Evolution of Consciusness(Post 12)- 4th WAY

In the earlier posts we have seen various aspects of human mind with respect

to Gudjieff’s philosophy and ideas.

Brief  list :

 -3 Centers Instinct-Body, Emotion-Feeling, Intellect-Knowledge

 -Dominant Center, Balanced centers

 -7-Types of Men

-Types of consciousness

   Sleep, Waking-Consciousness, Self-Consciousness and Objective Reason

-Personality based Consciousness of person, Ego-Self

-Essence of a person, Real-Self

-Objective Reasoning – Enlightenment – Uni-Being

Now we will come to the formal method of Gurjieff .

Gurdjieff called it as Work or Work on One-Self.

His famous disciple Ouspensky named it as the Fourth Way.     

Why the name Work on One-Self?

We have seen objective of Gurdjieff is expansion of subject’s consciousness

from ‘Ego-Self’ (personality) to ‘Uni-Being’ (Objective Reason).

Gurdjieff’s basic argument is expansion (evolution) of consciousness is

possible only through conscious expansion(evolution).

(We have already mentioned that Evolution of Consciousness can not be Unconscious like Natural Evolution) 

That is one’s consciousness can not evolve unconsciously, others can give

only objective knowledge about it, but for subjective experience one has

to work on the consciousness one self.

Furthermore tradition and faith can make one complacent expecting a

Miracle or Grace for liberation.

(‘Expectation of Miracle’ and ‘Sense of Mystery’ is part of normal human

Psyche according to experts. We will see about them later.)

So, Gurdjieff emphasized on self-work, not giving much room for miracle or 

Grace.

For these reasons Gurdjieff called his method Work or Work on one-self.

Why Work is named as The Fourth Way

Gurdjieff  classified existing religious and spiritual traditions into three broad categories.

1. Way of Fakir – Self Mastery through Pain (Physical)

2. Way of Monk – Self Mastery through Faith (Emotional)

3. Way of Yogi – Self Mastery through Knowledge (Intellect)

One can see, the above methods focused on only one aspect of the Mind.

But, Gudjieff  envisioned and founded a new method forintegrated development 

 of all three aspects unlike the above three.

Though Gurdjieff called his method as Work, his disciple Ouspensky called it the 

Fourth Way since there are already three traditional methods in existence.

What is the need for new method?

Gurdjieff felt that ancient traditions had lost their true meaning and not serving the

Original purpose of liberating human beings from ‘Sleep’.

More over, the above paths tend to develop one aspect of individual (Body/

Emotion/Intellect)   leading to lopsided development.

 It is easy to see; ancient traditions have been institutionalized and have developed 

Institutional ambitions, moving all the time further and further away from the 

purpose for which  they were initially founded.

These traditions also require people to renounce their formal life to take part in 

the spiritual quest.

But, demands of Modern society on individuals are such People can not resign 

from their formal life to enter in to spiritual quest. 

These things made traditional methods hardly suitable for a modern man,

esspeially more so in the west than the eastern world.

Taking all this in to account, Gurdjieff felt the need to have new system which 

would attract and enable people to pursue the spiritual journey without renouncing 

their formal  life.

Based on these findings, Gurjieff developed a Philosophy to explain the World 

View and a method to realize the envisioned truth. 

One may find parallel elements in other traditions, but the vital difference is that 

his philosophy and methods are designed in such a way that they CAN be and 

SHOULD be practiced in daily life, not away from it.