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This is an article about the Fourth Way system. For P.D. Ouspensky's book titled 'The Fourth Way' see Fourth Way (book).

The Fourth Way is the name, as documented by Peter D. Ouspensky, that G.I. Gurdjieff gave to his ideas and teachings . 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 writings.

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.

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 Ways

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

The first three ways are:

The fakir struggles with the physical body and self-mastery through difficult physical exercises and postures.
The way of the monk (or nun) represents the way of faith, the cultivation of emotional feelings.
The yogi's approach is through knowledge and the mind.

The Fourth Way

Gurdjieff said that his Fourth Way was a quicker means than the first three ways because it simultaneously combined work on all three centers 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 retirement into the desert.

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:

"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 (Sufi tradition), the way of the Yogi (Hindu and Sikh traditions) and the way of the Monk (Christian and Buddhist 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.

Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man

In 1922 Gurdjieff founded the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man. 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. J. G. Bennett ran groups and also made contact with the Subud and Sufi schools to develop The Work in different directions. Maurice Nicoll, a Jungian 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 United States much of the Fourth Way groups can be attributed to Jeanne de Salzmann, Alfred Richard Orage or Willem Nyland, 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 Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson. 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.

Ouspensky relates that in the early work with Gurdjieff in Moscow and St. Petersburg, 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.

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.

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:

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, Centers, Self-Awareness, Knowledge vs. Understanding, Essence vs Personality, Universal Laws, Enneagram, Ray of Creation, 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

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.

Moon symbolism

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.

The 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." 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.

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.

Working Conditions and Sacred Dances

To provide conditions in which attention could be exercised more intensively, Gurdjieff also taught his pupils "sacred dances" 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, Thomas de Hartmann.

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 Omar Ali-Shah's book on the Rules or Secrets of the Naqshbandi Sufi Order.
  • Gurdjieff's teaching has some similarities with Don Juan's teaching as documented by Carlos Castaneda. 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.

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

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

Peter D. 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 In Search of the Miraculous 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

Thomas Alexandriovich 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

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

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

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

Mr. Patterson was a long-time student of Lord John Pentland . 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 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

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." 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.

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."

Maurice Nicoll

In 1922 Maurice Nicoll 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

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

John Godolphin 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 Sharon Gans; who became involved in his school and starred in its plays. Alex Horn's group claimed that they were employing the Fourth Way teaching in their school. In 1978 the theater was closed due to allegations of abuse. William Patrick Patterson also 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.

Bibliography

References

  1. "In Search of the Miraculous" by P.D. Ouspensky Chapter Two
  2. "In Search of the Miraculous" by P.D. Ouspensky p. 312
  3. In Search of The Miraculous (Chapter 10)
  4. Life is Real Only then When 'I am' (First Talk)
  5. Idries Shah: The Way of the Sufi, Part 1, Notes and Bibliography, Note 35
  6. Omar Ali-Shah:The Rules or Secrets of the Naqshbandi Order.
  7. The Active Side of Infinity by Carlos Castaneda
  8. http://www.gurdjieffstudiesprogram.org/patterson.htm
  9. "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
  10. The Theory of Conscious Harmony" by Rodney Collin, Introduction.
  11. The Theory of CelestialInfluence - Penguin Books, 1997 - Chapter 15 "The Shape of Civilization"
  12. The Gurdjieff Journal, Vol. 8, Issue 1, Number 29/2
  13. "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

See also

External links

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