In this commentary, we will emphasize two seed ideas of the Fourth Way, and consequently, transpersonal psychology, namely:

• that our Being attracts our life
• that we do not know ourselves.

Lack of self-knowledge is the rule in human existence and contributes greatly to the useless suffering of Man. The amount of human energy spent on useless suffering, when seen from a broader perspective, is incredible and terrible. Have you ever noticed how much energy you really waste in useless suffering? Perhaps you spent the morning feeling unhappy, or in a bad mood, or full of self-pity. Well, that is useless suffering. We must sacrifice our suffering, that is, do away with useless suffering, remove it from our lives like we would remove weeds from our garden—this idea is also present in Buddhism, in addition to the Fourth Way and Jungian psychology. But do we sacrifice it? Of course not. Primarily because we are not taught to do so. In fact, from a young age, we often imitate negative emotions from those around us, creating this type of useless suffering in the long run. Gurdjieff says that if we could touch our lives objectively through true self-knowledge, we would not have, nor could we have, useless feelings of that kind.

Let's now revisit the two things I mentioned—namely, that our Being attracts our life, and we do not know ourselves. What prevents this from happening? The answers are simple. Illusions prevent it. In the first case, we are not guilty of anything that happens to us in the ordinary sense. It's always someone else's fault. That's how we mechanically believe it. That's why we cannot see that the fault is truly ours. Therefore, we do not want to change our Being, nor do we see any connection between this and what happens to us in life. In fact, I imagine that we do not really grasp having a specific Being. In the second case, of course, we know ourselves. How foolish to say that I do not know myself. Who could know me better than myself? This is again pure illusion. There are ways to free oneself from this, and there always have been, in all eras. Because esoteric teaching is about getting out of it.

---

---