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fourth way music

• Big Sur Tapes - Publishes spoken audio book type recordings from psychological, esoteric, religious and shamanic traditions, including Gurdjieff and the Fourth Way.
• Crazy Wisdom - Also called The Life and Legend of Gurdjieff, a musical written by John Maxwell Taylor. Available as a double CD on the site.
• G-H Records - Online ordering and information from the publishers of the original recordings of piano pieces performed by Thomas de Hartmann playing "The Music of Gurdjieff/de Hartmann" (3 CD's or 4 audio cassettes).
• KHA Records' Gurdjieff "Hidden Sources" - Information about and online ordering of Alessandra Celletti's interpretations of the music of Gurdjieff and de Hartmann.
• Melanie Monsur - Pictures of Melanie Monsur playing the piano. Melanie has recorded music composed by Gurdjieff/de Hartmann.
• The Musical Octave, Parts I and 2 - Thomas Váczy Hightower's study of musical scales, regarded as a sub octave of the cosmic octave; also called The Ray of Creation.
• Sicroff plays Gurdjieff - A new CD recording of the piano music of G.I. Gurdjieff and Thomas de Hartmann with a presentation. Text on Gurdjieff/Bennett group called Western Massachusetts Group.
• Interview with William Segal - National Public Radio (NPR) interview with William Segal, a pupil of Gurdjieff and others, in Real Audio.

Gurdjieff said of his Fourth Way that it simultaneously combined work on the body, emotions, and mind, and that it could be followed by ordinary people in everyday life, requiring no retirement into the desert.

The Fourth Way did involve whole-hearted acceptance of certain conditions imposed by a teacher. The Way required supreme effort to devote oneself continuously to inner work, even though one's outward worldly roles might not change that much. In spite of his insistence that work without a teacher was impossible, Gurdjieff stressed each individual's responsibility:

"The fourth way differs from the other ways in that the principal demand made upon a man is the demand for understanding. A man must do nothing that he does not understand, except as an experiment under the supervision and direction of his teacher. The more a man understands what he is doing, the greater will be the results of his efforts. This is a fundamental principle of the fourth way. The results of work are in proportion to the consciousness of the work. No "faith" is required on the fourth way; on the contrary, faith of any kind is opposed to the fourth way. On the fourth way a man must satisfy himself of the truth of what he is told. And until he is satisfied he must do nothing."
By its very nature, the Fourth Way is not for everyone. Knowledge is not deliberately hidden, Gurdjieff would say, but most people simply are not interested. Gurdjieff referred to those capable of receiving the work as "five of twenty of twenty" - only twenty per cent of all people ever think seriously about higher realities. Of these, only twenty per cent ever decide to do anything about it. And of these, only five per cent ever actually get anywhere.

By bringing together the way of the Fakir (Sufi tradition), the way of the Yogi (Hindu and Sikh traditions) and the way of the Monk (Christian and Buddhist traditions, amongst others) Gurdjieff clearly places the Fourth Way at a crossroads of differing beliefs.

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