Be proud of your weaknesses

Mr. Gurdjieff said: "Be proud of your chief feature,
it makes it possible to work".

Real achievements

Things do become easier in a way as one becomes
older. When one is young, the body is king, as one
ages, one sees the unreality of the human form, and
realizes that the real achievements, are in the spirit.

Daily struggle

Sometimes, when someone is really accomplished
or very good at something, they may be quite lost
in it. More lost than most people. It is very had to
perform a task, an action, bring a project to completion,
and be present to doing it. This is part of our daily struggle.

Being brilliant

Mr. Ouspensky likely may have been vain.
He had a powerful intellect and lectured to
a thousand people in Russia before he met
the work and Mr. Gurdjieff. Later after being in
the work for years, someone commented on
seeing Ouspensky again. "Gone, was the
brilliant, whimsical personality". It was replaced
through suffering, by the real person we all
have inside of us.

You will want to run away.

The Chief feature, is what one must work through
to transform oneself. For the majority of people on
the planet, it is an wasted opportunity. The first step
is to shine a light on oneself. Other people in a goup
will help one also. It is not pleasant. You will want to
run away.

Chief Weakness

Each person on the planet, has built into themselves
a chief feature or weakness that is fundemental to the
core of who they are. This is in each person it must be
noted. It is a law.

Real success.

In this world, famous people may often be vain, petty, worshipped,
attention seeking, amoral, power seeking, jealous, domineering,
venal, and corrupt. This is often great fodder for the tabloid
newspapers, internet
and television, this is part of life on the planet. Many of these attributes
may be within ourselves, perhaps we do not have the circumstances
to act them out. Too much money may be an obstacle to real growth;
too much fame, too much attention, too many acheivements, although
good from the point of view of success in life, may at the end be
seen to be what they actually
are, completely worthless in real terms. The unremarkable man who is
quietly present to his life, and masters himself is a real success from the
viewpoint of our work.

Weaknesses

The task a Fourth Way teacher gives to a student requires that the
student struggle with a weakness. Often the chief weakness, that
one major fault around which the students personality is formed.
Avoidance, running away, lying, slacking, deviousness of every kind will
all be brought to light and must be eliminated in this work.
It has to occur, for real growth to come into action.
You think you don't have many "comfortable" weaknesses that you
actually might be quite proud of?

Tasks

Mr. Gurdjieff said that a teacher teaches by putting
"barriers" in front of his students. These might be difficulties to surmount,
such as digging a ditch in a very short period of time to work on laziness,
giving up an important item, sacrificing an obsession, or a task given
to the student,
in the completion of the which, the pupil overcomes a weakness and
grows in being.

Data for the third world

One of Mr. Gurdjieff's students noted that he always
had an inner world aim and a corresponding outer world
aim. The friction such as to give up smoking, the struggle
between the desire internally, and the habit of reaching into
one's pocket for the cigarette case, would create data for
the third (higher) world.

Learning to love

Mr. Gurdjieff said it is difficult to learn how to love.
People start out as friends, and end with blows.
This could almost be said to be a law.
"To learn to love, better to start with animals first" he suggested.

Food

We are told that at dinner, Mr. Gurdjieff would sometimes
take a piece of bread, and put together a tasty bite sized morsel.
He would indicate to a student to open their mouth and he would place
the food directly in. He was teaching that not only
was he feeding their organic body, but also their spiritual body.

Five and dime heiresses

Christ, was the son of a carpenter.
Mr. Gurdjieff's family came from humble
circumstances. Wealth is not a measure
of consciousness. Mr. Gurdjieff wrote at one
point that although he was short of money
for his work, his knowledge and being in real
terms, was worth more than all the five and
dime heiresses of New York's Park Avenue
put together.

The Three Kings

Mr. Gurdjieff said that the Fourth Way
teaches that man has three independant brains.
Intellectual, emotional, and although separate,
the moving brains and instinctive brains are
usually referred to in the work as one.
The three kings of Christ's nativity may represent
the man in search of his essence, they travel
bringing gifts, it is a journey back to the self.
Then the real work begins.
It is good to remember that the bible is a book
of teaching from School.
The book of Luke has been said to have been
written by the school of Luke. Again, it has been
said that each of the four gospels, is designed to
appeal to a different brain. Such is the work of
genius it represents.

More than meets the eye.

This time of the year, there are
many children's pantomines like
Cinderalla. The story is simple
and appeals to children and adults.
The nativity of Christ, although a
simple journey, is instiilled with
drama, symbolism and teaching.
We may not know the esoteric
meaning, but we all know that
there is more to the story in front
of us that meets the eye.

Follow you star

Could it be said that some people leave the nest early
then settle. Some start out settled, then later it is time
to fly. Mr. Gurdjieff said once that a man may be a
good householder, have a career, raise a family,
run a business, make money, be a member of society.
Then one day when this level of his task is completed,
give it all up, and go to a monastery to develop his
spiritual side. It depends which star you follow.

Thankyou for your thoughts

A bit of perfume always clings to the hand that gives the rose.

Chinese proverb

Our birth

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting;
The soul that rises with us, our life's star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar;
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home.

William Wordsworth

How does one become a butterfly?

"How does one become a butterfly?" she asked pensively. "You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar."

Trina Paulus

Experience of the void

A student of Mr. Ouspensky and Mr. Gurdjieff
later met an Indian teacher, who expressed a concept
that Mr. Ouspensky did not put into his books.
Mr. Ouspensky described the multitude of thoughts
that we experience, by working to be aware, may gradually
become one unified and controlling faculty.
(Mastery of the self). The teacher said, beyond
this there are two more states: When you have
achieved mastery, the next stage is the sense
of one's nothingness, then the next stage will
be the experience of the Void.

Reflection

The system tells us that internally,
we may be a multitude of different
thoughts. Violent, jealous, negative,
peaceful loving, cunning. We are
a reflection of the outer mankind.

The beauty of the creator Rabia

"A friend said to her, 'Rabia, come out to see the beauty of the Creation!' She answered, 'Come in, to see the beauty of the Creator!'"

Siddartha

At the end of his book "Siddartha".
Herman Hesse depicts Siddartha's awakening
moment when he gazes from the bottom to the
top of humanity, and sees it all as one.
It is quite special if you get a chance to read it.

Theory of Eternal Life

When Mr. Ouspensky died, Rodney Collin
went into his room and locked the door.
He was in there for at least several days, his fellow
students banged on the door and did everything
they could to get him to come out. Finally they
put a ladder up to the window and found that
Collin was sitting on Mr. Ouspensky's bed in
a childlike state. He had been given a
"transmission" of higher knowledge during this period.
Out of this he wrote the book, "Theory of Eternal Life".
(In three days?) and always emphasized that he did not
write the book, it was given to him.

Ouspensky

In the Theory of Eternal life,
Rodney Collin describes Mr. Ouspensky's
last months on earth in 1947. He pushed
himself physically when very ill, rising in
the early hours to walk up and down the stairs
endlessly. Pushing himself so even his younger
fitter students were not able to keep up.
Then he gave a series of six final meetings
in London, if you read the transcripts, which
were given to Harvard, he sounds like
has become somewhat like a zen master.
He has cut away all the fat from his teaching.
Rodney Collin said that in these meetings:
"He reached the deepest level of being
I have seen in any man". After he died, he was
seen in several places simultaneously. He
appeared walking with a student on London
Bridge, the same morning he appeared in a plane
with a student. We have heard that there is a
very private manuscript describing the next two
weeks at his property where many mysterious
events took place.

a long prison sentence

A man may be a man who serves the causes
of what we call evil in this life. He may get a
long sentence in prison, to learn to not do evil
again. The machine of the universe is a
mechanism of purification through which we
are all passing on our way to perfection.
It is all inside you.

The precious vase

Many times in ancient art, there is
a maiden holding a precious vase.
The precious vase is the sacred self
that we all seek. What does the vase
hold? It may be empty, simply
presence into the nothingness.
If wine, understanding.
If water, truth.

Two realities

There are different levels of men on the planet.
It depends on who you serve. A man such as
Mr. Gurdjieff served the needs of the level above
him. Sitting at his table, his students had the
sense that they were looking at a man living
in two realities at once.

In search of...

As a good starter introduction to
the Fourth Way of Mr. Gurdjeff,
we would suggest Mr. Ouspensky's
great book, "In search of the
Miraculous".

All are special

At the end of the day, the Fourth Way,
as taught by George Gurdjieff, his student
Peter Ouspensky, Rodney Collin, John
Bennet, Henry Tracol, Jeanne de Saltzmann,
and the many others who have followed the
long line of teachers, is a return to the
child within. Some followed the way of
love, some the way of denial, each adapts
it to their understanding, level, personal
way of seeing the world. All are very special.

Nature's model

The old self, is like the skin that is dropped
by a caterpillar on it's transformation into
a butterfly. Almost a model of awakening
at any level. Nature showing us something.

Two Caterpillars

Two caterpillars were once going along,
and they saw a beautiful butterfly flying
above them. One caterpillar said the the other,
"You'll never get me up in one of those!".

Say "I am" every hour

Mr. Gurdjieff gave the exercise to his students,
"Say I am, once an hour".
This is a big aim. The more you try to do this,
the more you will see that you cannot do this.

Simply BE

The attention we speak about developing,
is called divided attention. People lose themselves
in conversations, running for the train, politics,
attractive partners, money, art, books, IPhones,
Laptops, arguing, being right, getting old, being
smart, having things. What happens when this
all comes to a stop and you begin to simply "Be"?

Machines

Our work is about developing a level of attention
not found in ordinary life. Mr. Gurdjieff said:
"Take all the people you know, all the people you
may get to know, they are machines, actual machines.
Machines they are born, and machines they die".

The master's test

When people write about awakened men,
what they often describe without saying it,
is that these individuals have mastered themselves.
Overcome their own criminality.
Sometimes these men walk a knife edge
when they have starry eyed followers willing
to pay and serve, it can be overwhelming to be
worshipped however developed they might be.
Some students of Gurdjieff felt he sometimes lost his way.
He had to work hard to keep his pupils on their toes.
This is also part of their test.

The gift

The answer is that all things are one.
There is no difference between master
and disciple. Meher Baba the great teacher
who lived in India (Persian parentage), likened
our situation to all of us being like drops of
water in the great oceans. One is no better
than another. We would add just luckier,
in being given the gift of being able to evolve.

The right place

If you are reading this,
read it again intentionally.
Mr. Gurdjieff suggested that
people read his books three times.
He gave this as an exercise so that
people might arrive at the right place
in themselves in regard to his ideas.

When one is going through a Cinderalla trial.

Mr. Gurdjieff said: "If man fall down when he must
walk, you can pick him up.
But if for that man, the next step is more important
for him even than air, he must take alone, is
impossible take for him".
Only you can make your efforts, only you can
be for yourself.

Children's tales

By being tested, Cinderalla became strong.
Self controlled, humble, by being humiliated
by the sisters, she refinds the quietness of her essence.
Children are quiet when in themselves, because
they have just arrived back from the stars for this
lifetime on the planet. Through enduring her trials,
she starts to experience the energy of her higher
emotional center. This is why she is a girl, she
represents the female principle in all of us.
There is a lot in these apparent children's tales.

The time of our trial.

Cinderalla first has to endure hardship.
It is important that this be understood.
In fairy tales, we are not give the period
of time, because these fairy stories may
likely have been created by a very high
esoteric school, and was designed as
a teaching tool. The time of endurance
is different for each of us.

Acceptance.

The big step on the way is acceptance.
It may seem strange, but the Fourth Way
has been referred to as the way of the sly man.
Rodney Collin, one of the best writers about the
work, and a student of Mr. Gurdjieff's great pupil
Piotr Ouspensky, said that the sly man's pill
is acceptance. Not so easy.

Who do you want to be?

In each story, there is a dark moment.
Or many dark moments coming each one
after the other. Each is a test that defines
us. How we grow and become great to ourselves.
Mr. Gurdjieff said that we must have remorse.
Your new self is based on not wanting to be
any longer who you were.
It is who you want to be.

Ugly Sisters Two

By taunting and goading and shaming Cinderella
the sisters present a series of tests through
which she might come to mastery of herself,
by accepting what is happening and not reacting.
A teacher will play this role for a student sometimes.
Once when Mr. Gurdjieff had shouted at one of
his young students, one of his most valued helpers.
She did not react, and he smiled approvingly.
"See, she well educated, she not react"

Ugly Sisters One

The ugly sisters in Cinderalla represent a
very specific kind of force that must be in
one's life at a certain point in one's evolution.
We all know about the work. Especially this
might be why children understand pantomines.
The sisters shame and humiliate Cinderalla.
"Cinders" in her name, referes to the fact that
she works with the cinders, the ashes, the
psychological ashes of the self, the part you
have to go through to evolve.

The possibility

It is possible that we have the laws of
evolution hard wired into us. As each person
on the planet if not damaged neurologically,
has the possiblity to attain the possibilities
that this work presents to man at this level.

Christmas

We are coming into the Christian holidays.
Mr. Gurdjieff celebrated Christmas. He took
the preparation of gift boxes and presents
very seriously and intentionally. He made it
part of his work. Not just for his students,
but also for his neighbours who could not
support themselves, and especially
afford gifts after the war when much of the
old Europe had been destroyed by the war,
and many things were very scarce.

Howl like a wolf.

Mr. Gurdjieff said that when one runs with the
wolves, one must be able to howl like a wolf.
"And not be wolf". Survive in the world.

Survival

Mr. Gurdjieff said a good householder,
would be able to make a living with his
left foot. He meant by this that someone
who had reached a level in his life where he
had valuation for himself, valuation for money,
and knew the game of life well enough that
he would be able to survive out in the big world.

Supporting many people

Mr. Gurdjieff many times had money troubles.
He had to scramble to make ends meet, additionally
as he took responsibility for financially supporting many
of his students. There were some of his followers who
were people who had lost everything in the Russian
Revolution.

Crossing the channel

On the side of the student, there may come a point
where they need to cut off the teacher.
At a certain point, he and Orage broke their connection.
Mr. Orage said: "Once I would have crossed the Atlantic Ocean
if he asked, now I would not bother to cross the English Channel".

You will suffer

When John Bennett told Mr. Gurdjieff
that he was planning to start a group.
Mr. Gurdjieff said: "You will suffer".

Gurdjieff's mistakes

Gurdjieff was often "rough" or "abrasive" with his students.
Sometimes, if you read the literature, you can feel that he
knew he had gone too far, or perhaps regretted an action.
This was part of his learning process as a teacher.
He made mistakes.

Simple common sense.

Mr. Gurdjieff would work very hard for a period,
then he would rest, go on trips, rebuild his
energy, and then proceed with his next project.
Simple common sense.

The rubbish

To evolve, you don't have to gain,

you have to give up. The rubbish,

the false part of oneself. It is not you

anyway. Mr. Gurdjieff advised that he

taught others "to listen to self".

Keeping the masses in a state of hypnosis

Notice how the mass media exist

to harvest our money and energy in

these government "debt crisis",

"Euro crisis", unemployment

predictions, buy gold, retail sales

look gloomy, public transport misery.

Cicero asked a famous question:

"Que bono", who profits?

The Fourth way is designed to work

against, and to escape these low energies

at the altar of which the masses worship.

Give up

To evolve in the way we mean,

means to give up one's violence,

one's temper, one's anger, and

one's hate. Not so easy as this

is the most precious things for our

personalities, which in themselves,

are based on nothing.

Paper tigers.