The 4 Ways

THE FOUR WAYS

"Life is a series of events or outcomes accompanied by its respective state of consciousness: each one of us in search of the TRUTH, in search of oneself, seeking the spiritual path, looking for Self-Realization, are urged by impelent occult causes.

In that laborious search of Self-Realization, we could differentiate, several ways related with the different levels of inner development. Every path, more or less long, more or less hard, tends to lead man towards the same one direction, which is Self-Realization.

Self-Realization, Immortalization, is not a quality with which human beings are born, but it can be conquered, the ways are explained below:

1- The way of the FAKIR
2- The way of the MONK
3- The way of the YOGI
4- The DIRECT WAY

THE WAY OF THE FAKIR.

When we listen to this word, we set ourselves immediately in the East, particularly in the enigmatic and mysterious INDIA. In PERSIA the term "FAKIR" means BEGGAR or INDIGENT. In INDIA the jugglers, the clowns and tumbleseters, they call themselves FAKIRS (acetic or religious mendicant, especially one who performs feats of magic or endurance). The Europeans call FAKIR to YOGIS, also to the errant MONKS of different orders.

This -doubtful, long and difficult- way is of the struggle to develop on oneself, the physical power of will, to defeat pain, to achieve the power over the body. The goal is achieved through terrible sufferings and very hard trials.

The Fakir’s way is made of incredible fatiguing physical exercises: they keep themselves standing in the same position, without any movement, during several hours, days, months or years; or they stay seated over a naked stone under an implacable sun, under the rain, in the snow, etc.; they keep their arms stretched for indefinite length of time or they torture themselves with fire or with an ants’ nest in which they place their naked legs, and so forth.

In 1902 the fakir "Agastiya" of Bangladesh, India- raised an arm in straight position over his head. Agastiya was a Hindu for whom all the pleasures and pains of the body were MAYA -a mere illusion-. Agastiya adopted that peculiar posture -for the occidental mentality- departing from a religious conviction. During the first three months of having adopted that position, terrible pains are experimented, unless one truly is a master in the power of the “mind over matter.” Nevertheless, after three months of keeping the arm risen it is, in comparison, a children's game; for at this time, the limb is absolutely rigid, with very little or no blood circulation. Agastiya's arm didn't serve any kind of function, except for the palm, where a bird had built its nest. The shoulder’s articulation had been welded in such a way that even when Agastiya had wanted to lower the arm, he couldn't do it. Not even the death of the fakir, which occurred in 1912, succeeded in making the arm to rest in its normal position. When Agastiya was buried in his grave, the arm continued extended with the palm open.

Another fakir stayed day and night on the tips of his fingers and toes for 20 years. He could never stretch himself up, or move; his disciples had to carry him around, and take him to the river where they washed him like an object.

If the fakir doesn't get sick or die, he develops what we could call, physical will, but this does not mean the creation of the Body of Conscious Will or Causal Body. Furthermore, his emotional and intellectual functions, etc., remain without development. He certainly has developed his physical will, but has nothing in which to apply it, cannot make any use of it to acquire the Knowledge, or perfect himself, and usually he is too old to begin a new Work.

Some of them don't follow this way for religious feelings or because they understand the different possibilities of inner development, but by simple imitation caused by the impression of seeing other fakirs. In the East as in the West of the world, many fakirs give themselves up to a fanatic ascetism because they want to pay with pain their bad actions or their incapability to defeat temptations. For that, they whipped themselves with no mercy. They love pain by itself, they ignore that the physical body is the Temple of the Living God. No one can achieve Self-Realization through pain, because the origin of pain is the "I."

Additionally, it’s worthwhile to comment what the Bahagavad Gita, the "Lord's Chant," the Hindu Sacred Book says to this respect: "Those who practice severe austerities, not recommended by the Scriptures, just by Ostentation or Egoism; those attached and concupiscent, deprived of common sense, torture all the organs of the body and ME who also dwells within the body. Get to know them, they are of demoniac purposes!”

THE WAY OF THE MONK.

This is the path of Faith, of the religious sentiment and sacrifices. It is a conscious state in which the purpose is to develop the devotional sense, the Emotional aspect of the BEING.

The monk's work concentrates around his feelings, submitting his other functions to faith. Let’s take into account that faith in and of itself is awakened conscience. There are two types of faith: one, which moves an emotional state based in believes; the other, which is based in the mystical direct experience, therefore does not need to believe or doubt.

As far as the Monk’s Way is concerned they develop the will over the emotions, but the rest of their faculties may be kept without development. For Faith to be a sure bridge towards liberation, we must also cultivate the physical and intellectual capacities, which will be accomplished through new sacrifices and austerities. "A monk should become a Yogi and a Fakir."

There are very few monks who get far, there are even fewer monks who succeed over the difficulties that the Real Path imposes, because the Initiation is given by the Goddess Isis (The Divine Mother), the Alchemist’s fundament deeply taught by the Gnostic doctrine.

THE YOGI WAY.

The Yogi’s center of gravitation resides in the mind, in the psychic development. Nonetheless, there are different branches of Yoga.

Bhakti-Yoga, or Yoga of devotion. This develops the mystical part, the higher devotion, and could give us illumination, but could not take us to the Inner Self Realization of the Being.

Gnana-Yoga, the Mental Yoga. Gnana-Yoga is centered in the knowledge of one self; knows the different disciplines of the mind, achieves states of Shamadhi, but does not conquer Self-Realization.

Raja-Yoga. The purpose of Raja Yoga is the development of the Chakras, of the occult powers, etc. A certain development is achieved; no doubt about it, but that is not Self- Realization.

By the nature of the practice performed by Yogis there is no doubt that they develop some kind of Psychic powers such as mental relaxation, concentration (The power of telekinesis is well known, let's say, moving objects with the mental force at a distance), Telepathy, hypnotic powers, etc. But if by forgetting about the doctrine of the “Many I’s,” they can be led to paranoia or delirium of grandeur; they feel as if they have reached the authentic Mastership, but this only leads to the development of siddhis or inferior powers.

The Yogi works in the knowledge of the duality of the mind and there is not doubt that they reach sublime states, but that does not mean to have created the legitimate mental body.

There’s also Agni-yoga or the Yoga of Inner Fire, or Kundalini Yoga, this one lead us right to the doorsteps of the Fourth Way.

THE FOURTH WAY.

The Fourth Way encompasses the other three. This is the Royal Path, the Path of the Razor's Edge, the Gnostic Doctrine.

The Fakir seeks the total dominion over the corporal. The Monk pretends the development of the feelings (sentiments); the Yogi strives the perfection of the mind, transcending the duality in which the mind struggles, making the mind apt to receive the Knowledge. The Fourth Way, the way of the balanced Man, leads to perfection and to the harmonious development of all the centers of the human machine, through the awakening of consciousness, working simultaneously with the physical body, the emotions and thoughts.

A whole series of parallel exercises over these three levels: physical, animical and spiritual, are used for this goal. By doing this, The Fourth Way embraces and synthesizes the work of all the other three in perfect equilibrium.

The Fourth Way is the Path of the Perfect Matrimony, the road of the intelligent being, of the one who studies Kabala and Alchemy, applying them in the harmonious realization of all its infinite possibilities, synthesized in the Awakening of Consciousness, based in the disintegration of the psychological "I."

The Fourth Way is founded on the transmutation of the creative energies, achieving the development of the Inner-Fire. Progress is determined by the dissolution of the Ego and the sacrifice for Humanity.

This Way does not demand that the person retreats from the world, or abandon all contact with beings, things or events, but requires a preparation acquired in the psychological gymnasium of practical life. Its center of gravitation resides directly in the Conscience or Essence. It is necessary to be prepared to enter into the Fourth Way. One who wants to follow this Path has to have certain conditions in his life favorable to the Work, or at least have those that do not make it impossible. It is necessary to understand that in the exterior life as much as in the interior life, there are some conditions that could constitute insurmountable barriers for the Fourth Way.

The Fourth Way is the least known. The other three ways are the traditional ones. The Fourth Way is very exact and much more perfect that the other three."
Samael Aun Weor