(55.) Maurice Nicoll 1 - The Four Bodies of Man (II) - p.225-31
This is number (55.) of our sequential postings from Volume 1 of Maurice Nicoll’s Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky.
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Birdlip, January 17, 1943
THE FOUR BODIES OF MAN - PAPER II
We have already made a few approaches to the idea of further bodies in Man than the physical body. To-night you will hear what might be called the purely formal teaching about the Four Bodies of Man as it was originally given by G. But you must understand that the form in which it is given is, so to speak, highly compressed. It is, as it were, the first glance at the whole subject, and it was given on two occasions. But it was expressly said that very many other ideas enter into this first presentation and that many modifications are necessary in order to understand this very great subject. You will know that in giving a subject that is difficult to people who know nothing about it, a general outline of the conception of the whole matter may be first presented. For example, if a traveller is going to give a lecture upon an unknown country that he has visited himself he may first of all give a general sketch or outline. This lecture on the Four Bodies, given many years ago by G. and recorded by Mr. Ouspensky, must be taken as a general survey. Many additions were made subsequently and many modifications of the original presentation. These we will deal with later in subsequent papers but I think it best now for you to have a general survey concerning the Four Bodies of Man given to you in a purely formal way so that I can refer to this paper later on, knowing that you have already heard it.
Here I will remind you again that in the Gospels there is very definite evidence of the fact that a man must acquire a new body. It is expressed
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in the terms that a man must be re-born before he can see the Kingdom of Heaven. A man is born once into his physical body but the man who lives in his physical body must acquire a second or psychological body. And when he acquires it he is re-born. You all understand that a man is not merely his physical body. What is really the man himself is the psychological man who lives in the physical body. The formation of further bodies refers to the psychological not to the physical man. They refer to the centres in Man which are psychological. The organization of the centres constitutes the basis of the formation of further bodies that can survive the death of the physical body. If a man is psychologically in chaos then nothing is organized in him apart from his physical body. If a man is nothing but a mass of contradictory 'I's, then he has no real permanent 'I' in him.
But I must warn you that in understanding this subject many difficulties have to be faced. Great knowledge is not easy to understand. But I will remind you here of what was said in the last paper—namely, that if this Work becomes real and living to a man and so well organized in him that he does act from the Work, and remembers himself in daily life, that he acts from the Work and no longer from himself, then there is something organized in him and this is Second Body. But for this to take place a man must never forget what he is doing in the Work. He must, as G. once said, reach a state such that, in whatever direction he is twisted and turned, however badly he is treated, he never forgets the Work, and never acts save through the medium of the Work.
You all know that this Work is to create something new in you, to give you new ways of taking things, new ways of thinking about life. This is the whole object of the Work. The whole object of the Work is to create something new in you—a new man in place of the old man. If you see what is meant then you will understand better what the creation of a Second Body means.
In the paper that follows you must understand that Mr. Ouspensky is speaking:
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At a meeting of the group one of those present asked G.: "Can it be said that Man possesses immortality?"
"Immortality is one of the qualities we ascribe to people without having a sufficient understanding of their meaning," said G. "Other qualities of this kind are 'individuality', in the sense of an inner unity, a 'permanent and unchangeable 'I' ',1 'consciousness' and 'will'. All these qualities can belong to Man (he emphasized the word 'can') but this certainly does not mean that they do belong to him or belong to each and everyone.
In order to understand what Man is at the present time—that is, at the present level of development—it is necessary to imagine to a certain extent what he can be—that is, what he can attain. Only by understanding the correct sequence of development possible will people cease to ascribe to themselves what, at present, they do not possess, and what, perhaps, they can only acquire after great effort and great labour.
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According to an ancient teaching, traces of which may be found in many systems, old and new, a man who has attained the full development possible for Man, a man in the full sense of the word, consists of four bodies. These four bodies are composed of substances which are finer and finer, mutually interpenetrate one another and form four independent organisms, standing in a definite relationship to one another but capable of independent action.
The reason why it is possible for four bodies to exist is that the human organism, that is, the physical body, has such a complex organization that, under certain conditions, a new independent organism can grow in it, affording a much more convenient and responsive instrument for the activity of consciousness than the physical body. The consciousness manifested in this new body is capable of governing and having full power and control over the physical body. In this second body, under certain conditions, a third body can grow, again having characteristics of its own. The consciousness manifested in this third body has full power and control over the first two bodies; and the third body possesses the possibility of acquiring knowledge inaccessible either to the first or to the second body. In the third body, under certain conditions, a fourth can grow, which differs as much from the third as the third differs from the second and the second from the first. The consciousness manifested in the fourth body has full control over the first three bodies and itself.
These four bodies are defined in different teachings in various ways."
G. drew a diagram reproduced in Figure I and said:
"The first is the physical body, in Christian terminology the 'carnal' body; the second, in Christian terminology, is the 'natural' body; the third is the 'spiritual' body; and the fourth, in the terminology of esoteric Christianity, is the 'divine' body.
In the terminology of certain Eastern teachings the first body is the carriage (body), the second body is the horse (feelings, desires), the third, the driver (mind) and the fourth, the master ('I', consciousness, will).
Such comparisons and parallels may be found in most systems and teachings which recognize something more in Man than the physical body. But almost all these teachings, while repeating in a more or less familiar form the definitions and divisions of the ancient teaching, have
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forgotten or omitted its most important feature which is that Man is not born with the finer bodies, and that they can only be artificially cultivated in him provided favourable conditions, both internal and external, are present.
The 'second body' is not an indispensable implement for Man. A man can live quite well without a second body. His physical body possesses all the functions necessary for life.
This applies still more, of course, to the 'third body' and the 'fourth body'. Ordinary man does not possess those bodies or their corresponding functions. The reasons for this are, first, the fact that the physical body works with the same substances of which the higher bodies are composed, only these substances are not crystallized in him, and so do not belong to him; and secondly, it has all the functions analogous to those of the higher bodies, though of course they differ from them considerably. The chief difference between a man possessing the physical body and the other functions undeveloped, and a man possessing the developed functions of all four bodies, is that, in the first case, the physical body governs all the other functions—in other words, everything is governed by the body which, in its turn, is governed by the external influences of life: such a man is governed by life. In the second case, the command or control emanates from the higher bodies and so a man is no longer governed by outer life.
The functions of the physical body may be represented as parallel to the developed and crystallized functions of the four bodies in the following manner."
G. drew another diagram (Fig. II) representing the parallel functions of a man of physical body and undeveloped functions, and a man of four bodies in whom all the functions are developed.
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"In the first case," said G., "that is, in relation to the undeveloped functions of a man of physical body only, the automaton or man-machine depends upon external influences, and the next three functions depend upon the physical body and the external influences it receives. Changing desires and aversions—'I want', 'I don't want', 'I like', 'I don't like'—that is, functions occupying the place of the second body, depend upon accidental shocks and influences. Thinking, which corresponds to the functions of the third body, is an entirely mechanical process. 'Will' is absent in ordinary mechanical man—he has desires only; and a greater or lesser permanence of desires and wishes is called a strong or a weak will."
In the second case—that is, in relation to the developed functions of the four bodies—the working of the physical body depends upon the influences of the other or higher bodies. Instead of the discordant and often contradictory activity of different desires, there is one single 'I', whole, indivisible and permanent; there is individuality, dominating the physical body and its desires, and able to overcome both its reluctance and its resistance. Instead of the mechanical process of thinking there is consciousness. And there is will—that is, a power, not merely composed of various, often contradictory, desires belonging to different 'I's, but issuing from consciousness and governed by individuality or a single and permanent 'I'. Only such a will can be called 'free', for it is independent of accident and cannot be altered or directed from without.
An Eastern teaching describes the functions of the four bodies, their gradual growth and the conditions of this growth, in the following way:
Let us imagine a vessel or a retort filled with various metallic powders. The powders are not in any way connected with each other and every accidental change in the position of the retort or vessel, every accidental knock it receives, changes the relative position of the loose powders. If the retort be shaken or tapped with the finger, then the powder which was at the top may appear at the bottom or in the middle, while the one which was at the bottom may appear at the top. There is nothing permanent in the position of the powders and under such conditions there can be nothing permanent. This is an exact picture of our psychic life, which changes at every moment. Each succeeding moment new influences may change the position of the powder which is on the top and put in its place another which is absolutely its opposite. Science calls this state of the powders the state of mechanical mixture. The essential characteristic of the inter-relation of the powders to one another in this kind of mixture is the instability of these inter-relations and their variability.
It is impossible to stabilize the inter-relation of powders in a state of merely mechanical mixture. But the powders may be fused; the nature of the powders makes this possible. To do this a special kind of fire must be lighted under the retort which, by heating and melting the powders, finally fuses them together. Fused in this way the powders will be no longer a mechanical mixture but in a state of chemical union.
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And now they can no longer be separated by those simple methods which separated them and made them change places when they were in a state of mechanical mixture. The contents of the retort have become indivisible, 'individual', by fusion. This is a picture of the formation of the second body. The fire by means of which fusion is attained is produced by friction, which, in its turn, is produced in a man by the struggle between 'yes' and 'no' within him. If a man gives way to himself at all times, if he gives way to all his desires and moods, to his changing thoughts, there will be no inner struggle in him, no friction, and so no fire. But if, for the sake of attaining a definite aim, he struggles with himself, if he struggles with the thoughts and desires that hinder him, he will then create a fire which will gradually transform his inner world into a single whole.
Let us return to our example. The chemical compound obtained by fusion of the powders in the retort possesses certain qualities, comparable to a certain specific gravity, a certain electrical conductivity and so on. These qualities constitute the characteristics of the substance in question. But by means of work upon it of a certain kind the number of these characteristics may be increased, that is, the fused alloy may be given new properties which did not primarily belong to it. It may be possible to create inner changes in it, to magnetize it, to make it radioactive, and so on.
The process of imparting new properties to the fused alloy corresponds to the process of the formation of the third body and of the acquisition of new knowledge and powers with the help of the third body.
When the third body has been formed and has acquired all the properties, powers and knowledge possible for it, there remains the problem of fixing and directing this knowledge and these powers, because, having been imparted to it by influences of a certain kind, they may be taken away by these same influences or by others. By means of a special kind of work the acquired properties may be made the permanent and inalienable possession of the third body. The process of fixing these acquired properties corresponds to the process of the formation of the fourth body, through which the 'Master' works.
Only the man who possesses four fully-developed bodies can be called a 'man' in the full sense of the word. This man possesses very many properties which ordinary man does not possess and one of these properties is immortality. All religions and all ancient teachings contain the idea that, by acquiring the fourth or divine body Man acquires immortality; and they all contain indications of the ways to acquire the fourth body—that is, immortality.
In this connection, certain teachings compare Man with a house of four rooms. Man lives in one room, the smallest and the poorest of all, and, until he is told of it, he does not suspect the existence of the other rooms which are full of treasures. When he does learn of this he begins to seek the keys of these rooms and especially of the fourth, the most important room of all. And when a man has found his way into this
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room he really becomes the master of his house, for only then does the house belong to him, wholly and for ever.
The fourth room gives Man true immortality and all religious teachings strive to shew the way to it. There are a great many ways, some shorter, some longer, some harder and some easier, but all, without exception, lead or strive to lead, in one direction, that is, to immortality."
Original typo left uncorrected.
Interesting you should post this today. I have just been working on a new set of essays on exactly this (among other) subjects. It will be publishing in a few weeks; and will cast some new light on this matter.