Fourth Way Wisdom Work: Self-Remembering

This study work group grows out of Cynthia's challenge to take a deep dive into Fourth Way ideas and practices. Knowing that Gurdjieff's Beelzebub's Tales for His Grandson is a heavy lift, we are aiming for a "softer and gentler" approach to Fourth Way inner practices via Maurice Nicoll's five-volume Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky.

This was what started me on my own Fourth Way journey.  While on a five day silent retreat in a Franciscan hermitage, I had daily contact with one of the Franciscan brothers.  Every day I came to his office to check in, and noticed this set of commentaries in his library.  I took volume two back to my own cabin, and it lilterally exploded within me.  I asked him where I could find others in my area that are working in this way, and it ultimately led me to a local group where I have been in an active Fourth Way Work group for the past twelve years.  I have gone through these volumes two times already, and next year want to go through them again -- only this time, not privately, but with many of my friends in the Wisdom School network.  These commentaries are ultimately what led me to find Cynthia and the Fourth Way community at Claymont where Cynthia has done a number of Fourth Way Wisdom Schools.  

While working with Fourth Way practices, I wanted to know how to integrate that Work into my own Christian framework and understanding.  Everybody kept saying, you've got to talk to Cynthia, but everytime I tried to sign up for a Wisdom School, it was already full.  In desperation, I sheepishly caught her after a talk at Shalem in Washington DC, and asked, "If I do all the grunt work and hosting, will you come to a Wisdom School at Claymont in the Washington DC area?" She graciously accepted, and I knew I was "in" because now I was the one organizing the school!

In Love is Stronger than Death, Cynthia recounts her relationship to “Rafe” — Brother Raphael Robin — the hermit monk who so profoundly influenced her life. Cynthia writes:

Like me, Rafe was fascinated by G. I. Gurdjieff, that early twentieth-century spiritual genius who had laid out a path of inner transformation frequently referred to as the "Fourth Way." When Rafe finally won permission to join an experimental Trappist community in North Carolina, he bumped into a copy of P.D. Ouspensky's In Search of the Miraculous. Later, after he arrived in Colorado, someone gave him the five-volume set of Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, which he read from every day, along with his Bible; these became the twin cornerstones of his spiritual work. Most of Rafe's library up at the hermitage (in addition to his Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare) consisted of books by Gurdjieff and Gurdjieff 's three most prodigious disciples, P. D. Ouspensky, Maurice Nicoll, and J. G. Bennett. In a self-taught fusion of Fourth Way ideas and Christian apophatic mysticism, his deepest wish was "to have enough being to be nothing.”

I propose that we create the same study conditions as Rafe’s hermitage — weekly readings from the Bible (Gospel and Psalms) using the Ecumenical Lectionary and Nicoll’s Commentaries, with an added spice of one of Thomas’ Logion. Nicoll’s Commentaries are transcripts of the talks he gave to a weekly Work Group that he led in Britain from 1941 through 1953. Unlike P. D. Ouspensky’s book, his is not a systematic and ordered treatment of the Work ideas, but short commentaries that were given to meet the ongoing needs of the group he led. The Gurdjieff Society of Washington DC, encouraged by Mr. Hugh Ripman, produced a topical index to Nicoll’s commentaries.  I propose that we use that index to topically explore some of the key work ideas, such as autopilot (“man is a machine”), three-centered knowing, attention, sensation, self-observation, identification, self-remembering, external considering, conscious labor, intentional suffering, and many others.

There are many places we could begin, but I suggest that we start with self-remembering.

So that's the deal.  Feel free to call or email me if you have questions.  I can't wait to start!

I have also created a private Facebook group for discussion.  When you first enter the group, you will need to click the blue “Join Group" button. Since this is a private discussion group, I will need to approve your joining before you are able to ask questions or enter into discussion with others.