beyond our usual unconscious experience. A state in which...

Outside Help “It must be understood that without outside help a man can never see himself.” – Gurdjieff “Man cannot know his condition...