Fourth Way (book)

:"For the system based on the teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff see Fourth Way."

After Ouspensky's death, his students published a book titled "The Fourth Way", based on his lectures. Since Ouspensky appears as the author of that book, people often think he wrote it, but he did not. The term "The Fourth Way" has also come to be used as a general descriptive term for the body of ideas and teachings of Gurdjieff, which are also sometimes called "The Work" or "The Gurdjieff Work".

Gurdjieff recorded his ideas for posterity in the form of the 'All and Everything' book series (much of which is deliberately written so as to deter the casual reader) but also charged Ouspensky with the task of bringing the work to a wider audience as a systematic whole and in an unadulterated form. 'The Fourth Way' is considered to be the most comprehensive statement of Gurdjieff's ideas as taught by Ouspensky. The book consists of adaptations of Ouspensky's lectures, and the accompanying question and answer sessions.

The 'Fourth Way' to which the title refers is a method of inner development - "the way of the sly man," as Gurdjieff described it. This way is to be followed under the ordinary conditions of everyday life, as opposed from the three traditional ways that call for retirement from the world: those of the fakir, the monk, and the yogi, which Gurdjieff maintained could only result in partial, unbalanced development of man's potential.