School Work

My first year in the Fourth Way school consisted of attending weekly meetings at the same home my introductory meeting took place. There would be a small group of people there, between 10 or 15 and we would all sit in the chairs setup for the purpose. The meeting was lead by the ‘center director’ who sat at the front of the group along with 3 or 4 ‘older’ students.

‘Older’ students weren’t old in years, the designation meant that they had been in the school for awhile, and thus supposedly had more knowledge and experience to share. There was never any set topic for the meeting, it started by fielding questions from the audience.

During the course of the week students were expected to read from the works of Gurdjieff or Ouspensky and make observations about oneself. This process was suppose to generate questions or topics to discuss at the meetings.

As the newest member I would be expected to have the most questions. It took a little while for me to feel comfortable with group, but I soon figured out how to formulate questions during the course of the week.

Often the group would sit in silence as the leader of the meeting waited for questions. I soon became known as the guy with the questions, as my goal was to always have at least one question or topic to discuss. After awhile I wasn’t allowed to ask my question until everyone else had a chance first, which still meant I often asked the first question.