Pages 1–12
P. D. OUSPENSKY THE FOURTH WAY A RECORD OF TALKS AND ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BASED ON THE TEACHING OF G. I. GURDJIEFF
FOREWORD WHEN P. D. Ouspensky was asked if he intended to publish his lectures, he answered: 'What is the use? The most important is not the lectures but the questions and answers.' This book consists of verbatim extracts from talks and answers to questions given by Ouspensky between 1921 and 1946. Chapter I is a general survey of the fundamental ideas, which in subsequent chapters are amplified subject by subject in the specific order followed by Ouspensky himself. To achieve this order some of the material has had to be taken out of its chronological sequence; but in no case has there been any alteration of phrasing or meaning.
CONTENTS FOREWORD CHAPTER I What the system is about—Study of psychology—Incompleteness of man— Study of the world and study of man—"Principle of scale— Possible evolution— Self-study—Many 'I's—Division of functions— Four states of consciousness— Self-observation—Self remembering—Two higher functions—Wrong work of the machine— Imagination—Lying—Absence of will—'Lack of control— Expression of unpleasant emotions—Negative emotions—Change of attitudes — Observation of functions—Identification—Considering—Sleep— Prison and escape—Seven categories of man—Mechanicalness— Law of Three—Law of Seven—Illusions—We cannot 'do'—Good and evil—Morality and conscience— Only a few can develop—A, B and C influences—Magnetic centre—We live in a bad place in the universe—Ray of Creation—Orders of laws. CHAPTER II Man if an incomplete being—He lives below his legitimate level— Revaluation of old values—'Useful' and 'harmful'—Illusions—Man is asleep—Practical self-study—Study of obstacles—Psychology of lying—Man is a machine— Creating a permanent 'I'—Allegory of a house in disorder—Roles—Buffers —Self-remembering—Why this system cannot be popular—Prison—Formulation of aim—To be free—Sin—Repentance—Helping humanity—Attraction and repulsion—Self-observation—Division of all that belongs to man into seven categories—Knowledge and being—Their relationship—We can have wore knowledge—Necessity of changing being— Understanding—Harmful functions—Expression of negative emotions—Unnecessary talk—Difference between this system and others—Levels of being—Thinking in different categories—Dangers of the present situation. CHAPTER III Self-study and improvement—States of consciousness and functions—Degrees of consciousness—Division of functions—Self- remembering—Mechanicalness —Study of functions of the four centres—Subdivision of centres—Attention— Formatory apparatus— Wrong work of centres—Four kinds of energy— Stopping leaks— Negative emotions—Stopping the expression of negative emotions— Change of attitudes.
CHAPTER IV language— Different divisions used in the system—Essence and personality— A, B and C influences—Magnetic centre—Wrong magnetic centre—Deputy Steward—Law of accident—Law of fate— Law of will—Law of cause and effect—Escape from the law of accident—Centre of gravity—Why schools are necessary—For whom schools are necessary—What constitutes a school— Degrees of schools—Way of fakir. Way of Monk and Way of Yogi—The Fourth Way—Difference between the fourth Way and the traditional ways— All ways lead to the same goal—Level of school depends on the level of students— Inner circles of humanity CHAPTER V Possibility of man's further development—Absence of consciousness—Cognition of truth—Study of degrees of consciousness—Self remembering and self-observation— Impossibility of defining what self remembering is—Self-remembering as method of awakening—Approach to self remembering through the intellectual centre—reconstructing thoughts—Stopping thoughts as a method of bringing self-remembering—remembering oneself in emotional moments—Ignorance and weakness—Identification and struggle with it— 'External and internal considering—Negative emotions—Quiet place in oneself CHAPTER VI Understanding as the chief requirement in this system—relativity of understanding—How to increase understanding—A new language— Right and wrong attitudes—Attitudes and understanding—Necessity of aim and direction— Difficulty of finding out what one wants—Our aims are too remote—Good and evil—Morality and necessity of moral sense—Necessity of finding a permanent standard of right and wrong—Development of conscience as aim of the system—Seeing contradictions—buffers as the chief obstacle to development of conscience—Preparation for breaking down buffers—Inner disharmony and happiness—Need to establish an inner balance— Standards of conduct in life— Consciousness and conscience—How to recognise truth—Need for sincerity with oneself—Mechanicalness CHAPTER VII Plurality of our being and absence of permanent 'I'—Five meanings of the word 'I'—Different personalities and likes and dislikes—Useless and useful personalities—Magnetic centre and Deputy Steward— Division of oneself into 'I' and 'Mr X'—False personality—What is 'I'?— Study of false personality as means of learning to remember oneself—Efforts to struggle against false personality—Need of control—False personality and negative emotions— What is reliable and what is unreliable in oneself-—Suffering and its use—Not saying 'I' indiscriminately—False personality distorts the ideas of the system— Chef feature or features—Necessity of knowing one's weaknesses—Static Triad —Valuation—Danger of becoming two— Crystallisation
CHAPTER VIII Man's place in the world—Limitations of our perception and thinking— Knowledge is knowledge of all—Principles of relativity and scale—Law of Three—Four states of matter—We are third force blind—Law of Seven— Ascending and descending octaves—Observing intervals— Ray of Creation— Will of the Absolute—Ray of Creation as an instrument for new thinking— Special language—Ray of Creation as an octave—Organic life on earth— Feeding the Moon—Cosmic influences—Mechanical influence of the moon— Influences and state of being—Planetary influences and essence—Liberation from laws— Possibility of development—Man as part of organic life—Study of laws—Justice and injustice—Laws belonging to man—Working against nature—Study of cosmological ideas as help to self- remembering—Law of Three and creation—Passage of forces—Three octaves of radiations—Table of Hydrogens—Different levels of matter—Lateral octave—Possibility of evolution, CHAPTER IX Study of man as a chemical factory—Food Diagram—Three octaves of food and their development—First stage with one mechanical shock—Second stage with one conscious shock—Third stage with second conscious shock—Relative value of the three foods— Impressions—Self-remembering—Carbon 12— Laughter—Good and bad impressions—Impressions as different hydrogens— Control of impressions—Work on mi 12—Centres and their speed—Higher centres and their characteristics—Connection with higher centres— Higher centres and drugs—Telepathy—Necessity to increase the production of higher matters—Energy and the storing of energy. Accumulators—Connection with the big accumulator—Yawning—All work must be concentrated on consciousness. CHAPTER X We cannot 'do'—Importance of realising the truth of this idea—Illusion of 'doing' and what produces it—In life everything happens but in the work we must learn to 'do'—Going against the current—Inner 'doing'— A vicious circle and the way out—Co-ordination of centres—'Doing' begins with 'not doing—Inner control—Doing the impossible and what it means—Putting more pressure into one's efforts—Work on will— What is will in the full sense of the word and what is our will?—Our will a resultant of desires—Inner conflict and struggle—Giving up will—We only have short moments of will— Discipline—Necessity of remembering oneself—Consciousness means will— Aim as the controlling factor—Necessity of returning constantly to the question of aim—Self-will and wilfulness—Friction— Work against self-will— One can do nothing without school—Necessity of regular work—Cross- roads— Creating moon in oneself-—Centre of gravity—Super-effort— What creates stimulus for work. CHAPTER XI Necessity for study of school principles and methods—Three lines of work— Right and wrong in relation to the three lines—The need for understanding— Aims and needs of the school—Putting another in one's place—An organization
is necessary for practical work—What is 'work'?—Valuation—Working with people—Working for the school—Taking personal interest in the organization—The right kind of people—A fourth Way school—Right attitude— Payment—How to pay?—Centre of gravity—Discipline— Rules—Not doing what is unnecessary—Surrendering one's decisions—Meeting demands— Shocks in school work—Idea of choice—Physical work—School knowledge— Men of higher mind— Can schools influence life? CHAPTER XII Necessity to distinguish more important from less important ideas of the system—Limitations of being—Possibilities of changing being— Householder, tramp and lunatic—Hasnamuss—Sleep and the possibility of awaking— Realisations and words—How to increase emotional attitude—Sense of proportion—Self remembering—To know and to see oneself—Being serious— Struggle with habits— Understanding mechanicalness—Efforts—Self study— Self observation—Shocks—How to be more emotional?—Putting more pressure into the work—Training the emotional centre—Positive emotions— Pleasant and unpleasant emotions—Increasing valuation—How new things come—Slowness of understanding— Raising one's standard CHAPTER XIII Different categories of human actions—Right and wrong use of triads—Study of human activities—Remembering the starting point— Inner separation— Learning to see false personality—Masks—Buffers and weaknesses—Study of methods—Alarms—Impossibility of studying the system from an utilitarian point of view—Philosophical, theoretical and practical language—Three degrees of school—Right thinking—Long and short thoughts—Role of intellect— Different values—Right and wrong curiosity—Critical attitude —Influencing others—Story of the sly man and the devil CHAPTER XIV Personal difficulties—Necessity of finding one's most urgent and persistent difficulty—Negative emotions, imagination, formatory thinking—Creating new points of view—Struggle with identification— Three categories of negative emotions and how to deal with them— Transformation of negative emotions— Irritation—Laziness—Dull negative states—Different forms of imagination— Giving up suffering—Voluntary suffering as the greatest force we can have— The role of suffering in organic life—Man is specially made for evolution— Responsibility in personal work—Necessity of working on many lines at once— Formatory thinking and its characteristics— Associative thinking—The need of higher centres to understand truth—Meditation—Right thinking— Imaginary conversations— Different meanings of faith—Life after death CHAPTER XV Idea of esotericism—The logical method and the psychological method of thinking —Explanation of the psychological method—What the idea of esotericism implies—Certain kinds of esoteric ideas become accessible only at difficult
periods—Necessity of being united—Materiality of knowledge—Great knowledge and how it differs from ordinary knowledge—Accumulators of knowledge—Schools—Can one affect external events?—Study of life—Big events of life and their influence—Subjective ways and objective way—Attitudes as a means of changing influences— Assessing events in life—Gradual disappearance of B influences— The reason for the decrease of influence of esoteric circles— Lack of preparation—The system and how it is taught—Different scales— Death of schools, and conditions necessary for their existence— Relation of the system to Christianity—To die and to be born— Prayer—Suggestions concerning the study of the Lord's Prayer. CHAPTER XVI The idea of recurrence can only be regarded as a theory—Different relationship of people to the possibility of recurrence—Three successive stages—Why the possibility of receiving C influence must be limited—Remembering past lives— Theory of reincarnation as a simplification of the idea of recurrence—Impossibility of finding proof—We are limited by the state of our being—Different kinds of essence as the strongest argument in favour of pre existence—Why schools cannot recur—Study of recurrence in one life—Eternal recurrence is not eternal— Possibility of variations—Chances are limited and time is counted—Self-remembering and recurrence— Personality and recurrence—Study of children's minds—Origin of the idea of recurrence—Three dimensions of time—The idea of recurrence and the system—Parallel time—Limitations of our mind— Growth of tendencies and recurrence—Possibilities of meeting a school next time—Being prepared—Is the starting point the same for everybody?—School and the demands made in it—Death of essence—recurrence and date of death—— recurrence of world events—The only thing is to awake
CHAPTER I What the system is about—Study of psychology—Incompleteness of man —Study of the world and study of man—Principle of scale—Possible evolution—Self-study—Many 'I's—Division of functions—Four states of consciousness—Self-observation—Self remembering—Two higher functions—Wrong work of the machine—Imagination—Lying— Absence of will—Lack of control—Expression of unpleasant emotions—Negative emotions—Change of attitudes—Observation of functions—Identification —Considering—Sleep—Prison and escape—Seven categories of man— Mechanicalness—Law of Three—Law of Seven—Illusions— We cannot 'do'—Good and evil—Morality and conscience—Only a few can develop— A, B and C influences—Magnetic centre—We live in a bad place in the universe—Ray of Creation—Orders of laws. BEFORE I BEGIN TO EXPLAIN TO YOU in a general way what this system is about, and to talk about our methods, I want particularly to impress on your minds that the most important ideas and principles of the system do not belong to me. This is chiefly what makes them valuable, because if they belonged to me they would be like all other theories invented by ordinary minds—they would give only a subjective view of things. When I began to write A New Model of the Universe in 1907, 1 formulated to myself, as many other people have done before and since, that behind the surface of the life which we know lies something much bigger and more important. And I said to myself then that until we know more about what lies behind, all our knowledge of life and of ourselves is really negligible. I remember one conversation at that time, when I said, 'If it were possible to accept as proven that consciousness (or, as I should call it now, intelligence) can manifest itself apart from the physical body, many other things could be proved. Only it cannot be taken as proved.' I realized that manifestations of supernormal psychology such as thought transference, clairvoyance, the possibility of knowing the future, of looking back into the past, and so on, have not been proved. So I tried to find a method of studying these things, and worked on that line for several years. I found some interesting things in that way, but the results were very elusive; and though several experiments were successful, it was almost impossible to repeat them.
I came to two conclusions in the course of these experiments: first, that we do not know enough about ordinary psychology; we cannot study supernormal psychology, because we do not know normal psychology. Secondly I came to the conclusion that certain real knowledge exists; that there may be schools which know exactly what we want to know, but that for some reason they are hidden and this knowledge is hidden. So I began to look for these schools. I travelled in Europe, Egypt, India, Ceylon, Turkey and the Near East; but it was really later, when I had already finished these travels, that I met in Russia during the war a group of people who were studying a certain system which came originally from Eastern schools. This system began with the study of psychology, exactly as I had realized it must begin. The chief idea of this system was that we do not use even a small part of our powers and our forces. We have in us, so to speak, a very big and very fine organization, only we do not know how to use it. In this group they employed certain oriental metaphors, and they told me that we have in us a large house full of beautiful furniture, with a library and many other rooms, but we live in the basement and the kitchen and cannot get out of them. If people tell us about what this house has upstairs we do not believe them, or we laugh at them, or we call it superstition or fairy tales or fables. This system can be divided into study of the world, on certain new principles, and study of man. The study of the world and study of man include in themselves a kind of special language. We try to use ordinary words, the same words as we use in ordinary conversation, but we attach a slightly different and more precise meaning to them. Study of the world, study of the universe, is based on the study of some fundamental laws which are not generally known or recognized in science. The two chief laws are the Law of Three and the Law of Seven, which will be explained later. Included in this, and necessary from this point of view, is the principle of scale—a principle which does not enter into ordinary scientific study, or enters very little. The study of man is closely connected with the idea of the evolution of man, but the evolution of man must be understood in a slightly different way from the ordinary. Ordinarily the word evolution applied either to man or to anything else presupposes a kind of mechanical evolution; I mean that certain things, by certain known or unknown laws, transform into other things, and these other things transform into still others, and so on. But from the point of view of this system there is no such evolution at all—I do not speak in general, but specifically of man. The evolution of man, if it occurs, can only be the result of knowledge and effort; as long as man knows only what he can know in the ordinary way, there is no evolution for him and there never was any evolution for him. Serious study begins in this system with the study of psychology, that is to say with the study of oneself, because psychology cannot be studied,
as astronomy can, outside oneself. A man has to study himself. When I was told that, I saw at once that we do not have any methods of studying ourselves and already have many wrong ideas about ourselves. So I realized that we must get rid of wrong ideas about ourselves and at the same time find methods for studying ourselves. Perhaps you realize how difficult it is to define what is meant by psychology? There are so many meanings attached to the same words in different systems that it is difficult to have a general definition. So we begin by defining psychology as study of oneself. You have to learn certain methods and principles and, according to these principles and using these methods, you will try to see yourselves from a new point of view. If we begin to study ourselves we first of all come up against one word which we use more than any other and that is the word 'I'. We say 'I am doing', 'I am sitting', 'I feel', 'I like', 'I dislike' and so on. This is our chief illusion, for the principal mistake we make about ourselves is that we consider ourselves one; we always speak about ourselves as 'I' and we suppose that we refer to the same thing all the time when in reality we are divided into hundreds and hundreds of different 'I's. At one moment when I say 'I', one part of me is speaking, and at another moment when I say 'I', it is quite another 'I' speaking. We do not know that we have not one 'I', but many different 'I's connected with our feelings and desires, and have no controlling 'I'. These 'I's change all the time; one suppresses another, one replaces another, and all this struggle makes up our inner life. 'I's which we see in ourselves are divided into several groups. Some of these groups are legitimate, they belong to right divisions of man, and some of them are quite artificial and are created by insufficient knowledge and by certain imaginary ideas that man has about himself. To begin self-study it is necessary to study methods of self-observation, but that again must be based on a certain understanding of the divisions of our functions. Our ordinary idea of these divisions is quite wrong. We know the difference between intellectual and emotional functions. For instance, when we discuss things, think about them, compare them, invent explanations or find real explanations, this is all intellectual work; whereas love, hate, fear, suspicion and so on are emotional. But very often, when trying to observe ourselves, we mix even intellectual and emotional functions; when we really feel, we call it thinking, and when we think we call it feeling. But in the course of study we shall learn in what way they differ. For instance, there is an enormous difference in speed, but we shall speak more about that later. Then there are two other functions which no system of ordinary psychology divides and understands in the right way—instinctive function and moving function. Instinctive refers to the inner work of the organism: digestion of food, beating of the heart, breathing—these are instinctive functions. To instinctive function belong also ordinary senses—sight,
hearing, smell, taste, touch, the feeling of cold and warmth, things like that; and this is all, really. Of outer movements, only simple reflexes belong to instinctive function, because more complicated reflexes belong to moving function. It is very easy to distinguish between instinctive and moving functions. We do not have to learn anything that belongs to instinctive function, we are born with the capacity to use all the instinctive functions. Moving functions, on the other hand, all have to be learned— a child learns to walk, to write and so on. There is a very great difference between the two functions, since there is nothing inherent in moving functions, and instinctive functions are all inherent. So in self-observation it is necessary first of all to divide these four functions and to classify at once everything that you observe, saying, 'This is intellectual function', 'This is emotional function' and so on. If you practise this observation for some time you may notice some strange things. For instance, you will find that what is really difficult in observing is that you forget about it. You start to observe, and your emotions connect with some kind of thought and you forget about self-observation. Again, after some time, if you continue this effort to observe, which is a new function not used in the same way in ordinary life, you will notice another interesting thing—that generally you do not remember yourself. If you could be aware of yourself all the time, then you would be able to observe all the time, or in any case as long as you liked. But because you cannot remember yourself, you cannot concentrate; and this is why you will have to admit that you have no will. If you could remember yourself, you would have will and could do what you liked. But you cannot remember yourself, you cannot be aware of yourself and so you have no will. You may sometimes have will for a short time, but it turns to something else and you forget about it. This is the situation, the state of being, the state from which we have to start self study. But very soon, if you continue, you will come to the conclusion that almost from the very beginning of self-study you have to correct certain things in yourself which are not right, to arrange certain things which are not in their right places. The system has an explanation for this. We are made in such a way that we can live in four states of consciousness, but such as we are we use only two: one when we are asleep, and the other when we are what we call 'awake'—that is to say, in this present state, when we can talk, listen, read, write and so on. But these are only two out of four possible states. The third state of consciousness is very strange. If people explain to us what the third state of consciousness is, we begin to think that we have it. The third state can be called self- consciousness, and most people, if asked, say, 'Certainly we are conscious!' A sufficient time or repeated and frequent efforts of self-observation is
necessary before we really recognize the fact that we are not conscious; that we are conscious only potentially. If we are asked, we say, 'Yes, I am', and for that moment we are, but the next moment we cease to remember and are not conscious. So in the process of self-observation we realize that we are not in the third state of consciousness, that we live only in two. We live either in sleep or in a waking state which, in the system, is called relative consciousness. The fourth state, which is called objective consciousness, is inaccessible to us because it can only be reached through self-consciousness, that is, by becoming aware of oneself first, so that much later we may manage to reach the objective state of consciousness. So, at the same time as self-observing, we try to be aware of ourselves by holding the sensation of 'I am here'—nothing more. And this is the fact that all Western psychology, without the smallest exception, has missed. Although many people came very near to it, they did not recognize the importance of this fact and did not realize that the state of man as he is can be changed—that man can remember himself, if he tries for a long time. It is not a question of a day or a month. It is a very long study, and a study of how to remove obstacles, because we do not remember ourselves, we are not conscious of ourselves, owing to many wrong functions in our machine, and all these functions have to be corrected and put right. When most of these functions are put right, these periods of self-remembering will become longer and longer, and if they become sufficiently long, we shall acquire two new functions. With self-consciousness, which is the third state of consciousness, we acquire a function which is called higher emotional, although it is equally intellectual, because on this level there is no difference between intellectual and emotional such as there is on the ordinary level. And when we come to the state of objective consciousness we acquire another function which is called higher mental. Phenomena of what I call supernormal psychology belong to these two functions; and this is why, when I made those experiments twenty-five years ago, I came to the conclusion that experimental work is impossible, because it is not a question of experiment but of changing one's state of consciousness. I have just given you some general ideas. Now try to tell me what you do not understand, what you wish me to explain better. Try to ask any questions you like, either in relation to what I said or your own questions. In that way it will be easier to make a start. Q. To attain the higher state of consciousness is it necessary to be permanently aware of oneself? A. We cannot do that, so there is no question of being permanently aware. We can only talk now about the beginning. We must study ourselves in connection with this division of different functions when we can—when