The fourth way to nowhere

The School had various exercises which changed from time-to-time, designed to interrupt the automatic and mechanical functioning of the mind (or ‘the machine’ as it was referred to).   Once I started to follow the Fourth Way, for a long time I fought feelings of inadequacy and guilt that I could not remember myself consistently or do the prescribed exercises (like remembering to keep my feet flat on the floor while dining). After a while I realised that the exercises are merely tools—there is no merit or demerit in doing or failing to do the exercises. I was doing the work for myself, so other people’s opinion didn’t matter, and in any event, for the most part they couldn’t see whether I was doing the work or not. Succeeding or failing is irrelevant: the point is to awaken in the moment. In the words of the late, great physicist Richard Feynman, “What do you care what other people think?” A further point, well made by others in the School, is that the moment you realise you have ‘fa

On a discussion forum an ex-student once criticised the whole idea of self-remembering. Why would one want to be in a constant state of hyper-vigilance?  A senior student once led a meeting in which he invited us to consider that he did not know how his foot got from flat on the floor to crossing his other leg, as though this were a problem, something to remark on. On reflection I am content to let my body do stuff without asking my permission every time, within reason.  To me, self-remembering is not a state of hyper-vigilance but a state in which one may rest in gentle alertness if one wishes to. Hyper-vigilance is more related to an adrenaline-fuelled state of ‘fight-or-flight,’ and I can quite see why trying to be in such a state would be uncomfortable.  There are clearly pitfalls in the fourth way work (known as the Work), opportunities for misunderstanding. This ought to be one of the reasons why the Work is carried out in schools, so that students can be mentored and misundersta

Remember yourself always and everywhere. —G. I. Gurdjieff Remain attentive at every breath. —Gudjduvani Self-remembering is at the centre of the System. In In search of the miraculous, Ouspensky quotes Gurdjieff as follows: “Not one of you has noticed the most important thing that I have pointed out to you” he said. “That is to say, not one of you has noticed that you do not remember yourselves.” (He gave particular emphasis to these words.) “You do not feel yourselves; you are not conscious of yourselves. With you, ‘it observes’ just as ‘it speaks,’ ‘it thinks,’ ‘it laughs.’ You do not feel: I observe, I notice, I see. Everything still ‘is noticed,’ ‘is seen.’ . . . In order really to observe oneself one must first of all remember oneself.” (He again emphasized these words.) “Try to remember yourselves when you observe yourselves and later on tell me the results.  Only those results will have any value that are accompanied by self-remembering. Otherwise you yourselves do not exist in y