The reason for war on earth lies not in the behaviour of human beings, but in the necessity for a particular substance which can only be produced in one of two ways; either by the conscious and intentional activity of people, or by their death. It follows that if people will not produce this substance intentionally, then deaths - and especially premature deaths - have to be increased on earth. War becomes inevitable on this account. This notion implies that wars are the consequences of man's failure to perform his cosmic duties, and on account of this failure, conditions arise that make war inevitable. Or if not war, the premature dying of people has to be brought about. Since, according to this theory, the required substance is liberated by some kind of death, the result can presumably be obtained by an enormous increase in the world's population such as has occurred during the present century - 'feeding the moon' (73).
Man must perform a certain duty for which he exists on the earth, or else be compelled to live and die in such a way that the results will be obtained from him willy-nilly, in spite of himself.
Intentional actions, performed for a rightful end, result in a certain substance being released. One part of that substance goes into the performance of the action; one part of the energy becomes available for this purpose, whatever it is; and the third part of the energy becomes available for the perfection, the inner development and spiritualization of the person himself. Human life should be so organized that this transformation of energy is really consciously undertaken by a sufficient number of people, and only in that way can the hazards of human life be averted...(74).
...There is both a possibility and a need for a limited number of people to follow what are called the WAYS OF ACCELERATED COMPLETION. These ways take different forms: some are connected with religion and others are not, but they all have in common the need for a more exactly and more personally regulated work of transformation than is possible by following rules or commandments formulated for the guidance of all and therefore of necessity very general and often vague. Among the WAYS OF ACCELERATED COMPLETION is one called the Fourth Way which is characterized by the fulfillment of all ordinary life obligations, coupled with a very exactly regulated and very intensive personal work.
This requires the highest degree of intelligence, adaptability and inner freedom in those who direct it; for they have to create conditions that enable the Duty of Transformation to be performed without neglect of the obligations common to all men and women(78).
The Work - MAGNUM OPUS - refers to the invisible world which has to be perpetually created in order that it should be. And it is that that we are called to if we are destined for accelerated completion. In order to enter that world, we have to earn the right to be in it, and for that we have to bring to it something made by ourselves. The first and simplest thing we can bring is our own capacity for work; our own capacity for transforming energy, and therefore for participating in the Creation. This can afterwards be converted into specific forms of creativity, according to objective needs and our own subjective powers.
There is no doubt that the Fourth Way is the direct application of the principle of creativity in life. That is why I called it non-causal. It always has to start without an antecedent cause. It is a spontaneous call from beyond that makes this possible...let me just say this simply, that there is a Work to be done, and that some people have the feeling that their life is not complete unless they are participating in that Work...(81-82)
- John G. Bennet. from Gurdjieff: A Very Great Enigma. Samuel Weiser, 1973. Maryland
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