Three in one. Reminds me of the Musketeer’s slogan, “One for all and all for one.” Isn’t that just what we’re trying to get to in this fourth way work? Figure out how to get our three separate centers (physical, emotional, intellectual) to work together, so we can become one Self? One “I”?
It also occurred to me this morning that perhaps that work has something to do with Christ’s message. The Trinity is Christian doctrine, expressed as God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. I’ve grown up with these words and accompanying symbols.
J.G. Bennett taught Gurdjieff’s enneagram as an ancient and sacred symbol holding many secrets. Among them the “laws” of three and seven. The triangle in the enneagram represents the law of three among other things. It seems there are all kinds of ‘three as part of one’ teachings in esoteric circles.
So what does all this have to do with my own inner work?
Three or One?
Per Ouspensky, we all start out as “man” number one, two or three, depending on our type. For instance, I always thought I was centered in my moving center. I tend to blurt things out without thinking and love physical activity. Empathy is not my strong suit. A good deal of my work has been to see these things about myself and learn to balance them. I wish to become more evenly weighted. Changing habitual behavior isn’t the whole story though.
What is the “one” that is composed of the “three?” Gurdjieff has a wonderful analogy which I have written about before: the horse, the carriage, and the driver. The horse represents the emotions that can be unruly. The carriage is the body with its limits. And the driver is the brains of the operation but prone to laziness. All three have their separate issues and agendas. What is missing is the “master” who can direct and maintain the needs of each.
In terms of pulling all three into one accord, my work is to find a ‘master’. I am beginning to see that my inner work grows something that is me, but not me. Once this “something” has matured and coalesced, it can become the master. A master that the three parts of myself invite into the carriage so that it can direct the driver, keep the carriage in good repair, and help the horse stay healthy and willing. And put the whole equipage to good use.
I have glimpsed that this is possible. In fact, can only be accomplished during my lifetime. My “master” can’t operate without all three parts of “me.” There must be a willing partnership for the “three” to become “one.” This isn’t a top-down relationship it’s a two-way street. The master becomes part of the team. Together “we” becomes “one.” Three in one, one in three. “I” becomes “Am.” Only then, I AM.
Three is everywhere. You know the joke about the cosmology of the universe, “… it’s turtles all the way down.” In fact, it is three’s all the way down.
Another example of three in Gurdjieff’s presentation:
“… the general psyche of man in its definitive form is considered to be the result of conformity to these three independent worlds.
The first is the outer world—in other words, everything existing outside him, both what he can see and feel as well as what is invisible and intangible for him.
The second is the inner world-in other words, all the automatic processes of his nature and the mechanical repercussions of these processes.
The third world is his own world, depending neither upon his “outer world” nor upon his “inner world”; that is to say, it is independent of the caprices of the processes that flow in him as well as of the imperfections in these processes that bring them about.
A man who does not possess his own world can never do anything from his own initiative: all his actions “are done” in him.
Only he can have his own initiative for perceptions and manifestations in whose common presence there has been formed, in an independent and intentional manner, the totality of factors necessary for the functioning of this third world.
… the factors of the third totality are formed exclusively by an intentional blending of the functions of the first two.
… The necessary factors for the three totalities are formed in man, as is everything in the entire Universe, from corresponding vibrations, … in accordance with the second fundamental cosmic law, called “the Law of Seven.””
Gurdjieff: Life Is Real Only Then, When “I Am” (p. 172-174)
Thank you for this, James. I am interested in how we begin to work with these notions and make them “real” for ourselves. Which may speak to the “third” world mentioned in your quote.
Excellent concise sharing of the teaching behind the horse, driver and carriage analogy. Feel like I have a handle on it now.
Thank you too to James for all his insight. Also very helpful.
I find the image of a three legged stool as the first to be able to stand upright on its own helps. Perhaps the master is the seat at the top!
HI Lora, thanks for chiming in!