Notes from a Conscious Teaching

By Girard Haven

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0964578212
• ISBN13: 9780964578210
• Release Date: December 1997
• Publisher: Ulysses Books
• Length: 159 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A very practical description of life in the Fourth Way

Mr. Haven's approach to the Fourth Way* is both fresh and practical. He describes the daily battle of a man struggling with his own mind in order to become more conscious.I recommend this book to everybody interested in a first-hand report of the life of a student of a Fourth Way* School.(*) The Fourth Way is an ancient system of spiritual development introduced in the West in the first half of this century by George Gurdjieff and Peter Ouspensky. For more information on the Fourth Way system, check "The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution", "The Fourth Way", and "In Search of the Miraculous - Fragments of an Unknown Teaching", all by P. D. Ouspensky.

Practising What He Preaches

"Our true identity is not in anything that we do. Nor is our identity in the act of creation--even in the creation of the soul. Our real identity is what observes; it is simply to be conscious of what is happening. "The above quotation is typical of this small blue book--a plainly stated but fresh observation. "Notes" consists of short, straightforward paragraphs transcribed from meetings, a common format in the Gurdjieff Ouspensky-tradition. There are chapters on psychological ideas such as the Machine, the Many 'I's, Features and Negative emotions; there are also interesting sections on working with a school and a teacher, and on Feminine Dominance, an idea not found in the earlier work books.Somehow, Girard Haven manages to be specific without being personal and the book gives an impression of being the result of genuine work. The overall effect is rather strange. The presentation is so unostentatious, and the author is so unconcerned with expressing any kind of novelty, that the result could be expected to seem flat or repetitive. Instead, we have gems like, "The only thing that changes when you are awake is that you are awake," which is really quite a stunning observation.A fair amount of system language is used, and there is no glossary, but his later book, Creating a Soul, contains a thorough glossary. On the other hand, it presents a good introduction to the practical use of the work language.Overall, as a book, it presents an interesting paradox, which the title sums up; it is the practice of the conscious teaching which is important, and these are just notes.