“The Fourth Way”
G. Gurdjieff
excerpt from “fragments of an unknown teaching” in P. D. Ouspensky
Gurdjieff: In truth, only the man who owns the four bodies fully grown man can be called in the full sense of the word. Thus, man has made a number of properties that the ordinary man does not possess. One of these properties is immortality. All religions and all the ancient teachings include the idea that with the acquisition of the fourth body, man achieves immortality, and all suggest ways to acquire the fourth body, that is immortality.
In this regard, some lessons liken man to a house with four rooms. The man lives in one, the smallest and poorest of all, without assuming any way, until you say it to him, the existence of others, which are full of treasures. When he hears about, begins to look for the keys to these rooms, especially the fourth, the most important. And when a man has found the means to penetrate it, becomes the real master of his house, because it is only then that the house belongs to him completely and forever.
The fourth stanza gives man the immortality and all religious teachings are trying to point the way to it. There is a large number of roads, more or less long, more or less hard, but all, without exception, lead or trying to live in the same direction, which is immortality.
Immortality is not a property with which man is born, but a property that can be gained.All roads that lead to immortality, what are generally known and others, can be divided into three categories:
1. The way of the fakir.
2. The way of Monaco.
3. The way of the yogi.
The way of the fakir is the struggle with the physical body is long, difficult and uncertain. The fakir will seek to develop physical power over the body. He will succeed through tremendous suffering, torturing the body. All the way of the fakir is made of incredibly painful physical exercises. He is standing in the same position, without moving for hours, days, months or years, or sits with her arms outstretched, on a bare stone, sun, rain, snow, or is inflicted the torture of fire or that of the ant hill where he keeps his legs bare, and so on. If you do not fall sick or dies, he developed what may be called natural, and he will then reach the possibility of forming the fourth body. But its other functions, emotional and intellectual, remain undeveloped. He has conquered the desire, but that has nothing to apply it, can not use it to acquire knowledge or improve himself. In general, it is too old to start a new job.
But where there are schools of fakirs, there are also schools of yogis.
Generally, the yogis do not lose sight of the fakirs. And when, a fakir to aspire to reach this before being too old, they take it in one of their schools, where the first thing to look after and re-create in him the power of motion, after which they begin to teach him. A fakir has to relearn to talk and walk like a small child. But he now has a will that has overcome incredible difficulties and that can help overcome the difficulties that are still awaiting the second part of his journey, when, it will develop its intellectual and emotional functions.
You can not imagine the trials to which they submit the fakirs.
I do not know if you’ve ever seen real fakirs. I’ve met a lot of it, I remember one of them who lived in the courtyard of a temple in India, I even stayed at his side. Day and night, for twenty years, he had kept on the tip of the toes and hands. It was no longer able to straighten it, to move. His disciples carried arms, led him to the river where they wash as an object. But such a result is not achieved in one day. Think of all that had to overcome the torture he had endured to reach that rank.
And a man does not become a fakir to religious sentiment, or because he understands the possibilities and results of this street. In all countries of the East where there are fakirs, the populace has the habit of voting for the fakirs a boy born after a happy event. It also happens that the fakirs adopt orphans or purchase the children of poor people. These children become their students and imitate them willingly, or are forced, some do so only externally, but others eventually become really fakirs.
He added that others follow this path simply because they were impressed by the spectacle of some fakir. In addition to all the fakirs who can be seen in the temples, there are people who imitate them, sitting or standing in the same position. They do not do it for a long time, certainly, but sometimes for several hours. It also happens that a man came by chance in a temple on a day of celebration, after they begin to imitate some fakir who had particularly impressed, not to come home but never more to be added to the crowd of his disciples, and later , over time he will become a fakir.I understand that in these cases do not give more to the word ‘fakir’ its true sense. In Persia, the word fakir simply indicates a beggar in India. jugglers, acrobats are wont to call themselves fakirs. The Europeans, especially the European-educated, very often give the name of the fakir yogi as well as wandering monks of different orders.
But in reality the way of the fakir, the way to Monaco and the way of the yogi is completely different. I have not spoken so far that the fakirs.
This is the first street.
The second is that of Monaco.
It is the path of faith, religious sentiment and sacrifice. A man who has very strong religious emotions and a very intense religious imagination can not become a monaco in the true sense of the word. Yet the path of Monaco is very hard and very long. The Monaco over the years, tens of years to fight against himself, but all his work has focused on the second body, that is feelings. By submitting all the other emotions to one emotion, faith, he develops in himself the unity, the will over the emotions. But his physical body and its intellectual capacity may remain undeveloped. To be able to make use of what he has achieved, will have their physical and intellectually. This can not be successfully carried out except through sacrifices, new, new austerity, new sacrifices. Monaco has yet to become a yogi and a fakir. Rare are those who get this far, rarer still are those who overcome all difficulties. Most die before they become monks or in appearance.
The third way is that of the yogi.
It is the way of knowledge, the way of. The yogi is able to develop his intellect, but his body and his emotions remain to be developed and, like Monaco and the fakir, he is unable to profit from what he has accomplished. He knows everything but can not do anything. To be able to do is win the dominion over his body and his emotions. To succeed, he must go back to work and he will not do anything except through a sustained effort. But in this case has the advantage of understanding his position, to know what’s missing, what to do and the way forward. But, as in the way of the fakir and monaco, rare are those who acquire such knowledge on the path of the yogi, or reach the level where a man can know where it goes. Most stop at a certain level and go no further.
The streets are different from each other also in their relationship with the teacher or spiritual guide.
On the way of the fakir a man has no teacher in the truest sense of the word. The teacher does not teach in this case, serves merely as an example. The pupil’s work consists in imitating the master.
The man who follows the path of Monaco has a master, and part of his duties, a part of his task, is to have absolute faith in his teacher, he must absolutely submit to him in obedience. But the main point on the path of Monaco is faith in God, love of God, uninterrupted effort to obey God and serve him, even though in his understanding of the idea of God and the service of God can be a big part of subjectivity and contradictions.
On the way of the yogi without a teacher you can not do anything and you should not do anything. The man who embraces this path must initially imitate his master like the fakir and believe in him as the Monaco. But then it gradually becomes the master of himself. He learns his teacher’s methods and practices to gradually apply them to himself.
But all the streets, the way of the fakir as the streets of Monaco and the yogi’s have a common point: all begin from what is most difficult, a total change of life, a renunciation of all that is of this world. A man who has a home, a family must leave, must give up all pleasures, attachments and duties of life, and leave for the desert, enter a monastery or a school of yogis. From day one, from the first steps on the path he must die to the world, the only way he can hope to achieve something on one of these pathways.
In an ordinary life, as full of philosophical interests, scientific, religious or social, there is nothing and there can be nothing that offers the possibilities contained in the streets. In fact, they lead or could lead man to immortality. Social life, even the most successful, leading to death and could not lead to anything else. The idea of the streets can not be understood if we admit the possibility of human evolution without their help.
To grasp the essence of this teaching, it is essential to understand that the streets are the only methods that can ensure the development of hidden possibilities of man. It shows, moreover, that such a development is rare and difficult. The development of these possibilities is not a law. The law for man is existence in a circle of mechanical influences., Is the state of “human machine”. The way of the development of hidden possibilities is a way against nature, against God This explains the difficulties and the exclusive nature of the streets. They are hard and narrow. But at the same time nothing could be achieved without them. In the ocean of ordinary life, and especially of modern life, the streets are a phenomenon of small, barely perceptible, which, from the perspective of life itself, has not the slightest reason to be. But this little phenomenon contains in itself everything that man can have for the development of its hidden possibilities. The streets are opposed to everyday life, based on other principles and subject to other laws. Therein lies their power and their meaning. In an ordinary life, as full of philosophical interests, scientific, religious or social, there is nothing and there can be nothing that offers the possibilities contained in the streets.In fact, they lead or could lead man to immortality. Social life, even the most successful, leading to death and could not lead to anything else. The idea of the streets can not be understood if we admit the possibility of human evolution without their help.
As a general rule, it is hard for a man to resign himself to this idea, it’s seems exaggerated, unfair and absurd. He has a poor understanding of the meaning of the word ‘possibility. One imagines that if there are possibilities in him, should develop and should even be the means of development within its grasp. From a total refusal to recognize himself in any kind of chance, the man generally goes immediately to a mandatory requirement of their development inevitable. It is difficult for him to get used to the idea that not only his chances may remain at their current stage of underdevelopment, but they definitely can atrophy and the other part of their development requires prodigious efforts by him and persevering. In general, if we consider the people who are neither fakirs, or monks, or yogis, and of which we can safely say that never will be, we can say with absolute certainty that their potential can not develop and will never be developed. It must be convinced to deeply understand what I’m about to say.
In ordinary conditions of civilized life, the situation of a man, even intelligent, that seeking knowledge is hopeless, since he has not the slightest chance of finding around him, something closer to a school or a fakir School yogi, as the religions of the West, they have degenerated to the point that for a long time there is nothing living in them. Finally occultism or spiritualism there is nothing to be expected that some naive experience.
And the situation is really desperate if there were another possibility, that of a fourth way.
The fourth way that does not require us to withdraw from the world, does not require the renunciation of everything that makes up our lives. It begins much farther than the way of the yogi. This means that we must be prepared to engage on the fourth way and this preparation must be acquired in ordinary life, be very serious and embrace many different aspects. Also a man who wants to follow the fourth way is to combine in his life conditions conducive to work, or in any case not make that impossible. In fact, you have to believe that it is in the outer life that in the inner life of a man, certain conditions can be insurmountable barriers for the fourth way. Let us add that this pathway, unlike that of the fakir, the Monaco and the yogi has no definite form. First of all it has to be found. It is the first test. And it is difficult, since the fourth way is far from being known as the other three traditional ways. There are many people who has never heard of and others who simply deny its existence or its possibility.
However, the beginning of the fourth way is much easier to start the ways of the fakir, the Monaco and the yogi. You can follow the fourth way and work on it remaining in the normal way of life and continuing the usual work, without breaking the relationships that you had with people, without leaving anything. Indeed, the living conditions in which a man is when he starts work – where the work, so to speak, I wonder – are the best possible for him, at least initially. In fact, these are the natural conditions. They are the same man as the life of a man and his condition correspond to what he is. Life has created on their measure, so any other condition would be artificial and could not work in this case, simultaneously touch all sides of his being.
Thus, the fourth way touches all sides of the human being simultaneously. It is the work of the three rooms simultaneously. The fakir working on the first room and Monaco on the second, the yogi on the third. When they reach the fourth room, the fakir, the Monaco and the yogi leave behind many things unfinished, and can not make use of what they have achieved, as they are not masters of all their functions. The Fakir is master of his body, but not the emotions or thoughts, Monaco is the master of his emotions, but not the body or of his thought, the yogi is master of his thought, but not the body, or the emotions.
The fourth way differs from the others in so far as its main request is a request for understanding. The man must not do anything without understanding – except by way of experience – under the supervision and direction of his master. The more a man understands what he does, plus the results of his efforts will be valid. It is a fundamental principle of the fourth way. The results obtained in the work are proportional to the consciousness we have of this work. Faith is not required on this road, on the contrary, faith of any kind is an obstacle. The fourth way a man must be sure if the truth of what is being said. And until they have acquired this certainty must not do anything.
The method of the fourth way is: while working on the physical body, we must simultaneously work on thought and emotions, working on the thought, we need to work on the physical body and emotions while working on the emotions, we must work on thinking and physical body. This allows you the opportunity to succeed, the fourth way, to make use of a particular knowledge, inaccessible in the ways of the fakir, the Monaco and the yogi. This knowledge makes it possible to work simultaneously in three directions. A series of parallel operation on three levels: physical, mental and emotional, serve this purpose.
In addition, the fourth way you can individualize the work of each, that is, each person must do only what you need and nothing that is useless for him. In fact, the fourth street does without all the superfluous that is maintained tradition in other ways.
Thus, when a man reaches the will by the fourth street, he may use it, because, he acquired control of all his bodily functions, emotional and intellectual. He has saved too much time with a simultaneous and parallel work on the three sides of his being.
The fourth way is sometimes called the smart man’s way. “Man Smart” knows a secret that the fakir, the Monaco and the yogi do not know. How “smart man” has learned this secret, you do not know. Maybe he found some old book, perhaps inherited, perhaps he bought it, maybe someone stole it. Whatever. The smart man knows the secret, and with his help over the fakir, the Monaco, the yogi.
“The Fakir is among the four, who works in a simpler way, knows little and understands very little. Suppose he succeeds, after a month of intense torture, to develop a certain energy, a substance that produces certain changes in him . He is absolutely in the dark, eyes closed, not knowing its purpose, its methods, its results, simply by imitation.
The Monaco knows a bit ‘better what she wants and is driven by religious sentiment, from the religious tradition, by a desire for perfection, salvation, and he has faith in the teacher who tells him what to do and believes that its efforts and their sacrifices “pleasing to God.” Suppose that in a week of fasting, continuous prayer, penance and deprivation, is able to achieve what the fakir had not been able to develop itself in a month of torture.
The yogi knows much more. He knows what he wants, knows why he wants, knows how can get it. He knows for example that, to achieve its purpose, must develop in itself a substance. He knows that this substance can be produced in a day using some type of mental exercise or by an intellectual concentration. So for a whole day, without afford one alien idea, keeps the attention fixed on this exercise and get what they need. In this way a yogi can achieve in one day the same thing as Monaco reached in a week, and the fakir in a month.
Should also be noted that in addition to these just and legitimate way, there are also artificial means that do not give that much wrong way and temporary results can also give permanent results, but harmful. Even on these streets man seeks the key to the fourth room, and sometimes finds it. But what is in the fourth stanza, we can not know.
It also happens that the door of the fourth room is opened artificially by a pick and in both cases it is possible that the room is empty. ”
From: http://www.riflessioni.it/testi/quartavia.htm
Tavolozza di vita 
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