Secrets of the Fourth Way

Behind the thousand faces, on this field of dreams, there is an unchanging one.

give. Gurdjieff said, “I wished to create around myself conditions in which man would be continually reminded of the sense and aim of his existence by an unavoidable friction between his conscience and the automatic manifestations of his nature.”

The mind must repent, be aroused to a new thought, causing the maturing I to relate more honestly and directly to essence and essence to be guided by one’s own inner voice, conscience.

More specifically, to enter life’s inner design, to feel it moving, a living and transforming everything. To study myself from each angle and phase, seeing as much of the whole as I can from that viewpoint; then taking another and another, until thought becomes denser and takes on more life.

He said to me, “You need to be able to give and take at the same time.”

Whether you give or take, when it evokes suffering in you, perhaps prompted by external considering, when giving is difficult, or you take when it goes against self-love, pride, or vanity, then you are burning away what covers essence, entering the fire of intentional suffering.

When you have an aim to get from point A to point B and you are in a hurry to get there, that becomes your aim. Then everything seems to get in your way; you don’t see this as lawful resistance; and this makes you irritable, absent, angry, lazy. You say, “What’s the use?” or “Poor, poor me.” All these reactions are sleep inducing subterfuges. Now I begin to see, a little bit, the chief thing that acts as my substitute, a stand-in that always occupies the place of I am.

The more I explored with my friends, the more I became convinced that Gurdjieff’s teachings were the most salient. It re-enforced the strange conviction I had felt when I first began reading IN SEARCH OF THE MIRACULOUS at the age of 16, the certainty that Gurdjieff was the teacher of this age and the one whom I would follow the rest of my life.

energy becomes concentrated, vibrations become higher, and the understanding of the ideas and phenomena grow. At the same time continuous, consistent efforts of regular meetings are also necessary. Once Alan said about it—that the consistency of weekly meetings is not less (and may be even more) important than participation in a two-day seminar.

Every group meeting is a concentrated life experience. Where else could I see my illusions so completely? Or meet with my negative parts and become aware of them? Has someone in his ordinary life an idea how to see his own ugliness and powerlessness?

There was a lot of physical labor; we were cooking and washing everything; also there was a

practice of Gurdjieff Movements.

It will go away when the power of ego weakens. How do I understand that it has weakened?—when I stop comparing and judging, when I stop thinking that I’m right.

All the Work for me consists of such gleamings of understanding. Four years passed before I saw my disunity, multiplicity of my “I’s” and realized how difficult it is to give up some of them (for example, the “i” that thinks that it has a right to judge the others, or the “i” that thinks it knows something better).

“how are you able to bear all this silliness, ignorance and laziness

existing in us all the time?” And he answered very simply: “Because I know deep inside there is a light within you, and slowly it begins to burn more brightly.”

Enneagram: The Fundamental Steps to Mastery

The Seeker and Addiction G. I. Gurdjieff suggests that we go out on a dark starry night, and, looking up into that vast infinite space ask ourselves, “Is what we want simply madness?”

G. I. Gurdjieff said we live as prisoners held in trance-like sleep, a state of diminished consciousness, a consequence of a psychic-organic fixation called Kundabuffer. Kundabuffer acts like a jamming mechanism preventing normal perception and consequently normal thought and action.

Inquiry Are these destructive behavioral patterns “biologically hardwired,” and if so, how did that happen? Is that why they are so strangely resilient and resistant to change?

Comparison

Twelve Steps focuses on changing life-threatening behavior through realizing one’s powerlessness and invoking help of a higher power. Twelve Steps provides a means by which addicts can stop using and begin living a healthier life.

Addiction The word addiction comes from the Latin addictus, meaning assigned by decree, pledged, or made over to. In a sense, I have unknowingly pledged myself, but to what? It is as though a “parasitical” organism is feeding off my life, the inevitable result of the consequences of the organ Kundabuffer, which Gurdjieff says,

was implanted in the base of the spine of our ancestors to keep them asleep and docile. Independently supporting the above premise, the Yogi Desikachar, following the teachings of the Great Indian Sage Patanjali, gives a clear description of the coiled serpent Kundalini and how it prevents the intelligent life force, Prana, from initiating normal transformation.

In his book, RELIGIOUSNESS IN YOGA, Desikachar clarifies that Kundalini is a knot or blockage, which deflects normal Pranic flow from the main channel or Susumna. Without this obstruction, the potential natural evolution of human consciousness, still qualified by choice, would be unimpeded by self-generated illusion, a projection of this same Kundalini. This view clearly reinforces Gurdjieff’s assertions.

Both Desikachar and Gurdjieff indicate the necessity of a carefully graduated burning or dissolving of this obstruction. This alone will allow the initiation of a normal completing relationship with Prana, the life force.

This knot interferes first with basic perceptual function; from there, it generates a false self-image, false personality, chief feature, and then, as a false idolatry, it invades our psyche. This process may be further exacerbated by certain misguided energy practices, as well as by drugs, that stimulate Kundalini.

Inwardly, this “emotional plague” attaches itself to one of many false ‘I’s’ as vectors for spreading this disease within the person. This potentiates and magnifies “I-dentification,” and gives it a subtle social rationale, as it has become an accepted substitute for what should be normal behavior.

Each of us has his/her own personal form of self or, in Gurdjieffian terms, essence abuse. We may of course deny this awkward truth and embrace a rationalization. Why not go back to the comforting thought that an addict simply means someone addicted to drugs? No? What then is addiction? Perhaps we could try out a new definition, which may reveal a disturbing continuum: Addiction is the crystallization of identification.

What is identification? Enslaved by the power, I give over to false personality through identification; I begin to see that it holds sway over every detail of my life. If it were simply a matter of choice, why have I not chosen to awaken?

The energy contained in the seeker’s “wish to be,” must not be sidetracked by every transient, externally focused desire.

To avoid this loss of power we need to understand a pivotal inner mechanism, a mechanism allied to a deeply held belief that falsely empowers fractions of myself to act as “I.” Take, for example, “I am hot!,” “I know better!,” or “I am angry!” A tiny “I,” having momentarily climbed to the top of the heap, is declaring, “I am King of the Mountain!” Then, for the briefest glorious moment, it usurps total control, saying, “I am!” until the next moment when “I am hungry!” replaces “I am pissed off at the driver in front of me!” Repetitive “I” mantras, like these, lead to psychological fixation and perceptual opacity. Thus, I surrender my whole life for a trifle.

What would make it possible to participate in a cosmic exchange of energies and yet still retain individuality? First, I must consciously strengthen non-desire, physically cordoning it off from desire.

Twelve Steps and The Fourth Way Poets, writers, artists, dancers, creative thinkers, and cutting-edge seekers are more likely than other people to suffer from depression or manic states.

Some of Gurdjieff’s highest level and most intelligent students, such as P.D. Ouspensky, Alexandre De Salzmann, and Rene Daumal, suffered greatly and may have died prematurely as a result of drugs or alcohol.

The Twelve Steps, the sponsor relationship, and the group format have been utilized to help resolve cocaine, smoking, gambling, eating, sex and other chemical/behavioral addictions. These programs may be a kind of quasi-religious form of heart-centered work. Based in faith and submission to a higher power, Twelve Steps seems closer to the Way of the Monk than to Gurdjieff’s Fourth Way. However, those on the Fourth Way must also bend the knee and pass under a low threshold.

Wounds On an ordinary psychological level, a trauma, or undigested shock, often sets in motion dissociative reactions. This fragmentation may become the seed of further pathological patterns, and, in extreme cases, even may result in a multiple personality disorder.

Like divisions in a honeycomb, mini-buffers are erected to feed and protect fragments of myself from further psychological pain and to insure continued dominance of an infantile pleasure principle.

And is there no alternative to this splintered identity? Gurdjieff provides one powerful answer: self-remembering.

Can I intentionally absorb my reactions by attending directly to the shock, allowing not a hairsbreadth to stand between my attention and my life?

An outer shock, perhaps a criticism, perhaps a glance from one who knows, may then be met with an attention and awareness capable of bearing a vital substance on its inward journey.

Towards Balance Ordinary personality is a marvel, designed to insure a mechanical homeostatic equilibrium filling the gap between organism and environment. Formed of tactical defenses, rationalizations, instinctive mechanisms, it is a circus dedicated to the status quo.

This may mean binding inner demons, in whatever form they take, into a true talisman of self-remembering.

The place of addiction on the downward spiral of human life can be further studied in BEEZELBUB’S TALES. For the societal effects, see page 212ff., regarding King Konuzion, and for the more internal effects on the possible arising of conscience, see page 379 ff., regarding Ashiata Shiemash.

A Hasnamuss is an empty thing masquerading as a human being, an embodiment of false personality.

Returning to the beginning, addictive behavior literally sucks essence dry and strengthens the duality of consciousness by putting the inner part, that is essence, into a deeper sleep.

If our Work is to survive, we cannot be two–faced; we must find our way back to our one true face, given us before we were born. The other related result, which Gurdjieff pays special attention to in the Third Series, must be guarded against as well. We do not want our Work unintentionally to support the creation of “inner double gravity centered existences” to which the duality of consciousness is heir.

The method of choice was psychological: to bear the unpleasant manifestations of others and thereby produce a friction causing heat that would begin to melt down this barrier to normal perception. What is this heat? It is not just the lower heat of the blood; it is heat related to emotional energies and Hanbledzoin. When I bear the negative manifestations of others, heat rises in both blood and Hanbledzoin (Prana or Chi).

The first method, combined with the aim to understand myself, brings up the “false I’s,” negative emotional attitudes, even Chief Feature. All of these have accumulated and grown due to the effects of Kundabuffer (See False Genesis Enneagram). They must also be separated so that essence can grow and an “indestructible I” appear within essence.

The approach would involve heating the base of the spine with both psychological and energetic exercises. The energetic approach is connected with the alchemical process of producing heat, sometimes called “TU MO” (See the Pathways of Energy Transformation chapter). Heat can be produced in the body by exercise and heat of a higher level through concentrating on the prana with the mind’s intent to raise the heat level.

Fear: The Mind Awakener

I came to realize that fear was created for the enhancement of awareness and attention in dangerous situations, and one need not diminish one’s capacity to respond. One can greatly increase not only the perception of reality but also the ability to handle any situation better. It became clear: this is a door that swings both ways, and it is our choice once we have become clear about fear’s true function, to either lose our self in fear or become connected with higher centers and greater degrees of freedom.

Moscow Webinar on Tension, False I, Breathing, and Higher Being Bodies

One of the things we spoke about in the title of the program was the relationship between certain tensions in our body that are connected with, or making concrete, the False I. Therefore the tension can give clues as to where and what this False I is. Our body can have tensions that drain us and correct tensions that support us.

If you observe little children, you can see that the way they move, the way their postures are, the way their facial expressions are: all are more fluid. The energy or prana flows through them more easily than through us. As we grow older we begin to lose this flexibility, this fluidity. If you lose this fluidity, you begin to become more rigid, and that rigidity is psychological as well as physical.

The other part of the subject that we want to talk about tonight is the energetic aspect, which is connected with prana or chi, and how we can gradually develop what Gurdjieff calls “higher bodies.”

The first barrier we spoke about is in the physical body. Gurdjieff calls it “Kundabuffer.” This aspect turns impressions upside down in the sense of valuation, so that you begin to value outer life, outer things, more than inner things. So, this first barrier is connected with the very base of the spine.

So, with regard to the mind and the “I”: the “I” that can exist for us now, is simply “my attention.” If my attention is held, is enslaved through identification, then my “I” is simply a part of the many “I’s.” That is, there is no one I; there are I’s. I can create a kind of separation, an independence for my attention. Therefore, using my attention, I have to work with non-identification. I have to be able to separate my mind from the reactions that occur in my life, set my mind apart from likes and dislikes. Gradually then, if I can do this, I can create a kind of separation, or independence from my attention. Then this attention will have become two forces, one looking inward and one looking outward. As I look around me, I can be aware of people and surroundings, and I can be aware of my inner state, but without judgment. As soon as I see judgment come in, then I am identified. If I am identified, and I go into these little parts of myself, this is fragmentation.

In his symbol of Akhaldan, Gurdjieff uses the substance of amber to represent the capacity to non-identify or to be impartial. Also in this statue you have the three parts of the system.

You have first the body and what Gurdjieff calls “perseverance”; that is, you do not stop; you keep going; this idea is represented by the Bull. Then you have the emotions, and here the major quality you need is courage, courage to face yourself, to face your life. Courage, in the Akhaldan statue, is symbolized by the Lion. And finally you have the mind, or the intellect. And the mind must constantly keep some Aim. So that if you are working for example, with attention now, with this process of being connected at the same time with the inside of yourself as well as the outside, at the same moment, then the Aim is that this third force is going to enter, that you will be open to this third force, which will relate these two parts of yourself, the inner and the outer. So they are no longer separate; they are now becoming integrated. And this integration means that you are developing your own individuality, your own Real I.

So here you have in this symbol, the eagle represents the freedom of the mind, the freedom of attention so that, as the eagle’s wings go up, it flies above and it can look down on things; through this analogy you can see the whole of yourself, the whole of the situation.

instead of having a head on the figure, you have the piece of amber where the neck is, and you have the breasts of a virgin, which represent giving love. Here is the idea of non-identification.

Down below we have Kundabuffer, and we remember that the main way Gurdjieff talks about dissolving Kundabuffer is through working with other people. It is not the only way, which we will talk about perhaps another time. To address Gurdjieff’s main way: if somebody irritates you, if perhaps they judge you, and you see they are judging you, in order to Work, you have to bear this unpleasant judgment, for example, from another person. By bearing it, inner friction is created inside of you. This has an effect on your self-image and on the tensions in your body that we were talking about, the tensions that create the False I.

That is why this quality of courage is so necessary: so that when you see that this false image is being attacked, or you feel that it is being attacked, you don’t turn away. You face yourself, not because the person is necessarily right or good, but because you want to dissolve this False I. As far as emotional life is concerned, how do I not go with my emotional reactions? How do I keep back? How can I be patient? This builds a certain emotional strength, but if it is in the form of suppression, then I am going to create greater dysfunction. So, how can I bring my emotions, which Gurdjieff links to the idea of the horse, how can I bring my emotional life to support my Aim?

And you are creating a support for your emotional life. And, in the myth, one is shown how to take steps towards a better life, towards a more whole life. And one is also warned about different struggles which may arise, difficulties to be faced, so the horse is prepared for difficulties. Also the horse is motivated by the fact that, as these steps are taken, gradually one become stronger and lives in a higher state of being. So the horse can be motivated, not just by this way, but this is one of the ways.

As you may remember, Mr. Gurdjieff tells us that myth connects, not only with emotional center but with Higher Emotional Center.

with Higher Emotional Center, then you get these very alive impressions of yourself and of the world. This involves mystical states. So now the horse really has something to look forward to. In essence, the horse gets wings. So now the horse is free from many, many of its old neuroses, fears, anxiety, stresses because it sees that there is a whole other purpose to life. And it can come to this higher purpose by following these steps.

I remember, Lord Pentland said, “All we have is attention.” But if the attention is not connected to an aim, it is equally useless. What is that old saying? If you don’t know where you are going, any port is good enough.

Then, it becomes more fluid, temporarily. So you can observe and watch, perhaps you have an area in your body on which these tensions focus or vector. And how would it be if you released this false center of gravity? Maybe you can find for yourself where the tensions focus or vector in your body. For some people it’s very obvious; they will be like this: (AF tenses his upper

body including raised shoulders). You can just feel this pressure and this tension; they get headaches. And this is like holding up the world sort of thing.

So what happens when you try to consciously relax this part (at base of your spine)? It has an effect on the whole body because this reaction is connected with the adrenalin flow and the lack of ability to absorb this neurohormone in the right way. In all these many different places you might have these tensions, whether it’s in the chest or whether it’s in the lower back, or it could even be in the legs, anywhere; if you begin to consciously release the tightness, try to see what you are releasing. It may not be something you can label intellectually, but you can kind of take a picture of it: what is this tension? What is it related to?

You know you can be watching the scary movie, or reading a book that has some scary theme, and in your head, you can say to yourself, “This is just a movie.” But you can see that you are not able to persuade your instinctive center, or your emotional center, of the truth of that. Even though it’s just a movie, and you know it can’t hurt you, or it’s a kind of dream, you see that illusion is stronger than your mind. But gradually, if you work with the tensions that are created by this illusion, then the illusion also begins to disappear. And this is another way of helping to dissolve Kundabuffer. Kundabuffer is creating these illusionary states, what they call in Hinduism, “Maya.”

And so we each are going to be in the position of being attacked in a sense by Maya, of something that is taking our life force, our prana. Gurdjieff calls that life force “hanbledzoin,”and in Taoism it’s “Qi.” They are just different names for the same substance. So if you want to have more life energy, you have to reduce the amount of this energy being taken away.

What would it be like if the only tension you expended was enough to stay in the place that you are in, nothing more; you are so efficient? And it may be that different postures bring out certain states, like somebody may be in a posture where they have their hand like this (not visible) or something—the famous posture “the Thinker.” Does it help you think? You have to see. Maybe it does.

For example, you are some big guy, and you see yourself as always having to be very tough, always. Or, you always have to be very theatrical. Or intellectual: you are always thinking. You may not be thinking, but you are always pretending you are thinking. You create these postures which are false, which require these tensions which are false, and these tensions support False I, like the base of a pyramid. If you begin to take away the base of false postures and tensions, gradually you begin to reduce the development of this False I. On the other side, you have natural tensions, normal tensions, healthy tensions, that support the development of your Real I. What do these normal tensions do? They allow for prana to flow. It is prana that feeds essence and allows Real I to grow. You can’t grow, psychologically, this Real I without sufficient Life Force.

These tensions that we have, these false tensions, are connected with anxiety, emotional stress, and can even be connected with psychosis. When the normal flow of energy, the normal life force, is aberrated, you can get illness in the body, in the emotions, and in the mind. Gurdjieff said that if you don’t deal with these dysfunctions, you cannot have any kind of productive Work.

And, through this process of mind and body now working in harmony together, more and more of this prana, and higher prana, that is, higher hydrogens, are drawn in, and this in turn brings essence up, and finally at the top of the pyramid, Real I is created.

It is like the lotus that gradually grows up through the muddy water (AF draws plant with root submerged, and at surface of water, flower stem blooming), and here is the sun; these are higher hydrogens.

energies, and inside you have the real human being, or the pearl in the lotus. So this lotus is an image in ancient Egypt, in India and in China, and other places to illustrate the idea of evolution. Flowers have been used as a part of the language that supports this idea.

And when you work with voice, and work with singing, you are working with breath. So it is an interesting, indirect way to approach.

#3Q: How is Astral body felt? A: It is best to read mystical accounts or shamanic accounts. To move this energy out of your body, you might do Tai Chi practices. We are out of time.

The Three Fundamental Barriers Introduction

It is interesting to visualize how the hierarchy of centers in the body corresponds exactly to the cosmic hierarchy as Gurdjieff speaks about in BEELZEBUB’S TALES. The true mind exists deep in the brain which sits upon the body which holds in itself the image of the cosmic scheme.

In this process one must also rid oneself of the illusions, projections, and domination of the false I, otherwise known as the crystallization of chief feature.

that is, the effects of the organ Kundabuffer at the base of the spine, where genetically our tail should be.

Here, according to Mr. Gurdjieff and also, for certain Taoist Masters and Patanjali, there exists something like 3 1/2 rings, or coils of a snake around the base of the lingam. It is a kind of trap that occludes prana or chi or ruach, whatever one wishes to call it—it is the life force. This trap prevents the life force from taking its natural course. In doing so, it causes human beings to see things “topsy-turvy” or “upside down.”2 So, for example, the false I is taken for the real I. (See the chapter on “False Genesis Enneagram.”) And the material world is placed in value above the spiritual world. We do not sell all for the pearl of great price; rather we sell our inheritance, our birthright, for a mess of porridge.

So the suggestion was given to dissolve this “parasite” by enduring the unpleasant manifestation of others: to put oneself—or have oneself put—in conditions that cause suffering, especially to our vanity and pride, to our self-image, and to our sense of what is right, etc. In doing so, over considerable time, the vestiges of Kundabuffer will be eradicated.

Then perhaps one can begin to understand what Gurdjieff is trying to express in the phrase that “man cannot do” while he also tells us that “the highest aim of Man is to be able to do.” Try to ponder this; it is not enough to read it or mouth the words.

There may be methods to accelerate the dissolving of Kunda-buffer, and we will talk about this at another place in this book (see Handbook on Energy Pathways).

was divided into two parts so that in us we have the heart itself and the solar plexus. Often we do not feel at all; we only emote. Our feelings and our emotions are mechanical, touched off by fear of exposure. Our essential self is hidden and, like a child kept in a closet, cannot manifest its true self. The solar plexus is connected to the sympathetic nervous system; it is manipulated by fears and hormones which in turn stimulate equally mechanical reactions.

Blood, according to Gurdjieff, links the horse to the carriage—the emotional center to the moving center, which is housed in the spinal cord and lowest part of the brain, about which we will say more a little later. Intuition and awareness are qualities of higher emotional center, while proximity awareness is a function of the solar plexus. We must reunite the two parts of the emotional center through body/feeling exercises. (See the exercises in this book.) Intuition and awareness are related to the conscious connection to the blood and hormones, one of the main linkages being adrenaline and other neural hormones.

The Third Barrier The third barrier is the crossing of neurological impulses in the back and lower part of the head brain, called the medulla oblongata.

Again, I repeat: “very, very much on guard” (i.e., vigilant and attentive) or this will give “results not similar but opposite to each other.” The crossing of these forces without a reconciling or third force can create only artificial electricity that drains us of the power to transform ourselves. This is why—and try to ponder this—the force of attention guided by understanding is vital at this third barrier.

The medulla oblongata stands between the planetary body, as it is contiguous with the spinal cord, and the higher centers in the brain. In deep Taoist teachings this area is called the “Jade Pillow” because it is where sleep is induced; connect this to what was said before.

So you can see that oversight and reconciling this crossing is crucial to our Work, and yet no one speaks of it, except, of course, Gurdjieff himself. We must go much deeper into sensation in these three places: the base of the spine, the chest, and the “back of

the head” where this crossing of forces actually occurs. (See “Handbook on Energy Pathways.”)

The latter barrier is connected with the disharmony between male and female elements. Male and female logic and intuition should potentiate each other, but they rarely do.

It is an apparatus which should act as a support for thinking and reason, a kind of librarian with access to memory and associations that can be brought forward easily and examined. However, instead of being a useful tool, it usurps and replaces our highest function, thought. So, instead of thought, we are trapped in this automatism, the Monkey Mind, as our default mode, which in turn is enslaved to our fantasies and illusions.

If we do not see what is preventing the initiation of our metamorphosis, we cannot begin to free ourselves from these traps. These traps effectively stop us from taking even these first steps on the evolutionary ladder.

This Work is exacting; one must discover precisely how to look. One must become a detective, a hunter poised, listening, to uncover what is true and what is not. One must be focused like a wolf—pointed ears; sheep cannot do this.

A Walk along the Water: A Teaching Story and Dialogue with a Pupil

The Story From the Egyptian

Af: You give away but are returned 7 fold; fold upon fold, building. When God created the world and the waters, the Logos was upon the waters—like breath, and caused it to ripple—to fold upon itself. So “cast bread upon water” is folding one’s energy—building upon each effort towards the next octave—“return sevenfold” is the law of sevenfoldness. Gurdjieff speaks about it in BEELZEBUB’S TALES. But it is not just a passive idea; it is a way to work, a method: “I do not just make disconnected efforts; each effort must build upon the other.” The feel of this enfolding sensation, multiplying of energies, is concentrating energy.

False Genesis Enneagram

“Facts” My Inner Search for the Gurdjieff Work

I got up each morning to meditate as the sun rose and to do Tai Chi before leaving for a ten-hour workday.

Faced with imminent death, there came a blending of my will with a similar substance in the space around me. A “doorway” opened through which my body was projected vertically by several feet. I was literally transported upward. In the same moment I found my right hand firmly gripping the shrub. Buoyed by the remnants of that force, I easily pulled myself to the top of the cliff. I slowly stood up and took stock of my surroundings. In this state of extraordinary clarity, there seemed no miracle in what had happened. My ordinary mind, tethered to a different reality, was struck dumb.

For this new relation, between wolf and sheep, to be possible, the mind (that chief impeller to self-perfection) must be developed. This relationship must be achieved in the state of remembering oneself (that necessary factor in the process of self-perfecting). When some people in the Work denigrate the mind, they lose this main catalyzing factor.

Who can think like this, when Gurdjieff is so clear that effort itself must be three-centered? Yes sensation, yes feeling, yes pondering; yes, yes, yes and more.

We hear of a certain substance that can be acquired, a substance that can exist after death, something finer, a soul. This soul begins its development from the physical body and continues through the astral, mental, and finally the divine body of man.

Priests at one time were also physicians, treating both body and soul. As Gurdjieff makes very clear in his booklet, HERALD OF THE COMING GOOD, no change is possible unless certain fundamental conditions in the health of the body are addressed. This includes dealing with all kinds of addictions.

It is the “Law conformable result of a man’s unflinching perseverance in bringing all his manifestations into accordance with the principles he has consciously set himself in life for the attainment of a definite aim.”

The Place of Gurdjieff’s Movements Within the Greater Work on Oneself

Forms always stand below the level of substance from which forms are made; then, once forms are created, and by this I mean esoteric forms, it is necessary to fill them with Hanbledzoin, but if one does not understand this, the forms remain pathetically empty of life. Thus, in trying to clarify hierarchy, to begin to give some context to those forms that are obligatory and then forms that are useful, one must start with authentic group work which can evolve into its fully psychological and cosmic functions. Higher and more subtle functions remain unknown and unfulfilled in groups outside the Gurdjieff lineage.

These forms must elicit conscious activities connected with our three centers, our two natures—with self-observation, self-remembering and sensing, non-identification, external considering and so on. It is clear that the practical study and application of the ideas of the Work must take precedence over all forms of Work which could be viewed as their outgrowths or appendages. A growing knowledge of the Law of Three and the Law of Octaves, then, as one of the Obligonian strivings, is of primary importance. It is rare to find someone who rightly values real ideas, ideas that come from on high. These laws are not

mere words, but potent influences descending and branching lawfully from the Logos itself.

Gurdjieff says that pondering of such ideas should occupy one third of our time. When we begin to value these ideas, it becomes relatively easy to see that all the powerful intelligent forms of our Work arose and must continue to arise directly from applying these very high, very refined ideas to our situation.

Usually after a certain preparation students like myself were given the opportunity to study the Movements within the conditions of a more organic, sane, and comprehensive Work on oneself. This addition helps inoculate the forms from becoming infected by false personality and self-love.

The central and indispensable form of our Work is Group Work; it provides that unique set of conditions Gurdjieff would utilize to bring students face to face with themselves and others under the guidance of a teacher who had lived this Work. Gurdjieff intended that this teacher would be a man or woman who had applied Gurdjieff’s ideas to him or herself and had digested the experiences over many years, learning the lessons necessary for transformation from man 1, 2 and 3, or mechanical man. The sacred interaction of Ideas and Forms, can give rise to a Substance necessary to create a higher platform, a higher body, upon which ever new possibilities and responsibilities may evolve.

The seeker is looking for palpable proof that conscious evolution is possible. It is why the center or leader is so central to the group.

As it is said in the parable of the Centurion, each is under authority and gains authority, knowledge and power to heal as it serves this higher purpose; this is known as faith in the Gospels. With the help of certain teachers, I was able to study the creation and maintenance of Work conditions in all their complexity, difficulties and opportunities naturally occurring in a large Gurdjieff Foundation, and also to visit other centers within and also outside the Foundation.

There are many situations designed for exploring the Work with others, the second line of Work, for a conscious socializing, for external consideration, and for self-study; in this second line there are many relatively invisible activities because they are simply taken as ‘Teatime’ and so on.

It does not help however to follow those who imitate the forms, to enter a pretend Work.

It was a Work to support the right growth of essence and in that loving light all who guided it were fortunate. Different essences have different possibilities; for example, Gurdjieff speaks about those who come from a special caste of humanity capable of developing healing powers of Hanbledzoin—magnetism; which he says he acquired to such a degree, that no man, perhaps not even in any past epoch, had been able to acquire. This capacity is a defining characteristic of Gurdjieff

is quite rare in the deep, hypnotic sleep in which we live, and with all the negativity we call our emotional life, that someone enters the Work without some serious defect which they are blind to; these include addictions, mental and psychic aberrations, excessive anxiety, tensions and fears, and various kinds of

corporeal health problems. As it was said in the Bible, one cannot pour new wine in old wine-skins—or patch a tear in old cloth—but this is what many without understanding try to do.

At the same time one can see that people have different gifts; it is certainly wonderful to see those very few with the gift and courage to become genuine Movements teachers: those hearty ones who have not taken the easy way despite strong individualism.

Will – The Way Gurdjieff’s Work is unfolding. As with the system of Ashiata Shiemash, it is renewing itself, for it is not a set system. It is the elaboration of a seed planted 100 years ago in Russia. It is a “work in progress,” but there is no guarantee that it will continue in the same direction that Gurdjieff envisioned.

This resistance, that part of it which is not built on fantasy, must continually be reincorporated to produce the results we need. This resistance, oftener than not, begins when we stop questioning ourselves, our opinions and attitudes, our personal prejudices and preferences. It is a sign of aging, not age, but aging or petrification.

Handbook on Energy, Pathways, and the Higher Bodies in Man A Primer on Inner Alchemy

Focusing on Direct Experience Learning of the Subtle Channels Eliminating Blockages and Toxins Reconstitution the Sexual Energy (Si 12 or JingQi) Circulation of Life Energy Preparing the Ground for Transformation Essentials of Human Energy Transformation

Gurdjieff realized a very comprehensive and detailed approach to complete human metamorphosis. However many important aspects were buried very deep. One of these is the precise knowledge of energy (chi or prana) pathways. Gurdjieff speaks about prana but strangely he does not indicate its pathways, which are very well known both in ancient India and in ancient China. This knowledge is absolutely essential to the harmonious development of the human being.

“The great masters of all the traditions are called alchemists.” (Gurdjieff)1

Their invention connected to these laws, the Alla-Attapan, is something that can be created within us: opium (Si 12) (neuro-hormones); sound (Sol 12) (‘mantra-tuva,’ throat singing); light (Mi 12). This information was transmitted through genuine initiates (see YELLOW EMPEROR’S BOOK OF INTERNAL MEDICINE).

Introduction This is a very condensed manual. Its objective is to describe a high relief map of the way energy may become transformed consciously, so that our higher bodies might fully arise, become coated, and perfected.

He promised to speak about the needs and possibilities related to the arising, growth and perfecting of the higher being bodies. This can be found by studying the entire corpus of his teaching, for example the Food Diagram. Lord Pentland told us, his students, we needed to practice the Food Diagram. The fire within is the Active force; food, air and impressions are put on the altar and sacrificed in this fire, creating higher energies.

The teachings presented herein are drawn through and irrevocably entwined within me from primarily two sources, which I have studied and utilized for over four decades: The Fourth Way teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff and Taoism.

This duality that exists between one’s essence wish and the intentionally actualized projections to materialize thought and one’s opposing fantasies must be clearly seen.

This overseer must consciously engage, breathe in, and assimilate the real experiential material of our lives to raise and complete the energetic structure of higher bodies. This process requires a special courage to wish to see and accept our ordinary and quite mechanical self. Persevering in the spiritual deserts, thirsting for consciousness that seems just out of reach, we begin to realize the importance of embodying this crossing of spiritual with the mechanical forces. It has taken me over 40 years to put together the clues and find the sources in Taoist alchemy and other places Gurdjieff indicated, to complete the transmission regarding development of higher bodies and their subtle pathways, and their connections to higher centers.

Often we find ourselves fighting nature, as a man afraid of drowning flails in deep waters. It is imperative that he relaxes, that he discovers the waters of life will support him if he can give up his fear. He must discover this bit of knowledge before he drowns himself. He may begin to see that he is fighting nature, but nature is not only immeasurably more powerful than he is, it is the very substance of his life. Instead of fighting nature, he needs to begin to live within Great Nature more consciously. Since the terrain is ever changing it does no good to cling to a fixed method. A good strategy has tactical flexibility, allowing one to maintain the aim while meeting the actual conditions of life in this moment.

Or, perhaps for you, it would be better to forget all this and immerse yourself fully in the mesmeric dance of life. Transformation is necessary only if you cannot live without it. I wish to thank Masters Kai Ying Tung, Marshall Ho’o, Ju kim Shek and Master Shenfushi for their kindness and patience; Lord John Pentland who was head of the Gurdjieff Foundation until his death in 1984. John Pentland was the first man I met who could demonstrate that higher being bodies exist and could be intentionally utilized.

Preparation: Seed of Mortality / Immortality

I. Orientation Seeing, I pretend

II. Reconstitute and Circulate the Vital Sexual Energy Giving and taking in each gesture, in each moment. The most potent and precious substance elaborated by eating food and drink is sexual energy.

Intent must arise from both clarity of mind and sincerity of purpose, not from a desire to manipulate. In the Gurdjieff Work as in the true Tao, the aim is to be conscious. The full realization of this aim is subject to the development of higher bodies. This development must integrate heat from both psychological friction and the ‘fire’ from the intentional stimulation of vibration in our energetic natures. The higher bodies or vessels (in the Bible referred to as “wineskins”) are able to assimilate and incorporate progressively finer energies. Then these finer substances elaborate even more subtle ones which can be projected and distributed for the benefit of the practitioner and for other beings.

The first gathers and elaborates what is to be sacrificed; the second provides the fire to sublimate and fix these energies (see “Enneagram on Baking Bread”). Fire is a Solar symbol for that which accelerates activity and vibrational rate—what makes conscious evolution possible at each level and destroys that which is impermanent. Slowing down, in terms of inner vibration means to fall into sleep and finally death as one descends the Ray of Creation towards the Moon.

Highly volatile, the sexual energy becomes depleted or aberrated, passing unseen into tensions, anxieties, and worry. Particular concern is the combustion of this energy through intense emotional displays. Explosive emotional episodes are often a symptom of sexual disease. Even modern psychology recognizes sexual suppression as the basis for neurosis.

It is vital to restrain emotional energies through conscious suffering, facing difficult situations and restrictions in fulfillment of desires and primitive drives.

“In patience, possess ye your souls.” (Luke 21:19)

Even modern psychology recognizes sexual suppression as the basis for neurosis. The underlying physical-energetic cause for this universal dis-ease is concurrently a direct obstruction in the evolutionary path. If one wishes to generate the vital transformative heat, Zernofookalnian-friction is needed. It is vital to restrain emotional energies through conscious suffering, facing difficult situations and restrictions in fulfillment of desires and primitive drives.

Self-awareness and attention, that is, attending in each moment to what is actually happening, acts like a special spiritual magnet, attracting the finer, more vivifying breath that drives the distillation process at this level.

Although couched in religious terms, this is a piece of sound psychology, and the warning should be heeded in all future efforts. After more time of clarifying and consciously perfecting these efforts, come to a tranquil, alert, and more awakened state. Go through with utmost care all seven previous steps awaiting the positive and now sublimated sexual force.

III. Clear the Primary Energy Flow Circuits (Gurdjieff’s teachings on central axis [as “pipeline,” “duct” or “axis of attention”] through which Ray of Creation passes and breaks into side octaves or branches)

This is a physical process to assist the recognition and finally the removal of the psychophysical burdens generated by fear and from ignorance.

include grasping of transient power and materiality, both ordinary and spiritual, judgment of others, opinions, and all manner of masks that one wears unconsciously. Note: The exact placement of the centers and flow lines needs to be sensed and felt rather than imposed from an idea in the head. These centers and flow lines, like mountains, valleys, and rivers of the Earth, exist independent of our knowledge. Become gradually acquainted with them with the help of the “maps,” but do not take the map for the reality. For example, organs in the human body are not necessarily in the exact place where you would find them pictured in an anatomy book.

Continue to watch, reducing entry and mixing of egoistic influence that would further taint the life force.

These two points are connected by a channel called “the belt channel” or “girdle.” This is the same concept as in the Bible where it is said “Gird up thy loins.”

This practice should be done daily; once the channels clear, the process can go on either without “resting” at any point or optionally with longer rests. Concurrently with this activity, practice inner listening which will help you follow the rhythmic spacing and other subjective changes needed to harmonize your particular system. There should be no invention, only that deep inquiry into the needs of the system to be sustained and evolve.

Desires and instinctive drives are Lunar in nature; non-desire turns this force around so it begins to arise from Earth towards Sun, which is connected to Essence-Wish.

Com-passion is an inner acceptance that absorbs all the diverse passions and returns them to their essential source, the Self. Only an all-pervading and encompassing feeling of remembering the whole of me, of all my parts can bring this to fruition. Meditation on these emotional qualities, their physical substrates in the organs and tissues, and the linking ground of the blood, requires time. (Intentional suffering is letting go of emoting or emotional identification [“self-expression”] to acquire feeling toward Self Remembering.)

(Intentional suffering is letting go of emoting or emotional identification [“self-expression”] to acquire feeling toward Self Remembering.)

Also be sure that the energy spreads to every corner, every cell of the body to the utmost of your ability (both a Tao Principle and Lord Pentland’s admonition).

VI. Solar Plexus Energy Body (Astral Body) Assist the recollection of the whole over the expression of any part.

This Light can grow only in utter stillness and silence. The evolution and involution of all my Being, outer and inner, begins to balance; something closer to the I (Master) may occasionally appear between these two primordial currents, a taste of freedom to come. But, as we have all heard, this I can become permanent only with the death of that which we have come to know as “I,” even that which has led us to this point, awakening, death, and only then, true rebirth.

Perhaps you will have brief glimpses of this light as you work towards filling the lamp with the oil of positive vitality. It is better not to strain or attempt to hold onto the experience. Later, when conditions have become right, the Golden Light of Original Awareness will appear strong without flickering.

22. From the soles of the feet breathe in to lift Earth energy and true vitality up the spine and into the back of the brain and forward to the third eye (h). The third eye is where this intermingling may create a clear fluid that can, if sufficiently saturated with sacred prana, crystallize into a “pearl.” When the pearl between eyes (h) begins to radiate a golden- moonlight, it indicates maturity of the immortal embryo. Pulse and breath may come nearly to a complete stop when true immortal breathing begins. The event stabilizes the Spirit/Conscious Light. Do not attempt to induce these changes artificially; they must be a result of the process; again, this process is not an imposition from the head or ego.

23. Roll eyes clockwise to blend white conscious light with the golden light within the pearl. This creates an electric-blue current, which opens the Third Eye.

Note: At any point in this long process one may lose one’s place, become imbalanced, or forget oneself and why effort is needed. Do not become disheartened; you are in good company. As Rumi said, “This is not a caravan of despair” so shake the dust from your feet and “Come, come again.” “Even if you have broken your vow a thousand times, come again.”

The pineal gland and the pituitary gland (the father) are connected to the central nervous system through the superior cervical ganglion. The pineal gland inner octave is the higher emotional center (the Power). The pituitary gland inner octave is the higher (Logos, thought, or intelligence) intellectual center (the Glory). In addition, these are the brains of the body Kesdjan and Higher Body Kesdjan of the Soul.

These three bodies, the Natural, Solar, and Pineal may merge in the right conditions, forming a fourth body. It is said that active forces of each may blend, creating a perfect triad, crystallizing into an immortal Diamond Body.

If a Golden Wheel of Light appears, suck it back into the head and body.

VIII. Diamond Energy Body (Second or Higher Kesdjan Body of Soul-the Immortal Soul) When two or three are gathered together in my name, There I am. These three bodies, the Natural, Solar, and Pineal may merge in the right conditions, forming a fourth body. It is said that active forces of each may blend, creating a perfect triad, crystallizing into an immortal Diamond Body.

The Sacrifice What is the nature of the sacrifice? The sky above; the earth below, a table is set; the sacrifice is laid upon it. There is an invocation of powers. A fire is lit; the sacrifice is consumed. Symbolic. In one’s self, food enters the mouth, and the fire within the body cooks the food, consumes it. We are constantly in the process of sacrificing. Air, sound, sights enter us like food, and the active energy, the fire within, consumes it.

I have a desire for something; I have a fear that I can lose something; the sacrifice is to the moon.

However, if we focus on Mi 48 of the Air Octave, we can combine directly the further transformation of air or Prana, and at the same time put fire to the impression of air. This is a secret at the center of ancient alchemy that has now been revealed.

The psychological friction of conscious labor and intentional suffering is the transformation of Prana, by the heat of this sacrificial fire, achieved energetically. Another way of picturing this idea as a process is to say: The psychological friction of conscious labor and intentional suffering, created energetically through the heat of this sacrificial fire, becomes the transformation of Prana.

Webinar with Alan Francis and Arkady Rovner on “Sacrifice” Moscow, Russia, Spring 2015

So, let’s take one minute of real silence. That means not just inner silence, not just stopping one’s movements in the body and the emotions and the mind, but also anchoring oneself to this deep silence that is within us.

There are two ideas about sacrifice. One is unconscious sacrifice; we are sacrificing our lives to these negative emotions. So it’s your choice whether you want to sacrifice unconsciously or intentionally, consciously. Your emotions are the most powerful thing in you. They control you. You have to make a determination if you want to lose this life force through your emotional excesses or you want to begin to restrain these emotional outbursts and these anxieties appearing on your faces. And, in doing so, begin to take back your life so that when you say, “My life,” it actually begins to be, your life.

Are you witnessing yourself, now? Can you see yourself? O.K. So, this relationship between the witness (AF writes the word “witness” above the top circle), which is the conduit of consciousness, and the doors of perception (AF writes “doors” next to the bottom circle).

order to be connected, we have to have this tremendously open space (AF draws egg-shaped oval around line connecting witness to doors). If this space is full of associations, whether of the mind, the

emotions, or the body, then this conduit, this linkage between the highest in us, connected with the Ray of Creation, all the way down to the lowest part of us, is blocked. So, immediately, the idea of sacrifice has a specific and special meaning that is here, a sacrificing of all the mechanical associations that I have thus far lived for.

So now, as a thought enters your mind about what’s being said, or about some association having nothing to do with our being here—-you can observe it. And, the power of seeing, if you really do see, is so strong that it is an absolute for your associations; in other words, it can dissolve the associations. But, if you are attached to your associations, if you like them so much, then they will be stronger than your wish to see. So, you have to make a choice. Do I wish to be conscious, or do I wish to stay a machine? Do I wish to start next year, or now?

So, the way that exists between the highest in us and the lowest in us must be cleared. And this is like an electrical shock that has to come from this high level. (The Sun is electrical.) It has to come from this high level and pierce all these mechanical levels. What’s in between? (AF draws 6 horizontal lines inside the egg shape). It’s the whole Ray of Creation; it’s the whole world in us. And so, once we begin to clear this pathway, we then have to replace this old mechanical process with a new conscious process. And one of the first things we have to do is look at the pictures we have of ourselves, which Gurdjieff calls “Egoplastikoori.” (Big word, one of his strange words that he has in ALL AND EVERYTHING). What picture do you have of yourself that prevents this conscious force from entering you?

which he calls Si 12, creative or sexual energy, and the Taoists call Jing Qi. (I don’t know if there is a special name in Yoga for it; is there a special name? Audience: kundalini? Yes, that’s the problem.) What happens is that the sexual energy is taken by these three and a half winding circles, which is actually a snake wrapped around the sexual energy, and then all kinds of imaginings, all kinds of false beliefs, begin to connect with the sexual energy. So, to sacrifice these false pictures about sexual energy and to determine exactly what it is and what it’s purpose is, acts as this first level of sacrifice. And,

The Taoist’s is more of an energetic approach, while Gurdjieff’s approach is more psychological, at least externally. And what I’ve been doing for a number of years is working gradually to relate these two: the energetic and psychological.

Part…

AF: Sacrifice, in the original etymology literally means “…

Only when it becomes positive vitality can it begin the work of transforming this energy into higher and higher vitalities until finally you create an immortal body. And this is also called “the Soul.” If you wish to gain a soul, if you wish to live more fully, not as an automaton, then, you have to be willing to sacrifice your energies which naturally are either blocked into imagination or are being used only externally. These are…

So outside situations that cause you to be afraid, to be anxious, pull your life energy from you. And then once you begin to witness this, and you notice it is true,…

Why were you born? For nothing? Just to live an existence of pure crap? To be manure? In fact, it sounds better, merde. Very nice word. Or, do you want to begin to come back up, from the lowest level of mechanicality, come back up the Ray of Creation and begin to exist at a higher level of being? If you do, you have to collect yourself. We are so used to throwing ourselves out there, what we call “self-expression,” that we never really come inside ourselves, never experience who we are. So, in a way you see that sacrifice, or making sacred, is a kind of suffering. We have to let go of old things; we have to let go of the person that we think that we are, that we have pictured ourselves to be. Then we can begin to become…

Question from Russian interpreter: What would be the next step after the solar system? AF: The heart. Connected with higher emotional center. And then, depending upon which arrangement you have, you can go up to the mind. And the mind goes to a very high level. We are…

If you are building a larger building, you need a scaffolding (it’s a structure that people climb on) and much of these teachings are that kind of a thing; they are kind of an artifice. And once you build the building, you take down the artifice, but without the artifice, how can you build the building? Behind the artifice, there is a reality that we are looking for. All the theory that we use is a kind of artifice. It’s not the…

So for example we talked about this way of movement (gestures to the chart on easel), it is a way of movement that he calls the Law of Falling. And that it is possible, if you get out of the way, to allow the energies to fall down to the area below the abdomen. This is the beginning point for transforming Si 12 and Sol 12 (inaudible).

AF: So that’s your question: if my soul can become immortal, has it always been immortal? Well, if we take an ordinary example of a young child, because our energy system is sort of like an embryonic soul, these energy lines exist in us, but they are very weak. So it is up to us whether we are going to mature those energies, grow those energies, until they become stabilized and crystallized, or whether we’re going to let that embryonic body, or the embryonic soul, simply disintegrate.

That’s why few people choose to go through this complete metamorphosis. And very few people today understand completely that process, even in the highest levels of the Gurdjieff Work today.

AF: My point of view is that there is no one like Gurdjieff in the last thousand years. That is my personal opinion. He left some extraordinary human beings that had developed higher bodies of which I have absolutely no doubt. So, we are talking, at minimum, man number 5, maybe higher. This includes Madame de Salzmann, Michel de Salzmann, Lord Pentland, and others.

But this is a part of what is called “the sly man’s way.” Or “taking heaven by storm.” (Arkady adds a comment in Russian at this point.)

And Hassein Wept …

As this personal, inner realization automatically begins to surface from his subconscious, Hassein weeps. Like you and me, he is being prepared for his future role in life. For this evolution, the subconscious and the conscious aspects of his being would need to become intentionally harmonized. As yet, the nature of his new role and destiny remains invisible and unknown to him.

Some of Gurdjieff’s most trenchant examples for us to consider are the Society Akhaldan, The Initiate System of Ashiata Shiemash, and the Adherents of Legomonism.

The latter, hidden in many diverse disguises, have acted in the past as a leaven in the cultural dough.

There were those farsighted people like Pythagoras or the Medici family whose activities spread into ordinary life. There are the Five Excellences and many illuminating concepts from Chinese culture which spread to the Japanese: Tea Ceremony, Ikebana, Haiku, Chinese Feng-Shui Gardens, or as common place a ritual as attentive precision in food preparation, Noh Theatre, Zen Meditation, and later Aikido. These are many forms connected with a search for a new valuation, patience, sensitivity, and consciousness leading towards a right development of humanity.

Unfortunately, this brings a dubious rational to some who see this question in terms of black and white; many who seek to influence things on a larger scale lose contact with their inner work. And the truth is, very few people can honestly relate their inner Work to the World around them. There is a rather mysterious disconnect which reveals a lack of maturity of being from both sides of this dispute. And if there is no leadership in this vital interface, how then will the Work continue its own evolution from Sol?

In this isolated state, nothing really is accomplished. Those people who take refuge in the inner world from the duality of being and from others in the outer world, remain alienated. This phenomenon appears as alienation between people and positions in the Work, but in fact, it begins as an inner alienation.

Will we in Mr. Gurdjieff’s Work overcome these splintering tendencies for a more intense living? Those who accept the necessity of attending to their inner work and simultaneously do not shirk the necessary next step of bringing this work into the world, into life, whether in small ways or on bigger scales,…

But before this immersion, one comes to a lonely windy trail, then, a rocky and unknown descent to face. Who will go down, against logic, into that dark valley which each Pilgrim must traverse, barefoot and alone? There is a guardian of the Way who stays near; when Michael questions you, how will you answer him? Arrogance becomes like smoke, and choice is upon you: to go on that less trodden path or to return to familiar surroundings. At this juncture, the path forward will not lead you upwards in the direction and in the states you have come to expect and desire. Rather, it will lead you downwards, putting you at risk and causing you to shed such comforts as soft clothes and shoes, powers and gifts already acquired by your conscious labors;…

Through a Glass Darkly A Short Monograph on the Teaching Style of Lord John Pentland and Some Cogent…

One of his closest disciples assured me privately that LP was Atlantean and Egyptian, working through higher mental center, and in this context we were related. Listening to Lord Pentland was like turning…

One could feel something hidden: a golden thread running through our exchanges, but lacking certain keenness, rarely could one follow it. Sometimes the attempt to attune was so intense one’s ears began to come to a point…

Was the atmosphere rarefied? Yes, at times, but it was also simple and practical: awareness practiced as everyday duties, conscious chores, so to say; not running around seeking out something exotic, something outside…

Look, look over here! See what I am doing now. I have just received this special initiation from Lama or Sheik someone or other, and now I am bringing this to you. It is much…

There are vast treasures to be uncovered in the Gurdjieff Work; unfortunately there are few who have the fortitude to dig down to where Gurdjieff buried them. So it is with all the sacred teachings of St. Lama, Buddha, Lao Tzu, Zoroaster, and Jesus Christ. We search on the surface of things (Do-Re-Mi—stopping often at the first interval, the first difficulty). When it becomes difficult, when we could discover something important, we jump to a different Guru where it seems for a while we have things easier. Many jump…

For example, it became clear that once we began to Work, it was no longer our right to spend too much time, that is too much of our attention, worrying about our behaviors: mental

masturbation, emotionalism, bad habits; as it has been said, “Resist not evil.” It may be only a coincidence, but I have found that those who most condemn the lower mind as the mind, for its obvious shortcomings, who therefore turn their Work away from the mind, tend to react habitually with a black or white dualism when they are confronted with something new or a shock to their own sensibilities.

the very same monkey mind that they abhor but unconsciously embrace? By his example, Lord Pentland drew us towards a new level of thought. This new level of thought is not a rejection of thought, but an evolution, moving upward in the octave. This in turn opened in many directions; as Ouspensky recommended, we began to think in different categories. To do this we needed at least a change of state, if not being, and this was catalyzed by his presence.

At another time Lord Pentland was talking about how he had done something for someone, helped them out in various ways, and a person who hadn’t remembered hearing him boast, asked in private, was that conscious acting? Lord Pentland replied, “No, in the Work we call that ego.”

It would open like a flower in the mind; then the weakness of the embrace of my attention became more apparent as it was pulled apart: listen to what is next, or assimilate this denser thought, now?

A Little Background on Lord Pentland Legend has it that the Knights Templar set off from Scotland to America before Columbus. When Mr. Gurdjieff placed John Pentland as head of the Gurdjieff Foundation in America, he gave us a true Knight and a conscious symbolist. In the last 10-20 years a great deal has been published that links the St. Clair or modernized Sinclair Clan with the Knights Templar. Most recently a book and movie, THE DA VINCI CODE by Dan Brown has made their historic legacy and in particular the chapel on the Pentland estates rather famous.

I think the following from T. Cleary’s translation of the Tao The Ching does Lord Pentland justice: Skilled warriors of old were subtle, Mysteriously powerful, So deep they were unknowable. Just because they are unknowable, I will try to describe them: Their wariness was as that of one Crossing a river in winter; Their caution was as that of one In fear of all around. They were as serious as guests, Relaxed as ice at the melting point. Simple as uncarved wood, Open as the valleys, They were inscrutable as murky water.

Note: Lord Pentland gave each of us Work and shocks specifically geared to our own subjectivity; so stories about these individual exchanges have a flavor that truly savored only when you can step into another person’s shoes, or better yet have your own experience.

Of course, occasionally Lord Pentland got a shock from someone as well, as when a woman slapped him outside the Foundation in New York. He was known for having an interest in the ladies; many considered it a privilege to have his attentions, but some, like this young woman, apparently wanted to register her sincere regrets.

For those in the Gurdjieff Work and other spiritual disciplines, the question of finding a safer environment to weather the coming storms becomes vital. Remember that Gurdjieff took his pupils with him or found them relatively safe havens during those hard days of war and revolution.

About Inner and Outer Work — When you wish someone well, … you are also wishing it for yourself. — You must realize … all the help you need comes from inside. — When you have a quick mind, you are quick to anger. On Relationships Between Men and Women — Men are afraid of being pulled into something that they cannot escape from. Women of being dominated. — A man who follows his own individual path will always attract women … even if he is a gangster.

Materialization of Thought

The attention to the brush stroke—to the hand holding the brush—through the body—carries the intention of bridging the gap—over the abyss—to materialize this bridge from an invisible Do into reality through the seven steps of the octave interpenetrated by the sacred triad of forces.

Thought at the highest level is Logos; that is, the seed from which our world continually materializes and grows. This is most lucidly shown by Jesus who is the Word made flesh. Jesus stands on the eighth and highest branch of the World Tree, with all its ramifications and levels of materiality. This World Tree shows the continual re-enactment of the original act of God. Prometheus is forethought, thought awaiting the fresh intake of impressions. This, as opposed to his brother Epimetheus, or afterthought, represents thought as associations. Epimetheus, taking her against the advice of his brother Prometheus, was husband of Pandora, who was sent by the gods to bring confusion and despair among men. Counterpoint to this, Prometheus breaks open the forehead of Zeus opening the third eye to liberate Athena. Thought, like Prometheus bound and chained by Zeus in the Caucasus Mountains, is thought entangled in matter, by the action of planetary forces.

Enneagram: Baking Bread

Liberation DO—At-onement Rebirth To receive from above

Mind, Head SI—Perfecting—Golden Light—Wheel

Begin here with DO as starting the alchemical process much simplified—The struggle between desire and non-desire—The influence of wisdom teachings that show the way to reconciliation—Third Force. The creation of the transforming power of wish—The fire that heats and sublimates the creative force SI 12 (Lead into Gold) making it rise instead of descend. The wish is the heat necessary to transform! The mind places the materials to be transformed and focuses the heat. The breath strengthens the fire. The body provides the SI 12

or sex energy that has been redirected to serve the development of the soul body or astral body and this is the beginning of the process leading later to development of higher being bodies.

The Third Foundation

Many twists and turns later, upon a planet known as Gaia, a Third Foundation has long been in existence. Its powers were far beyond the first two—its wisdom and ethics—far above them. Although they have the power and knowledge, they cannot in good conscience directly interfere, but they cannot stand back as everything unravels before them.

The True Nature of Thought The tree of life (whose seed is the Logos or the father of thought) is a tree of thought. Regarding the arousal of thought by provocation, an impression is a small bit off the tree of life. This tree is generated from the first seed or logos: branches, becoming smaller and smaller, finally reach out to us as impressions we can digest, if we are willing to make the effort to listen.

Thought becomes entangled in matter in the normal act of creation, vibration slowing down becomes material thing, and then formed into things, held captured until this relationship is reestablished. Thought becomes associations or memory: Mnemosyne (Greek: Mνημοσύνη, source of the word mnemonic) was the personification of memory in Greek mythology. A Titanide, or Titaness, she was the daughter of Uranus and Gaia, and the mother of the nine Muses by Zeus:

Memory must be freed from its prison and serve to birth the nine (the ennea). This process involves thought disassembled and reassembling itself because of a separation between my inner and outer life.

Art meaning the linking of two or more things (3)—and this linking psychologically is spoken of in the Bible as—“when two or three are gathered in my name, there I Am.” Three forces are here simultaneously, but they must come together in me, in you; they desire to re-blend, to be whole. This is true carnal knowledge, knowledge incarnating in oneself. It is the essence of awakening, which is in fact also, a reintegration. One cannot occur without the other: psycho-energetics.

For this rebirth to occur we need foresight represented here by Prometheus, who is thought itself, descending from on high as the child of Zeus, bringing both light and heat to humankind; that is, a teaching of how to become illumined and how to transform base matter into Gold, otherwise known as alchemy. Foresight envisions this and is the catalyst for the evolution of Man against the Gods; that is, the powers and principalities that are opposed to it. And Pandora, meaning “all gifted” with her curiosity, opens the door to a plethora of distractions so people cannot or will not focus on their true destiny. Still in the end there is hope; for “hope in consciousness is strength.” (Gurdjieff)

Memory is opposed to Lethe, the river of sleep; it was said initiates must drink of Mnemosyne which is represented as a deep pool of living memory.

Attunement (Si-Do)

All that can be accomplished by man’s effort against the immense wheel of Creation—climbing through the steel gears that grind life and man into dust—dust sown onto the desolate moon. The Angel of Death must stand aside—the final Threshold! And there is nothing I can do after these many labors, suffering, and triumph over powers and principality: I am unarmed, and only now I see that my super effort is to do nothing—to accept at-one-ment. The Great Sun is rising and its radiance envelops me…Do-Si.

Two Waking Visions I Vision: Summer, 1995 California

Although they are translucent, it is clear to me who they are: Gurdjieff and Madame. As they are walking past, they turn towards me, with a slight nod, continuing on their

Nine Steps to Inner Freedom Preface

In the vast wasteland called modern life where people live in a bubble of reality, there is a symbol of the concrete and powerful forces that rule our fate. This symbol was passed down for thousands of years to real Initiates in the Great Brotherhood. Hidden from Biblical “swine,” the pearls of wisdom remained inviolate. The symbol of the Enneagram was and is the representation of the pathway to the Pearl of Great Price, a Pathway to evolving wisdom.

In stark opposition are those forces that seek to inhibit human evolution. “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities.” (Ephesians 6:12) Or to paraphrase G. I. Gurdjieff, we who strive to evolve must enter the Struggle of the Magicians, and in this struggle there is no place for the Boy Scout mentality. In this place we must become “… as cunning as serpents.”

It is not for the fainthearted or ethicist who dabbles in what “should be” and judges others; no, it is for those who have relinquished all hope in the pedantic; this talisman is for those who are willing to become riders on the storm, who strive for wisdom and power to wrestle the powers of darkness, willing to match wits and will with them on their own field of battle.

Who will go into the darkness to fight for the light? Two thousand years ago, after millennia of preparation by the Magi and others, a prince of light struggled into existence, a Christ named Jesus. But in the 2000 years since that moment when the veil was rent open, humanity has not stirred from its indolence. Humanity now rests even more comfortably in its sleep.

Swallowing this poison is not without consequence, not without risk, and it is best if the dogooders stay far from this way of blame1 for they have neither the stomach nor the cunning for it. To defeat the forces that are blocking Man from evolving is to put oneself in the middle of the cyclone, and to do it intentionally and so artfully that, in the end, a new Man arises.

The New…

Look at our history and you will see the truth of it. Know the truth, and it will set you free. The Enneagram, brought from the deepest teachings of the Sarmoung Brotherhood, is a tool…

Talking heads cannot and will never understand the truth of forces, the real forces, that rule our lives and of which we must take the control if we have in our essence, a real wish. The inheritors of the Sarmoung, the new Initiates, are like bees gathering the pollen from within a far radius of the hive and bringing it to a new center to be transformed into honey and royal jelly. The new substances must pass through their own body; they cannot be separate from being. As Riders on the Storm, we learn to travel upon the river of forces rather than drown in it. We are the last of the Originals, and if a new generation does not arise…

Calling the…

When I begin, it is necessary to have a circle and to stand in the center, which represents the center of the World and the center of my being. Here in the center I can call the Powers to support my Work. But if I do not have a circle, an enclosure, and a center to which these forces can converge and be held, then I will never create the conditions for metamorphosis. When my cup is full, when I feel I am right, I cannot accept the truth of my situation and cannot begin to take a step towards this center. As I awaken to my nothingness, I am in the moment of creation. Now we are speaking from the heart of the Enneagram. We cease to pretend we are someone we are not, and we cease to…

Construction of the Enneagram, the…

There is a circle, which represents the whole which we seek to understand through this magical process; it represents…

Then a triad is constructed: 3 into unity =.3333.… the unity of the cosmos which we are exploring. Start at the top, point 9: 3×3. Then go to point 3, then to 6, and back to 9. (From 9, which is affirmation, and 3,…

Swallowing this poison is not without consequence, not without risk, and it is best if the dogooders stay far from this way of blame1 for they have neither the stomach nor the cunning for it. To defeat the forces that are blocking Man from evolving is to put oneself in the middle of the cyclone,…

The whole is now represented and also the division into a triad of forces (as the human being is divided into three centers—Intellectual Center, Body or Moving…

Next comes the 6 points of process and progression from beginning to end. Unity divided by 7 creates the sequence 1, 4, 2, 8, 5, 7 and then returns to 1. And this is the way the six pointed star is constructed. Begin at point 1…

Only then the succession of 1 to 9 comes into being. It represents “…

When you take a step on the path, and you awaken, you are living in the moment. As Gurdjieff said, when you are in the moment, you can repair the past and prepare for the future. This idea is immensely important. It is here that we can

practice a new form of reconciliation, and the meaning of the circle of repetition or eternity can be understood. Each and every step on the path is connected by invisible radii to the center so that this temporary moment of presence becomes connected to the center, to the All and Everything, and to every other point and line of the Enneagram. One can work with Gurdjieff’s magical formula: to be in the present, one can repair the past and prepare for the future. Take a past event to repair in your own life. This symbol is a magic talisman, a weapon against the genie of eternal sleep. It is both a sword and a shield, like the weapons of Archangel Michael, the protector of the Way.

Let us look at the Enneagram practically. The Circle must be around us (as a shield or atmosphere has been created around the Earth). This circle is a magnetic force field that protects and filters influences; i.e., separates the good from the bad. Within this circle (representing the whole of us) is a triad of forces; i.e. unity divided and reunited through the Law of Three. Here forces that transform lower energies into higher are brought together. They can be seen as inner or outer weapons to defend our unity in a kind of cosmic judo; this judo can turn forces of involution into evolution; i.e., forces of sleep and identification (that…

Finally, the six pointed star represents our wings to fly towards our aim, or the steps on the ladder to progress to the next higher level. A Do is pulled upward to the next higher level of being; i.e., from moon to earth, or earth to planetary (astral) level, and so on up the scale…

where we can be trapped by the enemy of the Way. When we have incorporated the Enneagram into ourselves, we are prepared in our mind, in our material body, and in our awareness to be a pilgrim on a…

If we look at one well-known symbol, the cross, we see the crossing of forces, vertical and horizontal, that show us our situation. There are vertical forces that evolve or involve and horizontal forces—places of temporary stability, the level on which we live. However, in the Orthodox cross we find a third force, at the level of the feet. That is where we begin our Pilgrimage and what acts as a reconciliation between the first two forces. So the Orthodox cross is more complete, and in this diagonal line at the level of the feet,…

But if I do not have a circle, a cocoon, and a center to which these forces can converge and be held, then I will never create…

Can you feel that underneath the flesh on your back that there are these buds of wings? Can you begin to comprehend the magnitude of change Gurdjieff was speaking about? This distance between Man #1, 2, 3 and Man #4 and 5—no we…

My life goes by, and then it ends—unless, I have begun to incorporate these energies into a new cosmic scheme that evolves from living within. Then I enter a world of myth, that is, the story of life seen from an entirely new level of Being. It is a world of the Gods as spoken about in the…

But know that once you enter, there is no turning back, and the road ahead is fraught with dangers, with risk and with adventure. When you have no soul, when you exist as a machine, these powers have you in check; you are an unconscious slave. When you open your eyes and see the truth, you are also seen, both by the higher and by the planetary powers or gods who control the level to which you aspire. These gods and their offspring do not look kindly on rivals. Gurdjieff was subject to their wrath and very nearly was killed many…

Draw a circle around you: this is like a Yezidi circle but one from which your I’s cannot get out. It captures not only your I’s but also subdues external…

At the center of the Earth’s sphere of influence is Man who is the bridge to the planetary world, and, at the center of Man, is essence, which is bridge to higher emotional life. At the center of essence is the I, which is the next step in the ladder to the Sun. Now, circles within circles, wheels within wheels, are turning, and as they turn, the spokes strike the notes and produce the music of the spheres. This music is the link that produces harmony in all beings and in all levels of creation; it is the spark that draws the sound upward, as fire is drawn upward.

The New Man. Choose one: prison or freedom. But if you choose freedom, you must be willing to be bound to a teaching, to a Master,5 until you have earned your freedom.

Exercises for the Development of Centers

Using the conscious breath to reinforce feeling, this is then a saturation of the body with Prana to help form the Astral Body. In addition it is the linking ground between emotional center and the mind; between the horse and the driver, that is, to be sure what is called the reins.

Note: If you try this advanced addition, do it for only a short time because it may cause headaches until you learn how to relax. When you finish, close your two eyes and let your attention resonate with the pineal gland, also known as the Third Eye.

One understands that this could also mean walling oneself off from people so that it is possible to be with people and still isolate oneself, only pretending to bear their unpleasantness.

The three levels of impressions are passive; the attention from each center, active. Find the reconciling force as you hold these two simultaneously, completing the circuit consciously—between inner and outer worlds.