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			{{Short description\|Approach to self-development developed by George Gurdjieff}}
	:''This is an article about the Fourth Way system. For P.D. Ouspensky's book titled 'The Fourth Way' see ].''
			{{other uses}}
			{{more citations needed\|date=September 2014}}
			{{Use dmy dates\|date=October 2023}}
			], developer of the Fourth Way practice]]
			The '''Fourth Way''' is an approach to self-development developed by ] over years of travel in the ] (c. 1890 – 1912). Students often refer to the Fourth Way as "The Work", "Work on oneself", or "The System". The exact origins of some of Gurdjieff's teachings are unknown, but various sources have been suggested.<ref>], ''Feet of Clay'', p. 26, Simon & Schuster, 1997 {{ISBN\|978-0-684-83495-5}}</ref>

			The term "Fourth Way" was further used by his student ] in his lectures and writings. After Ouspensky's death, his students published a book entitled '']'' based on his lectures. According to this system, the three traditional schools, or ways, "are permanent forms which have survived throughout history mostly unchanged, and are based on religion. Where schools of ], ] and ] 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."<ref name=":0">"In Search of the Miraculous" by P.D. Ouspensky p. 312</ref>
	'''''The Fourth Way''''' is the name, as documented by ], that ] gave to his ideas and teachings <ref>"In Search of the Miraculous" by P.D. Ouspensky Chapter Two</ref> . Today they are also sometimes referred to as "'''The Work'''", "'''The Gurdjieff Work'''", "'''Work on oneself'''" or simply the "'''Work'''". Gurdjieff claimed that the Fourth Way was an alternative and faster means for spiritual development. He also mentions that the Fourth Way has existed throughout history, although his reasons behind this conclusion are unclear. It should however be noted that Gurdjieff never referred to his teachings as the "Fourth Way" in his ].

			{{blockquote\|When this work is finished, that is to say, when the aim set before it has been accomplished, the fourth way disappears, that is, it disappears from the given place, disappears in its given form, continuing perhaps in another place in another form. Schools of the fourth way exist for the needs of the work which is being carried out in connection with the proposed undertaking. They never exist by themselves as schools for the purpose of education and instruction.<ref>] (1949), '']'', Chapter 15</ref>}}
	Gurdjieff's teaching mainly addresses the question of people's place in the Universe and their possibilities for inner development. He also emphasized that some people live their lives in a form of waking sleep, and that higher levels of consciousness, higher bodies, and various inner abilities are possible.

			The Fourth Way addresses the question of humanity's place in the Universe and the possibilities of inner development. It emphasizes that people ordinarily live in a state referred to as a semi-hypnotic "waking sleep," while higher levels of consciousness, virtue, and unity of will are possible.
	Gurdjieff taught people how to increase and focus their attention and energy in various ways, and to minimize daydreaming and absentmindedness. According to his 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 believed he ought to be.

			The Fourth Way teaches how to increase and focus attention and energy in various ways, and to minimize day-dreaming and absent-mindedness. This inner development in oneself is the beginning of a possible further process of change, whose aim is to transform man into "what he ought to be."
	==The Ways==

			==Overview==
	Gurdjieff claimed that there were only three ordinary ways for real spiritual development. Gurdjieff referred to his methods as the "Fourth Way."

			Gurdjieff's followers believed he was a spiritual master,<ref>''Meetings with Remarkable Men'', translator's note</ref> a human being who is fully awake or ]. He was also seen as an ] or ]ist.<ref> by ]</ref> He agreed that the teaching was esoteric but claimed that none of it was veiled in secrecy but that many people lack the interest or the capability to understand it.<ref>P.D. Ouspensky, ''In Search of the Miraculous'', p.38.</ref> 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."<ref>In Search of The Miraculous (Chapter 14)</ref>
	The first three ways are:

			The Fourth Way teaches that the ] a human individual is born with gets trapped and encapsulated by personality, and stays dormant, leaving one not really conscious, despite ''believing'' one is. A person must free the soul by following a teaching which can lead to this aim or "go nowhere" upon death of his body. Should a person be able to receive the teaching and find a school, upon the death of the physical body they will "go elsewhere." Humans are born ''asleep'', live in ''sleep'', and die in ''sleep'', only ''imagining'' that they are awake with few exceptions.<ref>P. D. Ouspensky ''In Search of the Miraculous'', p. 66, Harcourt Brace & Co., 1977 {{ISBN\|0-15-644508-5}}</ref> The ordinary waking "consciousness" of human beings is not consciousness at all but merely a form of sleep."
	* ''The way of the ]''

			Gurdjieff taught "sacred dances" or "movements", now known as ], which were performed together as a group.<ref>{{Cite web \|url=http://www.gurdjieff-heritage-society.org/excerptsbook.htm \|title=Gurdjieff Heritage Society Book Excerpts <!-- Bot generated title --> \|access-date=5 October 2007 \|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071030182608/http://www.gurdjieff-heritage-society.org/excerptsbook.htm \|archive-date=30 October 2007 \|url-status=dead }}</ref> He left a body of music, inspired by that which he had heard in remote monasteries and other places, which was written for piano in collaboration with one of his pupils, ].<ref>{{dead link\|date=December 2017 \|bot=InternetArchiveBot \|fix-attempted=yes }} by John Mangan</ref>
	:The ''fakir'' struggles with the ] and self-mastery through difficult physical exercises and postures.

			Ouspensky documented Gurdjieff as saying that "two or three thousand years ago there were yet other ways which no longer exist and the ways then 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."<ref>"In Search of the Miraculous" by P.D. Ouspensky p. 312</ref> 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."<ref>In Search of The Miraculous (Chapter 10)</ref>
	* ''The way of the ]''

			The Fourth way was influenced by ], according to Jose Tirado,<ref>{{Cite web \|title=Gurdjieff-internet \|url=http://www.gurdjieff-internet.com/article_details.php?ID=251&W=39 \|url-status=dead \|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071029052050/http://www.gurdjieff-internet.com/article_details.php?ID=251&W=39 \|archive-date=29 October 2007 \|access-date=11 May 2007}}</ref> and ] alleged that Gurdjieff spent several years in a Buddhist monastery in the ].<ref></ref>
	:The way of the ''monk'' (or nun) represents the way of faith, the cultivation of emotional feelings.

			After Gurdjieff's death in 1949 a variety of groups around the world have attempted to continue The Gurdjieff Work. The Gurdjieff Foundation, was established in 1953 in New York City by ] in cooperation with other direct pupils.<ref></ref>
	* ''The way of the ]''

			==Teachings and teaching methods==
	:The ''yogi'''s approach is through knowledge and the mind.

	===~~The~~ ~~Fourth~~ ~~Way~~===		===Basis of teachings===

			* '''Present here now'''<ref>Exchanges Within; p 18; John Pentland</ref>
	Gurdjieff said that his Fourth Way was a quicker means than the first three ways because it simultaneously combined work on all ] rather than focusing on one as is done in the first three ways, and that it could be followed by ordinary people in everyday life, requiring no ].
			* '''We do not remember ourselves'''<ref>In Search of the Miraculous; p 117; P. D. Ouspensky</ref>
			* '''Conscious labour''' – is an action where the person who is performing the act is present to what he is doing; not absentminded. At the same time he is striving to perform the act more efficiently.
			* '''Intentional suffering''' – is the act of struggling against automatism such as daydreaming, pleasure, food (eating for reasons other than real hunger), etc. In Gurdjieff's book '']'' 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"<ref>] (1950). ], pg 242</ref> According to Gurdjieff, conscious labour and intentional suffering were the basis of all evolution of man.
			* '''Self-Observation''' – observation of one's behavior and habits. To observe thoughts, feelings, and sensations without judging or analyzing what is observed.<ref>, an article by ]</ref>
			* '''The Need for Effort''' – Gurdjieff emphasized that awakening results from consistent, prolonged effort. Such efforts may be made as an act of will after one is already exhausted.
			* '''The Many 'I's''' – this indicates fragmentation of the psyche, 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 have nothing in common with one another and are unaware of each other, arising and vanishing for short periods of time. Hence man usually has no unity in himself, wanting one thing now and another, perhaps contradictory, thing later.

			===Centers===
	The Fourth Way did involve whole-hearted acceptance of certain conditions imposed by a teacher. The Way required supreme effort to devote oneself continuously to inner work, even though one's outward worldly roles might not change that much. In spite of his insistence that work without a teacher was next to impossible, Gurdjieff stressed each individual's responsibility:
			{{main\|Centers (Fourth Way)}}

			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'''.
	:"The fourth way differs from the other ways in that the principal demand made upon a man is the demand for understanding. A man must do nothing that he does not understand, except as an experiment under the supervision and direction of his teacher. The more a man understands what he is doing, the greater will be the results of his efforts. This is a fundamental principle of the fourth way. The results of work are in proportion to the consciousness of the work. No "faith" is required on the fourth way; on the contrary, faith of any kind is opposed to the fourth way. On the fourth way a man must satisfy himself of the truth of what he is told. And until he is satisfied he must do nothing."

	By its very nature, the Fourth Way is not for everyone. Gurdjieff said that secret knowledge is not deliberately hidden, and in some cases not hidden at all) but most people simply are not interested. Gurdjieff referred to those capable of receiving the work as "five of twenty of twenty" - only twenty per cent of all people ever think seriously about higher realities. Of these, only twenty per cent ever decide to do anything about it. And of these, only five per cent ever actually get anywhere.

	By bringing together the way of the Fakir (] tradition), the way of the Yogi (] and ] traditions) and the way of the Monk (] and ] traditions, amongst others) Gurdjieff clearly places the Fourth Way at a crossroads of differing beliefs.

	One of the notable factors in Gurdjieff's teachings is that all the different subjects that he thought fit together and relate to each other. Thus by studying one thing, Gurdjieff said that the person simultaneously studies many other subjects.

	In Ouspenky's book, ''In Search of the Miraculous'', Gurdjieff said: "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.<ref>"In Search of the Miraculous" by P.D. Ouspensky p. 312</ref>

	===Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man===
	In 1922 Gurdjieff founded the ]. The institute was an esoteric school based on Gurdjieff's Fourth Way teaching. In 1924 Gurdjieff nearly died in a car crash. After he recovered, he closed down the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man and began writing All and Everything. From 1930, Gurdjieff made visits to North America where he resumed his teachings.

	===The Gurdjieff Foundations===
	Near the end of his life, Gurdjieff established three primary institutions to carry on his work, known as the Foundations. Connected to these three Foundations are numerous smaller groups around the world, collected under the umbrella of the "International Association of Gurdjieff Foundations". There are also affiliated American and Canadian groups.

	===After Gurdjieff===

	After Gurdjieff's death in 1949 a variety of groups around the world have continued, or attempted to continue, The Work. ] ran groups and also made contact with the ] and ] schools to develop The Work in different directions. ], a ]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 Salzman - a direct pupil of Gurdjieff. Under her leadership, the Gurdjieff Societies of London and New York were founded and developed.

	Today in the ] much of the Fourth Way groups can be attributed to ], ] or ], both former instructors at "The Institute" founded after Gurdjieff's death to further his ideas. There is much debate as to the ability of one to follow Gurdjieff's ideas after his death through groups, with some critics pointing to the fact that Gurdjieff (apparently) failed to raise any of his pupils 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 specifically in the task of interpreting and disseminated the ideas that he expressed cryptically in ]. This, combined with Gurdjieff's almost fanatical dedication to the completion of this text, suggest that Gurdjieff himself intended his ideas to continue to be practiced and taught long after his death.

	=== Transmission ===

	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 the work presented by this initial school are no longer real.

	] relates that in the early work with Gurdjieff in ] and ], it was strictly forbidden for students to write down, much less publish, anything at all connected with Gurdjieff and his ideas due to the fact that Gurdjieff said that students of his methods would find themselves unable to transmit correctly what is said in the groups. Somewhat later, Gurdjieff relaxed this rule, accepting as students many who subsequently published accounts of their experiences in the work.

	===Fake Schools===

	Gurdjieff, indicated that there are many fake schools where the leader of the organization either:

	*1. Honestly believes that he knows something, when in fact he doesn't
	*2. He maybe believes another man who is mistaken
	*3. He is purposely tricking others

	Gurdjieff said that these schools lead nowhere, except making the students believe that they are going somewhere. <ref>In Search of The Miraculous (Chapter 10)</ref>

	Gurdjieff also noted that those schools which follow his ideas, but mainly focus on one aspect of his teaching (such as self-observation or self-remembering), only have negative and wrong results. <ref>Life is Real Only then When 'I am' (First Talk) </ref>

	==Origins of the Fourth Way==

	It was noted in "In Search Of Miraculous" that Gurdjieff refused to reveal the origins of his teaching or the Fourth Way. Later on in his autobiography, Gurdjieff credited certain people in Asia for many of his ideas, while he nevertheless still refused to divulge the origins of his system. For the origins of his system, and his teachings (as many people didn't accept Gurdjieff's claims on this subject), various intellectual and spiritual debts have been suggested:
	*technical vocabulary first appeared in early 19th century ], derived from ], by ]
	*], by ]
	*] ]sm, by ]<ref>Idries Shah: The Way of the Sufi, Part 1, Notes and Bibliography, Note 35</ref>
	*] ], by ]
	*], by Jose Tirado

	==Teachings and Teaching Methods==
	===Basis of Teachings===

	Gurdjieff's teachings mainly focused on the acquiring of the ability to constantly perform conscious labors and intentional suffering.

	'''Conscious Labors''' - This is a labor where the person who is performing the act is not absentminded during his act, but rather is "remembering himself" the entire time and what he is doing; and at the same time he is striving to perform the act more efficiently. This in theory sounds easy, but in practice is nearly impossible even for a short time due to the weaknesses of the human mind.

	'''Intentional suffering''' - This is the act of struggling against the desires of the physical body such as daydreaming, pleasure, food (in terms of eating for reasons other than real hunger), etc...

	Gurdjieff claimed that these two acts were the basis of all evolution of man.

	===Teachings===

	Gurdjieff's teachings dealt with an enormous amount of subjects. His main explanations revolved around the following: Consciousness, Subconsciousness, Higher Consciousness, Conscience, Remorse of Conscience, The Physical Body's Functions, Higher Bodies, ], Self-Awareness, Knowledge vs. Understanding, Essence vs Personality, ], ], ], Human History, Language, Hypnotism, Sacred Dance, Sacred Music, Humans' Natural Weaknesses...some are expanded below:

	'''Self-Observation'''

	Striving to observe in one's self the certain behaviors and habits which are usually only observed in others.

	'''Division of Attention''' - ''(Preliminary exercise to Self-Remembering)''

	Gurdjieff encouraged his students to cultivate the ability to divide their attention, that is, the ability to remain fully focussed on an external object or internal thought while being aware of oneself. One might, for instance, let part of one's attention dwell in one's little finger, while the other half is aware of our own presence. In the division of attention, it is not a matter of going back and forth between one thing and another, but experiencing them both fully and simultaneously.

	'''Self-Remembering'''

	Beyond the division of attention lies "remembering oneself" - a state, which is permanent in a "conscious" person, while fleeting and temporary in the average people. In this state a person sees what is seen without ever losing sight of himself seeing. Ordinarily, when concentrating on something, people lose their sense of "I," although they may as it were passively react to the stimulus they are concentrating on. In self-remembering the "I" is not lost.

	'''The Need for Efforts'''

	Gurdjieff emphasized that awakening results from consistent, prolonged efforts. These efforts are the one's that are made after a person is already exhausted and feels that he can't go anymore, but nevertheless he pushes himself. Such efforts are expected to produce an inner strength, and increase the person's will power.

	'''The Many 'I's'''

	Many I's is a term which indicates the different feelings of ‘I’ in a person: I think, I want, I know best, I prefer, I am happy, hungry, tired. These feelings of ‘I’ usually have nothing in common and are present for a short periods of time. These feelings tie in with Gurdjieff's claim that a man has no unity in himself, that is, that he wants one thing now and another thing later.

	'''Physical Movements and Postures'''

	Ouspensky relates a series of what he found to be "unbelievably difficult" physical/mental exercises that Gurdjieff had picked up in various esoteric schools during his travels. In general, these involved some precise and exact combination of counting, breathing, sensing of body parts, and movements, to be done in some coordinated sequence.

	'''Relaxation.'''

	Gurdjieff claimed that people's bodies are over-tensed during their actions, and thus they unnecessarily waste a lot of energy. Gurdjieff focused on ways of relaxing the physical body and minimizing the tenseness of the human muscles.

	'''Body, Essence and Personality'''		'''Body, Essence and Personality'''

			Gurdjieff divided people's being into ''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 so to say a "natural part of a person" or "what he is born with". '''Personality''' - is everything artificial that he has "learned" and "seen".
	It was taught that Essence is the part of a being which is able to evolve.

			*'''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.
	'''Moon symbolism'''
			*'''Personality''' – is everything artificial that he has "learned" and "seen".

			'''Cosmic Laws'''
	Gurdjieff was documented as teaching that people assimilate and transubstantiate certain matter which upon their death is released from their body and transferred to the Moon. The simplest way of explaining this theory is by comparing it to other Biogeochemical cycle such as the Carbon Cycle or the Nitrogen Cycle. In the nitrogen cycle, bacteria assimilate and transfer nitrogen from the soil into the atmosphere. Parallel to this, in Gurdjieff's moon theory, humans assimilate a certain type of matter in order that it is transferred from the Earth to the Moon.

			Gurdjieff focused on two main cosmic laws, the ''Law of Three'' and the ''Law of Seven'' {{Citation needed\|date=February 2011}}.
	===The use of symbols===

			*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.
	In his explanations Gurdjieff often used different symbols such as the ] and the ]. 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 ]. And every time he can learn something new, something he did not know before." While the ray of creation is a diagram which better represents the place which Earth occupies in the Universe. The diagram has eight levels, each corresponding to Gurdjieff's laws of octaves.
			*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 ], ] and Reconciling or ]. This law applies to everything in the ] and ]ity, as well as all the ]s and processes. The ] 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 ] of the ]. The process of transformation requires the three actions of ], ] and ]. This law of three separate sources can be considered modern ''interpretation'' of early Hindu Philosophy of ], We can see this as Chapters 3, 7, 13, 14, 17 and 18 of ] discuss ''Guna in their verses.''<ref>{{Cite book\|title=The Bhagavad Gita\|date=2009\|publisher=State University of New York Press\|others=Sargeant, Winthrop, 1903-1986., Chapple, Christopher Key, 1954-\|isbn=978-1-4416-0873-4\|edition=25th anniversary\|location=Albany, N.Y.\|oclc=334515703}}</ref>

			How the ''Law of Seven'' and ''Law of Three'' function together is said to be illustrated on the ], a nine-pointed symbol which is the central glyph of Gurdjieff's system.
	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.

			===Use of symbols===
	===Working Conditions and Sacred Dances===
			In his explanations Gurdjieff often used different symbols such as the ] and the ]. 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."<ref></ref> The Enneagram is often studied in ].

			==Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man==
	To provide conditions in which attention could be exercised more intensively, Gurdjieff also taught his pupils "]" 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, ].
			Having migrated for four years after escaping the ] 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.<ref></ref> 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.

			] relates that in the early work with Gurdjieff in ] and ], Gurdjieff forbade students from writing down or publishing anything connected with Gurdjieff and his ideas.<ref name=":0" /> 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.<ref name=":0" />
	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 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."

	==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 ]'s book on the Rules or Secrets of the ] ] Order.<ref>Omar Ali-Shah:The Rules or Secrets of the Naqshbandi Order.</ref>
	*Gurdjieff's teaching has some similarities with ]'s teaching as documented by ]. An example of this regards Gurdjieff's moon symbolism, which asserts that humans aren't aware due to the moon. Don Juan taught that humans' awareness is eaten by higher beings. <ref>The Active Side of Infinity by Carlos Castaneda
	</ref>

	==Later Teachers of Gurdjieff's Teaching==

	The following are notable individuals which have had/have their own established groups, in which groups it was claimed that Gurdjieff's teaching was being taught:

	'''Jeanne de Salzmann'''

	] (1889 – 1990) was a close pupil of G. I. Gurdjieff, 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 formal and informal groups throughout the world.
	She began her career at the Conservatory of Geneva, studying piano, orchestral conduction and musical composition. Later a student of Emile Jaques-Dalcroze in Germany from 1912, she taught dance and rhythmic movements. The Russian revolution triggered a move for Jeanne and her husband Alexandre to Tiflis, Georgia where she continued to teach.

	The Gurdjieff Foundation, the largest organization directly linked to Mr. Gurdjieff, was organized by Jeanne de Salzmann during the early 1950s and led by her, in cooperation with other direct pupils, until her death in 1990. From that year until his recent passing in August 2001, Dr. Michel de Salzmann directed the network of Gurdjieff foundations, societies, and institutes. The work of the Foundation continues today with the guidance of direct pupils and the next generation. The Foundation is registered under the name “The Gurdjieff Foundation” in the USA, by the name “The Gurdjieff Society” in the UK, and in France under the name “Institut Gurdjieff.”

	'''Ouspensky'''

	] was a Russian philosopher with an analytic and mystical bent who combined geometry and psychology in his discussion of higher dimensions of existence. He traveled throughout Europe and the East, looking for centers of esoteric knowledge, were unproductive. Upon his return to Russia in 1916, he was introduced to Gurdjieff and spent the next few years studying with him. After the Bolshevik Revolution he broke of with Gurdjieff and formed his own independent groups. Today, Ouspensky is one of the best known Gurdjieff's pupils, as well as his book ] provides what is probably the most concise explanation of the material that was included.

	On the subject of Fourth Way, Ouspensky was asked "You said that one can learn how to escape only from those who have escaped before?" He replied "Quite right—in the allegory of prison. And this means a school can only start from another school. This system can have value only if it comes from higher mind. If we have reason to believe that it only comes from an ordinary mind, like ours, it can have no value and we cannot expect anything from it. Then better sit down and write your own system."

	'''Thomas de Hartmann'''

	] (1885, 28 March 1956) was a Russian composer and prominent student and collaborator of George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff.

	Thomas de Hartmann was already an acclaimed composer in Russia when he first met Gurdjieff in 1916 in St. 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. After her husband's death on 28 March 1956, New York City, New York, USA, Olga collected many of Gurdjieff's early talks in the book Views from the Real World (1973).

	'''Lord Pentland'''

	] (Henry John Sinclair) was a pupil of Ouspensky for many years during the 1930s and 1940s. He began to study intensely with Gurdjieff in 1948. Gurdjieff then 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.

	'''Alfred Richard Orage'''

	] was a British intellectual, now best known for editing the magazine The New Age. In 1914 Orage met with P. D. Ouspensky, whose ideas left a prominent impression. When Ouspensky moved to London in 1921, Orage began attending his lectures on a "fragmentary" teaching. From this point on Orage became less and less interested in literature and art, instead focusing his attention in the 1910s on mysticism.

	In February 1922, Ouspensky introduced Orage to G. I. Gurdjieff. Selling the New Age, he moved to Paris to study at the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man. In 1924 Orage was appointed by Gurdjieff to lead study groups in America.

	'''William Patrick Paterson'''

	] was a long-time student of Lord John Pentland <ref>http://www.gurdjieffstudiesprogram.org/patterson.htm</ref>. Mr. Patterson is the founder/director of The Gurdjieff Studies Program. For many years he has led groups, as well as given seminars and talks throughout the United States. He is the founder/editor of The Gurdjieff Journal (est. 1992), the first domestic and international Fourth Way journal. He has also written books which have criticized and discredited other teachers whom he considers fake, such as Boris Mouravieff, Robert Burton and Alexander Horn<ref>"Taking with the Left Hand: Enneagram Craze, People of the Bookmark, & the Mouravieff Phenemenon" Written by William Patrick Patterson, Edited by Barbara Allen Patterson, Arete Communications, Publishers, 1998, ISBN 1-879514-10-9 pg. 55, pg.59</ref> Patterson's histories, especially his chronologizing in "Struggle of the Magicians" or his transcripts of Gurdjieff in "Voices in the Dark", are now a standard source for many of those referencing Gurdjieff.

	'''Rodney Collin'''

	] (born April 26, 1909; died May 3, 1956) was a British writer in the area of spiritual development. His work was heavily influenced by his teacher, P. D. Ouspensky, and through him, G. I. Gurdjieff, and their system of spiritual development. Rodney Collin is one of the most well known of Ouspenky's students, and a prolific writer. He met Ouspensky in the autumn of 1956. "Rodney Collin immediately recognised that he had found what he had been searching for in his reading and travels. From then on he dedicated all his time to the study of Mr Ouspensky's teaching." <ref>The Theory of Conscious Harmony" by Rodney Collin, Introduction. </ref> Collin's best known work, The Theory of Celestial Influence, is an ambitious attempt to unite astronomy, physics, chemistry, human physiology, and world history with Collin's version of planetary influences.<br />

	Within his most relevant contributions, it is the emphasis in the idea of Fourth Way school existing in different times. He says: ''"Schools of the fourth way have existed and exist, just as schools of the three traditional ways existed and exist. But they are much more difficult to detect, because - unlike the others - they cannot be recognized by any one practice, one method, one task, or one name. They are always inventing new methods, new practices, suitable to the time and conditions in which they exist, and when they have achieved one task which was set them they pass on to another, often changing their name and whole appearance in the process."''<ref>The Theory of CelestialInfluence - Penguin Books, 1997 - Chapter 15 "The Shape of Civilization"</ref><br />

	'''Maurice Nicoll'''

	In 1922 ] became a pupil of G. I. Gurdjieff and later on started his own groups in England applying the ideas he had been introduced to by Gurdjieff and P. D. Ouspensky. 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).

	'''James Moore'''

	] has been active in practical and thematic Gurdjieff studies since 1956, after coming into contact with Kenneth Walker M.D, and later with Henriette H. Lannes ("Madame Lannes") as his teacher and mentor (in the period October 1957 – December 1978).

	From 1981 to 1994 he was responsible for gathering and leading new students in the Gurdjieff Society in London. During this period he was the pupil of M. Tracol and Maurice Desselle.

	In summer 1994 he withdrew from the Gurdjieff Society, according to his own biography, due to controversy concerning his article "Moveable Feasts: the Gurdjieff Work" published in the academic journal Religion Today. He later founded the London-based Gurdjieff Studies Group.

	''' J. G. Bennett '''

	], (8 June 1897 - 13 December 1974) 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. Bennett met Gurdjieff in Constantinople in 1921, and later helped to co-ordinate the work of Gurdjieff in England after Gurdjieff's arrival in Paris.

	'''Anne Burridge, Alex Horn and Sharon Guns'''

	Horn's first wife, Anne Burridge, as a teenager, is said to have attended one of John Bennett's groups in England for about three years. During her time with Bennett, sometime in the 1960s, Anne met Alex Horn who had come to England in the hopes of working with Bennett. Bennett refused and warned Anne against any involvement with the American. Horn convinced Anne to marry him, and he then apparently took what he learned of the teaching from Anne, combined it with what he understood from books and started his 'school,' "The Theater of All Possibilities". Alex Horn divorced Anne, and married ], who became involved in his school and starred in its plays. <ref>The Gurdjieff Journal, Vol. 8, Issue 1, Number 29/2</ref> Alex Horn's group claimed that they were employing the Fourth Way in their school. In 1978 the theater was closed due to allegations of abuse. William Patrick Patterson describes Horn as "a faux-Gurdjieffian without any real connection to the Fourth Way, who has based his own understanding on books and on that of his first wife. <ref>"Taking with the Left Hand: Enneagram Craze, People of the Bookmark, & the Mouravieff Phenemenon" Written by William Patrick Patterson, Edited by Barbara Allen Patterson, Arete Communications, Publishers, 1998, ISBN 1-879514-10-9 pg.49</ref>

	==Bibliography==

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Latest revision as of 22:41, 7 October 2024

Approach to self-development developed by George Gurdjieff For other uses, see Fourth Way (disambiguation).

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The Fourth Way is an approach to self-development developed by George Gurdjieff over years of travel in the East (c. 1890 – 1912). Students often refer to the Fourth Way as "The Work", "Work on oneself", or "The System". The exact origins of some of Gurdjieff's teachings are unknown, but various sources have been suggested.

The term "Fourth Way" was further used by his student P. D. Ouspensky in his lectures and writings. After Ouspensky's death, his students published a book entitled The Fourth Way based on his lectures. According to this system, the three traditional schools, or ways, "are permanent forms which have survived throughout history mostly unchanged, and are based on religion. Where schools of Fakirs, Monks and Yogis 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."

When this work is finished, that is to say, when the aim set before it has been accomplished, the fourth way disappears, that is, it disappears from the given place, disappears in its given form, continuing perhaps in another place in another form. Schools of the fourth way exist for the needs of the work which is being carried out in connection with the proposed undertaking. They never exist by themselves as schools for the purpose of education and instruction.

The Fourth Way addresses the question of humanity's place in the Universe and the possibilities of inner development. It emphasizes that people ordinarily live in a state referred to as a semi-hypnotic "waking sleep," while higher levels of consciousness, virtue, and unity of will are possible.

The Fourth Way teaches how to increase and focus attention and energy in various ways, and to minimize day-dreaming and absent-mindedness. This inner development in oneself is the beginning of a possible further process of change, whose aim is to transform man into "what he ought to be."

Overview

Gurdjieff's followers believed he was a spiritual master, a human being who is fully awake or enlightened. He was also seen as an esotericist or occultist. He agreed that the teaching was esoteric but claimed that none of it was veiled in secrecy but that many people lack the interest or the capability to understand it. 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 Fourth Way teaches that the soul a human individual is born with gets trapped and encapsulated by personality, and stays dormant, leaving one not really conscious, despite believing one is. A person must free the soul by following a teaching which can lead to this aim or "go nowhere" upon death of his body. Should a person be able to receive the teaching and find a school, upon the death of the physical body they will "go elsewhere." Humans are born asleep, live in sleep, and die in sleep, only imagining that they are awake with few exceptions. The ordinary waking "consciousness" of human beings is not consciousness at all but merely a form of sleep."

Gurdjieff taught "sacred dances" or "movements", now known as Gurdjieff movements, which were performed together as a group. He left a body of music, inspired by that which he had heard in remote monasteries and other places, which was written for piano in collaboration with one of his pupils, Thomas de Hartmann.

Ouspensky documented Gurdjieff as saying that "two or three thousand years ago there were yet other ways which no longer exist and the ways then 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." 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."

The Fourth way was influenced by Tibetan Buddhism, according to Jose Tirado, and Chatral Rinpoche alleged that Gurdjieff spent several years in a Buddhist monastery in the Swat valley.

After Gurdjieff's death in 1949 a variety of groups around the world have attempted to continue The Gurdjieff Work. The Gurdjieff Foundation, was established in 1953 in New York City by Jeanne de Salzmann in cooperation with other direct pupils.

Teachings and teaching methods

Basis of teachings

Present here now
We do not remember ourselves
Conscious labour – is an action where the person who is performing the act is present to what he is doing; not absentminded. At the same time he is striving to perform the act more efficiently.
Intentional suffering – is the act of struggling against automatism 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" According to Gurdjieff, conscious labour and intentional suffering were the basis of all evolution of man.
Self-Observation – observation of one's behavior and habits. To observe thoughts, feelings, and sensations without judging or analyzing what is observed.
The Need for Effort – Gurdjieff emphasized that awakening results from consistent, prolonged effort. Such efforts may be made as an act of will after one is already exhausted.
The Many 'I's – this indicates fragmentation of the psyche, 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 have nothing in common with one another and are unaware of each other, arising and vanishing for short periods of time. Hence man usually has no unity in himself, wanting one thing now and another, perhaps contradictory, thing later.

Centers

Main article: Centers (Fourth Way)

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's being into Essence and Personality.

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 Active, Passive and Reconciling or Neutral. This law applies to everything in the universe and humanity, as well as all the structures 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 energy of the human being. The process of transformation requires the three actions of affirmation, denial and reconciliation. This law of three separate sources can be considered modern interpretation of early Hindu Philosophy of Gunas, We can see this as Chapters 3, 7, 13, 14, 17 and 18 of Bhagavad Gita discuss Guna in their verses.

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.

Use of symbols

In his explanations Gurdjieff often used different symbols such as the Enneagram 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 Enneagram is often studied in contexts that do not include other elements of Fourth Way teaching.

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 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.

References

Anthony Storr, Feet of Clay, p. 26, Simon & Schuster, 1997 ISBN 978-0-684-83495-5
^ "In Search of the Miraculous" by P.D. Ouspensky p. 312
P.D. Ouspensky (1949), In Search of the Miraculous, Chapter 15
Meetings with Remarkable Men, translator's note
Gurdjieff article in The Skeptic's dictionary by Robert Todd Carroll
P.D. Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous, p.38.
In Search of The Miraculous (Chapter 14)
P. D. Ouspensky In Search of the Miraculous, p. 66, Harcourt Brace & Co., 1977 ISBN 0-15-644508-5
"Gurdjieff Heritage Society Book Excerpts". Archived from the original on 30 October 2007. Retrieved 5 October 2007.
Thomas de Hartmann: A Composer’s Life by John Mangan
"In Search of the Miraculous" by P.D. Ouspensky p. 312
In Search of The Miraculous (Chapter 10)
"Gurdjieff-internet". Archived from the original on 29 October 2007. Retrieved 11 May 2007.
Meetings with Three Tibetan Masters
The Gurdjieff Foundation
Exchanges Within; p 18; John Pentland
In Search of the Miraculous; p 117; P. D. Ouspensky
G.I. Gurdjieff (1950). Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, pg 242
Gurdjieff & the Further Reaches of Self-Observation, an article by Dennis Lewis
The Bhagavad Gita. Sargeant, Winthrop, 1903-1986., Chapple, Christopher Key, 1954- (25th anniversary ed.). Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press. 2009. ISBN 978-1-4416-0873-4. OCLC 334515703.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
A Lecture by G.I. Gurdjieff
Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man

External links

Quotations related to Fourth Way at Wikiquote
Media related to Fourth Way at Wikimedia Commons

v t e George Gurdjieff
Concepts	Centers Fourth Way Gurdjieff movements Ray of Creation Earth Level Sarmoung Brotherhood
Books	The Herald of Coming Good (1933) Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson (1950) Meetings with Remarkable Men (1960)
Legacy	Gurdjieff Foundation In Search of the Miraculous (1949 book) The Fourth Way (1957 book) The Teachers of Gurdjieff (1966 book) Meetings with Remarkable Men (1979 film) G.I. Gurdjieff: Sacred Hymns (1980 album) The Gurdjieff Ensemble (musical group)

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