Price
â‚Ź 6.00 -including 4 % tax-
Official Press Body of the LA TECA Associations
THE FOURTH WAY www.gurdjieff.es
Study notes
ENG // English version
Exploring the Fourth Way System
LaTeca Institute for Harmonious Development
#03
What does
Learning to "Do" mean?
The Fourth Way in the Holy Scriptures
Adam: the Essence imprisoned
The role of man in the evolution of the universe
Introduction to the ideas of G.I. Gurdjieff The day of the "new" birth
The true meaning of Christmas
LaTeca Institute for Harmonious Development
La Teca Brotherhood in Italy and abroad ROME CENTRAL AND NATIONAL OFFICE Viale Gottardo, 66 00141 - Roma (RM) Contact: Alessandro Albanese +39 (333) 4763495 Access by invitation only LEGNANO Via Carlo Cattaneo, 95 20025 - Legnano (MI) Contact: Giuseppe Rossetti +39 (347) 8277354 Access by invitation only
SASSARI Via Taramelli, 6 07100 - Sassari (SS) Contact: Salvatore Masala +39 (339) 4181783 Access by invitation only
www.gurdjieff.es
THE FOURTH WAY EN // English version Number 3 Study notes // Official Press Body of the LA TECA Associations
Chairman Giovanni M. Quinti From an original idea by Luigi Di Sante and Sonia Iacoangeli Publisher La Teca Association, Barcelona - SPAIN Graphics José L. García Muedra Printing
GENOA Via Massaia 1r. 16152 - Genova (GE) Contact: Giorgio Tagliafico +39 (335) 5897535 Access by invitation only
TRENTO Via San Pio X n° 93 38100 - TRENTO (TN) Contact: Anna Di Giandomenico +39 (339) 5793091 Access by invitation only
BARCELLONA Gran Via, 204 bis, local 4 08004 - Barcelona - Spain Contact: Giovanni M. Quinti +34 (630) 618422 Access by invitation only
APUNTS - Barcelona Contributors to this edition Dario Panigada, Maria T. Paciotti, Giovanni M. Quinti, Rossella Arena. The Gospel According to Thomas Selection made from James M. Robinson, ed., The Nag Hammadi Library, revised edition. HarperCollins, San Francisco, 1990
"The Fourth Way" study notes are an international publication produced by the La Teca Association, Barcelona - Spain. For information on prices and subscriptions, visit the website: www.gurdjieff.es. On the same site you can purchase back issues, subject to availability, and with a surcharge. You can also take out a subscription and receive our study notes at home each month. Manuscripts, photographs and drawings sent to us will not be returned, even if they are not published. Please inform us in good time of any change of address, being sure to specify your old address as well as the new one. La Teca Association - Any reproduction, even partial, is prohibited if not authorised in writing by the editorial office. Registration n°. B-32081-2008
Other Study Groups are operative in the following cities: AREZZO, VICENZA and CATANIA For information on the headquarters of each Study Group, contact one of the Central Brotherhoods.
THE FOURTH WAY _Contents
2_
CONTENTS 3
Seekers' verses
To Tiziana from Maria Teresa Paciotti Our little poetry page for the reflections of our hearts.
4
Editorial Instructions for use…
A new look to go with the new use of this tool, why?…how?…
5
page 6 page 10
Letter From an ordinary mother...
Teachings drawn from real life experiences…
Study
6
The day of the "new" birth
The true meaning of Christmas
"A man may be born, but in order to be born he must first die, and in order to die he must first awake". Gurdjieff Study
10 The Fourth Way in the Holy Scriptures
Adam: the segregation of Essence
…Now, the only way to walk the "Return Path" is hard work, on that trodden and devastated psychic soil… Study
14 The language of the Fourth Way Are you Incapable of Doing?
Our life is studded with continuous actions which, even if we believe them to be deliberate, are actually RE-actions.
page 14
18 E-mails from the Quarta Via site Faith is Knowledge
The association's website publishes some e-mails to spread the teaching.
19
The Reflections of a Searcher
An Embellished Nothing
Only if you fully see your wretchedness can your greatness reveal itself to you (Part One).
21 Unknown texts
page 19
The Secret Words of Jesus The final part of the oldest apocryphal gospel, that of the apostle Thomas.
24
Letters to the Founder Letters from searchers
Our customary column, where we try to answer your questions.
25 E-mails from the Quarta Via site
page 20
Faith is Knowledge
The association's website publishes some e-mails to spread the teaching.
Study
The indicated Articles have been read, studied and analyzed by the Study Groups La Teca, present in Italy and in Spain. If you wish to participate, send a request to: LA TECA - Gran Vía, 204 bis (local 4) - 08004 Barcelona or email to: info@gurdjieff.es We will send you as soon as possible the address and the hours of our Study Groups meetings.
3_
THE FOURTH WAY_To Tiziana
Poems and little initiations
by Maria Teresa Paciotti
To Tiziana Inexorable, the last hour came for you too, Sweet schoolfriend. Death came to tear you from the illusions of life Like a thief it came, in the summer of your years. I think of you, sweet schoolfriend I think of you and me, who didn't think about death I think of us, who felt it was so far off I remember the two of us, who didn't want to think about it. I think of our sad smiles In the midst of our teenage angst I think of our closeness And of our naivety‌ "Life is beautiful, it's fun and anything is worth trying" But living also implies dying I think of you, sweet schoolfriend, desk-companion through the toughest years: discovering things we did not know, discovering things we did not understand. Farewell, my sweet schoolfriend, with your drive for life, despite everything. Fate was not generous with you. You did not have the strength to fight something That many friends had been through. That was us, young and exuberant Our worries were few, others' were many. As I write I realise That I know nothing about you. I don't know what took you away, or why. And yet in my heart I have always had a sad thought. Which I always hoped was not true. But now I just want to say goodbye, remembering you as you were at our high-school exams. here today, tomorrow‌ who knows You have reminded me of this with your short life. Hugs from the bottom of my heart. Now you are with God, you know what real, great Love is.
THE FOURTH WAY _Editorial
editorial Instructions for use… Here we are again… to remind ourselves and you, dear, faithful searcherreaders to pay attention. In these times, when the human family is prey to sad mechanisms, in a world of increasingly disturbing scenarios, overcast by new shadows of cruelty and war, there is a deep need for the conscious effort to seek with increasing strength to turn our attention to self-remembering. There are many mechanical forces at work pressurising us, and forcing us, despite ourselves, to keep our defence mechanisms intact and in perfect working order. For this reason, amongst others, what G. called "effort" is required of us. Of course, if we lack strength and faith, inevitably other buffers will arise to enable us to justify our innumerable weaknesses. Once again we have another reason to pay attention. Can we perhaps wriggle out of go into a holding pattern if I I would have talked less and what we have managed to weren't there for the day. I listened more. I would have achieve with such great would never have bought invited friends to dinner even if difficulty? Or will we allow our anything just because it was the carpet was stained and the nature to command us as it practical, wouldn't show the dirt, sofa faded. I would have eaten pleases? And the time of or was guaranteed to last a popcorn in the "good" living Christmas forgetfulness is lifetime. Instead of wishing away room and worried less about the approaching fast. And so, without nine months of pregnancy, I dirt when someone wanted to any effort of consciousness would have cherished every light a fire in the fireplace. I towards ourselves we are already moment and realised that the would have taken the time to getting ready for our big wonderment growing inside me listen to my grandfather ramble was the only chance in life to about his youth. I would never Christmas dinner. And you, dear assist God in a miracle. I would have insisted the car windows friend, what will you do? Will we have called my friends more be rolled up on a summer day find you sitting at a lavish often, before realising I had because my hair had just been banquet, speaking of the injustice already lost them... teased and sprayed. I would of war… and those poor have burned the pink candle When my kids kissed me policemen? Or are you already sculpted like a rose before it impetuously, I would never have preparing to get away from melted in storage. I would have said, "Later. Now go get washed yourself, perhaps in some sat on the lawn with my children for dinner." European capital or on a tropical and not worried about grass There would have been more "I beach? stains. I would have cried and love you's". More "I'm sorry's". Let's try to pay attention… let's laughed less while watching But mostly given another shot at television and more while life I would seize every strive to be honest… let's turn our watching life. I would have gone minute...look at it and really see eye inward… and bind our lips in to bed when I was sick instead it...live it and never give it back. a wholesome silence. There are of pretending the earth would already so many things we should simply remember and apply in everyday life. And we regularly do not do them. In this sense we simply fail to "be". We are a will, a memory, a genuine feeling, we are Men. The words of the Master Eckhart still resonate strongly within us. This is an invitation, dear friend, encouragement not to "get lost"… We try not to fall into the warm arms of Morpheus, and we remember the words of G: "people who become conscious have a shorter time". We will remember to give shape, at least in some small part, to Christian love. How? The idea springs to our mind that you could perhaps invite a friend to dinner, someone you have stopped speaking to. A small, concrete gesture laden with meaning. If the birth of Jesus is meant to remind us of love, let's not show this love only with our words, let's give it substance with our hands. Luigi and Sonia Di Sante
4_
5_
THE FOURTH WAY_letter from an ordinary mother‌
The world's greatest master: Life
To all mothers‌ by an unknown authoress
Many women become mothers by accident, some by choice, a few by social pressure, and a couple by habit. This year, over a hundred thousand women will become mothers of special needs children. Have you ever wondered how the mothers of these children are chosen? Somehow, I visualise God hovering over earth selecting his instruments for propagation with great care and deliberation. As He observes, He instructs his angels to make notes in a giant ledger. Armstrong, Beth, son. Patron saint, Matthew. Forest, Marjorie, daughter. Patron saint, Cecilia. Rutledge, Carrie, twins. Patron saint‌give her Gerard. Finally, He passes a name to an angel and smiles, "Give her a special needs child." The angel is curious. "Why this one, God? She's so happy!" "Exactly," smiles God. "Could I give a special needs child a mother who does not know laughter? That would be cruel." "But does she have patience?" asks the angel. "I don't want her to have too much patience or she will drown in a sea of self-pity and despair. Once the shock and resentment wear off, she'll handle it... I watched her today. She has that sense of self and independence that are so rare and so necessary in a mother. You see, the child I'm going to give her has his own world. She has to make him live in her world, and that's not going to be easy." "But Lord, I don't think she even believes in you." God smiles. "No matter. I can fix that. This one is perfect. She has just enough selfishness." "Selfishness? Is that a virtue?" God nods. "If she can't separate herself from the child occasionally, she'll never survive. Yes, here is a woman whom I will bless with a child less than perfect. She doesn't realise it yet, but she is to be envied. She will never take for granted a spoken word. She will never consider a step ordinary. When her child says, 'mama' for the first time, she will be witness to a miracle and know it. When she describes a tree or a sunset to her blind child, she will see it as few people ever see my creations. I will permit her to see clearly the things I see ignorance, cruelty, prejudice - and allow her to rise above them. She will never be alone. I will be at her side every minute of every day of her life because she is doing my work as surely as she is here by my side." "And what about her patron saint?" asked the angel, his pen posed in mid-air. God smiles. "A mirror will suffice."
THE FOURTH WAY_The celebration of Christmas in the Fourth Way
6_
The Latin name for Christmas is "dies natalis": the day of birth.
THE TRUE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS
Study
by Dario Panigada
THE FOURTH WAY_The celebration of Christmas in the Fourth Way
7_
Study
THE TRUE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS
?
?
1_
What does it mean to you?
by Dario Panigada
First of all, let us ask ourselves, What is Christmas for us? (1) Perhaps we have never done so before, and out of habit we have always accepted what we have been told about it. Most people think that Christmas is the celebration that, according to Christian tradition, is celebrated on 25 December to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ. Not many know that historians have never been able to provide any definite information on the date of this event. The Italian Treccani Encyclopaedia (1949, Sansoni, vol. XXIV, page 299) tells us: "The fathers in the early centuries do not appear to have known a celebration of the nativity of Jesus Christ‌ The feast of the 25 December seems to have been designated to place a Christian celebration in contrast to the Mithraic dies natalis Solis Invicti (day of birth of the invincible Sun)".
?
2_
Why do you think this need arose? In your opinion, can there be such a thing as a State Christianity? And a State Fourth Way?
The pagan feast for the winter solstice was an important festivity for the ancient Romans, who celebrated the feast of the sun god on that day. During these celebrations, which were held from 17 to 21 December (Saturnalia), and the actual feast of the Sol Invictus on the 25th, whose veneration was introduced by the Emperor Aurelian, Dionysus's symbols of eternal youth were used: myrtle, laurel and ivy. The Greek Dionysus was considered to be the divine child, born miraculously from a celestial virgin. Dionysus was Latinised with the name Mithra, and in the east he is feasted on the evening of 24 December. He was the Iranian god of mysteries, the sun god of friendship and cosmic order, born from a rock, and bearer of the new light "Genitor luminis". On that evening, followers of this god would light fires to help the sun rise higher over the horizon. The Christian church chose the date of 25 December as the day of Christ's birth simply to Christianise a pagan festival that was very deeply felt by the masses. And so Emperor Constantine (280-337) combined sun-worship, of which he was the protected son, worship of the god Mithra, and Christianity. It was during his reign that the celebration of Christmas first appeared. (2) The first mention of this Christian festival being held on 25 December is found in a Roman liturgical calendar dating back to AD 354. However, there is evidence of the celebration of Christmas in Rome around 336, after the more ancient feast of the Epiphany (manifestation) had been brought from the east to the west. From Rome, Christmas spread to Africa, Spain and Northern Italy. John Chrystostom tells us that it was celebrated in Antioch separately from the Epiphany. But it was only under Emperor Justinian (527-565 D.C.) that Christmas was recognised as a legal celebration for the west. Thus the celebration of Christmas was linked to this tradition to represent the arrival of the Light of the World, which came to dispel the darkness. It was the Child, coming to the world to begin a new life, and bringing the Light to all mankind. This is the story of Christmas, but, conditioned by numerous myths and legends in subsequent years, we have almost lost sight of the "true" meaning of Christmas as the "day of birth".
THE FOURTH WAY_The celebration of Christmas in the Fourth Way
Study
?
THE TRUE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS
?
8_
by Dario Panigada
So what could this meaning be? (3) The name "Jesus" derives from the Greek for "Joshua" - or "Jeshua" or "Yehshua", according to ancient Hebrew. "Jah" or "Yah" literally means "I will be", and "shua" means "powerful". So Jesus' name is actually a promise: "I will be powerful". For a believer the true feast of the nativity of Jesus (the new man) is a moment of "selfconsecration": the moment in which he accepts him into his heart which, like the place where Jesus came into the world, is a real "stable", in need of a good clean-out, so that it can become a shrine. 'Con-secration' (being destined for sacred use) was a ritual found in all the archaic rites of the ancient monotheistic and polytheistic religions, and also of the more distant pagan cults. It was seen as a sacrificial offering that would bring special powers (called "communio", sharing something with others) and the distribution to those present of the dinner or meal, or simply the consumption of a piece of the object of sacrifice, was the rite through which to receive these special powers.
3_
Try to answer for yourself‌
?
How is this aspect viewed in the Fourth Way? In Fourth Way teachings (see: "In Search of the Miraculous", chapter XI) Gurdjieff says: 'A man may be born, but in order to be born he must first die, and in order to die he must first awake'. "When a man awakes, he can die; when he dies, he can be born".
What does this mean?"To awake, to die, to be born, these are three successive stages. If you study the Gospels attentively, you will see that references are often made to the possibility of being born, several references are made to the necessity of 'dying', and there are very many references to the necessity of 'awakening': 'watch, for ye know not the day and hour...'. But these three possibilities of man, to awake or not to sleep, to die and to be born, are not set down in connection with one another. Nevertheless, this is the whole point... [Being born] relates to the beginning of a new growth of essence, the beginning of the formation of individuality, the beginning of the appearance of one indivisible I. But in order to be able to attain this, or at least begin to attain it, a man must die; that is he must free himself from a thousand petty attachments and identifications which hold him in the position in which he is. He is attached to everything in his life, attached to his imagination, attached to his stupidity, attached even to his sufferings, possibly to his sufferings more than anything else. He must free himself from this attachment. Attachment to things, identification with things, keep alive a thousand useless I's in a man. These I's must die in order that the big I may be born. But how can they be made to die? They do not want to die. It is at this point that the possibility of awakening comes to the rescue. To awaken means to realise one's nothingness, that is to realise one's complete and absolute mechanicalness, and one's complete and absolute helplessness. And it is not sufficient to realise it philosophically in words. It is necessary to realise it in clear, simple and concrete facts, in one's own facts.
THE FOURTH WAY_The celebration of Christmas in the Fourth Way
9_
Study
THE TRUE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS
?
by Dario Panigada
When a man begins to know himself a little he will see in himself many things that are bound to horrify him. So long as a man is not horrified at himself he knows nothing about himself". (4) 4_
So we can understand that we will truly celebrate Christmas from the day we accept to be born again, to offer ourselves as a sacrifice, to give ourselves; because the toils and trouble that we face on this earth are limited in time, and will be over soon, whilst the union and joy experienced in that state of being in contact with the Higher Centres are everlasting. For some, the above may be disturbing, but having reflected on the matter and researched the Bible and the history of the church, we can conclude that there is nothing Christian about Christmas if we do not die to ourselves (5).
How much do you know of yourself?
?
5_
What do you think is the meaning of dying to ourselves? To what extent are YOU willing to do this?
If this is a new and surprising idea for you, I would invite you to consider the possibility that Christmas may be a dark corner that needs re-exploring and illuminating. ?
So what is the essential meaning of Christmas? What might it really represent for us? Perhaps if we set prejudice and clichĂŠs aside and approach the question with an open mind we can find an answer within ourselves. Of course, that's not easy to do, we are so steeped in a century of traditions and nostalgia that it is almost impossible for anyone to consider the matter objectively. Let's try to put our preconceived ideas to one side, at least for a while, to honestly consider this institution that we call Christmas and bring about in ourselves a change in behaviour, a transformation, in line with the truth of the Gospel that invites us to "awaken" and to "remember ourselves". The true story of Christmas, the one free of legends and fairytales, can really open our eyes, enabling us to discover all those corners of the darkness that are revealed by the emerging light. Then it will be up to each one of us to keep looking within, to rediscover the advent of the Joy that becomes incarnate deep within each of us and invites us to be a stimulus and sign of love, brotherhood and solidarity. Could this be the true meaning of Christmas, or will we continue to use abstruse words and to look at our reflection in a misted mirror? To conclude this brief reflection, I return to the opening question: What is Christmas for me? The obvious answer we might have given was "The day when we give and receive presents". And what might the nicest present be? (6)
?
6_
What is the nicest present that you would like to receive?
Perhaps to be able to bring to light that which is essential in us, our true nature, the priceless pearl, the mystic rose hidden within our hearts.
THE FOURTH WAY_The Fourth Way in the Holy Scriptures
Study
10_
ADAM THE SEGREGATION OF ESSENCE
Giovanni M. Quinti "Adam and Eve were real people", this (according to a 1994 survey by the Office of Social and Cultural Planning - Social Cultureel Planburea) is the opinion of 37 percent of the Dutch population. The fundamentalist Protestant churches say that "all human beings come from a single human couple, Adam and Eve" (G.F. Wright in The Fundamentals)
THE FOURTH WAY_The Fourth Way in the Holy Scriptures
11_
Study
ADAM: the segregation of essence
?
Giovanni M. Quinti
At the time of Charles Darwin, Philip H. Gosse wrote the book Cmphalos [Navel]. In this book Gosse wonders whether Adam had a navel. As the first man, he had no mother, so he did not have an umbilical cord, but without a tummy button he would have been different from all other men. A scientific reflection leads to a similar question: from a tree's rings we can see how old it is; did the trees in the Garden of Eden have these rings showing their age? Gosse answers positively: God made the trees with these rings and Adam with a navel. God made reality with all the signs of a long past. (1)
1_
What do you think?
This solution is logically coherent, but it makes a mockery of science. Nor does faith have anything to gain from it; in this way, God seems like the great magician, or even a deceiver. ?
?
2_
What do you think? Can you give any other examples?
?
So how should we interpret the story of Genesis? In the debate on the position of the earth and the sun, Galileo Galilei cited a cardinal who apparently said that the Bible does not tell us how the heavens go, but how to go to heaven. Similarly, we could say that it is not a matter of how life began, but of how we can truly live. The function of religious language is different from that of scientific language. When we look at reality, we can also try to see the natural element as the work of God. God is the foundation of existence, the foundation of the predictable and unpredictable events that led to this rich variety of life forms. The Anglican priest and biochemist Arthur Peacocke used the image of a composer: just as for us Beethoven is present in his music, so God is present in the world. (2) So what to do with the story of Genesis? As a Genesis specialist and observer of human behaviour, I have in recent years reached what I consider to be an interesting conclusion. I have discovered a veritable "biblical psychology", which studies the causes of basic human suffering, but also a solution to it. My study, from theological, became psychological, and from philosophical, introspective.
the hypothesis very first form confirms. And company": the ?
There are interesting parallels between our individual growth process and the Eden story. In the first months of gestation, the child is in a vital state of Grace. In that Eden, the child takes part in divine creation, giving a "name to things" (2:20), suggesting that even before being born he/she may already have a of knowledge of the world, as modern medical science yet this knowledge is not enough, he/she needs "ideal outside world.
Can we consider an existence that relates only with itself as true life?
THE FOURTH WAY_The Fourth Way in the Holy Scriptures
Study
?
3_
Have you ever tried to read the Scriptures in this way? Do you think that, with this approach, the Bible could make more interesting reading?
4_
Read Gen. 3:6… in what way does the "desire for gaining wisdom" produce "personality"?
5_
Why is shame the first consequence of the separation? In what way does shame influence, or has it influenced, your life?
6_
How much and in what way is this true in our expression and experience of sexuality?
ADAM: the segregation of essence
12_
Giovanni M. Quinti
From Adam, the embryonic essence, arises a desire for the other: Eve, in Hebrew "life". She represents birth itself, the relationship with the outside world. Indeed, it is Eve who relates with the serpent, Eve who allows herself to be seduced, who transgresses. We have to get away from any literal interpretation linked to the concept of male and female. The biblical tale is a metaphor for the psychological need for belonging and of love's fundamental wound. It traces the cause of human suffering and the reason for the "return journey" towards a lost and longed-for bliss. (3) Eve, in her attempt to relate with the world, is seduced by appearances, because that is all she knows: "... the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom…" (Gn 3:6). The need for contact is corrupted, driven by the fear of not being up to it, and degenerates into the need to surpass, to outdo. Thus, Eve corresponds to the aspect in us that, right from the first months of infancy, takes the form of the "extended I". "It's mine", says the child, holding onto the object of his desires, and thus he no longer recognises the difference between himself and others, he no longer has a sense of boundaries, and he loses the ability to satisfy himself. In this phase, which will become a basic mechanism of his adult behaviour, he feels the need to have in order to be. From Eve, then, arises the personality, the mask, the "fig leaf", worn to avoid showing our nudity. (4) De aquí en adelante, el niño siente la necesidad de un proceso de adaptación, no puede acercarse al otro de manera espontánea y natural, está obligado a modificar su comportamiento. Esta ruptura es la caída edénica, el destierro del Jardín Paradisíaco. De ahora en adelante, el proceso interior de autorrealización, encerrado en el símbolo del Árbol de la Vida, está bloqueado. From here on in the child feels the need for a process of adaptation; he cannot present himself to others in a spontaneous, natural way, he has to modify his behaviour. This rift is the Edenic fall, the exile from the Paradisiacal Garden. From now on the inner process of self-realisation (included in the symbol of the Tree of Life) is inaccessible. Shame is the first shoot of separation between Adam and Eve, "...she gave me some fruit from the tree…" (3:12), between the self and personality, between God and the world. "… I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid"
(Gn 3:10).
(5)
God walks in the garden of human infancy, He is the playmate for the best games, he is the illuminated Self that calls the conscience… "Where are you?" (3:9). There comes a point where this relationship is corrupted, the conscience no longer responds to the inner call, it is imprisoned by judgement and the approval of outer things. Hence the split individual is created, in conflict with himself: the relationship principle, the need for connection, is transformed into the desire to possess. (6)
THE FOURTH WAY_The Fourth Way in the Holy Scriptures
13_
Study
ADAM: the segregation of essence
Giovanni M. Quinti
Thus the serpent, the most intelligent animal in the Garden, becomes the lowest and dustiest (3:1,14). The need to hear another, to develop deep contact, becomes a need to bind, to possess, to outdo, and an essential instinct is transformed into a personality defect. Now Eve will remain forever crushed by this repetitive conflictual mechanism. "And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." (Gn 3:15). One wound after another, one clash after another, victory following defeat following victory. Destiny has been laid down: the war has begun. The separation between the inner and outer world calls for a very high level of attention; the Essence is forgotten, we no longer hear the Deep Voice, and instead we are distracted by the passive, enslaved voice of the serpent, of personality.
?
"… Because you listened to your wife… cursed is the ground because of you… It will produce thorns and thistles for you… By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food…" (Gn 3:17-19). (7)
7_
Does this conflict create difficulty in hearing the intimate "Voice"?
This ground is the Garden itself, the paradisiacal union itself is lost. From that day on, the relationship between Essence, Personality, the World and Divinity has been out of balance. All the essence can do is try its best to maintain a contact with this Primordial Garden. But at the cost of huge effort. The only way to walk the "Return Path" is through hard Work on ourselves. Everything must be paid for at a high price. In order to return to his essence, man must work remarkably hard. This is the work on ourselves, abundantly symbolised, in the Scriptures, as working the earth and obtaining good fruits. (8)
?
There is no other way to resume listening to that intimate, Deep Voice that is close to the original Adam: Our inner being.
8_
Read Galatians 5:22-23 and compare the passage with what we have said. What does it make you think?
?
What was the point of all this? If the fall had never happened, if Eve had not allowed herself to be tempted, if no "curse" had been cast, there would actually never have been a possibility for man to be "of one substance with the Father". From the very dawn of time there were two trees in the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. In order to become of the same essence as God, man had to eat from both. Because even a Garden of Eden can become a prison. This, from the very beginning, was the Great Plan that no one has ever told us about before.
FW
IN THE NEXT EDITION
Noah: Commander of the Ark
…Noah's flood, in its material form, symbolises one of the floods of the soul... it is a symbol of the metamorphosis of the soul…
THE FOURTH WAY_Exploring the Fourth Way System
Study
14_
ARE YOU INCAPABLE OF "DOING"? by Giovanni Maria Quinti
One of the most difficult points to understand in the Fourth Way system is described in these lines: "Man is a machine. All his deeds, actions, words [...] are the results of external influences, external impressions. Out of himself a man cannot produce [...] a single action. Man does not love, hate, desire - all this happens". [...] "Is there nothing, absolutely nothing, that can be done?" I asked. "Absolutely nothing". (In Search of the Miraculous, pages 21-22).
THE FOURTH WAY_Exploring the Fourth Way System
15_
Study
ARE YOU INCAPABLE OF "DOING"?
?
by Giovanni M. Quinti
(1) Gurdjieff used the word "doing" with a particular intonation, which expressed the sense more effectively than a written text could ever do (ibid. page 21). A person is born, grows, learns, does things right and wrong and, in the end, dies. He/she will have carried out millions of actions in his/her lifetime.
1_
What does it mean that man cannot do nothing? Don't we all do so much that, on the contrary, we should sometimes stop?
?
So what does it mean that man cannot "do"? The doing that we are talking about is far closer to the alchemic concept of the "great work", the "great doing", rather than our usual everyday actions. Over the years I have taken part in many conferences where I have tried to show the close relationship between Gurdjieff's thinking and alchemy, so as to emphasise the way in which he handles the issue of doing with the same approach as the alchemists of past centuries. Indeed, he states that true understanding: "deepens knowledge, and it cannot remain theoretical, because it intensifies the striving towards real results, towards the union of knowledge and being, that is, to Great Doing" (ibid., page 284).
?
This "great" doing is the acquisition of a skill. In the same way that a child learns to do the little things, like walking, lifting objects, speaking, etc., so the individual within a school learns to do in a "big" way. (2)
2_
The main characteristic of human actions is that they "are the results of external influences, external impressions." (ibid., page 21).They are not actions, but re-actions, the fruit of external provocations. Imagine having lived your life, and finding yourself in a hospital ward, reflecting on your existence. Imagine being aware that you will die that very evening, and ask yourself:
What do you think this Great Doing is? How is it different from ordinary doing?
?
?
3_
What do you think? How valid is what has been said in your life?
"What have I done in all my life?". You could write an interesting list: I have brought up my children, I've seen my parents through their old age, I have become a big manager. And yet, in that moment, all this might seem trivial. You might feel that you have followed illusory goals, and some significant pictures might come to mind: your child's smiles, the important embraces in your life, the "I love you" from your father or the moments when you overcame your pride and forgave an enemy. On that day it will be clearer that the life of an ordinary man consists of very few real moments. Running after the maintenance of the status quo, after money to keep fears at bay, after commitments and false promises: everything would become insubstantial and useless. This "little doing" would lose importance, and the "Great Doing", the essential moments of our lives would emerge with unprecedented force, leaving us dazed. A human being's life is built on useless doing, which does not actually allow his soul to grow. (3) In order to attain great action he must first acquire new viewpoints.
THE FOURTH WAY_Exploring the Fourth Way System
Study
ARE YOU INCAPABLE OF "DOING"?
16_
by Giovanni M. Quinti
I still remember when, at a theatre workshop, a pupil played the role of the teacher. By changing her point of view, she understood the hard work required to gain people's attention. From that day, she became a more attentive pupil. The first time I worked in the canteen, awkwardly and with great effort, I learned how difficult it is to serve. Since then, whenever I go to a restaurant, I always watch the waiters and their level of attention; some of them have amazed me, because now I know how hard their job is. Everything goes by too quickly for our eyes, just because we are unable to change our viewpoint: this change is the highway to great actions. Only breaking identifications will enable us to do.
?
4_
On this basis, what would be an ideal task for you?
?
5_
How do you think the "remembrance of yourself" can be compatible with the "emptying" of yourself?
As long as a man is identified in his role, he remains its slave. A president will be incapable of truly recognising the depth of service provided by a waiter, just as the latter will be incapable of knowing the weight of responsibility borne by a president, at least until they try to switch roles. This is the basis on which to build the work on ourselves. A school can support it, pushing pupils to cover roles and duties that are not their own. (4) There are two main instruments for breaking identifications: submission to the will of another, and doing for someone other than ourselves. These two instruments project us into a condition of observation and enable us to see the quality of our ordinary doing. When we are too taken up in our actions, we stop sensing what is around us. Where there is identification, there is blindness. Waiting tables, for example, is an instrument for understanding all this, and in our groups this is common practice. If I am too strongly identified with the urgency of serving, if I want to impress the others and not get told off, as a consequence I will serve badly. The others will help me if they point it out to me. The perfection of my service is inversely proportionate to my level of attention to outer considerations. If I am conditioned by an expectation, by the need for acknowledgement, by the fear of making mistakes, I will not give impeccable service. Only when I perceive the needs of those whom I am serving before they are even expressed, my attention will have grown. (5) This type of service will be very similar to "conscious love": "Love without divination is elementary. To be in love demands that the lover shall divine the wishes of the beloved long before they have come into the beloved's own consciousness. He knows her better than she knows herself; and loves her more than she loves herself; so that she becomes her perfect self without her own conscious effort". (A.R. Orage, On Love, Weiser Books, York Beach, 1998).
If service does not reach these levels, it will never be silent and invisible. And silence and invisibility are characteristics of the "great doing". (6)
?
6_
What do you think these words mean?
All ordinary acts, the small actions, are visible and active. Great action, on the other hand, is essential. It is the ability to change ourselves, to be different. "You will see, sons and daughters, what self-discipline and self-education are demanded here. Enter these enchanted woods, ye who dare. The gods love each other consciously. Conscious lovers become gods". (ibidem.)
THE FOURTH WAY_Exploring the Fourth Way System
17_
Study
ARE YOU INCAPABLE OF "DOING"?
by Giovanni M. Quinti
Learning to love is the purpose of the work on ourselves, and conscious love is not just a casual or occasional emotion. It is the ability to create a work of art. The more a man learns to serve, the more he amplifies his ability to love. I can serve at table, but actually assert myself, I can govern a state and be the most humble of servants. Service, as we understand it in our institute, is pure attention. This is an aptitude to be developed. Religions were originally teaching structures in which to learn the great action. Submission to their practices facilitated the discipline needed for the inner element to be established: "... religion is doing; a man does not merely think his religion or feel it; he lives his religion as much as he is able, otherwise it is not religion but fantasy or philosophy. Whether he likes it or not, he shows his attitude towards religion by his actions, and he can show his attitude only by his actions". Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous, ibid., page 299).
This is perfectly in line with the thinking of Christian groups in the first century AD. James, the brother of Jesus, writes in his epistle: "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world".((Jam 1:27) In conclusion, we can say that nothing can really be done, at least until we learn to do for others.
?
7_
Can you sum up all that has been said so far in your own words?
Only when we considerably reduce our resistance to letting ourselves go to the stream of a will other than our own can we hope to stay afloat. Only when we are capable of making another the object of our deep attention can we acquire the ability to concentrate on ourselves. A master would repeat to his pupils, who asked how to learn to love others, "Learn to love yourself". And to those who asked how they could learn to love themselves, he would reply, "By loving others". Being and becoming able to serve requires great empathy, and precisely this is the main fruit of the work on ourselves: the empathy that comes from forgiving ourselves, and which leads to forgiving ourselves. This is the foremost key that will open all doors. Solomon's key. The mediaeval alchemists' clavis artis. (7)
THE FOURTH WAY_Faith is Knowledge
@
18_
E-mails from the gurdjieff.es site The website www.gurdjieff.es (The Official Body of the Human and Cultural Association "La Teca") sends out a weekly e-mail to provide information and spread the teaching. Many people have asked to read those already sent out (we began in the year 2000). This is the perfect opportunity to do that. Each month we will publish one of those that we think was most appreciated.
A young man came to a master and told him: "I wish to achieve the freedom from suffering promised in the Scriptures and by all the great ones. But I am incapable of sticking at things for long. Is there a way that I can follow?" "What abilities do you have?" the master asked him. "None." "But is there something you like doing?" "Playing chess." The master called for a chessboard and a sword. Then he called a young monk and said, "Whichever one of you wins this game of chess will attain freedom. And whoever loses will die by this sword. Do you both accept?" The two young men accepted, and began to play. Knowing that it was a question of life and death, they concentrated as they had never done before. After a while the first young man was in the lead, and felt sure that victory was his. He looked at his opponent and saw that the master had raised the sword over his head. So he took pity on him and made a deliberate mistake. Now he was the one losing. He saw that the master had moved the sword over his head... and he closed his eyes. The sword fell heavily on the chessboard. "There is no winner and no loser" exclaimed the master "and so I shall not cut off anyone's head".
Faith is Knowledge
When you don't know what to do, when you're lost in your negative emotions, it doesn't all depend on outside situations. There are times when you feel strong and become strong. Despite the difficulties, you feel as though you don't have any big problems, you feel you can handle anything. At other times, however, even a whisper can startle you, an unexpectedly puzzled look, or an unreturned greeting. What does all this depend on? On the fact that it is not always outer events that get the better of you. Sometimes it is your emotions that become stronger or weaker uncontrollably. Man has no control over himself, even though he moves around the space that he believes he dominates. Humankind has acquired the indisputable ability to deceive itself. All men, even those who have great difficulty in admitting it, believe they can control the course of their lives, and they rarely stop to ask themselves questions such as: Why can't I control death? Why can't I decide not to die? A recently published book tells us that what happens to us depends entirely on ourselves: illnesses, accidents or brazen good fortune. During the period in which this message was written, a whole class of children were killed under the rubble of an earthquake.
They were, it seems, having a maths lesson. So what should we think? That these children unconsciously wanted to die? Dear friend, let me speak to you one-to-one. The New Age is forever coming up with bizarre new theories to help us not to face up to the fear of the end. We are afraid to recognise that we are pawns to a Nature that is greater than us, and at times frightful and terrible. And yet it is this very nature that we have to learn to accept. Its message is simple, and it is there for all those who will listen: "Live each moment as if it were the last". Its face seems frowning, strict, authoritarian. But do not stop at appearances, be calm and listen. Be still beside a God that you see as cruel. Stay there and try to listen to his silent voice emerging from the false images created by your fear. "Live each moment as if it were the last. Be happy today, take your plan, the seed you carry in your heart, your inspiration and fight to make it real. Devote your entire self to what you do. LIVE to learn to die". Whoever can interpret the deep sense of nature's relentlessly whispered words, whoever has this knowledge and goes beyond appearance, has faith. Faith is knowledge of the hidden message. It has nothing to do with "believing" in something that isn't there.
19_
THE FOURTH WAY_The Reflections of a Searcher
AN EMBELLISHED NOTHING by Rossella Arena
Only if you fully see your wretchedness can your greatness reveal itself to you
An embellished nothing. If you remove the embellishment, what are you left with? Wretchedness. An insignificant dot in infinity, an infinitely brief moment in eternity, a breath of wind blown by the earth, which breathes with or without me. What good does it do me to say "I", "My"…what good to say I will be, I want, I will have? If you remove the embellishment, what are you left with? A heart that "craves" things that cannot make it happy, a mind that pries into things it cannot know, both victims of a world that goes its own way, and couldn't care less about my I's and my why's. The assumption that I dominate what does not belong to me makes me slave to a destiny I do not understand. I do not understand it, but I pollute it, condemning myself to hell. Hell is here, where I is. Hell, which gets hotter with every passing day. Wretchedness. We have to surrender, accept that we are an embellished nothing, submit to the only truth… that is assuming that we are granted the grace to see ourselves for what we are, or are not. Wretchedness. Only if you fully see your wretchedness can your greatness reveal itself to you. Have they ever told you you're like God? Careful! The easy road will become the most impassable, and you will get lost. What makes you part of God's nature is not the illusion of being what you want to be and having what you want to have… more embellishments, more decoys! It is the ability to realise that you are an embellished nothing, and to start again from there. Try telling that to a dog, a tree, a bird… what do they know? Can they perhaps understand it? Until you understand that you are a "nothing", you are more or less like them, at the mercy of what happens… you pee yourself when you are afraid, you sing if you hear others sing, and you pull out your feathers if you are shut in a cage. "More or less like them", because you - man - are far worse. You have a rational mind that you do not use, deceptive sentiment, imagination, greed, ambition, pride, blind hope, vanity, laziness, weakness… can you see where the devil you are? Do you believe you have your life in hands? You offend yourself and damage those around you. Wretchedness.
THE FOURTH WAY_The Reflections of a Searcher
From which spring Faith, Courage, Hope… Freedom. Your wretchedness - man - is your greatness. Only if you see your wretchedness will you understand that all your suffering is not worth a hair from your head. It takes a lot of suffering to understand. You will have a lot, if you are lucky. Then you will see that suffering is like fleas: troublesome parasites that suck your blood if you let them, but if you only realise your own strength, you can crush them in a moment and move on. Is a hair on your head not worth more than a flea, Man? Wretchedness. You will be alone in your wretchedness, firstly because it is necessary so that you can understand, and then because many people will not understand, and they will say that you are mad, bad-tempered, presumptuous, because you will no longer need them, which is inconceivable. First they will come looking for you, thinking you need help. And indeed you still do, but not from those who will only help you to fall, to give in, to remain a slave. "You need to relax, have some fun, think that life is great and it smiles on you, that better times will come, you have to enjoy it!" Right. I have to enjoy it. What's left for me to enjoy now? Illusions maybe? My eyes no longer see like they used to; my ears hear confusion where once there was music, and music where once there was nothing; My mouth no longer wants to eat shit. I can enjoy good food, good music and beauty, but do not ask me to enjoy illusions… I'm a wretch now. I need to be alone, I have to. There's no turning back from here. It's not just a quick try, a short-term passion. It's the only hope of being free.
20_
Yes, I find my habits hard to break. I find it hard to control the movements of my greedy body, the temptations of my presumptuous mind, the persuasive call of my feelings. But I try to resist. I mean, I had been warned: suffering is necessary. "Watch out, you've gone crazy! How can a God who loves you demand suffering? Why would he have given you this fine world other than to be happy?" Right. Why? What is happiness? Is it perhaps clasping onto what will be taken from you because it does not belong to you? Is it perhaps believing in things that don't exist? Is it perhaps saying "I love you" because you need to? Is it perhaps having a child so that - poor thing! - he can fill your emptiness? Ashes to ashes… Happiness, if it exists, is acquiring the strength necessary to keep your eyes open, using the gifts of the mind and the heart (which make me a man) properly to shed the superfluous and go hunting, searching for that you, that self that you have never met. Happiness is the ability to be. Nobody can do it for you, or give you the recipe. Each must find his own. "So, what do you want to do? Shut yourself in a monastery and pray?" Right. What do I want to do? I'm not cut out to be a hermit. That would be too much to ask of me. And anyway, what's the point, if I can't do anything useful? No, I don't want to be a hermit. Just don't expect from me things that I can no longer give you. Don't expect promises that no one can keep, or dreams that no one can make come true, or distractions that sow the seeds of death. I can only give you what little goodness there is in me, and I can bear your doubts, your incomprehension, your provocations, your insults and your hatred if necessary, but I cannot turn back.
(TO BE CONTINUED…)
21_
THE FOURTH WAY_The Secret Words of Jesus-3
The Secret Words of Jesus The Nag Hammadi Library Translated by Thomas O. Lambdin
2 3
The Gospel of Thomas These are the secret sayings which the living Jesus spoke and which Didymos Judas Thomas wrote down.
THE FOURTH WAY_The Secret Words of Jesus
22_
The Gospel of Thomas_3 (66) Jesus said, "Show me the stone which the builders have rejected. That one is the cornerstone." (67) Jesus said, "If one who knows the all still feels a personal deficiency, he is completely deficient." (68) Jesus said, "Blessed are you when you are hated and persecuted. Wherever you have been persecuted they will find no place." (69) Jesus said, "Blessed are they who have been persecuted within themselves. It is they who have truly come to know the father. Blessed are the hungry, for the belly of him who desires will be filled." (70) Jesus said, "That which you have will save you if you bring it forth from yourselves. That which you do not have within you will kill you if you do not have it within you." (71) Jesus said, "I shall destroy this house, and no one will be able to build it [...]." (72) A man said to him, "Tell my brothers to divide my father's possessions with me." He said to him, "O man, who has made me a divider?" He turned to his disciples and said to them, "I am not a divider, am I?" (73) Jesus said, "The harvest is great but the laborers are few. Beseech the Lord, therefore, to send out laborers to the harvest." (74) He said, "O Lord, there are many around the drinking trough, but there is nothing in the cistern." (75) Jesus said, "Many are standing at the door, but it is the solitary who will enter the bridal chamber." (76) Jesus said, "The kingdom of the father is like a merchant who had a consignment of merchandise and who discovered a pearl. That merchant was shrewd. He sold the merchandise and bought the pearl alone for himself. You too, seek his unfailing and enduring treasure where no moth comes near to devour and no worm destroys." (77) Jesus said, "It is I who am the light which is above them all. It is I who am the all. From me did the all come forth, and unto me did the all extend. Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there." (78) Jesus said, "Why have you come out into the desert? To see a reed shaken by the wind? And to see a man clothed in fine garments like your kings and your great men? Upon them are the fine garments, and they are unable to discern the truth." (79) A woman from the crowd said to him, "Blessed
are the womb which bore you and the breasts which nourished you." He said to her, "Blessed are those who have heard the word of the father and have truly kept it. For there will be days when you will say, 'Blessed are the womb which has not conceived and the breasts which have not given milk.'" (80) Jesus said, "He who has recognized the world has found the body, but he who has found the body is superior to the world." (81) Jesus said, "Let him who has grown rich be king, and let him who possesses power renounce it." (82) Jesus said, "He who is near me is near the fire, and he who is far from me is far from the kingdom." (83) Jesus said, "The images are manifest to man, but the light in them remains concealed in the image of the light of the father. He will become manifest, but his image will remain concealed by his light." (84) Jesus said, "When you see your likeness, you rejoice. But when you see your images which came into being before you, and which neither die not become manifest, how much you will have to bear!" (85) Jesus said, "Adam came into being from a great power and a great wealth, but he did not become worthy of you. For had he been worthy, he would not have experienced death." (86) Jesus said, "The foxes have their holes and the birds have their nests, but the son of man has no place to lay his head and rest." (87) Jesus said, "Wretched is the body that is dependant upon a body, and wretched is the soul that is dependent on these two." (88) Jesus said, "The angels and the prophets will come to you and give to you those things you (already) have. And you too, give them those things which you have, and say to yourselves, 'When will they come and take what is theirs?'" (89) Jesus said, "Why do you wash the outside of the cup? Do you not realize that he who made the inside is the same one who made the outside?" (90) Jesus said, "Come unto me, for my yoke is easy and my lordship is mild, and you will find repose for yourselves." (91) They said to him, "Tell us who you are so that we may believe in you." He said to them, "You read the face of the sky and of the earth, but you have not recognized the one who is before you, and you do not know how to read this moment."
23_
THE FOURTH WAY_The Secret Words of Jesus
The Gospel of Thomas_3 (92) Jesus said, "Seek and you will find. Yet, what you asked me about in former times and which I did not tell you then, now I do desire to tell, but you do not inquire after it." (93) <Jesus said,> "Do not give what is holy to dogs, lest they throw them on the dung-heap. Do not throw the pearls to swine, lest they [...] it [...]." (94) Jesus said, "He who seeks will find, and he who knocks will be let in." (95) Jesus said, "If you have money, do not lend it at interest, but give it to one from whom you will not get it back." (96) Jesus said, "The kingdom of the father is like a certain woman. She took a little leaven, concealed it in some dough, and made it into large loaves. Let him who has ears hear." (97) Jesus said, "The kingdom of the father is like a certain woman who was carrying a jar full of meal. While she was walking on the road, still some distance from home, the handle of the jar broke and the meal emptied out behind her on the road. She did not realize it; she had noticed no accident. When she reached her house, she set the jar down and found it empty." (98) Jesus said, "The kingdom of the father is like a certain man who wanted to kill a powerful man. In his own house he drew his sword and stuck it into the wall in order to find out whether his hand could carry through. Then he slew the powerful man." (99) The disciples said to him, "Your brothers and your mother are standing outside." He said to them, "Those here who do the will of my father are my brothers and my mother. It is they who will enter the kingdom of my father." (100) They showed Jesus a gold coin and said to him, "Caesar's men demand taxes from us." He said to them, "Give Caesar what belongs to Caesar, give God what belongs to God, and give me what is mine." (101) <Jesus said,> "Whoever does not hate his father and his mother as I do cannot become a disciple to me. And whoever does not love his father and his mother as I do cannot become a disciple to me. For my mother [...], but my true mother gave me life." (102) Jesus said, "Woe to the pharisees, for they are like a dog sleeping in the manger of oxen, for neither does he eat nor does he let the oxen eat." (103) Jesus said, "Fortunate is the man who knows where the brigands will enter, so that he may get up,
muster his domain, and arm himself before they invade." (104) They said to Jesus, "Come, let us pray today and let us fast." Jesus said, "What is the sin that I have committed, or wherein have I been defeated? But when the bridegroom leaves the bridal chamber, then let them fast and pray." (105) Jesus said, "He who knows the father and the mother will be called the son of a harlot." (106) Jesus said, "When you make the two one, you will become the sons of man, and when you say, 'Mountain, move away,' it will move away." (107) Jesus said, "The kingdom is like a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. One of them, the largest, went astray. He left the ninety-nine sheep and looked for that one until he found it. When he had gone to such trouble, he said to the sheep, 'I care for you more than the ninety-nine.'" (108) Jesus said, "He who will drink from my mouth will become like me. I myself shall become he, and the things that are hidden will be revealed to him." (109) Jesus said, "The kingdom is like a man who had a hidden treasure in his field without knowing it. And after he died, he left it to his son. The son did not know (about the treasure). He inherited the field and sold it. And the one who bought it went plowing and found the treasure. He began to lend money at interest to whomever he wished." (110) Jesus said, "Whoever finds the world and becomes rich, let him renounce the world." (111) Jesus said, "The heavens and the earth will be rolled up in your presence. And the one who lives from the living one will not see death." Does not Jesus say, "Whoever finds himself is superior to the world?" (112) Jesus said, "Woe to the flesh that depends on the soul; woe to the soul that depends on the flesh." (113) His disciples said to him, "When will the kingdom come?" <Jesus said,> "It will not come by waiting for it. It will not be a matter of saying 'here it is' or 'there it is.' Rather, the kingdom of the father is spread out upon the earth, and men do not see it." (114) Simon Peter said to him, "Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of life." Jesus said, "I myself shall lead her in order to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who will make herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven." The end
THE FOURTH WAY _Letters to the Founder
24_
Letters to the Founder
// Answers from Giovanni M. Quinti
Send your question(s) to: informazioni@quartavia.org
X.
I have realised that, despite my aversion to organised groups, following the path is impossible without the help of a school. Through books, Gurdjieff has become food for many people, but the same cannot be said for the teaching of some closed groups that have sprung from the Fourth Way. Through your website, could you be seen as a sort of second and third line of work, bearing in mind that many study and work alone, until they finally merit a meeting with a real school?
Dear friend, The aim of our website is simply to make it known that today, at the beginning of the third millennium, there are men and women who work on themselves. Further analyses and elaborations would mean going into details to which we could not do justice in an exchange of letters. In every period of history, right up to the present day, there have been individuals who have made the search an essential matter, "separating themselves", as it were, from the collective mentality, and spreading the teaching. What is our objective? To make it known that the work also exists in the west, and that the teaching of G.I. Gurdjieff is based on the original Christianity. The problem lies in the fact that this "work" demands personal sacrifice and effort that few are truly prepared to make. To be carried out properly, the work must involve several lines, and not just the intellectual. We can study the texts that Gurdjieff studied, and reach the point where we understand that many of his books are just commentaries, but all this is worth very little unless it leads to a real understanding that comes through personal experience with a work group. Mere intellectual understanding is a lesser understanding. The work on other "lines" can only be carried out by a master and a group, meeting according to specific criteria and methods, scrupulously followed. It is no coincidence that we from the Fourth Way offer a school to those who wish to join. With friendly greetings.
M. Dear Mr Quinti, Although I missed the first part of last night's conference, I was glad to have the chance to listen to such interesting things! I would like to know your opinion about the practice of Buddhism. I find a lot of parallels, in the work of breaking through and destructuring the masks of personality. I believe that every mask produces sedimentation, dirt that forms layers in the bottom of the soul, constantly creating a thickness, a crust, and coldness. Buddhist practice stirs up this sediment, brings it back to the surface and finally expels it, exposing it completely and thus assisting the work of destructuring. This is what I have got into focus, knowing the experience of those who practise, including my wife. Dear M., I am happy that what you shared with us was useful for you and "refreshing" for your spirit. Certainly one grave mistake we must not make is to leave all this in a corner of the library of our memory. As you yourself say, all this must become a primary need.... it must become "the fundamental reason". Certainly Buddhism, like other far-eastern practices, if supported by teaching from individuals with a sufficient level of being, produces the desired results. More than philosophies, men are able; more than religions, those who teach and learn, in spirit and in truth, are able. It is the heart beyond denominations. The heart beyond the masks. More than Buddhism, Buddha was able. Seek a Buddha along your path... and follow him.
X.
I am looking for the 1978 Peter Brook film "Meetings with Remarkable Men". I absolutely have to see it! Can you help me at all? Money no object!
Dear friend, It will cost you just 5 Euros to see it in person at one of the film showings organised by the "La Teca" association in various cities around Italy. Go to the website www.quartavia.org and see which event, organised by one of our groups, is closest to where you are. The film is exceptional and really worth seeing. I hope you enjoy it!
THE FOURTH WAY_Introduction to the ideas of George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff
25_
The role of man in the evolution of the universe
We have drawn inspiration from some unpublished notes by John G. Bennet, taken from a series of conferences held at Denison House in March and April 1949, to show you how the Fourth Way system places man within the universe.
Introduction to the ideas of George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff
edited by Eva M. Franchi
In order to grasp, at least in part, the meaning and purpose of our lives, we need to possess a range of specific knowledge on the reason for the existence of the universe of which man is but a small part. According to Gurdjieff's system, the universe is not static; it must maintain a certain coherency and, at the same time, expand. This means both the risk of cosmic catastrophes and that its expansion might spread chaotically and incoherently. In order to avoid this, we need the work of conscious and independent individuals capable of exerting an active influence to consciously direct the growth of the universe in the right way. This implies the presence of self-made beings, because only those who can be the creator of their own work can become truly independent individuals. Obviously, the appearance within the universe of such a being represents a danger, because the possibility of self-creation also implies that of self-destruction. There is no possibility of foreseeing which of the two directions will prevail, otherwise there would be no free will. It follows that there may be uncertainties and dangers, and not all processes will go according to the established plan. It may seem unfair and illogical that the Supreme Being, whom we suppose to be perfect, should have given life to a such an imperfect and danger-ridden creation. So then let us try to imagine that the universe initially existed as something perfect and complete: the only
possibility for it to change would have been towards imperfection and incompleteness. Gurdjieff explains this using the concept of existence through time. The universe can express itself only through a temporal process. In other words it is not born already complete and perfect, but has to develop and gradually create a defined order. This process cannot stop or turn back. Gurdjieffian cosmogony illustrates this concept using the principle of the ray of creation, very similar to that described in the Kabbalah. The Absolute Sun represents the first manifested form of the Creator present in the universe. In order to express itself the Absolute Sun must emit its very substance outside of itself, and be surrounded by a space that can receive it. But bringing into existence a substantial, material world, created through time, implies that sooner or later it will dissolve into the infinity of space and disappear. So in order to prevent the dissolution of the Creation, the Creator had to perform a second act of creation: providing for the possibility of returning to the Absolute Sun in order to compensate for what takes place outside of Him. To this end, this great system was brought into existence, with its stars, planets and galaxies that form the universe that we are just getting to know. (TO BE CONTINUED)...
"the game starts"
Illustration by JosĂŠ L. GarcĂa Muedra
www.gurdjieff.es
THE FOURTH WAY Monthly Study Notes
"THE FOURTH WAY" is the official press body of the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man - La Teca.
"When we learn, we listen only to our thoughts. this is why it is not possible for us to take in new thoughts, unless we use new methods of listening and studying." London 13/02/1922 G.I. Gurdjieff
Each edition contains lots of sections full of information that has never been revealed publicly before, practical exercises and original material on the teachings of the Fourth Way.
Topics covered will include: -
The meaning of the Stop Exercise The Enneagram and the Tree of life The Fourth Way method explained step by step What has never been said about the 6th Lower Centre and the 3rd Higher Centre The secrets of Gurdjieff's life The Hasnamusses: who are they? The Study of the Sacred Texts using the Fourth Way method Alchemy and the Fourth Way The influence of the Higher Centres Study of the Old Testament in light of the System Objective Music Where does Gurdjieff's teaching come from? How to work on ourselves The Origins of the Fourth Way Dante and the Fourth Way The Relationship between Master and Pupil The Spiritual aspect of the Fourth Way The power of conscious thought What is true Self-remembering? The Enneagram revealed: things that have never been written on the Enneagram
...AND MUCH MORE
IN THE NEXT EDITION VIA li TA ensi AR udio M QU di St LA dispense Le
VIAnsili RTAdio Me QUAdi Stu LA dispense Le
Noah:
Commander of the Ark
Is a life after death possible? VIAnsili RTAdio Me QUAdi Stu LA dispense Le
The Sacred
Enneagram ...AND MUCH MORE