Fourth Way method for self evolution

[James Wyly]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg4P2blVtPE&t=13s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPRo9BTgyOc

FOURTH WAY METHOD FOR SELF EVOLUTION

A definite indication of an 

awakened state of consciousness 

is when a man sees new connections 

between the observed impressions 

recorded in his psyche as a result 

of separation from false bridges 

between those same impressions 

stored in centers in connection 

with events of personality 

formation during early life. 

The kind of early life training 

for the personality from such 

sources as education from
public schools, for example, 

have nothing to do with the 

actual centers themselves. 

What is formed, instead, is a 

formatory apparatus within the 

thinking center. All impressions 

from stimuli streaming in from 

centers and parts of centers are 

transmitted to the formatory
apparatus and this is equally 

true for all perceptions of 

centers for they also manifest 

through the formatory apparatus. 

An example of this is how we 

become trained from our early 

life experiences in the education 

system such as exists in American 

public schools whereby if you are 

taught that if someone is shaking 

hands with you in a certain way, 

then you must stand in a particular 

corresponding and politically
correct way. All of this is 

mechanical, of course, in the
sense of the fourth way idea of 

"requirements". These formatory 

rules learned early in school become 

adopted into the formation of the 

formatory apparatus and 

continues throughout
the duration of a man's life. 

Any adult is the same as when 

he or she was a child. It is true 

that adults are like children and 

children are like adults in that all 

of them react. 

Requirements?

> You still have not answered

> my question … is there a method

> to your madness?
> H.

> What a shame.  Why does he 
> think we want to read his

> insipid ramblings?????
> M. 

> Or does your brain not function
> when you are questioned?
> H.

Requirements, in terms of the

fourth way, have to do with

Imaginary "I" and, in terms

of life of itself, Imaginary

"I" really DOES NOT KNOW.

The question then arises: do people

who behave in this way really want to

KNOW anything?, or just APPEAR like

they KNOW? as well as APPEAR like

the WANT TO KNOW? or are they 

blinded by lies, cannot breathe, and 

are nothing more than batteries

for a perpetual motion machine

repeating material along
involutionary lines of

cause and effect?

What respect can there

be toward a machine?

and we see a lot of this kind

of behavior between participants

on these channels.

Rules of engagement on these

channels are usually given in

the form of requirements which

have nothing to do with the

real world. Apparently this

is how it appears and cannot be
helped by anyone, not by Gurdjieff,

not by anyone, but only I can help

myself. Only then will God be able

to help me because by helping myself

I am able, only then, to help God, as

only He would have it, and only then

can Gurdjieff be of any help, and

for which we are compelled to

express gratitude.

GURDJIEFF:

" 'God is God, and not vindictive

and evil like man. Certainly He
will not punish you or take

revenge upon you, as you would

have done to the vandal who

destroyed the goods it had

taken you years to collect.

" 'It goes without saying God

forgives everything . . . this

has even become a law in the

world.

" 'But His creatures . . . men in

this case . . . should not abuse His
all-gracious and everywhere-penetrating

Goodness, it is their duty not only to

watch over all that He has created but

also to maintain it.

CLEAN AND UNCLEAN

 " 'Yet here on Earth men have even

divided beings of all other forms
into "clean" and "unclean." Tell me,

what guided them when they made this

division? Why, for instance, is a

sheep "clean" and a lion "unclean"?

Are they not equally beings? This

also was invented by men. But why

this invention, why this distinction?

Simply because the sheep is a weak

being, and moreover stupid, and

they can do just what they like

with it.

" 'But men call the lion "unclean"

only because they dare not do what
they like with it. The lion is

cleverer and above all stronger

than they are. Not only will the

lion not allow itself to be

destroyed, it will not even

let people come near it. And

if anyone should venture too

close, this Mister Lion would

give him such a crack on the

noodle that our hero's life

would fly away to regions

concerning which the less

said the better.

" 'I repeat, a lion is "unclean"

simply because men are afraid of it;
it is a hundred times stronger than

they are, a hundred times superior.

A sheep is "clean" because it is

much weaker than they and, as I

said before, much more stupid.

" 'Every being, according to its

nature and the gradation of Reason
attained by its ancestors and

transmitted by heredity, occupies

a definite place among beings of

other forms."
--Gurdjieff, ch 19,

--Beelzebub's Tales

Conscious voluntarization of 

material stored as impressions 

on rolls in centers by method of

writing "by progression" is a means 

for self-observation. The accumulation 

of experiences of self-observation
eventually provide the higher 

quality of material to form new
connections deeper behind the 

surface of personality. This is
especially accelerated with 

efforts of inner separation and 

there are ways to do this with 

conscious labor and intentional 

suffering. Writing by progression 

as a product of conscious labor and
intentional suffering is a method 

which can be applied in the midst 

of conditions and circumstances of 

ordinary life of itself and I can see 

everyone around me mechanically 

expressing and carrying themselves 

in terms of personality rolls. There 

were periods when I found myself 

passing through the hallways of the 

"laughing academy" seeing everyone 

around me as less than me. It was a 

wrong attitude that needed to die in 

me.

The more insane that all of this 

appears, the more it serves a
purpose having to do with 

experiences of awakening, 

death and rebirth.

Gurdjieff demonstrated his self-

awareness in many ways. Gurdjieff 

role played his vindictiveness by 

way of such ceremonies and 

activities having to do with 

giving attention to, or toasting 

to, the "idiot" in general. In this 

way, Gurdjieff kept in check all 

involuntary manifestations of the 

weakness of his which he described
as the aforementioned "vindictiveness." 

Each ceremony performed was a 

success in that the lesson was 

passed directly on to others 

while praying for others 

that they are successful in 

attaining self-mastery by 

way of that law-conformable 

inner crystallization which 

happens at such golden 

moments of self-realization 

when face to face with 

oneself. 

I have experienced such states

of consciousness in which I 

saw myself as a comet and 

with the concentrated sense 

of omniscience while on a 

spree of light. Like a comet, 

or like Icarus, I came too 

close to the Sun and suffered 

terrible passages through 

purgatorial Hell regions 

which included actual 

archetypal manifestations 

which can appear as snakes, 

spiders, lions, tigers, mongoose, 

elephants and serpents of every 

kind and on and on and which 

will "irrupt" as symbols of 

involuntary manifestations 

represented by every kind of 

natural animal and insect and 

also any and every object in 

existence, all outer forms both 

animate and inanimate, that has 

in it a center of gravity that serves 

for it the function of "soul." All of

this is synchronous with a 

graduated increase of self-

consciousness and 

consciousness in 

general.

Gurdjieff taught that, ultimately, 

you must be master of yourself,

and it must be remembered that 

the aim is self-mastery according 

to the ancient philosophical conception 

of the triple individuality of man in 

terms of: 1. Pure spirit, 2. half-spirit 

and half-matter and 3. gross matter.

It can be said that the "Church 

Fathers" of the Fourth Way as a 

religion anathematized the 

fundamental work teaching 

that man is divided between 

the physical, emotional and

mental centers as a three 

brained being and, by way 

of the Spirit of man, is he 

connected with the essence 

of Divinity Itself as taught in
the fourth way as the Absolute 

from which begins the Law of 

Three and proceeding thus by 

way of world creation and 

maintenance according to
laws of progression 

described by the Law 

of Octaves. 

A true master is one who 

shows you ways to get free, 

not to depend on him, or "her". 

The fourth way is not a religion 

and yet there are many in the fourth 

way organizations that have deviated 

into organizing and teaching fourth
way ideas as though it were a 

religion. 

The triple individuality idea was 

upheld and believed in by Origen,
for which he was exiled, and even 

Irenaeus, in 178 A.D. Our attention
now can be turned with application 

of the triple individuality idea to
soul formation. Christ is the 

symbol of the highest spirit of 

a man, but not of his soul and 

this is what all the "identified" 

Christians do not understand 

about the soul. Identified 

Christians are so afraid of 

losing their souls to the devil 

and never see the forest for the
trees that the way of life of a 

truly Re-Born Christian is a way 

of life of soul formation. From this 

point of view, the devil and his
manifestations are absolutely 

essential as reminding factors 

for our individual work of soul 

formation. It is the involuntary
manifestations that must be 

destroyed.

What we see from all of the 

above is evidence of an immense 

amount of unconscious activity 

being passed around everywhere 

between people whether they are 

conscious or unconscious of the 

fact. It is the real world of Gurdjieff,

that is, what he described as 

unconscious. How do we 

organize our understanding 

of all of this nonsense happening 

around us in the world today in 

such a way that we can 

participate in it and

render harmless the potential 

harmful physical consequences 

if we don't? The fourth way must

be aligned with conscious evolution 

and reciprocal maintenance of the Ray

and also in connection with this there

must be a personal egoistic aim because

without individuality there cannot be any

individual conscious evolution FOR

ANYONE!! In other words, we were 

created and designed to be self-

developing self-changing beings 

with the highest aim of helping God 

and ourselves, not play God pretending 

to help others. This is in connection with 

the idea that "helping God" is an 

expression which describes the

transmutation of lower level 

material into a higher level of 

materiality that it was designed 

to be and for all of us to wield for 

the purpose of attainment of our aims,

aims of our neighbors, and aims for

self-evolving humanity aligned with 

conscious evolution and reciprocal 

maintenance of the Ray. 

Soul formation is the instruction 

of this fourth way, not power to 

subjugate others with a lot of 

nonsense. Soul formation is about 

formation of the inner man, the real 

Ego, the real man of the Adam Kadmon, 

the Heavenly man of the Chaldean 

Kabbala. The fourth room is a place
where the flesh is the devil, so to speak, 

but this is true only in a relative sense
because it must be remembered that 

our aim here is to understand the
laws of soul formation and the 

relative parts that the body of itself
plays in terms of the centers that 

make up the body as an alchemical
factory for the production of certain 

substances necessary for soul
formation without forsaking 

the maintenance needs of the 

body, the flesh, as it were, of 

itself. The work of mastering 

the animal, or Chief Feature, is 

performed with love of the master. 

Pleasure, as taught in the fourth 

way by Gurdjieff, is an attribute 

of Paradise and this was a deviation 

from the teachings of Blavatsky 

which placed too much emphasis 

on the idea of the flesh being the 

devil without taking into account 

the idea about "relativity" which 

was later introduced by Gurdjieff. 

For this reason, Blavatsky objectively 

received guidance from the Master 

who she referred to as having 

communicated to her, wrapped 

itself around her brain, from the 

"other world" but was, really, 

the archetypal manifestation 

of her own Real "I."

Page 99 of IN SEARCH OF:

Aim

"I certainly have an aim of my 

own," said Gurdjieff. "But you must 

permit me to keep silent about it. At 

the present moment my aim cannot 

have any meaning for you, because 

it is important that you should define 

your own aim. The teaching by itself 

cannot pursue any definite aim. It
can only show the best way for 

men to attain whatever aims they 

may have. The question of aim is 

a very important question. Until a 

man has defined his own aim for 

himself he will not be able even 

to begin 'to do' anything. How is 

it possible 'to do' anything without 

having an aim? Before anything 

else 'doing' presupposes an aim."

"But the question of the 

aim of existence is one of 

the most difficult of philosophical 

questions," said one of those present. 

"You want us to begin by solving 

this question. But perhaps we have 

come here because we are seeking 

an answer to this question. You 

expect us to have known it 

beforehand. If a man knows 

this, he really knows
everything."

"You misunderstood me," said 

Gurdjieff. "I was not speaking of 

the philosophical significance of 

the aim of existence. Man does 

not know it and he cannot know 

it so long as he remains what he 

is, first of all, because there is not 

one but many aims of existence. On 

the contrary, attempts to answer this 

question using ordinary methods 

are utterly hopeless and useless. 

I was asking about an entirely
different thing. I was asking 

about your personal aim, about 

what you want to attain, and not 

about the reason for your 

existence. Everyone must 

have his own aim: one man 

wants riches, another health, 

a third wants the kingdom of 

heaven, the fourth wants to be 

a general, and so on. It is about 

aims of this sort that I am asking. 

If you tell me what your aim is, 

I shall be able to tell you 

whether we are going
along the same road 

or not."

Why then did Gurdjieff say 

that he must be permitted to 

keep silent about it? His 

obligation was such 

that he did not feel 

compelled to describe 

his aim to the 

questioner. 

The only thing we can "do" 

in view of the above is follow 

what Gurdjieff said as a guide 

for the formulation of our own 

aims personal to us; what aim is
personal to you, the reader, and 

what aim is personal to me. Our 

aim with regard to these 

communications with one 

another over the internet is to 

form a conscious bridge of 

communication by application 

of fourth way ideas bearing in 

mind that the fourth way, of 

itself, cannot pursue any

definite aim. The fourth 

way is a system of ideas 

organized in such a way 

that we can apply 

extremely quick 

methods for the 

attainment of
our personal 

aims. 

" . . . so long as certain
negative emotions exist in
us, higher centers cannot
work and should not work,
for it would be a disaster.
In ordinary books on
theosophy one finds
the idea that many
things are hidden
because they are
dangerous. But
in reality the
danger is not
in ideas but
in the
distortion
of ideas. People
may become dangerous
if they hear something
and begin to apply it
in a wrong sense. One
can use the forces of
higher centers to
strengthen one's
negative side."
[TFW236]

"For example, a brother
with the character of,
as they say, one of
'God's angels' would
suddenly become as
IRRITABLE as someone
of whom our dear
Mullah Nasr
Eddin once
said:

"He is as TESTY as a
man who has just undergone
the full treatment by a
famous European nerve
specialist.'

"Or again, beings who
one day were as placid
as the little 'butter lambs'
that the pious place on the
festal table at their most
important religious feasts
would on the next day get
as EXASPERATED as a German
professor when some
Frenchman, also a
professor, discovers
something new in
contemporary
science.

"Or again, a being whose
love was like that of a
contemporary terrestrial
suitor for a rich widow .  .  .
of course before he has
received a single penny
from her … would turn
just as SPITEFUL as
one of those VENOMOUS
persons who, foaming
at the mouth, will
HATE that poor author
who is now writing about
you and me in his book
entitled AN OBJECTIVELY
IMPARTIAL CRITICISM OF
THE LIFE OF MAN."
--ch 42, America

And also hate that
poor author who is
now writing about
all of you and himself,
NAMELY MEEEE, by way
of this progressively
evolving FOURTH WAY

METHOD OF WRITING

BY PROGRESSION.

"This poor upstart author,
by the way, will be hated
by the 'full-blooded
materialists' and by
the 'ninety-six-carat
deists' and even by
those of the three-
brained beings who
have taken your
fancy who, as
long as their
stomachs are
full and their
'mistresses' are
making no 'scenes,'
are 'incorrigible
optimists' but who,
on the contrary, when
their stomachs are empty
become 'hopeless pessimists.'

"Now, my boy, that we
have mentioned this
'QUEER UPSTART WRITER,'
there is nothing for it
but to inform you here
about the perplexity
concerning him that
long ago arose in
me, and that
continues
to increase
with regard
to a certain
naïveté of his.

"I must tell you that
from the very beginning
of his responsible existence,
he also became … whether by
accident or by the will
of fate I do not know … a
follower, and in fact a
very devout follower, of
our wise and esteemed
Mullah Nasr Eddin, and
that furthermore, in
the ordinary process
of his being-existence,
he has never missed the
slightest opportunity
to act according to the
unprecedentedly wise and
inimitable sayings of our
revered teacher. But now,
according to the information
that has reached me by
etherogram, all of a
sudden he appears to
be CONSTANTLY VIOLATING
one of the most serious
and practical counsels .  .  .
certainly not accessible
to everybody … which this
teacher above all teachers
formulated thus:

'Ekh, brother!' Here on Earth
IF YOU TELL THE TRUTH YOU'RE
A BIG FOOL, whereas if you
cheat you are only a
'scoundrel,' though
also a big one. So
better do nothing,
and just recline on
your couch and learn
how to sing like the
sparrow that has not
yet been turned into
an "American canary."
--ch 42, America

from
Blavatsky's
Secret Doctrine:

"It becomes patent why we
could not perceive, even
with the help of the BEST
EARTHLY TELESCOPES, that
which is outside our
world of matter. Those
alone, whom we call adepts,
who know how to direct their
mental vision and to transfer
their consciousness--physical
and psychic both--to other
planes of being, are able
to speak with authority
on such subjects.
And they tell us
plainly:--

'Lead the life necessary
for the acquisition of
such knowledge and
powers, and Wisdom
will come to you
naturally. Whenever
you are able to attune
your consciousness to
any of the seven chords
of "Universal Consciousness,"
those chords that run along
the sounding-board of Kosmos,
vibrating from one Eternity
to another; when you have
studied thoroughly "the
music of the Spheres,"
then only will you
become quite free
to share your
knowledge with
those with whom
it is safe to
do so.

Meanwhile, be prudent.

Do not give out the great
Truths that are the inheritance
of the future Races, to our
present generation. Do not
attempt to unveil the secret
of being and non-being to
those unable to see the
hidden meaning of Apollo's
HEPTACHORD--the lyre of
the radiant god, in each
of the seven strings of
which dwelleth the Spirit,
Soul and Astral body of
the Kosmos, whose shell
only has now fallen into
the hands of Modern
Science . . . . .

Be prudent, we say,
prudent and wise, and
above all take care what
those who learn from you
believe in; lest by deceiving
themselves they deceive others . . . .
for such is the fate of every
truth with which men are, as
yet, unfamiliar . . . .

Let rather the planetary
chains and other super-
and sub-cosmic mysteries
remain a dreamland for
those who can neither
see, nor yet believe
that others can . . . . '

It is to be regretted that 

few of us have followed

the wise advice; and that many
a priceless pearl, many a jewel
of wisdom, has been cast to an
enemy unable to understand its
value and who has turned round
and rent us."

According to Ouspensky, the
above warning written in The
Secret Doctrine has something
to do with how "one can use
the forces of higher centers
to strengthen one's negative
side."

Gurdjieff knowingly violated
all of the above in the face
of the "terror of the
situation" as it was
revealed to him
because of his
personal and
consciously
egoistic quest
to discover a method
for the destruction,
in the consciousness
and feelings of people,
of deep-seated convictions
which in his opinion are
false and contradictory
to the real world as
transmitted in his
book entitled AN
OBJECTIVELY IMPARTIAL
CRITICISM OF THE LIFE
OF MAN

-or-

BEELZEBUB'S TALES
TO HIS GRANDSON

and, no doubt,
he was referring
to . . .

THE SECRET DOCTRINE
-and-
ISIS UNVEILED

here:

"Thus it was that half
of the word 'kundabuffer'
survived and, passing down
from generation to generation,
finally reached your contemporary
favorites, accompanied of course
by a thousand and one different
explanations. Even the present-
day 'learned beings' have a name
made up of abstruse Latin roots
for that part of the spinal
marrow. Today the whole of
so-called 'Hindu philosophy'
is based on this famous
'kundalina,' and around
the word itself exist
thousands of occult
'sciences,' SECRET
and REVEALED, which
explain absolutely
nothing."
--ch 21, in India