Creatures of the Fourth Way

The Many Many “I”s We are creatures of the Fourth Way. Gurdjieff taught us about three focused ways: The Fakir’s Way, which seeks to exert will to gain mastery over the body, The Monk’s Way, which works with the emotional side of man; and The...

The Dominance of Negativity

Perseus with Medusa;s Severed Head A while ago, the group I belong to sat in front of a whiteboard and listed all the words for negative emotions that we could think of in the space of an hour. The list was long: 114 words. At a subsequent meeting, we attempted a list...

Words from Madame Ouspensky

Madame Ouspensky It’s worth acquiring a recently released book entitled  Saturday Evenings at Mendham: Conversation with Madame Ouspensky. Madame Ouspensky (1878-1961), was born Sophie Grigorievna Volochine in Kharkoff, Ukraine. She met Gurdjieff in St....

Truth and The Emotions

The Monk and The Angel Our emotions play a key role in our understanding of the truth of a situation. When we are negative, our emotions distort our perception of reality and make it difficult for us to see things clearly. They inject a kind of prejudice in our...

How Essence Relates to Personality

The Struggle of Essence In exploring Essence and Personality, we encounter the first great mystery about Man: the duality of his existence. Man is composed of two parts. You are born Essence, a pure and innocent being, and Personality accumulates as life unfolds....