The Fourth Way
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org,
please feel free to visit the school website)
Russian philosopher G.I. Gurdjieff greatly influenced Western meditation practice with his approach to meditation, which he called the Fourth Way. He was a student of various traditional meditation forms, and he developed a meditation discipline resonating uniquely with the Western mind. As described by Victor N. Davich in The Best Guide To Meditation (1998), Gurdjieff categorized approaches to meditation practice as follows:
The First Way: the path of the fakir, who works on the physical body to conquer physical pain. This is the most difficult path. One must surrender everything and do as you are told.
The Second Way: the path of the monk. This way requires faith above all. You develop the emotional center on this path.
The Third Way: the path of the yogi. This is the path of knowledge and consciousness. One develops the intellectual center.
The Fourth Way: the easiest path for Westerners, One works on the inner self while living in normal life.
Gurdjieff's approach, the Fourth Way, is described for its ease of use for the Western mind. According to Gurdjeff, you don't have to give up everything you own. All the work goes on inside you. You continue to live the same life as before, in the same environment. These circumstances are the best for you anyway.
ยท If you start to work and study in these conditions you can attain something valuable. Eventually you'll be able to transform yourself and environment, but not before you sense the need to change. Nothing is harder than to change the inner you without changing the outer, external you.
Here is an additional quote from a student of Gurdjieff, taken from the book The Best Guide To Meditation (1998) by Victor N. Davich:
"We are imprisoned within our own minds, and however far we extend them and however highly we decorate them we still remain within their walls. If we are ever to escape from our prisons, the first step must be that we should realize our true situation and at the same time see ourselves as we really are and not as we imagine ourselves to be. This can be done by holding ourselves in a state of passive awareness..."
—Kenneth Walker
Gurdjieff used a method called self-observation, in which the practitioner focuses on softening the line between themselves and the world around them. The idea behind self-observation is that we have lost our ability to expand our consciousness beyond the boundaries of cultural limitations. Through careful observation of the self we can begin to notice the energy behind our existence, and how this energy is continuous with the rest of creation. As the student of the Fourth Way begins to meditate on the self, it is revealed that self is an illusion, and that our personalities are made up of different aspects which come forward, depending on the situation, as a reaction to the environment. Through this process the student gradually begins to break from identification with the personality, awakening to fully present awareness, and reaching enlightenment.
Gurdjieff developed the idea of self-remembering as a way of meditating. Through self-observation, the practitioner can begin to understand that the thoughts arising within the mind are not the self. When this distinction is made, the state of self-remembering occurs in which the practitioner recognizes the true nature of existence. In The Best Guide For Meditation (1998), Victor N. Davich quotes a student of Gurdjieff, P.D Ouspensky, as saying, "We think we can study meditation or meditate ourselves. If you can remember yourself, you can meditate; if not, you cannot. Self-remembering means control of thoughts, a different state. Meditation is an action of a developed mind, and we ascribe it to ourselves. It would be very good if we could meditate, but we cannot; self-remembering is the way to it. You cannot begin from the end; you have to begin from the beginning like in everything else." This idea is very similar to the Zen philosophy we explored earlier, which asserts that we have always been enlightened, we just need to remember the true nature of the Self.
Self-observation is a process by which we can observe, with detachment, all outward phenomena. As we observe phenomenon arising and passing, this practice brings us into awareness of the energy behind the self, or selves, which is our true nature. In this way, we remember the Self, and wake up.