The Fourth Way's Contribution to World Spirituality 

The Fourth Way, as taught by Gurdjieff, is a sacred, esoteric path of practical mysticism that integrates the three traditional paths:

• The path of Salvation (higher mind),

• The path of Liberation/Enlightenment (heart),

• The path of Incarnation/Embodiment (lower belly/sex).

These paths correspond to the following results:

• Redemption (manifesting divine humanness),

• Immortality (Self-Realization).

In the Western tradition, these three body centers or pathways are called the three candles. 

• The path of salvation (Steward) involves a very refined energy (higher intellectual center) that infuses one’s subtle atmosphere (higher emotional center).

• The path of enlightenment centers on Impartiality, objective love and the zero point within the heart (middle dan-tien).

• The path of incarnation, or "soft-ego," corresponds to the lower level unity of the "three burners" in Taoism (sex/abdomen/chest-lungs). It is cultivated through the integration of Awareness and Being, which evokes Presence. The alchemical process involves directing awareness to the lower burners, particularly in the cauldron or lower dan-tien (the point where the second body is eventually anchored), then to life Impressions (inner experience), and ultimately releasing effort, simply Being with. In the Gurdjieff work, Being is the combination of Feeling + Relaxation, leading to an inner state of "actively passive." 

• Redemption, or Becoming One's Own Sun, involves sensing the body as a unified whole (Awakening) and harmonizing the three lower (the burners), upper (head/chest/spine) and higher centers (the Steward), thereby forming the inner Star of David or Seal of Solomon. This integration leads to the creation of a hermetically sealed individuated Being, or "Second Body".       To become this Planet, or "field of Force" we impregnate the physical body with focused Attention, breath and higher energy, allowing the new soul substance to gestate within the womb/abdomen. 

• Immortality is the Self-remembering of the Supreme Identity (Master). The secret is found behind the Centers. As in esoteric Christianity, we also access Self-Realization through meditation on the anatomical heart.

On the Fourth Way, 

Realization pours into the Balanced, 

or Redeemed Person.

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Catching the Slender Thread

Like in "everyday Zen", throughout the day, we practice dual awareness, gently expanding our presence to include others while maintaining active awareness of our inner body.

The inner body is the outer layer of our divine essence (Aurobindo’s "psychic being"), a fluid medium that carries various qualities of Presence. We employ various techniques to infuse the soul, essence, or Presence into the physical body.

The primary technique involves consciously directing attention to the inner, subtle body and breathing, while relaxing internal tensions, efforting, and the small muscles of the face—where the personality resides.

We make the acquired or artificial personality, imposed upon us without consent, passive. This is why the "Stoa" in ancient Greece exhibited relaxed faces, which later became known as "stoic" when the deeper meaning was lost.

It reflects what Zen refers to as “effortless effort” and what Gurdjieff described as “man cannot do.”

On the Path of Redemption, Sacred Individuality

First Being Food - Sensation 

This previously unpublished piece, reporting something said by Gurdjieff, is found at pp.110-111 of Christian Wertenbaker’s The Enneagram of G.I. Gurdjieff, Codhill, New Paltz.

On another occasion, G. explained the idea of Moon from a wholly new direction. “Up to now we have talked about the Moon as the growing branch of the cosmos, as the end, or destination, of the Ray of Creation, which originates in the Absolute.

There is another level at which you must understand this idea: Given that man is the microcosm that replicates all that exists in the cosmos, this line from the Absolute to the Moon also exists in man. The representative of the Absolute in man is full consciousness, about which our knowledge is incomplete. We do know, however, that the effort to free oneself from identification creates a corresponding amount of free attention. The presence of free attention in man is a second order representative of the Absolute: it is a foretaste of what he might eventually come to know as full consciousness.

The Moon-in-man is sensation. It is that broken part of the original consciousness of man, and it is that part towards which a man who wishes to work has a primary responsibility; for sensation in man is the growing part of his inner cosmos. The Ray of Creation inside man extends from free attention to sensation.”

In response to a question about the relationship between the growth of being and the growth of sensation, G. explained: “Just as the Moon in the sky requires vibrations from Earth for the growth of its atmosphere, sensation is the atmosphere of being. No growth of being will take place without a corresponding growth in sensation.

Of course, when we apply the term growth to sensation, we must understand that it refers to growth of the roots not the leaves, that is, sensation is not only of a man’s skin, which we might think of as leaves, but of the entire inner structure, which includes the skeleton, muscles, and organs as well. In lifting his arm, everything on the other side of intention is sensation. A man must be able to radiate particles of free attention from the moment an intention enters his bloodstream and neurological system.

“The work on sensation is the infrastructure of being.”

Like in Aikido, we want the outside to be soft and the inside to be strong. 

More on sensing. 

On the Path of Salvation (Higher Mind)

Third Being Food - The Elixir 

From In Search of the Miraculous, p57. 

Gurdjieff says, 

The yogi knows considerably more. He knows what he wants, he knows why he wants it, he knows how it can be acquired. He knows, for instance, that it is necessary for his purpose to produce a certain substance in himself. He knows that this substance can be produced in one day by a certain kind of mental exercises or concentration of consciousness. So he keeps his attention on these exercises for a whole day without allowing himself a single outside thought, and he obtains what he needs. In this way a yogi spends on the same thing only one day compared with a month spent by the fakir and a week spent by the monk. "But on the fourth way knowledge is still more exact and perfect. A man who follows the fourth way knows quite definitely what substances he needs for his aims and he knows that these substances can be produced within the body by a month of physical suffering, by a week of emotional strain, or by a day of mental exercises and also, that they can be introduced into the organism from without if it is known how to do it. And so, instead of spending a whole day in exercises like the yogi, a week in prayer like the monk, or a month in self torture like the fakir, he simply prepares and swallows a little pill which contains all the substances he wants and, in this way, without loss of time, he obtains the required results.

The "pill" mentioned by Gurdjieff, drawn from an external source of energy, parallels Daoist practice. 

In Daoism, this subtle force, is represented as a "pill" or "elixir," in the atmosphere above the practitioner’s head, seen here. 

This very fine energy infuses us, nourishing as "third-being food" (from the "third" or causal body of the higher centers).

In the Kitchen with Gurdjieff

Gurdjieff placed great emphasis on the importance of feeding others—both physically and spiritually—and we strive to carry on this tradition. By nurturing those around us, we continue the ancient Sufi practice of sharing a sacred atmosphere with everyone. 

It is important to compose a dish in its correctly blended elements as a composition of music or the colors in painting. Harmony in scale. Must have much knowledge to be a good cook. A culinary doctor.

G.I. Gurdjieff