The Fourth Way #0

DO WE HAVE TOBELIEVE IN GOD?

www.gurdjieff.es

TOWARDS THE ONEINSIDE OURSELVES

GURDJIEFF ANDEARLY CHRISTIANITY

WHY BEGIN WORKINGON YOURSELF?

THE MAGAZINE ON GURDJIEFF TEACHING Phylosopy, Religion, Life Stories, Theatre, Dance, Poetry and much more...

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Image of back cover © Andrea ChidichimoGod and Deity in front of The Great Floodgraphite on Dibbond®

“The Fourth Way” is a magazine produced and distributed by the Institute for the Harmonious Development “La Teca” of Barcelona (Spain).

If you would like to communicate with our Editorial Staf f you can do so by email: [email protected]

Any copy of our text, even partial, is forbidden unless authorised in a writ ten form by our Editorial Staf f.

Free copy

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Founder and DirectorGiovanni M. Quinti

EditorLa Teca Institute of Barcelona (ES)

Graphic DesignJ. L. García Muedra, Francesco Dosia

TranslationChiara Masala, Silvia Mondin

EditingWayne Starkey

Collaborators of this pubblicationAnna Di Giandomenico, Chiara Masala, Giorgio C. Tagliafico, Giovanni M. Quinti.

Official Press Organ of LA TECA Organisations

La Teca Publishing House

www.gurdjieff.es

1 Welcome letter

2 LA TECA, who are we?

4 Do we have to believe in GOD?

10 Towards the One inside ourselves

14 Gurdjieff and early Christianity

18 Why begin working on yourself?

22 Correspondence With Seekers

25 How can we use personality?

This Magazine n.0 is an example of what you can find in the futurepublications.

La Teca is an initiative organised by La Teca, Institute for the Harmonious Development, which has been devoted for more than ten years to the teaching of the Fourth Way in Italy, Switzerland, Spain and Colombia.

Despite the fact that the publishing house was founded only in 2010, the Institute is committed to the divulgation of the Teaching by means of the study magazine “The Fourth Way” (“La Quarta Via” in Italian language) since 2003. Since arriving in Spain the Institute began to publish these magazines also in the Castilian language and titled them “El Cuarto Camino”.

From our point of view Gurdjieff’s Teaching was not something that was born and died together with its Master, as his knowledge was deep-rooted in Early Christianity and in Christian Gnosticism. Following the path of this Armenian Master of the XIX century, who adapted this ancient teaching to the mentality, culture and language of his age, we believe that it needs to be transformed in order to influence and enrich the life of the contemporary human being. Since a rose’s fragrance is always the same, but its petals, leaves and also its thorns are changing with the times. Our attention, drawn to the harmonious development of the human being, is open also to other traditions, cultures, disciplines and languages, which all help enrich and orient a deep and sincere search. That is the same search we would like to share with our readers of today and tomorrow: the knowledge of ourselves, the eternal Gnothi Seauton.

We wish you good reading!

Institute for the Harmonious Development “La Teca”

Institute for HarmoniousDevelopment

Welcome Letter

Dear Reader,In our industrialized society it’s not so uncommon to meet new age or esoteric movements or religious groups, which all keep on proposing to us different ways of thinking about the sense of life, about God and about the after life.

These are fundamental and very important ques-tions, which probably came to our mind for some time and which are still for some of us unan-swered questions, as they have been left behind in the forgetfulness lane.

“Nobody, indeed, has the answer to these ques-tions and we’d rather avoid thinking about them” – this is a common statement which puts aside the fundamental need of thinking about the sense of life and about ourselves.

We are a group of people aimed at keeping on investigating on these topics in a somehow differ-ent way in comparison to the traditional Church-es. In fact, as we believe from one side that a spiritual dimension already exists, on the other side we also believe that it does not exist apart from the reality that surrounds us, but that it hides behind it. There is nothing more spiritual than life and this spirituality is going to be seen, to be experienced and conceived only in the very moment that we stop in order to listen to ourselves.

Since Jesus’ time we know the story about the jewel of great price and about a collector finding it, who went and sold all that he had in order to buy it. We believe indeed that this jewel is hiding in our heart more than in the sky, so far away, not reachable by little mortals like ourselves.

La Teca is a group of men and women describing themselves as seekers of this jewel, adventuring themselves into the obscure depth of their inner

world, taking aim at finding it and carrying it along. Still, for us this jewel is not only an inner state, it is instead the jewel hiding in every circumstance… even in the most difficult ones. It happened like this once to a brother-searcher of one of our communities who wrote to me: “Even if I’m feeling bad, even if I see how little love there is in the world, I know and I feel that my task is to keep on hoping, believing, and loving…”

In order to achieve such wisdom, however, we need to undertake a voyage inwards which is not easy at all: our most beautiful gemstone is hiding in a garden with plenty of suffering, of tears and pain and sometimes we feel as if we don’t have the force to reach it. This voyage is the initiatic travel towards our inner castle and it’s often impeded by big burning dragons trying to defend it by frightening us.

Only the voice of a Friend telling us “don’t be afraid” can therefore help us to keep firm on our route. This gemstone, this voyage and this Friend are what La Teca is trying to pass down to the world, in spite of all the limits of a temporal organization made by men and women, there-fore fallacious. In this magazine you will find different articles on fundamental topics. I ask you to read them to the end and, if you will, to write to us all the questions you like. We don’t want to persuade anybody about our opinions, we don’t need to feel that we own the Truth, we want instead to transmit through our heart what we think we have discovered.Between these pages you will only perceive the fragrance of it. If you look at our eyes, you’ll maybe see its light.

Giovanni Maria Quinti La Teca Founder

“A Fourth Way school should produce Art. Art able to lead to the Awakening and the Remembering of the essential things. If a school is not able to reach this objective, it should necessarily review its teaching methods and its didactics”

Giovanni Maria Quinti

01 The Fourth Way

WHO ARE WE?

OUR STUDY TOOLS

WHEREARE WE?

Our Institute organises meetings of dif ferent levels to get people to know the Teaching. The transmission is never unidirectional, because the reflections and the knowledge of each participant constitute an integral part of our precious sharing activity.

These are specific study paths with which one can give sense and mean-ing to their personal research. One can analyse the fundamental topics of the Teaching and start to experience the knowledge of oneself.

Lectures, readings, workshops and seminars are organised in our international sites.Every year, La Teca organises conferences on a particular theme, which include wide subjects of the Teaching as well as general subjects on the inner research, psychology and spirituality.

In the workshops we focus on the personal work of the participants, which have an active role. Af ter a brief introduction of the central theme, we start the practi-cal phase of the work. The most discussed arguments are Self-Observation

The Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man “La Teca” takes inspira-tion from the teachings of George I. Gurdijef f, an Armenian Master who introduced in the West the system named by him “The Fourth Way”. We usually define ourselves as an Organisation of Humanity and Culture, because we expand our studies and observations to the vision of man of fered by the major western esoteric teachings. We are disconnected from any political and religious denomination. We sustain ourselves from tithes, from the donations and our editorial activities, and we are strongly committed to artistic activities as well as to volunteering activities.

Our organisation was born in Italy, in Rome, from the initiative of Giovanni Maria Quinti. With the time, we opened other sites in dif ferent Italian towns and then we expanded also abroad: in Switzerland, in Colombia, but most of all in Spain, where firstly in Barcelona and then in Madrid, G.M. Quinti formed some working groups. All the groups of our Institute work in unison as part of a single whole. The objective of our School is to provide a series of intellectual, psychological and spiritual tools – within the teachings of the Fourth Way - to support the internal evolution of the individual. As the physical body is the starting point of self-observation, it is exactly from the body that the pupils start to know themselves. Physical exercises, meditation, sacred dances and acting are integral parts of our teaching. The same importance is given to the study of the Teaching and to the observation and elaboration of the dynamics that generates inside our School.

ITALYcontact: [email protected]

SPAINcontact: [email protected]

UNITED KINGDOMcontact: [email protected]

02 The Fourth Way

and the Division of Attention. Through practical exercises, we make the partici-pants aware of how lit tle they are used to observing themselves and how their attention of ten disappears into “sleeping”.

In the readings and conversations, we propose a theme and then we talk together about it. Anyone can intervene and bring personal experiences. Sometimes we suggest short exercises or we watch movie clips related to the theme. Other times the theme can be extracted from our study magazines, whose articles are read and commented by the participants.

We also organise specific seminars on the Enneagram, the ancient and mysterious symbol that Gurdjief f considered to be a universal understanding tool («Each science has a place in the Enneagram and can be interpreted with it. Under this relation we can say that a man doesn’t really know anything - that is he does not understand - but what he is able to integrate in the Enneagram»). Each meeting is a unique experience, which does not only aim at an intellectual assimilation of the exposed ideas, but also at the possibility to experiment with them through practical exercises and through the sharing of personal experiences.

We consider the Sacred Dances a valid tool for the Work and the knowledge of oneself. We have an internal group of people who are constantly dedicated to the study and the practice of the Movements and the Sacred Dances. Moreover, the Movements are also used during our public meetings and seminars to give the participants the possibility to know aspects of themselves on an intellectual, instinctive and emotional level.

Another precious study tool is our magazine “The Fourth Way”. This has been published on a monthly basis from the 2003 in Italian. Seven of them are available in English. Our study magazines deeply analyse themes that are usually not available in other commercial publications related to the Fourth Way. Besides being an educational support, they constitute a fundamental element of commu-nion for our groups, whose members directly contribute by writing the articles. In “The Fourth Way” we take on themes that can help the seeker to deepen in an original way fundamental steps of their spiritual growth. The English magazines at the moment can be purchased on our website: www.gurdjief f.es.

Currently we are working in London to make these study tools available also in English. Our aim is to meet people interested in the Work and the knowledge of themselves, to be able to exchange and share experiences and learn reciprocally. If you are interested to get to know us, we will be very pleased to meet you and have a chat together. Contact us on [email protected]

WHERE ARE WE ON

THE WEB?

Our Institute organises meetings of dif ferent levels to get people to know the Teaching. The transmission is never unidirectional, because the reflections and the knowledge of each participant constitute an integral part of our precious sharing activity.

These are specific study paths with which one can give sense and mean-ing to their personal research. One can analyse the fundamental topics of the Teaching and start to experience the knowledge of oneself.

Lectures, readings, workshops and seminars are organised in our international sites.Every year, La Teca organises conferences on a particular theme, which include wide subjects of the Teaching as well as general subjects on the inner research, psychology and spirituality.

In the workshops we focus on the personal work of the participants, which have an active role. Af ter a brief introduction of the central theme, we start the practi-cal phase of the work. The most discussed arguments are Self-Observation

Currently we have a website in Italian, www.lateca.info, which contains multimedia content, information on events, study articles and the blogs of our Italian sites. We are working on the creation of the new website in English. It will be a rich and articulate “window” that we would like to open on the web to get people to know La Teca activities and to create a continuous and real time connection with the subscribed members. There will also be dedicated spaces, where it will be possible to deepen some important aspects of the Fourth Way and have access to a series of elements to start and understand the basis of the Teaching.

At the moment, it is possible to visit our old webisite in English on www.gurdjief f.es.

In this website you can subscribe to our forthnightly newsletter, where you can read interesting thoughts and stories on the work on ourselves and much more..

You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter to receive weekly updates on the Fourth Way and the Early Christianity themes and on our activities in the UK!

03 The Fourth Way

and the Division of Attention. Through practical exercises, we make the partici-pants aware of how lit tle they are used to observing themselves and how their attention of ten disappears into “sleeping”.

In the readings and conversations, we propose a theme and then we talk together about it. Anyone can intervene and bring personal experiences. Sometimes we suggest short exercises or we watch movie clips related to the theme. Other times the theme can be extracted from our study magazines, whose articles are read and commented by the participants.

We also organise specific seminars on the Enneagram, the ancient and mysterious symbol that Gurdjief f considered to be a universal understanding tool («Each science has a place in the Enneagram and can be interpreted with it. Under this relation we can say that a man doesn’t really know anything - that is he does not understand - but what he is able to integrate in the Enneagram»). Each meeting is a unique experience, which does not only aim at an intellectual assimilation of the exposed ideas, but also at the possibility to experiment with them through practical exercises and through the sharing of personal experiences.

We consider the Sacred Dances a valid tool for the Work and the knowledge of oneself. We have an internal group of people who are constantly dedicated to the study and the practice of the Movements and the Sacred Dances. Moreover, the Movements are also used during our public meetings and seminars to give the participants the possibility to know aspects of themselves on an intellectual, instinctive and emotional level.

Another precious study tool is our magazine “The Fourth Way”. This has been published on a monthly basis from the 2003 in Italian. Seven of them are available in English. Our study magazines deeply analyse themes that are usually not available in other commercial publications related to the Fourth Way. Besides being an educational support, they constitute a fundamental element of commu-nion for our groups, whose members directly contribute by writing the articles. In “The Fourth Way” we take on themes that can help the seeker to deepen in an original way fundamental steps of their spiritual growth.

Currently we are working in London to make these study tools available also in English. Our aim is to meet people interested in the Work and the knowledge of themselves, to be able to exchange and share experiences and learn reciprocally. If you are interested to get to know us, we will be very pleased to meet you and have a chat together. Contact us on [email protected]

www.gurdjieff.es

facebook.com/LaTecaUK

@LaTecaUK

www.tecaedizioni.it

https://twitter.com/latecauk


www.gurdjieff.es

www.tecaedizioni.it

Dear Reader, DOES GOD EXIST?

We would like to inform you that despite how this article could seem on a first reading quite critical in regards to Mr. Ouspensky, our esteem and respect for him and on the contribution that he gave to the Teaching is very high, to the point that we had also the honour of publishing one of his books with our Publishing House. What we “criticize” is an aspect of his method that in our opinion can be enriched and completed with other methods and approaches, some used also by Mr. Gurdjieff, which we carry on in our School and continuously experiment on ourselves.

We wish you a good reading.

DOES GOD EXIST?This question is one of the most important. Philoso-phers, theologians and intellectuals have been arguing for centuries in an attempt to give an answer to it. Opinions are really discordant: some affirm that God exists, some that he does not; some get to hate him for having created a chaotic world, full of suffering, and some who - on the contrary - give to him all their life. (1)

Does a man who follows the Fourth Way have to believe in God?

One of the most important discoveries made by our readers from the first publications of these magazines is that Mr. Ouspensky, the most known Mr. Gurdjieff pupil separated from him exactly for this matter. Ouspensky, even before meeting G. expressed big resistances for all that was connect-ed to the idea of “God”.

«That schools existed I did not doubt. But at the same time I became convinced that the schools I heard about and with which I could have come into contact were not for me. They were schools of either a frankly religious nature or of a half-reli-gious character, but definitely devotional in tone. These schools did not attract me...». (P. D. Ouspensky, In search of the Miracolous, Ishi Press International, USA 2011, page 5).

Mr. Gurdjieff assumes that what is left after death has been built and grown consciously during our life and that it separates from the body, deceasing more slowly than it. We can find this indication also in the Gospels, though without the idea of the following gradual decease, which is a personal addition of Mr. Gurdjieff to the evangelic idea.

«“[...] how did you study?”- asked Ouspenksy to Gurdjieff -“I was not alone. There were all kind of specialists among us. Everyone studied on the line of his particu-

lar subject. Afterwards, when we forgathered, we put together everything we had found.”“And where are your companions now?” G. was silent for a time. Then, looking into the distance: “Some have died, some are working, some have gone in seclusion”. This word from the monastic language, heard so unexpectedly, gave me a strange and uncom-fortable feeling». (page 16)

In spite of this, Gurdjieff did not have any problem to work with Ouspensky, because in the Fourth Way no form of prior “faith” is demanded. His and our message is not addressed exclusively to those who have faith; but also to those who do not have a faith and wish to take part in an experiential path towards that direction. Our area of work is merely psychological and – under this viewpoint – faith become absolutely a personal matter.

Then why did Mr. O. feel the need to separate from Mr. G. because of this argument? Why did G. “REQUIRE from his students the observance of ALL the rituals and ALL THE CEREMONIES of the Religious Way”? (page 413)

How can this fit with all we have affirmed earlier?

The Fourth Way does not offer an answer to the opening question of this article. Under this viewpoint it matches perfectly with Pascal’s (1623-1662) thinking: we are not able to know neither what is [God] nor if it exists... The reason cannot give an answer. We are separated from an infinite chaos. (2)

It is not our intention to argue on the long-standing ques-tions about who created the world, if there will be a second arrival of Christ or if “Adam was created with the navel or not”.

We leave all these topics to the theologians and to everyonelses personal opinion.

From this point of view, therefore, the Fourth Way does not match to the religion, nor it meditates on the same questions. Though there are some aspects upon which the Fourth Way and religion seem to be similar and some schools even use the same exercises as the “ceremonies and rituals of the religious Way”. Lets try and understand why.

As we have already said many times, man is com-pletely fragmented, a slave of a multitude of ‘I’s’ that cage him and do not allow him to be one. The Fourth Way objective is the development of a permanent ‘I’, central and definitive. To achieve this objective it uses “self-remembering”.

«Only by beginning to remember himself does a man really awaken. And then all surrounding life acquires for him a different aspect and a different meaning. He sees that it is the life of sleeping people, a life in sleep. All that men say, all that they do, they say and do in sleep. All this can have no value whatev-er. Only awakening and what leads to awak-ening has a value in reality». (3) (page 143)

Self-remembering, and the increase of this memory, should become a central aim for a Fourth Way pupil. When Mr. Ouspenky tried to remember himself, he understood that it was very similar to a “division of attention”. (page 119)

Ordinary man mechanically pays attention only to what surrounds him or only to himself. By putting a conscious effort to remember himself, his atten-tion is addressed contemporarily to the observed object and to himself, who is observing. This was Mr. O. work for long time and, thanks to this, he could do several awakening experiences.

Though experience teaches us that there exists different levels of self-remembering and what was used by Mr. O. was only one of the initial levels. We shall remember that self-remembering must become a permanent characteristic of the being. In order to allow this to become real we need new tools that can powerfully influence our Formatory Centre, making it more rooted to self-remembering.

Only in this way self-remembering can become the basis from whom we can elevate to the level that Mr. G. defines as the “Objective state of conscious-ness”. (page 141)

On many occasions some Mr. O. schools’ pupils come to visit me, telling me that after many years of self-remembering with the method defined by Mr. O, they are not able to consolidate it in them-selves. In these cases it is necessary to seek the help of more evolved tools, already being used in some schools.

A Mr. O pupil, Rodney Collin, deductively perceived all of this. Indeed he writes in his “The Theory of Celestial Influence”:

«[And yet many years of struggle and failure may be necessary before one comes to a curious psychological fact, which is in reality connected with a very important law indeed.] This fact is that although it is extraordinarily difficult to divide one's attention into two, it is much more possible for it to be divided into three: although it is extraordinarily difficult to remember oneself and one's surroundings simultaneously, it may be much more possible to remember oneself and one's surroundings in the presence of something else. [...] What is this third factor which must be remembered? Each person must find it for himself [...] ». (Rodney Collin, The Theory of the Celestial Influences. Man, The Universe and Cosmic Mystery, Web Version, pages 236-237)

The exercise of self-remembering carried out in some schools takes the form of the “remembrance of God”. And it’s exactly on this point that the Fourth Way looks like a religion, externally. But substantially its approach is different. While religious people take for granted that God exists exactly in the same way that they perceive it or in the way the Holy Scriptures present it, the Fourth Way pupil is certain of nothing. His aim is to consolidate self-remembering and he discovers that the image of an exterior God can help him with that. (4)

Do we have to believe in GOD?by Giovanni M. Quinti

Self-remembering cannot simply be a cognitive or sensorial effort. To become stable, it needs an external projection, particularly alive, that allows him to elevate himself to more subtle qualities. God, for the people who choose The Fourth Way, has to be necessarily seen and imagined outside themselves, like a standing-alone being, defined and personal. Only in this way they will be able to build a defined, precise, peculiar and communica-tive relationship with that image. And exactly from this point new dimensions of Work can begin.

Self-remembering is continuously fed by this relationship, that has to evolve and settle accord-ing to specific methods. At this point, the pupil is not interested if God exists or not. However, he knows that an Infinite that surrounds him does exist, an eternal time and a space without limits that he cannot contemplate for what it is. We are limited beings and, as such, we can fully under-stand only what is similar to us. For this reason, the human being limits in an imaginary symbol what is outside his reach: he gives a shape to the “non-shape”. He knows that his idea of God is a failure and for this reason he would not ever be capable of any form of religious dispute. Yet he also knows that, in order to remember himself, he needs to feel the infinite around him, and - to be able to do it - he defines a specific point that can represent it. Self-remembering is not only a “dou-ble-perception” of ourselves in the world, like Ous-pensky said. This technique is appropriate for those who are new to the Work and I myself use it when I conduct new groups.

In reality, there are seven levels of self-re-membering.

The pupil begins to experiment the easiest way of self-remembering suitable for their understanding, for the necessary time until they evolve to more

advanced levels. Certainly this “evolution” is consequential to the development of the pupil in a condition of “objective work”(by this term we mean a work conducted according to the traditional crite-ria: inside an organisation, with a master and with specific objectives).

The levels of self-remembering are the following:

■ Self-remembering in relation to the external space, by dividing the attention between me and the object I observe. (Man n.1)

■ Self-remembering with the emotional perception of me and of the surrounding world. (Man n.2) ■ Self-remembering with the visualised image of a third point that is distinguished from me and from the world. (Man n.3) ■ Self-remembering with the creation of a constant and ambivalent relationship between me, the surrounding world and the Third Point. (God) ■ Self-remembering with the fusion with that third point until coming to observe externally myself and the world. (Objective view) ■ Self-remembering with a deep internal fusion with the Third Point (God) until the complete control of oneself, from which derives the conscious participation to the “game of the world”. ■ Self-remembering with the deep perception that the world, myself and the Third Point (God) are the same thing. (5)

The states of self-remembering combine together and one is the prelude to the one that follows.

We suddenly realise at what level of self-remem-bering Mr. Ouspenksy worked. He, after having experienced the first one, or perhaps the second level, could not progress further:

«[...] especially strongly did I feel that in spite of every effort I was unable to remember myself for any length of time. At first some-thing seemed to be successful, but later it all

went [and I felt without any doubt the deep sleep in which I was immersed]». (In search of the Miraculous, page 249)

When G. proposed to O. further work, through the visualisation of a Third Point, superior and transcendent, he decided to step away.

In that same occasion Ouspensky and G. had a dialogue from which we understand that G. was waiting for the moment to clarify the next steps and the nature of the Work done by Ouspensky. These “put on hold” are always determined by the fact that the master perceives that the pupil is not yet ready to accept some aspects of the teaching due to a series of personal resistances.

“What is the matter with you today?” asked G. “I myself do not know,” said I, “only I am begin-ning to feel that with us nothing is being achieved, or rather, that I am achieving nothing. I cannot speak about others. But I cease to understand you and you no longer explain anything as you used to explain it in the begin-ning. And I feel that in this way nothing will be achieved.” “Wait a little, said G.” Soon conver-sations will start. Try to understand me; up to now we have been trying to find each thing's place. Soon we shall begin to call things by their proper names”. (pages 249-250)

Ouspensky was not able to understand what G. meant and he wondered how “call things by their proper names” would resolve his impasse. In reali-ty, Gurdjieff was using an allegory to try and intro-duce the idea of a new level of self-remembering, i.e. through the utilisation of a “name” of a specific external image.

When the pupil begins to create an image of God outside himself, he symbolically visualises what Gurdjieff calls Third Force «[...] we cannot see the

third force. The third force is a property of the real world». (page 78) (6)

In our subjectivity we are continuously submitted to two forces: the wolf and the sheep inside of us, the moral and the immoral, the good and the evil. In other words, we are divided between the egoism and the altruism, between the inner world and the outer world. Self-remembering is the tool that allows us to overcome this conflict; it is the Third Force that allows the pupil to transcend. When the Fourth Way pupil starts to remember himself with the first two levels described above, he understands that he cannot make it stable without having an external point from which he can observe himself.

Man struggles more to observe himself rather than another person. On the basis of this principle he builds a lent through which he looks at himself from an external point.

Experience - much more valid than any bookish theory - teaches that if man begins to remember himself by remembering God walking with him, eating with him, listening to him and going along with him in every moment, he acquires further tools of auto-observation which he did not possess before.

These tools are of two types: some of a technical nature and some of an emotional nature. An exam-ple of a technical tool is the one assigned inside our brotherhood: the pupil is invited to know the names of God in the original language described in the Bible. Once he has meditated on them for a certain period and in that way he has discovered some fundamental traits of the Third Force he learns to “say them in secret”, calling God with his name (“soon we shall begin to call things by their proper names" said G. to O.). He learns how to develop a continuous state of “prayer”, even doing his normal

ordinary actions. That is, a part of him invokes continuously self-remembering and he makes it stable thanks to the strong perception of being observed from an external point, from God itself that hears his invocation and reaches him.

This is perfectly in line with Jesus’ words: «Be always on the watch and pray» (Lc. 21:36), a precise advice to stabilise self-remembering. (7)

When the pupil has made of that external image a defined element to whom he appeals very frequently, he can resort to all of those very pow-erful emotional tools that are inaccessible with the inferior levels of self-remembering.

It can seem weird, but the more a man gets close to the Real, the more he is helped. The big difficulties are at the beginning of the way. This is confirmed in the Holy Scriptures (which for us is a “technical text” for the work on oneself that is really extraordinary, reliable and verifiable):

«I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what they have will be taken away». (Lc. 19:26)

When the pupil stabilises his perception of God, to increment it, he can began to communicate with him spontaneously, to seek his company. That is, he begins the wonderful process of falling in love with God.

Supplied of such penetrating love, self-remembering cannot be anymore a sporadic phenomenon. This represent the point of no return and the ascent is certain and consequential. At this level, the pupil makes experiences that cease to be subjective. Inside and outside himself extraordinary, “miracu-lous” and objective events happen. He starts to verify that that “imagined”, “thought” and “built” God has a superior and objective correspondence.

He understands that a strict correlation exists between the psychic cosmos and the external one;

that the creation of the Lord of the internal cosmos (the ‘I’) makes him in contact with the “Lord of the external Universe”. (8)

Though it is not useful to speak about that now, or we would make the mistake of creating assumptions on things that we do not know. The same Gurdjieff severely avoided to speak of things that could only be lived and experimented.

The Fourth Way is experience not theory. Numerous times Monsieur Gurdjieff speaks indirectly about the different levels of self-remem-bering and of the use of the divine image as the biggest tool to stabilise it.

We find an example of that it in his book “Life is real only then, when “I am””. The title of the book itself has more levels of meaning (even seven). One of them is “Life is real only then, when God”

because “I am” in Jewish is translated “He he ye” which is the root of many divine names. Moreover, when God appears to Moses and he asks God what is his name, He answered:

«This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you». (Ex. 3:14)

In Gurdjieffs book, oddly and without justifications there are short parts in italics. Gurdjieff affirmed that some books by masters of the past were valid only for a few lines or pages and that all the rest was written only for the interest of the foolish or the time-wasters.Only those who had the right interpretation would have found the essential and thrown away the rest.

What if Gurdjieff had adopted a similar method?

I invite the reader to retrieve that book and find the part we mentioned above. He will probably find lots of relevance with what we have written so far and perhaps he will also understand what was Gurd-jieff’s answer to our initial question. •

04 The Fourth Way



We wish you a good reading.(1) What is your opinion on that? (2) What do you think about Pascal’s statement?

























by Giovanni M. QuintiDo we have to believe in GOD?








































05 The Fourth Way



We wish you a good reading. (3) How do you apply the self-remembering exercise? Which experiences have you had so far?

(4) Try and do this exercise, whilst you read these words imagine someone who is observing you from an external position. Get up and have a walk around the room, engage in any activity and keep your atten-tion to this Third Point. What are your observations? What have you experienced?
































































06 The Fourth Way





(5) Write on a board or on a sheet a synthesis of the different levels of self-remembering, trying to penetrate the deep meaning and the different phases. What do you relate them to? What does this arouse in you?

























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(6) What is the Third Force? In which way can you relate it to God?








































08 The Fourth Way





























(7) What does a similar exercise make you think? What could this be useful for? Which results can we achieve?

(8) Reflect upon those two last sentences. Try and feel their meaning.








































09 The Fourth Way


In spite of the precise definitions that one learns during the years in a School, essence and personality are always aspects that need to be discovered... Indeed, with the passing of time, the images that express them inside of us can change.

The intellectual definitions are useful most of all at the beginning of the path, because they give a guidance towards the inner discovery; however, afterwards, it is important to feel and to listen to what is moving inside of us, to really understand what we have learnt and come also to more deep intuitions.

Some people study a lot and analyse the events to protect themselves from feeling. For them feeling is uncer-tain and obscure; while the intellect categorises, schematises and makes everything clearer in a logical order. But this could be a limited point of view and sometimes not that real. (1)

The travel towards oneself, towards the discovery of one’s personality and one’s essence, usually begins (and goes on) with the observation of the mechanisms of defence and of the reactions that activate inside of

(1) Do you agree with what the author affirmed, that knowledge that is only theoretical can be little real? Why in your opinion?

us unconsciously, according to the situation or the people around us.

To see and most of all to understand this, puts us in the condition of feeling our limitations. This leads us from a situation of control to a condition in which in reality we don’t have control of anything and we have no power.

To experience this sensation can be frustrating, sometimes depressing. All our life we have been fighting to not feel like that. We have put to use many stratagems and tricks to not feel weak and fragile. These characteristics, however, are part of our human nature: we are limited and imperfect. This is a reality from which we cannot escape, a part from with the illusion. Yet, if we decide not to live anymore an apparent life, we start to glimpse what is the reality and little-by-little we try to accept it.

Personality arises from not wanting to see the reality. It arises from the denial of our nature, from not accepting it. This happens because we live in a world where weaknesses and imperfection are characteristics to be hidden. In that way, mech-anisms of defence grow up, defences from a socie-ty that wants us different, that – if we don’t adapt to it – keeps us at distance and almost annihilates us. (2)

In this travel towards the discovery of oneself, beyond the human essence communal to everyone, one tries to know also one’s essence, and – there-fore – one’s denied needs.

The fundamental needs of human beings, like the one to be fed, to be taken care, to be loved and considered, are common to everyone; but every one of us would like to receive this care, this atten-tion to our needs in different ways. For example, one person would like to receive love with cuddles, another prefers appreciative words.

In this adaptation process we find that, besides our human nature, we have denied also our personal needs, trying to adapt to the needs of other people and of society. Our essence – to not be refused by the world –

creates an alter ego, a different mask where it is not itself anymore. From here it generates the separa-tion and the rise of another element: personality.

Essence and personality are not so distinct elements: one is the reflection of the other. The essence cannot live in the world without the person-ality, and the latter exists because it has to defend the essence. Yet the personality hurts the essence, because through this defence, it does not allow the essence to express itself and grow.

What to do then?

Personality takes care of the essence only through the defence and never gives her a touch… There-fore, with the passing of time, personality forgets the essence and it lives only for itself, for being appreciated by the world.

In a previous publiclication of this magazine, Giovanni Maria Quinti spoke about the “mischie-vous kid” and the “pure kid”; the former refers to the personality, the latter to the essence. He says:

“The mischievous kid is the shadow of the pure one, it arises from the denial of our true feelings. Only by bringing again them to life, this kid can grow wiser and merge with the essential kid, to be one thing with him”.

From the reading of this article, and especially of this sentence an image came to me:

On one side there is a little child, hidden in a corner, scared and defenceless. In front of him there is another child, bigger, strong and proud: the pure kid and the mischievous one, indeed.The latter is always back-facing to the pure child, to relate to the external world. His goal is to protect the pure child, to defend him and to call back the love of the other people. And he does that with much power. But he is too busy defending him or recalling someone’s love, that he doesn’t have time to pay attention to the pure child. In that way, little by little, by seeing only the world in front of him, the mischie-vous kid forgets the other child behind, the child he has to defend… He becomes charmed by the worldly things and by sporadic flattering. He sees that with certain ways of behaving he receives the so much craved love and he starts to put in use some mechanisms to receive always more from outside. He forgets his real function, that is to protect, defend and feed the pure child, and becomes egoist.

Maybe, sometimes he turns behind but it is very dark too see the little being left in the corner. And now the distance between them is really far. They are separated.

Personality becomes a “mischievous kid” because it stops to attend upon the essence and thinks and act only for itself. Moreover, in that condition, it will take a lot of effort to grow wiser because in the situation of a child it can obtain things easier, by crying, getting angry, hitting, getting offended, or by manipulating, at the cost of passing over the others. Only he exists, but he will never be satisfied and he will want always more.

His emptiness is so big that he tries to fill it with the worldly things, which temporarily satis-fy him but then they are not enough. (3)

The mischievous kid feels empty because he forgot his other half, the child he was born for. For this reason, in order to fill this emptiness, he should get closer to his hidden part and not look for external palliatives. But he left this part alone for much time, in a corner in the middle of nowhere and now, to find that again, he needs to travel in the mazes of darkness.

“But is that worth it?”, he thinks. “In the end I really like the world, there are things that satisfy me…why work so hard to find that other part there, which I don’t even like?”

The mischievous kid needs to grow.

A child always wants the love and consideration of others and is allowed to not take his own responsi-bilities. On the contrary, an adult takes care of those more little and is the only responsible for his actions. We all like to stay in the condition of a child... it is simpler, it is better, but in this way we live in a condi-tion of a constant dependency. We live for others, to seduce them and get them closer, to indulge them.. until we almost don’t “exist” anymore.

How can the mischievous kid grow?

In order to do that, we need the presence of a third observant who, without judgment and with much love, sees the two parts and can see that one is the result of the other. A child, to grow well and healthy needs love. The mischievous kid is the result of a huge wound, generated from an essential lack of love. In that way, he starts to put in use different mechanisms to receive love from the external world, but doing like that he separates from what he really is, and becomes what the world and the others want him to be.

This third observant sees all that. At the beginning of the path of knowledge of oneself, the third observant could be repre-sented by the master, or a person who has already walked through this path for long time, and has the tools to be able to help other people. Then, with time, one learns to create inside of oneself this third observant, which in our School is called the “Holy Observant”, and learns to love these two parts - the wounds and the pain and the reactions to this pain - start-ing to shorten the distance that separates the two parts.

With the presence and the love of the Holy Observant (4) - previously external to us and then inside of us - the two children within us can grow and the personality can, with the passing of time, and with the continuous work on oneself, attend upon the essence and become more responsible of his actions.

Surely, the “call of the world” will be always irresisti-ble and often the mischievous kid can do no less than obey to that mellow and tempting call. But once we have created that “Holy Observant” inside of us, the “call of our essence” will become stronger.

The two children get again in touch and from that moment they cannot pretend that the other one does not exist, and little by little they will understand that one cannot live without the other.

The mischievous kid understands that he cannot ignore the pure child anymore and that he needs to talk to him, to play with him and to take care of him, because the world can NEVER satisfy his need of love. Nobody can replace his responsibility to protect and take care of the pure child.

In this way, the personality will become less childish and will start to listen and to love the essence, and only in that way it can defend the essence without harm of its needs, and on the contrary making it more strong and bright.

Only in this way the unity between these two parts inside of us can happen.

I would like to tell a little anecdote that can clarify what I have said so far:

A girl finds out that the night before some of her girlfriends went out without her. Suddenly she feels “betrayed” and “excluded” from them, even if – in reality – her girlfriends didn’t want to exclude her intentionally and, moreover, they love her a lot. The fact that she doubted them indicates a lack of confi-dence that she needs to resolve. But for the girl it was simpler to blame her friend instead of seeing her childish wound. So, she calls one of them to tell her how she feels with a slightly accusingly tone of voice. Her friend does not behave as she expected: she gets really angry for that lack of trust and respect and she speaks to her with a strong and impetuous tone. The girl then feels worse for this reaction, because it brought to light another deeper wound: the one of not being understood and listened by others. That event confirmed in her the belief of “not being valued” by the others. She cries a lot. She feels closed, angry and unable to forgive her friend for how, in her opinion, she attacked her. Later on, when she slowly listens to her wound (“I have no value”) and she sees her defence to it (“you don’t understand me, I won’t tell you anything about me anymore!”), she understands one thing: the other people do not have to be always ready to understand her and listen to her, so she should not claim from them comprehension, listening and caresses for her wounds and her mistakes. This has been a really important understanding for her. The defence “you don’t understand me” becomes “I don’t understand myself, I don’t listen to myself”.

The mischievous kid, which is the shadow of the pure one (that is the reflection of his denied needs) instead of smashing his pain to the world, expecting

love and understanding from the others, turns to the pure kid, from which the pain is originated, and learns to listen to him and take care of him. Only him, indeed, can help him heal.Surely, the growth and maturity process of these two elements takes long and it is difficult. It is also necessary to meet people who teach us how to do that and help us with that.

Indeed, when the essence grows, its pain and denied needs become much more visible. When the light is brighter, the shadow becomes strong-er. Therefore there is the risk that the mischievous child gets “scared” for this naked reality on his eyes... For this reason, he will have to make more efforts to not blindfold again his eyes and still act like a child. He will need to fight against his habits (5) in order to become more mature.

During this long path the mischievous kid learns to look after his other self.

This is the path of reunification with ourselves, where an essence and a personality completely disjoint-ed between themselves do not exist anymore, but where a childish part and an adult one will coexist inside ourselves and will form a unified being that lives for itself, and not in function of others. Only then will we stop always asking for love and consid-eration from others and we will stop feeling separat-ed from them, like almost “enemies” to seduce or to attack. We will be able to get close to other people’s essence, melting with them in a real contact.

I won’t forget the words of my Master who told me on the phone:

“I want to be One. I want to get in contact with the other and with the Whole, and not be separat-ed from it. I don’t want to be a schizophrenic person that acts in one way in a certain place, and then in complete different way in another place. I want to be One. I want to be one with myself and with the others.”

Then, I would like to learn this in my life:

“I want to become Mother and Father of myself, without rushing, with lots of patience and forgive-ness for the mistakes that I will do; and I want to be One with the Bright Child inside of me.” •

10 The Fourth Way

Towards the One inside ourselvesby Chiara Masala

A travel towards the discovery of ouressence and personality





(2) In your opinion are there defence mechanisms that to hide one’s weaknesses and imperfection lead one to show that they are weak and imperfect? Can you make some examples?










What to do then?



















by Chiara MasalaTowards the One inside ourselves















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(3) How do you apply the self-remembering exercise? Which experiences have you had so far? (4) Who in your opinion is this “Holy Observant”?










What to do then?

































12 The Fourth Way






(5) What is the habit the author is referring to in your opinion?










What to do then?

































13 The Fourth Way


We can consider Gurdjieff’s message apparently complex and often difficult to understand for those approaching it without a guide who has already personally experienced the process of escaping from the “prison” (which for G. is a symbolic representation of the “cage” of masks of “false personality”), relying solely on books and other texts on the subject.

Through the articles in these study notes, we will deal with topics that could make this message clearer, approaching it from a range of viewpoints, because once we grasp the key to understanding it we can find the same message in many traditions.

To approach this topic, I would like to introduce some quotations from a little-known book in which Gurdjieff’s message is presented at its most profoundly essential. The book is: “Who are you, Monsieur Gurdjieff?” by René Zuber, one of G.’s pupils during the German occupation of Paris. Zuber seems to have grasped the key to reading and understanding the esoteric message in the sacred texts of our traditions, such as the Old and New Testament, as well as those of other Traditions more or less distant from our own. In René Zuber’s testi-mony, we read of how Gurdjieff spoke of these matters:

“Referring to the well-known commandment to love one’s neighbour as oneself, he asked who was able to do this? ‘The commandments exist as an ideal, but the knowledge that would enable us to keep them is lost. However, such knowledge constitutes the other half of Christianity, its esotericism. It has been preserved in certain schools. (1) Each one of you will be able to initiate himself into it while staying at the Institute which has been opened at the Prieuré, on the condition that you feel the need for it. Thus he spoke of Christianity only to people who already had some idea of its meaning. But labels, as we know,

(1) Did you know that Gurdjieff’s teaching was actually Esoteric Christianity?

mattered little to him. Jew, Christian, Buddhist, Lamaist, Muslim... as soon as one gets to the heart of the matter, whatever the differing names, one comes upon the same truth.”(Who are you, Monsieur Gurdjieff? - René Zuber, pages 36-37)

We also read in “In Search of the Miraculous”:

“You must understand, he said, that every real religion, that is one that has been created by learned people for a definite aim, consists of two parts. One part teaches what is to be done. This part becomes common knowl-edge, and in the course of time is distorted and departs from the original.The other part teaches how to do what the first part teaches. This part is preserved in secret in special schools and with its help it is always possible to rectify what has been distorted in the first part or to restore what has been forgotten.�Without this second part there can be no knowledge of religion or in any case such knowledge would be incomplete and very subjective. This secret part exists in Christianity also, as well as in other religions, and it teaches how to carry out the precepts of Christ and what they really mean.” (2) (In Search of the Miraculous, page 304)

If you, like myself, have undergone the influence of exoteric (external) religion, feeling it to be like a heavy weight to free yourself from as soon as possi-ble, the association of Gurdjieff’s thinking and “method” with Christianity may at first seem rather forced. Especially if your path leads you to ideas that you thought you had dismissed for good as lies, or in any case as not complying with “your” view of reality. For example, the image of an anthropomor-phic God, or the use of rituals and “mantras” that echo those of the religion as we all “un-know” it.

But let us return to a passage from René Zuber book, where he speaks of the new understanding:

“As soon as the idea flashed across my mind, that the teaching was none other than a version of the Gospels in different language, I was overcome with great joy and at the same time a certain uneasiness. Why? To put it

simply, let us say that I had a feeling of step-ping into private territory. For Christianity was not born yesterday. It belongs by right to the saints and elders of the Church. Furthermore, although nowadays its precepts are universal-ly doubted, it is clearly still the foundation of our institutions, codes and ethics and our thought is steeped in it. Could it really be that until now we had not recognized it in this unknown teaching?In order to recognize it in a form we had never seen before we would have had to have tasted its essence (which keeps its flavour through-out all changes of appearance). The essence of Christianity? Do not expect me to try to define what appears to be beyond definition. It would, however, be wrong to pretend to know nothing about it.” (pages 32-33)

Again in “In Search of the Miraculous” we find this declaration by Gurdjieff himself:

“‘I do not know what you know about Christi-anity’, answered G., emphasizing this word. ‘It would be necessary to talk a great deal and to talk for a long time in order to make clear what you understand by this term. But for the benefit of those who know already, I will say that, if you like, this is esoteric Christi-anity. We will talk in due course about the meaning of these words.’” (3) (page 102)

This is precisely what we are trying to do here, or rather, if not to define it, we are trying to come close to the feeling, starting from the intellectual centre that often serves as a “forerunner”. In the meantime we can observe that Gurdjieff origins were Ortho-dox-Christian, and he was born and grew up in contact with various traditions. His first masters were his father and a priest, so Christianity, and particularly the figure of the master Jesus and the Kabbalah of Jewish tradition, contributed to his preparation. Later he certainly had one or more Sufi masters (holy men in the Muslim esoteric tradition). For this reason whoever seeks to misappropriate the historic and cultural roots (as does the author going by the pen-name Rafael Lefort, in his book “The Teachers of Gurdjieff”) detaching them from the profoundly Christian roots, is committing a very grave error.

Gurdjieff explains the Gospels

There are many, many parallels between the Gos-pels and Gurdjieff’s words. Indeed, Gurdjieff himself often makes explicit reference to them. I would now like to illustrate just some of the parallels between Ouspensky’s In Search of the Miraculous (except where otherwise indicated) and a number of verses from the Gospels. These similarities are innumerable.

Why don't you try for yourselves to find a few and send them over to us? ([email protected])

They will certainly be published in a future publica-tion. For the moment we will list those that came to our mind, so as to allow everyone to identify their deeper meaning and their closest similarities. (4)

Matthew 10:38 Anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Matthew 10:39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

“Sacrifice is necessary,” said G. “If nothing is sacri-ficed, nothing is obtained. And it is necessary to sacrifice something precious at the moment, to sacrifice for a long time and to sacrifice a great deal.” (In Search of the Miraculous, page 33)

Matthew 5:37 Simply let your "Yes" be "Yes", and your "No", "No"; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

Fusion, inner unity, is obtained by means of

'friction', by the struggle between 'yes' and 'no' in man." (page 32)

Matthew 23:27 Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like white-washed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean.

Matthew 23:28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

“On the most prevalent occasions a man is identi-fied with what others think about him, how they treat him, what attitude they show towards him. He always thinks that people do not value him enough, are not sufficiently polite and courteous. All this torments him, makes him think and suspect and lose an immense amount of energy on guesswork, on suppositions, develops in him a distrustful and hostile attitude towards people. How somebody looked at him, what somebody thought of him, what somebody said of him, all this acquires for him an immense significance.” (page 151)

Matthew 7:1 Do not judge, or you too will be judged.

Matthew 7:2 For in the same way you judge others, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Matthew 7:3 Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

Matthew 7:4 How can you say to your brother, "Let me take the speck out of your eye," when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?

Matthew 7:5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

"External considering... is adaptation towards people, to their understanding, to their require-ments. By considering externally, a man does that which makes life easy for other people and for himself... if a man really remembers himself, he understands that another man is a machine just as he is himself. And then he will enter into his position, he will put himself in his place, and he will be really able to understand and feel what another man thinks and feels. If he can do this his work becomes easier for him... Right external considering is very important in the work." (page 153)

Luke 21:34 Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down... Luke 21:36 Be always on the watch, and pray...

"There is nothing new in the idea of sleep. People have been told almost since the creation of the world that they are asleep and that they must awaken. How many times is this said in the Gos-pels, for instance? 'Awake', 'watch', 'sleep not'. Christ's disciples even slept when he was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane for the last time. It is all there. But do men understand it? Men take it simply as a form of speech, as an expression, as a meta-phor... I tell you seriously that I have been asked several times why nothing is said about sleep in the Gospels. Although it is there, spoken of on almost every page. This simply shows that people read the Gospels in sleep." (page 144)

John 3:3 In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God”.

“To awake, to die, to be born, these are three successive stages. If you study the Gospels atten-tively, 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.’ We have already spoken enough about the meaning of being 'born'. This 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.” (In Search of the Miraculous page 241-242)

Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

“The idea of centre of gravity can be interpreted in many different ways. It is a more or less permanent aim and the realization of the relative importance of things in connection with this aim. This means that certain interests become more important than anything else - one acquires a permanent direction, one does not go one day in one direction and another day in another; one goes in one direction and one knows the direction. The stronger your centre of gravity, the more you are free from acci-dent.” (page 98 - The Fourth Way)

Luke 9:60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the king-dom of God”.

“Moreover, it happens fairly often that essence dies in a man while his personality and his body are still

alive. A considerable percentage of the people we meet in the streets of a great town are people who are empty inside, that is, the are actually already dead. It is fortunate for us that we do not see and do not know it. If we knew what a number of people are actually dead and what a number of these dead people govern our lives, we should go mad with horror.” (In Search of the Miraculous page 164)

Matthew 21:33 Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey.

Matthew 21:34 When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.

Matthew 21:35 The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third.

Matthew 21:36 Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treat-ed them the same way.

Matthew 21:37 Last of all, he sent his son to them. “They will respect my son,” he said.

Matthew 21:38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, “This is the heir. Come, let's kill him and take his inheritance”.

Matthew 21:39 So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

Matthew 21:40 “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”

Matthew 21:41 “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”

“... man is compared to a house in which there is a multitude of servants but no master and no stew-ard. The servants have all forgotten their duties; no one wants to do what he ought; everyone tries to be the master, if only for a moment; and, in this kind of disorder, the house is threatened with grave danger. The only chance of salvation is for a group of the more sensible servants to meet together and elect a temporary steward, that is, a deputy stew-ard. This deputy steward can then put the other servants in their places, and make each do his own work: the cook in the kitchen, the coachman in the stables, the gardener in the garden, and so on. In this way the ‘house’ can be got ready for the arrival of the real steward who will, in his turn, prepare it for the arrival of the master.” (page 60) •

14 The Fourth Way

Gurdjieff and early Christianityby Giorgio Cesare Tagliafico





(2) Exoteric religions try to give an answer to the “why”s. “Hidden” religions try to answer the “how”s. Do you agree?

(3) What is Christianity to your mind? Have you stopped at the outer form? Or have you sounded the symbolic depths that the church does not teach?





























by Giorgio Cesare TagliaficoGurdjieff and early christianity




















15 The Fourth Way





(4) Read the Gospel quotes at least three times each, and try to meditate on them with a clear heart and mind. Discuss them only at the end of your reading, indicating which passage made the biggest impres-sion on you, and communicated something to you.

















































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17 The Fourth Way


A person who knows me inside out recently wrote to me:

“You must be saddened above all because life is nostalgia, and there will be an end to your days... This is the only fruitful suffering”.

This invitation to get the reality of physical death into focus, to reflect on my current life, took my mind back to when, even as a child, I looked into the meaning of life. I would wonder:

“Surely our existence did not unfold like the ready-written script of a film, amongst the ordinary scenes of professional life, affections and leisure? Was there a goal to reach? How could I fulfil my being? What was the meaning of suffering?”

How should I spend the only life that I had been given wisely?

I had been given just one chance to play out my existence, a precious opportunity not to be squan-dered. My inability to content myself with this déjà vu drove me towards a ceaseless search, trying to discover the true meaning of life. I longed for my life to leave a mark, like the trail of light left by an aero-plane in the clear morning sky, or the lingering scent of rose oil...

How could I leave an indelible mark with my being? How could I avoid contenting myself with coming into this world, getting by, and then dying, leaving behind me no more than the odd flower, a few tears from those who loved me, with the pros-pect of being forgotten before too long?...

I sensed the need to work on myself, to aspire to my transformation, to realise my authentic being.

With the guidance of those who have already evolved – without any instruction it is impossible to effect any real change – and with the help of other companions on this journey, who have made the same decision to carry out this work, making a systematic effort to achieve another existence, I set out along a precise path.

Indeed, it is almost impossible to work alone, because the others are our ‘mirror’, helping us to focus on areas we need to change and provid-ing us with further working material.

The track that I am following in the work on myself concerns the self-same ability to make a constant and conscious effort, along with the determination to suffer voluntarily, so as not to back out of the effort required, not to stop at the difficulties created by the lazy part of me that resists all change, and by the manifestation of my many I’s.

I have learnt that each new piece of awareness of ourselves that we achieve is generated and accom-panied by the pain of the thousand necessary deaths of the various I’s that moved me, which would not otherwise have left enough room for the fragile sapling of my essential part, which is devel-oping.

Think, for example, of the candle, where the wick burns at the expense of the wax, which must be consumed... Without this sacrifice, the light of

awareness and knowledge that leads to change could not shine.

How many times during this work have I clearly recognized my nothingness, my wretchedness and weaknesses of every kind; I have experienced quite manifestly the inner struggles between my various I’s, as they alternated and fought with each other, losing any illusion that inside I am ‘one’, confident and coherent!

How many times have I fallen prey to my conflicting emotions, tied to opposition between my inner and outer situations that I was unable to handle, as I vainly struggled to reach conscious decisions regarding my everyday situations and the choices I needed to make? I found that even when I felt certain as to what the right choice was, just moments later I would be attracted by the opposite option, and then almost immediately by some com-pletely different possibility!

The more I wanted to get out of the muddy quag-mire of my inner tangles, the deeper I sank. But I always felt the help and benefit of my guide, who assisted me in my progress as I worked to form a center within myself. If I do not root myself in that single center, I am like a wheel rolling haphazardly, bumping here, there and everywhere.

The construction of this center within me gives meaning to my actions and to my relations with people and things. Otherwise, it all evaporates and I no longer even understand what I am living for. A few months ago, after years of hard work, at a time when I felt I had lost the sense of the work itself and, above all, the sense of my life, I happened to read a passage that restored to me the deep mean-ing of my existence, my work, and even my pain:

«There is in our life a certain very great purpose and we must all serve this Great Common Purpose – in this lies the whole sense and predestination of our lives. All people without exception are slaves of this ‘greatness».(G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub’s Tales to his Grand-son, Arkana, pages 1226-1227.)

And so I re-grasped in a completely new way that the great purpose to which all people are called is that of personal transformation, the realization of the divine part of our being. Gurd-jieff also writes:

«Man – how mighty it sounds! The very name man means ‘the acme of creation’; but... how does his title fit contemporary man? At the same time, man should indeed be the acme of creation, since he is formed with and has within himself all the possibilities for acquiring all the data exactly similar to the data in the ACTUALIZER of EVERYTHING EXISTING in the Whole of the Universe. To possess the right to the name of ‘man’ one must be one. And to be such, one must first of all, with an indefatigable persistence... work on an all-round knowledge of oneself, at the same time struggling unceasingly with one’s subjec-tive weaknesses».(G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub’s Tales to his Grand-son, Arkana, pages 1208-1209.)

At this point some of you may be wondering, “Where do I find the key to acquire a complete knowledge of myself, to achieve the fulfilment of my own existence?”

M. Buber, in the Preface of his book “The way of Man” says:

«in order to grow and to achieve this true nature, man must first return to himself... – ‘go towards yourself’ – re-find himself, reach his destiny, get back to the source...” In other words, man must make the path of his life, answering the question: “Where are you?” without any attempts at hiding or affirmations of impotence.

From this first essential step we need to realize that before each man lies a special path, his own...

Along the path, through resolve and faithful-ness, it is possible for a man to unify his whole being, body and spirit. Man is a divided, contradictory and complicated being, but he can experience the miracle of unification by tuning his own will in with the divine force that lies deep within him. Only the unified man can fulfil the entire work, rather than patching up here and there...(Translated from E. Bianchi, “Preface”, in M. Buber, The Way of Man. Qiqajon, Comunità di Bose Magnano, 1990, pages 8-10.)

In conclusion I would like to share with you a recent and intense experience, after I had tried cross-country skiing for the first time. It echoes certain passages given in this article, and express-es the heart of the work on ourselves.

“One Sunday afternoon, I went cross-country skiing for the first time, together with two more experienced friends. We were following a track that ran along the side of a mountain, where we drank in the beauty of the breathtaking views. It was wonderful learning to keep my balance on my skis; overcoming the fear that assailed me when faced with steep slopes; climbing up slopes that required skill in order to avoid sliding backwards; getting up after each fall, persevering... The whole thing was an exercise in concentration and effort, but it brought me great pleasure: I was close to nature and I had the oppor-tunity to learn something difficult. Wonderful.Then, still intoxicated by the thrill of it all, we took off our skis and sat on the snow to read some interest-ing pages on the importance of living in the present with our whole selves, which, in addition to enabling us to really savour life in all its expressions, prepares us for death.Suddenly I was struck by the reality of death, not just a thought, but a deep awareness of this reality, which aroused in me a feeling of intense nostalgia for life, the trees, the snow, relationships, everything... Nostalgia for the bygone times that will never return, for the love we can no longer give... I was filled with a sharp and yet light pain: I tried not to run away from it, but rather to penetrate it, to allow it to flood into me, to feel it with all my being... My soul immediately ‘stood up’, aware of the frailness of all human reality, and of its preciousness... It turned towards the present moment, becoming more pres-ent to itself, and to God”. •

18 The Fourth Way

Why begin working on yourself? by Anna Di Giandomenico

Experiences of the seeker of today





























by Anna Di GiandomenicoWhy begin working on yourself?

19 The Fourth Way





























by Anna Di GiandomenicoWhy begin working on yourself?

20 The Fourth Way

by Giovanni Maria Quinti

“Rosetta’s Sleep” is a performance dedicated to all those who suffered when children, those so called “non-loved”, to give a new meaning - spiritual and conscious - to all the painful experi-ences they lived.

The DVD includes the complete theatre opera, realised during one of the seven performances held in Italy in 2008, the short movie and the making off, along with interviews of the actors.In this first special edition of the box, moreover, you can find a free copy of the booklet of the original script writ ten by Giovanni Maria Quinti, which has inspired this performance.

BESTSHORT MOVIE

BESTSHORT MOVIE

Epizephiry Int.Film Festival

BESTSCRIPT

ValpolicellaFilm Festival

BESTEDITING

PuntodivistaFilmfestival

TraniFilmFestival

Cinema, theatre and Gurdjieff sacred dances

Special edition

ON SALE: www.gurdjieff.es

An unmissable DVD, most of all for those who love Gurdjief f and his Method, but also for those who would like to make a present that induces an awakening and the rediscovery of the deeper meaning of life.

Rosetta’sCSleep

La Teca Production

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CORRESPONDENCE WITH SEEKERS

Dear Mr Giovanni,One thing you asked me during our first meeting was how do I do with my partner. I answered you that we are fine together and that we respect each other our spiritual lives. The things are now changing instead. In fact I don’t live very well my present time beside him. I’m facing with the gradual emptiness of our staying together. We are growing up on different paths, sharing is decreasing, physical contacts are shrouded in fog and love is fluttering like a gloomy feeling, which does not reach us. We look like we were both conscious of what’s happening, but none of us succeed in getting closer to the other. Two columns of the same temple. I’m not perceiving the temple now, I don’t feel any participation, but the exclusion instead. I don’t feel loved and I can’t love.When I’m remembering and observing myself then, I definitely realise that my feeling bad is due to the fact that I think only of myself, that I perceive only my needs, my expectations, my love desire. Remembe-ring myself, feeling the infinite above me carries me towards the other.Dissatisfaction calls my attention only to myself. So I become angry as I’m missing the attention of whom I’m saying to love. Like a child I want to feel cuddled, appreciated, supported and if I don’t feel it, I become unpleasant, I sulk and I let him know that I’m feeling bad… suggesting that it’s his fault. I deny myself, I withdraw like something precious that needs to be won over. Here I am, showing you the worst of myself, my pettiness. L.

Dear friend, Love stories, our love stories tell us, in the best way, who we are. We have all a great need to be loved, to be cuddled, to be cared about and supported. We need a person appreciating us and telling us: «You are great, you are brave and bright. I love you». Then we expect he doesn’t deceive us, we expect he’s always consist-ent with what he says, we expect him to be an example for us. Instead at other times we say we don’t need anything and we are proud of going forth by ourselves. «If my partner wants to stay with me, he needs to accept my rules». But the truth is another one. We all expect the same thing: to be loved by someone. Look around you: your neighbour, your schoolmate, your colleague at the office, we all expect the same thing: the caress of someone we trust. At the end of the day marketing, advertising and trading is based on it.

To satisfy this lack you surround yourselves with everything: with a big car, with a big house, with power and authority... with something big enough for your big emptiness. This is our most horrible ghost. Neverthe-less we can’t avoid coping with it, the baleful account-ant always chasing us. There is no use pretending we don’t see him, we don’t cope with it. A lover, a second and another, love histo-ries, one after the other they only help us to postpone our appointment. Till we end up saying "stop!" conscious of all that. We need to learn how to love and to convert all that into our supreme aim. Everybody expects love and nobody first takes this step towards loving. Everybody is afraid of getting hurt and nobody shows the courage to get hurt. Loving instead is to come closer to that wound still bleeding in us. Taking the decision to work on ourselves means to start changing direction. It means deciding to break the crystal hiding the alarm and start loving first. Start loving in spite of betrayal, keep loving despite everything. Carrying a love which isn’t our love, but the love of a higher love. The thought of God loving me is not only useful, it is much more imperative. I feel his caress, his hug and this is enough for me. Because God’s caress is the infinity’s caress around us. The sunset’s caress, the water caress moistening our feet on a riverbank, the caress of a flower fragrance reach-ing us and cheering us up. I make do with all that, dear L., and I can vouch, it isn’t so few. It’s much more than my woes and contradictions. My warmest greetings,Giovanni Maria Qui

Dear Mr. Quinti, I attended some of your conferences and I know that your school insists a lot on the importance of a living master, nevertheless I can’t hide that I’m

email your questions to:[email protected]

Answers by Giovanni Maria Quinti

puzzled. I have the feeling that the pretext of the master is a double-edged weapon based on the human necessity of feeling himself part of a herd and of having a pack leader to whom he commits his own life instead of taking on the responsibility of it. It might be useful at the beginning to have a guide, but a master who does not put you in touch with the inner master hidden inside yourselves is not a true master. If he was one, he’d push at a certain moment the pupil to disconnect from him, in spite of his being reluctant, even if it was necessary to force him at all costs and avoiding holding him back (it is said that Gurdjieff did it with De Hart-mann). Yours sincerely P. F.

Dear friend, I thank you for your question, which allows me to deal with a really important subject: “the relationship between Master and disciple”. In every tradition, both oriental and occidental, the master - disciple relation-ship is the foundation for the teaching transmission: from Sufism to Zen, from Christian to Tibetan monasti-cism, we notice that the spiritual maturity is reached thanks to the presence of somebody supporting this process along it. We aren’t therefore calling here into question the impor-tance of the support a real master can give to the spiritual life of somebody. What we instead have to call in question is how this figure is understood from the majority of people. When you tell me that a master is like a “pack leader”, like somebody to “lay down your life for”, you’re portraying a concept totally missing the figure of a master and of his usefulness. Of course I’m here talking about somebody who has really reached a higher level of consciousness, not about a swindler (and there are many unfortunately, as Christ gave us advance notice in the Gospel, praising themselves to be prophets and masters, without being it). A swindler could easily be happy to see some human beings laying down their lives for him, and laying down also their belongings, because they could become totally enslaved to his need of control, of nomination, of power. These kind of people have a big psychic disad-vantage, as they are still completely stopped in a psychological narcissistic type stage, leading them to display themselves as totally flawless and infallible beings, loving to be surrounded not by human beings, but by poor slaves shining with their reflected light. They are highly impoverished people, troubled by big relationship problems and they can get in contact with another only if they perceive him as belonging to a

"lower class", because equal people might trigger that inferiority complex they try to hide even from them-selves. (In fact disciples help them in this goal and they try in an obsessively way to let them increase numeri-cally rather then in terms of quality).If we take apart from our discussion this kind of people for a moment, than we can realise that a true master isn’t out to take charge of his disciples’ life at all. On the contrary, he teaches the disciple - by giving him instru-ments of spiritual nature - how to become the main character of his own life, rediscovering in this way the solid foundation he can build a new identity on, strengthening himself.A true master teaches a young disciple that “a meaning is hidden inside the heart of things" and that, in order to listen to it and to follow it, we need to undertake a trip inward, an often difficult trip, long and exhausting. When the disciple begins to walk on the way of knowing himself he accomplishes a number of inner achieve-ments which give extra value to his life. Then he’ll understand the importance of the undertaken trip (also thanks to the presence of his master and of his travel companions, but mostly thanks to his effort) and he’ll turn able to give an “altruistic” sense to that work which was before completely an inner and personal voyage. When this happens, if the disciple was able to face the obstacles found on the way of his self-knowledge, then it won’t happen what you predicted in your courteous message. There will not be any separation between master and disciple. The disciple instead will become master, that is to say there will be a deep union between them.In that very moment the disciple, enriched with his spiritual identity and with the new Consciousness of his Origin, will be able to get free from his atavistic individu-alism which at the beginnings led him to work only on his behalf.He will be able to understand, due to his new identity, that there is no difference between him and the others and that if he wants to go on with his Voyage (as we never stop learning because also the more qualified master is only a naïve disciple in front of the Master of Masters). He will need to do as his spiritual tutor did toward himself: he will need to teach the Way that leads to Life and Truth with love, patience, abnegation, atten-tion and by Remembering himself.Then, by assisting his human brethren, following his charismas and his style, he will know the ultimate meaning of his journey… Yours truly, Giovanni Maria Quinti

I’m a homosexual boy and it’s been seven years that I’m HIV positive; four of them, the first four, have been years of treatment. In this moment I’m quite fine physically, even though I have some parameters that sometimes are acting up... Now for a while I’m hanging out with a twenty years old boy and I’m in love with him. It’s been a long time since I haven’t felt the various emotions of my heart, I was feeling more than desolate, …dull. I thought I wouldn’t love anybo-dy anymore because I couldn’t love anymore.But I met him... Several times in these seven years I began new relationships and I always advised my partners of what my situation was and I get back constrasting results, but I didn’t care so much of other people’s opinions, to be at peace with my conscience was enough for me. Now it is different: I love him.I love him to get crazy and I’m getting crazy indeed. We don’t have a complete relationship Luckily we haven’t had complete sexual intercourse , because it didn’t happen, and even if it should happen I would take the needed preventative measures , but all the other hundreds of things are lacerating my conscien-ce, and keep me awake at night. My little village of lymphocytes is becoming an emigrant’s village. It only remains for me to love... maybe.

To fall in love is really an extraordinary experience. But sometimes our love experiences do not help us go inside ourselves in a more gently way, to look at us and to share ourselves so as we really are, and to open up ourselves completely. Sometimes, a sexual need, a fatal attraction, an extraordinary affective need or simply because our partner is 20 - he has got a beauti-ful face, a beautiful body and he stimulates our passion - we forget that love comes immediately after: when passion, the beautiful face and the infinite desire of the other is over. Then, and only then, the true feelings appear, those which you and me really need. And still it's perfectly normal that it happens, as these needs are rarely satisfied, we usually settle for a fire that at least warms. And even if it is fatuous, what matters? The important thing is to live, or maybe, to catch the warmth from every source distributing at least a bit of it, against this chill.But this is not your situation, isn’t it? Now you’re in love! The wind of true love has opened up the doors allowing you to know your will to live, to share, to be with the other. Live all that until the end. But remember yourself that love comes immediately after, when the enthusi-

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN A COUPLE AND SELF-REMEMBERING

THE MASTER, DO WE NEED TO SET US FREE FROM HIM?

asm will be over and you will look at his face you’ll confess him your seropositivity. It will be like the life for an adolescent full of dreams and joy: it will show you that an infinite silence exists inside yourself. It wouldn’t show you that pain and fear exit, it will show you the awareness of something extraordinary, that is to say that life has to be lived every single day, day by day, without projecting ourselves too much in a tomorrow that does not belong to us. The only remaining thing, when you decide that time has come to reveal yourself, it will be the roots of your relationship. If they are healthy and strong, your relationship, very probably, will last for long. Otherwise, don’t hesitate to face the truth. It’s better to look at life for what it is, rather then to get in imaginary dreams which will than crush at our first awakening. Best wishes,Giovanni Maria Quinti

22 The Fourth Way












23 The Fourth Way










LOVE AND FALLING IN LOVE



24 The Fourth Way

email your questions to: [email protected]

Many believe that being on the Way means fighting against one's masks, to live happily without them. Yet this is far from what Gurdjief f taught. He said:“For inner growth to take place, and to begin the work on ourselves, a certain development of the personality is necessary, as well as a certain vigour of the essence.”

We feel that the illustration shown here gives a better explanation than any words could, of what the “wise use of masks” should be.

Let a word to the wise be enough!

How can we use personality?

The Wise Use of Masks

25 The Fourth Way

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The Fourth Way #0

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