Fourth Way

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia For P. D. Ouspensky's book titled 'The Fourth Way' see Fourth Way (book). For the jazz group, see The Fourth Way (band). The Fourth Way refers to a concept used by George Gurdjieff to describe an approach to selfdevelopment learned over years of travel in the ast!"# that combined $hat he sa$ as three established traditional %$ays,% or %schools% into a fourth $ay&!'# These three $ays $ere of the body, mind and emotions& The term %The Fourth Way% $as further developed by (& )& *uspensky in his lectures and $ritings& (osthumously, *uspensky+s students published a book entitled Fourth Way, based on his lectures& The %Fourth Way% is sometimes referred to as %The Work,% %Work on oneself,% or %The ,ystem&%!-# .ccording to this system, the chief difference bet$een the three traditional schools, or $ays, and the fourth $ay is that %they are permanent forms $hich have survived throughout history mostly unchanged, and are based on religion& Where schools of yogis, monks or fakirs e/ist, they are barely distinguishable from religious schools& The fourth $ay differs in that it is not a permanent way. t has no spe!i"i! "orms or institutions and !omes and goes !ontrolled by some parti!ular laws o" its own.% 0t al$ays has some $ork of a specific import, and is never $ithout some task around $hich and in connection $ith $hich it can alone e/ist& When this $ork is finished, that is to say, $hen the aim set before it has been accomplished, the fourth $ay disappears, that is, it disappears from the given place, disappears in its given form, continuing perhaps in another place in another form& ,chools of the fourth $ay e/ist for the needs of the $ork $hich is being carried out in connection $ith the proposed undertaking& They never e/ist by themselves as schools for the purpose of education and instruction&!1# The Fourth Way mainly addresses the 2uestion of people+s place in the 3niverse, their possibilities for inner development, and transcending the body to achieve a higher state of consciousness& 0t emphasi4es that people live their lives in a state referred to as %$aking sleep%, but that higher levels of consciousness and various inner abilities are possible&!5# The Fourth Way teaches people ho$ to increase and focus their attention and energy in various $ays, and to minimi4e daydreaming and absentmindedness&!6#!7# .ccording to this teaching, this inner development in oneself is the beginning of a possible further process of change, $hose aim is to transform a man into $hat Gurdjieff taught he ought to be&!8#