ISBN 0-87728-844-5

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9 "780877"288442
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CONTENTS

Introduction IX

Being Present I
Self-Remembering 10
Divided Attention 23
Results of Self-Remembering 30
The Machine 35
False Personality and Essence 44
Buffers and the Many 'I's 51
Imagination and Identification 58
Friction 66
Making Effort 71
Suffering 79
Transformation and Negative Emotions 89
Scale and Relativity 101
Time 109
Death 114
Consciousness 122
Higher Centers 134
The Astral Body 142
The Self 146
Influence C 150
Art 162
The Fourth Way 166
Man Number Four 171
School 182

Glossary 195
 INTRODUCTION

Twenty-five
lowship of years ago, aRobert
Friends, school Earl Burton founded
of spiritual the Fel-
development in
the Fourth Way tradition, which has been transmitted in this
century by G. 1. Gurdjieff and P. D. Ouspensky.
A Greek-Armenian mystic and teacher of sacred dances,
Gurdjieff rediscovered the Fourth Way tradition during long
travels in the East, which provided the inspiration for his book,
Meetings with Remarkable Men. He is perhaps best known for
Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson. Gurdjieff's principle disciple,
Ouspensky, became a teacher in his own right, and recorded
the Fourth Way ideas in a series of clearly written and ele-
gantly reasoned works, among which are The Fourth Way and In
Search of the Miraculous, both published after his death in 1947.
One characteristic of the teaching as expounded by Gurdji-
eff and Ouspensky is the use of a specialized language to ensure
precision and understanding among its students. Some ordi-
nary words have been given new meanings, and readers are
urged to consult the glossary at the end of the book for any
terms that are unfamiliar or confusing.
Because the Fourth Way is based on individual verification
and understanding, as well as on personal transmission, each
teacher reinterprets it anew. Robert Burton's teaching, while
based on the knowledge transmitted by Gurdjieff and Ouspen-
sky, has expanded to embrace the legacy of spiritually developed
men and women of all ages and cultures, from Marcus Aurelius
and St. Paul to Lao Tzu and Abraham Lincoln. Gurdjieff
approached the Fourth Way through the rigorous physical
training of his sacred dances, and Ouspensky emphasized an
equally rigorous intellectual discipline. Robert Burton stresses
the education and disciplining of the emotions. The unique
x SELF-REMEMBERING
qualities that he offers to his students include a love of beauty
and an understanding of its capacity to create higher states of
awareness, a non-judgmental acceptance of people and events as
they are, and a profound humility and obedience in the face of
a higher intelligence. "If! had three wishes," he once said, "they
would be: Thy will be done, thy will be done, thy will be done."
Perhaps Robert Burton's greatest contribution to the Fourth
Way tradition is his unerring ability to grasp the core of the
teaching. Although the system offers an array of theories, he has
resisted all temptations to deviate from its highest application:
the creation of higher consciousness within its students. He has
never ceased to repeat that this work is simple, although it is
not easy. Out of the great storehouse of knowledge in the Fourth
Way, he has extracted and exalted two principles above all oth-
ers: self-remembering and the transformation of suffering.
Self-remembering is the attempt within a specific moment
to be more conscious, more aware, more present. It is a form of
active meditation that may take place in any moment and in
any situation, in which the student works to be aware both of
himself and of his environment simultaneously, rather than
being immersed in his internal world, or lost in his reactions to
the many stimuli around him. Repeated efforts to self-remem-
ber lead to higher states of consciousness, and a quite new
understanding of humanity's place in the universe. This pri-
vate, internal struggle to witness one's own life is the process
through which one creates one's soul.
Relentlessly, Robert Burton has placed self-remembering at
the heart of his school. Although he has urged his students to
experience the best that life can offer and to develop their own
talents and skills, he has never lost sight of the fact that even
great genius pales before simple consciousness; that, as he has
said so often, "there is no greater activity than presence in
silence."
The transformation of suffering entails learning to use each
negative or painful experience or emotion, whether large or
small, to create self-remembering. This process requires long
work on changing attitudes, so that the student understands
INTRODUCTION Xl
that the ultimate responsibility for any negative emotion-
anger, irritation, fear, self-pity, and so on-rests with the indi-
vidual rather than the events that befall him. "Everyone suffers,
with or without a school," Robert Burton has said. "We are
trying to use our suffering, rather than being used by it."
Year after year, Robert Burton's students have come to him
with their questions, their problems, their protests. Year after
year, with unfaltering patience, he has taught that the only
true solutions to any perceived "problem" lie in our efforts to
self-remember and to transform our suffering. However justi-
fied one's complaints, however unjust the events of one's life,
one has no choice but to embrace them all. This wider accep-
tance is the key to the actual transformation of negative emo-
tions into higher consciousness, which creates the capacity for
selfless love and is the true meaning behind every spiritual
teaching. What the individual gains through this process may
then be radiated outward for the benefit of others. "There is a
secret," Robert Burton said once, "that is almost too sacred to
tell. The secret is: what one gains, all gain."
In the years since its founding, the Fellowship, which is based
in northern California, has slowly and quietly grown to include
approximately two thousand members in teaching centers
around the world (for a partial list of such centers please turn to
page 217 of the book). It is sincerely hoped that this book will
not only serve as a record for Robert Burton's students, but will
introduce others to their own spiritual possibilities.
This book is the result of efforts by many Fellowship mem-
bers over many years. Not everyone can be thanked individu-
ally, but special mention must be made of the substantial
contributions from Elizabeth Evans, Linda Kaplan, Catherine
Searle, and Brunella Windsor. Also gratefully acknowledged
are Girard Haven, who undertook the task of creating the glos-
sary, and the translators who labored to produce faithful ver-
sions of this book in several languages.
-Jeanne Chapman
Apollo, California
 Not one of you has noticed the most important thing that I have
pointed our to you, that is to say, not one of you has noticed that
you do not remember yourselves ... Remember yourselves always
and everywhere.
George Gurdjieff

Effort to remember yourself is the chief thing, because wi thour it

nothing else has any value; it must be the basis of everything.
Peter Ouspensky

When one begins to see that one can only begin to remember
oneself for seconds at a time, it seems negligible, bur what one
must understand is that it is difficult exactly because it is the
beginning of a new state for us, the key to a new world. If it were
easy and if results came more quickly it could not have the
importance which it has.
Rodney Collin

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