Developing the Mind, Body and the Soul

There are numerous teachings that focus on the mind-body intervention, such as promoting comprehensive and balanced inner development. One example of these eastern teachings is known as the "Fourth Way," which was lectured by G.I. Gurdjieff.

Gurdjieff's teaching asks questions about people's place in the universe and their possibilities for inner development. He suggested that people live their lives known as "waking sleep," but that higher levels of consciousness, higher bodies, and various inner abilities are possible.

Gurdjieff taught people how to focus his or her attention and energy in a number of ways and to minimize daydreaming and absent-mindedness. According to his teaching, this inner development in an individual is the beginning of a possible further process of change, which focuses on changing an individual into what Gurdjieff taught him or her ought to be.

According to Gurdjieff, humans are born without a soul. Instead, a man must make a soul throughout life. Also, he taught that a man will "die like a dog." He also taught that the ordinary waking consciousness of human beings was not conscious at all but just a sleep form and those higher levels of consciousness were possible.

He claimed that there was only three ordinary ways for real spiritual development. Gurdjieff thought his methods as the "Fourth Way."

The first three ways are:

a.) The Way of the fakir: This explains struggling with the physical aspect of the body and self-mastery through difficult physical exercises and postures.

b.) The Way of the monk: The monk or the nun is the representation of the way of faith, the cultivation of emotional feelings.

c.) The Way of the yogi: This is approached through knowledge and the mind.

In his lectures, Gurdjieff stated that his Fourth Way was a quicker means than the first three ways. This combined work on all three centers rather than focusing on one as is done in the first three ways, and that common people can follow in everyday living. As a result, retiring into the desert is not a requirement.