In Search of the Miraculous

generally proceeds forthwith to demand the imperative and inevitable development of

these possibilities. It is difficult for him to accept the thought that his possibilities may remain altogether undeveloped and disappear, and that their development, on the other

hand, requires of him tremendous effort and endurance. As a matter of fact, if we take

all the people who are neither fakirs, monks, nor yogis, and of whom we may say with

confidence that they never will be either fakirs, monks, or yogis, then we may say

with undoubted certainty that their possibilities cannot be developed and will not be developed. This must be clearly understood in order to grasp all that follows.

"In the ordinary conditions of cultured life the position of a man, even of an

intelligent man, who is seeking for knowledge is hopeless, because, in the

circumstances surrounding him, there is nothing resembling either fakir or yogi

schools, while the religions of the West have degenerated to such an extent that for a

long time there has been nothing alive in them. Various occult and mystical societies

and naive experiments in the nature of spiritualism, and so on, can give no results

whatever.

"And the position would indeed be hopeless if the possibility of yet a fourth way did not exist.

"The fourth way requires no retirement into the desert, does not require a man to

give up and renounce everything by which he formerly lived. The fourth way begins

much further on than the way of the yogi. This means that a man must be prepared for

the fourth way and this preparation must be acquired in ordinary life and be a very

serious one, embracing many different sides. Furthermore a man must be living in

conditions favorable for work on the fourth way, or, in any case, in conditions which

do not render it impossible. It must be understood that both in the inner and in the

external life of a man there may be conditions which create insuperable barriers to the

fourth way. Furthermore, the fourth way has no definite forms like the ways of the

fakir, the monk, and the yogi. And, first of all, it has to be found. This is the first test.

It is not as well known as the three traditional ways. There are many people who have

never heard of the fourth way and there are others who deny its existence or

possibility.

"At the same time the beginning of the fourth way is easier than the beginning of

the ways of the fakir, the monk, and the yogi. On the fourth way it is possible to work

and to follow this way while remaining in

the usual conditions of life, continuing to do the usual work, preserving former

relations with people, and without renouncing or giving up anything. On the contrary,

the conditions of life in which a man is placed at the beginning of his work, in which,

so to speak, the work finds him, are the best possible for him, at any rate at the beginning of the work. These conditions are natural for him. These conditions are the man himself, because a man's life and its conditions correspond to what he is. Any conditions different from those created by life would be artificial for a man and in

such artificial conditions the work would not be able to touch every side of his being

at once.

"Thanks to this, the fourth way affects simultaneously every side of man's being. It is work ore the three rooms at once. The fakir works on the first room, the monk on the second, the yogi on the third. In reaching the fourth room the fakir, the monk, and

the yogi leave behind them many things unfinished, and they cannot make use of what

they have attained because they are not masters of all their functions. The fakir is

master of his body but not of his emotions or his mind; the monk is master of his

emotions but not of his body or his mind; the yogi is master of his mind but not of his

body or his emotions.

"Then the fourth way differs from the other ways in that the principal demand made

upon a man is the demand for understanding. A man must do nothing that he does not

understand, except as an experiment under the supervision and direction of his

teacher. The more a man understands what he is doing, the greater will be the results

of his efforts. This is a fundamental principle of the fourth way. The results of work

are in proportion to the consciousness of the work. No 'faith' is required on the fourth

way; on the contrary, faith of any kind is opposed to the fourth way. On the fourth

way a man must satisfy himself of the truth of what he is told. And until he is satisfied he must do nothing.

"The method of the fourth way consists in doing something in one room and

simultaneously doing something corresponding to it in the two other rooms—that is to

say, while working on the physical body to work simultaneously on the mind and the

emotions; while working on the mind to work on the physical body and the emotions;

while working on the emotions to work on the mind and the physical body. This can