Wisdom Through Action

Teaching The Fourth Way  in the Tradition of G. I. Gurdjieff & 
P. D. Ouspensky
Our Being Attracts our Life
Our Being Attracts our Life

 Perhaps the most important idea we have to address in the Fourth Way, is that with certain knowledge and certain efforts a man or woman can develop, that is can complete themselves. This is a process with definite stages or steps.  When we are able to realize what is truly lacking in ourselves, then we have the possibility of acquiring that which we do not have.  One of the first steps is to realize that we are not conscious, that our life happens mechanically, whether good event or bad event or somewhere in between, it just happens.  Study in the Fourth Way begins with verifying and realizing that we do not possess self-consciousness, that we cannot be aware of ourselves at moments of action or thought or emotion.  The second step is to realize that it is possible to change our situation through intentional self-observation and study of our levels of consciousness through specific methods.


We have the possibility of living in 4 quite different levels of consciousness. These we call first state, second state, third state and fourth state. 


The first state of consciousness is when we are asleep in bed at night. This is necessary to eliminate psychic waste and balance the functions. This state is experienced for about five hours, at the end of which we tend to enter what is called half-dream state, when we begin to dream. At some point, we begin to dream that we are waking up and thus waking up, we enter second state in the levels of consciousness.


The second state of consciousness is the state in which we spend most of our time.  It is the state in which we eat, drink, move about, walk, talk and have relative presence without bumping into things. And sometimes not even that much. It is usually not that far removed from half-dream state, and is called the state of waking sleep.


The third state of consciousness, higher consciousness, is said to be the birthright of Man.  Higher consciousness is experienced in rare flashes in ordinary life, especially when there is an experience which is unexpected or out of patterns. Sometimes one may experience Deja-vu which may be seen as a moment of third state or higher consciousness in which one is aware of oneself and of one’s surroundings simultaneously. Sometimes one may have such moments in situations of extreme physical danger or emotional stress, such as in an automobile accident; when one may see the situation as an impartial observer, as though it were a play. It is said to be a state without words. It is part of the work of schools of the Fourth Way to bring a man, through his own work and effort, to the realization of his birthright, self-consciousness. When we develop higher consciousness, we become objective to ourselves.


Fourth state may be called objective consciousness.  In this state we can know objective truth about everything. Some modern philosophy has referred to Fourth State as Cosmic Consciousness.

There are different way of studying levels of consciousness in oneself. In the beginning the first thing is the realization that we cannot be conscious when we want to be. In School, we learn how to verify our present state and apply Work tools to become more and more awake and reach higher consciousness.

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