S5/E15: An Objective Way to Higher Consciousness

Published July 28th, 2022

S5/E15: An Objective Way to Higher Consciousness

An Objective Way to Higher Consciousness

In this podcast we share with you a response from Russell to a student concerning typical Fourth Way Schools, that is, Pseudo-Schools.

Podcast Transcript

Welcome to a series of talks about objective consciousness, an objective Universe, and an objective way to awaken, expanding upon the works of George I. Gurdjieff and Russell A. Smith.

In this podcast, we share with you a response from Russell to a student concerning typical Fourth Way Schools, that is, Pseudo-Schools.

Let’s begin:

Student:  Hi Russ,

Wonderful class last week.

At the end of our conversation the topic of my involvement in several pseudo-esoteric organizations came up. For myself, after performing The Objective Exercise with you and waking up, I have no interest or need to practice any of the methods of those organizations any more, which creates somewhat of a quandary; I still attend the meetings, as it allows me to stay in touch with longtime friends who are also members of those organizations. However, I do not wish to deceive them, nor encourage them to keep pursuing that futile path. 

However, after talking with you, I remembered these passages from In Search of the Miraculous, by Ouspensky. I will stick them in as we talk, allowing you to address both what he says, and to answer what I would like to ask; because my aim is to become a teacher just like you, so I can also wake people up.

Ouspensky:  “Besides these three ways yet a fourth way exists by which can go those who cannot go by any of the first three ways.”

“The fundamental difference between the first three ways, that is, the way of the fakir, the way of the monk, and the way of the yogi, and the fourth way consists in the fact that they are tied to permanent forms which have existed throughout long periods of history almost without change. At the basis of these institutions is religion. Where schools of yogis exist, they differ little outwardly from religious schools. And in different periods of history various societies or orders of fakirs have existed in different countries and they still exist. These three traditional ways are permanent ways within the limits of our historical period.”

“Two or three thousand years ago, there were yet other ways which no longer exist and the ways now in existence were not so divided, they stood much closer to one another.”

“The fourth way differs from the old and the new ways by the fact that it is never a permanent way. It has no definite forms and there are no institutions connected with it. It appears and disappears governed by some particular laws of its own.”

“The fourth way is never without some work of a definite significance, is never without some undertaking around which and in connection with which it can alone exist.”

Student:  Please address what Ouspensky said, then I would like to ask you a question. 

Russell:  As to what Ouspensky said, it is hard for me to answer that, because before THEDOG there were no schools of the Fourth Way. 

That is, before THEDOG there was only the idea that there might be a “fourth” way, outside the ways of the Fakir, Yogi, and Monk. But without an Objective Way, those “fourth” way schools were destined to appear around some individual who awoke subjectively, and then attracted followers, who practiced the “definite significance” of that subjective way, and when the individual who started that way died, their subjective way also disappeared. 

Why? Well, because no one is able to show those who followed a subjective way, how to awaken. That is, there are no Gurdjieff’s 2.0’s. 

But those ways did keep hope alive. Hope, that someday, there might be an objective way to consciousness.

Thus, the work of THEDOG does not meet the definition of there being a “definite significance,” as the work of THEDOG is not a subjective way, but an objective one.

As to why I was the first one to discover that objective way, I do not know. However, I did. Thus, there is now an Objective Way to go from being asleep to being Impartial, which fortunately, has allowed my work to be duplicated by others. And, as far as I know, no Fourth Way school, or any other school for that matter, has ever been able to proclaim that. 

That being said, we are very fortunate that this school will not die when I die nor its current teachers die, because other objective teachers will follow, such is the nature of an objective way.

Student:  Am I accurate in believing that the “work of definite significance,” would be for folks to master your book, Gurdjieff: Cosmic Secrets, in order to awaken, and thereafter to be able to show others how to do the same? I ask because I want to do what you do. That is, I want to be able to show others how to awaken.

Russell:  Yes sir, it is. 

Student:  Fantastic! I can’t wait.

Ouspensky:  “When this work is finished, that is to say, when the aim set before it has been accomplished, the fourth way disappears, that is, it disappears from the given place, disappears in its given form, continuing perhaps in another place in another form. Schools of the fourth way exist for the needs of the work which is being carried out in connection with the proposed undertaking. They never exist by themselves as schools for the purpose of education and instruction.”

Student:  Before you respond, I want to ask you another question. You often say that you are “a guide not a policeman” but if a student like me, who is in California, wishes to further the aims of the school in Texas, is he welcome to do so? 

Russell:  Yes, of course.

Now let me address Ouspensky’s statement that schools disappear because they have finished some great work. Schools do not disappear because they have finished some great work, they disappear because they were unable to show others how to awaken. 

As to your statement of me being a guide and not a policeman, that is correct. I will guide you, but I will never police you. That is, policemen are tasked with trying to enforce rules and laws, whereas I simply teach them. As such, I will never pull you over and inquire, “Why weren't you in class?” 

If you choose to be in class, I will teach you. If you choose not to be in class, I cannot teach you. It is that simple.

I am a guide. I show people everything they need to know in order to awaken, and if they wish to know more than that, i.e., how to show others how to awaken, I will show them how to do that as well. 

Before finding me, most students had one or more teachers; teachers that were indeed policemen. Teachers, that law-conformably, had to be policemen in order to keep their students following their subjective way. However, as DOGTALE #63 says: “A school is like a compass; it doesn’t claim to make you go anywhere, it just keeps pointing in the same direction.”

Student:  I got it Russ, thanks. 

Ouspensky:  “Mechanical man cannot give conscious work so that the first task of the people who begin such a work is to create conscious assistants.”

Russell:  Hmmm, how can a man who cannot give conscious work, create conscious assistants? Sounds like an oxymoron to me. Firstly, one has to become conscious, and secondly, one has to be able to show others how to become conscious as well. Then perhaps, they can surround themselves with conscious assistants.

Student:  Is it accurate to say that the essential form of the Sanger School is to develop the 3rd Obligolnian Striving as a gateway to the realization of the 5th Obligolnian Striving?

Russell:  Yes. 

Only after successful completion of the 3rd Striving, “The conscious striving to know ever more and more concerning the laws of World-creation and World-maintenance;” and the 4th striving, “The striving from the beginning of their existence to pay for their arising and their individuality as quickly as possible, in order afterwards to be free to lighten as much as possible the Sorrow of our COMMON FATHER,” will they be able to open the possibility of achieving the 5th striving. That is, of being able to show others how to awaken.

Student:  I would like to ask you, Russ, since the Sanger School found an objective way of awakening, have you had to suffer through many counterfeits?

Russell:  Out of all my students, there have been only two who have tried to use this objective way for their own personal gains. One, I wrote about in a disguised way in Beelzebub’s Last Wish (which is available as a podcast, and for viewing on our website thedogteachings.com), who tried to use this objective way to attract women. But fortunately, when his students found out, they quickly left him. The other was a student in Mexico, who tried to use this objective way to make money. That is, he started charging people for taking them through Gurdjieff: Cosmic Secrets and for doing The Objective Exercise with them. In addition, he required them to pay monthly dues in order to attend classes. 

When I found that out, I started THEDOG Mexico under my guidance and the guidance of two Spanish speaking students who lived here at the school in Sanger. When I did, his students quickly left him, which ended the practice of charging others for my teachings.

Other than that, the teachers of my work have pretty much held true to my methods. In fact, listening to them is kind of like listening to me.

So, all in all, I have been very fortunate. The overwhelming majority of those who have come here are keeping my teaching pure. Perhaps that is according to law: people who receive the truth often sense the need to protect it, as such, they are compelled to keep it in its original form, so that others who receive it, will find it as unblemished as they did.

As it says on page v in Gurdjieff: Cosmic Secrets:

“This book is offered, not as a recapitulation of ‘the Gurdjieff Question’, which it has subsequently come to be called, but rather, as an exposition on what we call ‘the Gurdjieff Answers’.

ANSWERS SO POWERFUL THAT THEIR KNOWLEDGE CAN NOT ONLY EFFECTUATE A SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION IN MAN, BUT POSSIBLY, A SPIRITUAL REVOLUTION IN MANKIND.”

Student:  It is interesting for me to speculate how my life would have been had I encountered the Sanger School as a young adult; I would probably be soaring right now. Instead, the school I found only raised me from False Personality to “Salty Householder.” As such, I left it after 15 years. Fortunately, I picked up some useful bits and pieces from other Fourth Way endeavors along the way. Then I found THEDOG, a real school, and Yee-Haw! 

However, as I am not a young buck anymore, I need to learn as much as I can as fast as I can, so that I can help as many people as I can to complete the objective journey; and I am counting on you, Russ, to show me how to do that.

Russell:  No problem. I will indeed show you how to accomplish the Fifth Striving, “The striving always to assist the most rapid perfecting of other beings, both those similar to oneself and those of other forms, up to the degree of the sacred ‘Martfotai’ that is up to the degree of self-individuality.” 

Student:  Thank you , sir.

Ouspensky:  “The very idea of esotericism, the idea of initiation, reaches people in most cases through pseudo-esoteric systems and schools; and if there were not these pseudo-esoteric schools the vast majority of humanity would have no possibility whatever of hearing and learning of the existence of anything greater than life because the truth in its pure form would be inaccessible for them.”

Student:  After reading that, I realized that until I met you last November, I was a Pseudo-School bumblebee. I did everything those schools told me to do. And as such, I lived on crumbs, and most of my friends lived on crumbs.

But no more! 

Russell:  As your intentions have remained constant, that is, since you kept searching for the truth even after 40+ years of not finding it, I will offer you this quote from Views From the Real World.

“Perhaps the only positive result of all wanderings in the winding paths and tracks of occult research will be that, if a man preserves the capacity for sound judgment and thought, he will evolve that special faculty of discrimination which can be called flair. He will discard the ways of psychopathy and error and will persistently search for true ways. And here, as in self-knowledge, the principle which I have already quoted holds good: ‘In order to do, it is necessary to know; but in order to know, it is necessary to find out how to know.’”

“To a man who is searching with all his being, with all his inner self, comes the unfailing conviction that to find out how to know in order to do is possible only by finding a guide with experience and knowledge, who will take on his spiritual guidance and become his teacher.’”

“And it is here that a man’s flair is more important than anywhere else. He chooses a guide for himself. It is of course an indispensable condition that he choose as a guide a man who knows, or else all meaning of choice is lost. Who can tell where a guide who does not know may lead a man?”

Student:  That is certainly what happened to me. I kept finding guides who did not know. 

I feel so fortunate to have found you and was able to awaken. I would imagine that everyone who comes to Sanger awakens.

Russell:  Yes, most people who sojourned here have awoken. However, since you phrased the question, “that everyone who comes to Sanger awakens,” I am compelled to give you the following rundown of those visits.

Less than half a dozen of the people who came here did not awaken. Instead, they came here with the agenda of teaching me “the so-called truths that they had acquired,” and as such, they were not here seeking anything I had to offer. Thus, I did not share The Objective Exercise with them, but rather, I listened attentively to their ideas. 

A dozen other sojourners wanted to learn everything they could about the “law of octaves,” because they were following the ideas of a man who proclaimed that the secret to making money in the stock market was predicated on them having a good understanding of the law of octaves and of oscillations (cycles), which my book reeked of. Therefore, they found their way to Texas.

Most of them did awaken. However, some did not. But all were happy to have learned about the rules and the laws.

The next measure of seekers actually came here to change their inner world. As such, they went through Gurdjieff: Cosmic Secrets, The Objective Exercise, and awoke. Thus, they became objective-beings of the 1st magnitude, and as such, they left here with inner peace, clarity, and the ability to stop thoughts. Then, back in life, having contact with their Steward, they were able to improve their employment, improve their marriage, improve their relationships with their family, and their interactions with the world.

Following those seekers, were the hundreds of seekers who, after awakening and experiencing the inner taste of freedom, demanded more. They wanted to awaken their Higher Mental Center as well, as such, they went on to acquire the Master Exercises and became objective-beings of the 2nd magnitude. Thereafter, they established channels of communications with me, wherein they worked towards dying to themselves, with the aim of acquiring the possibility of becoming ‘born again’ and entering the world of reason and impartiality.

Almost all continued along that objective path, and based on their efforts and dogged determination, they indeed qualified to die, as such, they received the Double or Nothing Exercise Part I, thus becoming objective-beings of the 3rd magnitude.

I must say that everyone who received the Double or Nothing Exercise Part I was easily able to taste completion, and as such, they were ready to go beyond just dying, thus, they received the Double or Nothing Exercise Part II. After which, they started the law-conformable process of being born again and inevitably attained reason and impartiality, which made them objective-beings of the 4th magnitude. That is, beings who could legitimately show others how to acquire the first 3 objective-being magnitudes.

Student:  That is what I want. 

Russell:  I am glad it is. As such, I will throw in another tidbit from Views From the Real World:

“Do not be overcurious nor waste time on things that attract your attention but are not worth it. Time is precious and should not be wasted on things which have no direct relation to your aim”.

That being said, I cannot wait to watch your future unfold.

Student:  Neither can I.

Months later.

Russell:  Good Evening.  How are you tonight?

Student:  I couldn’t be any better.

As you know, several folks are now meeting with me every week. One of whom is a college professor. He just completed The Blueprint of Consciousness, so I took him through The Objective Exercise and he awoke!  Then, I took my daughter through The Blueprint of Consciousness and The Objective Exercise, and she too awoke.

As a parent, there is no greater joy in life than watching your child become conscious. That is, knowing that from that moment forward, they will be in the presence of their Higher.

And, Russ, more will soon follow, as several of my other friends also purchased The Blueprint of Consciousness, which means I will shortly be taking them through The Objective Exercise as well.

I must say, what you have given me is truly remarkable. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

That being said, I jotted down some musings about my personal journey of being a self-conscious-man, an objectively-conscious-man, and ultimately, a completed-man. The three stages are: The Objective Exercise, the Master Exercises, and the Double or Nothing Exercises, respectively.

Here goes. I hope you like it.

  1. The Objective Exercise: I find myself in a darkened room. I am led to a light switch and told to switch it on. I do so. Sun shines in Paradise. I frolic in green pastures. After a while the sun sets. I sleep. I awake in darkness. However, now that I know where the sunlight switch is, I switch it on, as I have learned that a “self-conscious-man” is someone who knows where the sunlight switch is.
  2. Master: I find myself in a darkened room. I am led to a light switch and told to switch it on. I do so. Stars twinkle around me. I study the Universe. I sleep. I awake in darkness. However, now that I know where the sunlight switch is, I switch it on, and since I also know where the starlight switch is, I switch it on as well, but I do not see any stars shining. I learn that an “objectively-conscious-man” is someone who not only knows where the starlight switch is, but also knows that in order to study the universe, one has to turn off the sunlight switch. 
  3. Double or Nothing: I find myself in a darkened room. I sleep lucidly. When necessary, I rise to frolic or study. I can, because I not only know where the light switches are, but also what needs to be done.

Russell: Those are some terrific musings, my friend. Well said! There is no greater pleasure in life than to show men how to awaken, and then witness them show others how to do the same. That is very prodigious indeed.

Student:  Thanks Russ, I know it must be very satisfying for you to watch your legacy changing the lives of so many people, including my own. And for that, I am eternally grateful.

I look forward to talking with you next week, and better still, of being able to study the Universe with you as well.

Russell:  As do I. 

As such, I will make sure that I switch on the appropriate lights.  

Good night, sir.

That concludes today’s podcast.

Thank you for listening.

If you too would like to learn how to switch on the lights, simply visit our website thedogteachings.com and acquire Mr. Smith’s book, The Blueprint of Consciousness, a 520-page hardback, which is also available as a PDF download.

There, you will be able to listen to other talks, obtain diagrams, animations, supporting videos, and much, much more.

But most importantly, you just may become enlightened!

That’s thedogteachings.com. 

In addition, you can also find us on Instagram and Facebook under THEDOG Teachings.

Furthermore, we have two ZOOM classes to assist you; one is for purchasers of Mr. Smith’s book, and the other is for those who have obtained the Master Exercises and the Double or Nothing Exercises.

That’s  T H E   D O G   T E A   C H I   N G S  Dot Com.

Again, thanks for listening.

Goodbye, until next time. 

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