THE FOURTH WAYTHE FOURTH WAY
(The Fourth Way. P.D. Ouspensky.Vistage Books Edition, March 1971)
Abstract
Ouspensky says that this system do not belong to him. � "This is chiefly what makes them valuable" (pag.1) he says, because if he was the author, "it would be like all other theories invented by ordinary minds-they would give only a subjective view of things" (pag.1). He always ask himself, that "behind the surface of the life which we know lies something much bigger and more important" (pag.).� He tried to find a method to study this matters (supernormal psycology such as thought transference, clairvoyance, the possibility of knowing the future, of looking back into the past, etc. have not been proved to be effective) and he worked several years to find this method, even thought "the results weere very elusive" (pag.1). He found some interesting things while he was in this search, however the experiments were almost impossible to repeat them . He concluded two things: that was not possible to know paranormal psychology without knowing ordinary psychology, and that certain real knowledge exits, but for certain reasons it was hidden. He traveled by Europe, Egypt, India, Ceylon, Turkey and the Near East; but it was after he finished these travels, that he met a group in Russia, who were studying certain system which originally came from Easten schools. This system began with psychology, as he imagined before.
The main idea of the system was "that we do not use even a small part of our powers and our forces" (pag.2). We have inside us a big and very fine organization, but we don't know how to use it. The group employed certain oriental metaphors, like we have inside us a house with beautiful furniture, with a library and many others rooms, btu we live in the basement and the kitchen and cannot get out of them. If people say to us how our house look like, we don't believe them, we laught of them, or we called it supertitions, fairy tales or fables.
This system can be divided in two parts: The study of the world (or certain new� principles) and the study of man. These studies include a special language. They use the same ordinary words, but they attached to them a "slightly different and more precise meaning to them" (pag.2).
The study of the world, the study of the universe,� is based on the study of certain fundamental laws (The Law of Three, and The Law of Seven). It is include the principle of scale-"a principle which does not enter into ordinary scientific study, or enters very little" (pag.2).
The study of man is closed connected with the idea of the man's evolution, but this evolution is differently understood, not as a mechanic evolution only. In other words, certain things, under certain known or unknown laws, transform into other things, and these other things transform into still others, and so on.� From the point of view of the system, there is no man's evolution at all. The evolution of man, if it ocurrs, can only be the result of knowledge and effort, otherwise there is not evolution, and never was any evolution
We have to start with psychology definition, as the study of oneself. We always mentione the word "I", but we really don't know the meaning of this word, because this "I's" are constantly changing, because they are connected with our desires and feelings.
To begin with the study of oneself, it is necessary to study self observation's methods, based on the understanding of the divisions of our functions. Our ordinary idea of these divisions are wrong. Very often, when we try to observe ourselves, we mix the intelectual and emotional functions; when we really feel we say "I'm thinking", and when we are thinking, we called "feelings" to our thinking.......
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