Editing Fourth Way (section)

==Overview==
===The teaching===
Gurdjieff said, "The teaching whose theory is here being set out is completely self supporting and independent of other lines and it has been completely unknown up to the present time."<ref>In Search of The Miraculous (Chapter 14)</ref>

The Fourth Way teaches that the [[Soul (spirit)|soul]] that a human individual is born with gets trapped and encapsulated by personality, and stays dormant, leaving one not really conscious, despite ''believing'' one is. A person must free the soul by following a teaching which can lead to this aim or "go nowhere" upon death of his body. Should a person be able to receive the teaching and find a school, upon the death of the physical body they will "go elsewhere." Humans are born ''asleep'', live in ''sleep'', and die in ''sleep'', only ''imagining'' that they are awake with few exceptions.<ref>P. D. Ouspensky ''In Search of the Miraculous'', p. 66, Harcourt Brace & Co., 1977 {{ISBN|0-15-644508-5}}</ref> The ordinary waking "consciousness" of human beings is not consciousness at all but merely a form of sleep."

Gurdjieff taught "sacred dances" or "movements", now known as [[Gurdjieff movements]], which were performed together as a group.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.gurdjieff-heritage-society.org/excerptsbook.htm |title=Gurdjieff Heritage Society Book Excerpts <!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=5 October 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071030182608/http://www.gurdjieff-heritage-society.org/excerptsbook.htm |archive-date=30 October 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref> 

Ouspensky documented Gurdjieff as saying that "two or three thousand years ago there were yet other ways which no longer exist and the ways then in existence were not so divided, they stood much closer to one another. The fourth way differs from the old and the new ways by the fact that it is never a permanent way. It has no definite forms and there are no institutions connected with it."<ref>"In Search of the Miraculous" by P.D. Ouspensky p. 312</ref> Ouspensky quotes Gurdjieff that there are fake schools and that "It is impossible to recognize a wrong way without knowing the right way. This means that it is no use troubling oneself how to recognize a wrong way. One must think of how to find the right way."<ref>In Search of The Miraculous (Chapter 10)</ref>

===Assessment and analysis / after Gurdjieff's death===
Gurdjieff's followers believed he was a spiritual master,<ref>''Meetings with Remarkable Men'', translator's note</ref> a human being who is fully awake or [[Enlightenment in Buddhism|enlightened]]. He was also seen as an [[Western esotericism|esotericist]] or [[occult]]ist.<ref>[http://skepdic.com/gurdjief.html Gurdjieff article in ''The Skeptic's dictionary''] by [[Robert Todd Carroll]]</ref> He agreed that the teaching was esoteric but claimed that none of it was veiled in secrecy but that many people lack the interest or the capability to understand it.<ref>P.D. Ouspensky, ''In Search of the Miraculous'', p.38.</ref>

After Gurdjieff's death in 1949 a variety of groups around the world have attempted to continue The Gurdjieff Work. The Gurdjieff Foundation, was established in 1953 in New York City by [[Jeanne de Salzmann]] in cooperation with other direct pupils.<ref>[http://www.gurdjieff.org/foundation.htm The Gurdjieff Foundation<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

He left a body of music, inspired by that which he had heard in remote monasteries and other places, which was written for piano in collaboration with one of his pupils, [[Thomas de Hartmann]].<ref>[http://www.gurdjieff.org/mangan1.html Thomas de Hartmann: A Composer’s Life]{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} by John Mangan</ref>

The Fourth way was influenced by [[Tibetan Buddhism]], according to Jose Tirado,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gurdjieff-internet |url=http://www.gurdjieff-internet.com/article_details.php?ID=251&W=39 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071029052050/http://www.gurdjieff-internet.com/article_details.php?ID=251&W=39 |archive-date=29 October 2007 |access-date=11 May 2007}}</ref> and [[Chatral Rinpoche]] alleged that Gurdjieff spent several years in a Buddhist monastery in the [[Swat valley]].<ref>[http://amritayana.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/meetings-with-three-tibetan-masters.html Meetings with Three Tibetan Masters]</ref>