Change

Commentaries: Book I: Birdlip, May 4, 1941

"It is very necessary at this moment to understand what the Fourth Way mean. There are four ways of work on oneself. We [practice] the Fourth Way which is the most difficult of all because it must be practiced in the midst of life. The Way of the Fakir - that is - the First Way - the Way of the Monk - that is the Second Way - the way of the Yogi - that is the Third Way, is not our way. We have to speak on the small scale of ourselves, but the point is that we are, even on this small scale, trying to follow the Fourth Way which comes down into external life always when there is a period of disorder and chaos."

"Now I would like to say to you all that some of you do not understand the idea of the Fourth Way - for example, you appear to me to expect that the conditions that have existed at one time must or will always exist. This is quite wrong. The Fourth Way must always be related to the varying circumstances of life and can never become fixed and habitual. Suddenly it may be necessary to alter the whole external scheme of things. I want especially at this moment to have around me people who can understand this and who understand this and can relate themselves to different conditions and still maintain in themselves all the principles and ideas of the work. We have no idea how things will go in the future. But we understand that the work must continue in the future. And that means that people must be able to adjust themselves to completely different external conditions and yet maintain the sense and feeling of the work."

"In the Fourth Way the first main achievement is to become No. 4 man - that is, balanced man or all sided man. Now if some of you have formed an idea of what the external form of the work is from past associations and you find yourselves confronted with an entirely new external state of affairs and become negative you are really useless to me in so far as the Fourth Way is concerned. You must learn that every change in the work externally is always useful to you, whatever form it takes, and all of you must be prepared to follow the work in its changing outer manifestations and at all moments maintain a clear inner attitude towards it. [....]"

"I said a long time ago to you and repeated it several times that the work does not necessarily include coming to the Farm and that the Farm was distinct in a sense from the teaching of the work. The work exists through everyone's attitude towards it and no matter what the external situation may be it should make no difference to work in this sense. I am sorry that I have to say this but it is necessary to do so. For all that I know, we may find ourselves again in quite different circumstances, which again will require a proper understanding, and then again, and then again. People must understand that they are in the Fourth Way and that they must always be able to be "all things to all people" and to develop every side of themselves, in relation to society and to all forms of external life, to a reasonable point: otherwise they do not understand the idea of the Fourth Way which maintains itself in the midst of life amongst everything that goes on, adjusting itself and yet always maintaining itself internally. The Fourth Way is and must be the most "flexible" of all, but it requires a most flexible inner understanding and unless a person can be flexible, and yet maintain the feeling of the work, he is a rather difficult subject in connection with this line of the work. Every change in circumstances provides a very useful chance for everyone to learn something. When I have sufficient people around me whom I can trust, in the sense of their being able to deal normally with every kind of person they meet and with every situation in life, I will feel that I am able to extend the work in the way I wish to extend it eventually. And here I will remind you of "mechanicalness" in the work. If you cannot relate to one side or another in life you must make this one of your aims. There is not a single thing in life about which a man in the Fourth Way should not be knowledgeable, or capable of maintaining himself in connection with it. This Fourth Way is not romantic and it is no use having romantic feelings about the Farm in Essex. This Fourth Way is quite ruthless and as soon as something is finished - that is, gives no longer real value, it is abandoned. [...]"

"I would be very glad if you would all try to understand what I mean because it is important to draw attention to this point owing to the fact that so often everyone begins to "settle down" after a time into some form of Fourth Way work which he thinks is going to go on and on just like that. Unfortunately, such mental and emotional habits can be formed"

"I once said to G.: "Why don't you build more solidly?" (We were building a theater.) He said: "This only temporary. In a very short time everything will be different. Everyone will be elsewhere. Nothing can be built permanently at this moment." So it is necessary for everybody to understand in a way what this means. Many times G. had no work "externally" - that is, no place, no habitation. Everything seemed to have been dissolved away and from the external sensory point of view to have vanished, yet, as you know the work went on and was finally transmitted to this country, and yet this had nothing to do with the external form of the work, with the actual house or the situation and so on, and in view of what G. told me privately I fancy that we can have no permanent home for the work and that we will have to adjust ourselves to every kind of situation in the future. But all of you who have heard the teaching over a sufficient time should be able now to be quite tranquil about change in the external form or the external demands of the work and to relate yourselves instantly to them from the work point of view. The trouble is that things become mechanical and it is necessary for a shock to be given so that things are no longer mechanical. But the work continues in the same way and speaks with the same voice and gives the same force to those who acknowledge and practice it."

~ Maurice Nicoll

Be at Peace, Do no Harm, BE
Home Is where the Heart Is