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Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky) · 11 of 225 · tr. Nicholas Bessaraboff and Claude Bragdon

Page 4 (part 4)

These people of the fourth dimension are in the world but not of it: their range is far wider than this slum of space. In them dormant faculties are alert. Like birds of the air, their fitting symbol, they are at home in realms which others cannot enter, even though already "there." Nor are these heavenly eagles confined to the narrow prison of the breast. Their bodies are as tools which they may take up or lay aside at will. This phenomenal world, which seems so real, is to them as insubstantial as the image of a landscape in a lake. Such is the Ouspenskian superman. The entire book is founded upon a new generalization—new, that is, in philosophy, but already familiar to mathematicians and theoretical physicists. This generalization involves startling and revolutionary ideas in regard to space, time and motion far removed from those of Euclidian geometry and classical physics. Ouspensky handles these new ideas in an absolutely original way, making them the basis of an entire philosophy of life. To the timid and purblind this philosophy will be nothing short of terrifying, but to the clear-eyed and steadfast watcher, shipwrecked on this shoal of time, these vistas, overflowing with beauty, strangeness, doubt, terror and divinity, will be more welcome than anything in life. Fear not the new generalization . ______ Ouspensky's clearness of thought is mirrored in a corresponding clarity of expression. He sometimes repeats the difficult and important passages in an altered form of words, he uses short sentences and short paragraphs, and italicizes significant phrases and significant words. He defines where definition is needed, and suggests collateral trains of thought with a skill which makes the reader who is intuitive a creator on his own account. Schopenhauer has said that it is always a sign of genius to treat difficult matters simply, as it is a sign of dullness to make simple matters appear recondite. Ouspensky exhibits this order of genius, and that other, p. 7 mentioned by Schopenhauer, which consists in choosing always the apt illustration, the illuminating simile. The translators have tried to be rigidly true to the Russian original, and they have been at great pains to verify every English quotation so far as has been possible. It is therefore a source of great gratification to them that their efforts should have received the unqualified endorsement of the author himself. CLAUDE BRAGDON Rochester, N. Y. January 31, 1922
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Themes
Body As Obstacleanthropology

The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return.

[auto] The passage explicitly describes bodies as 'tools which they may take up or lay aside at will' and a 'narrow prison of the breast,' central to the description of the fourth-dimensional superman.

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Cosmic Dualismtheology

Ontological opposition between two primal principles (light/darkness, truth/lie, spirit/matter) as the fundamental structure of reality.

The text posits an ontological opposition between the 'phenomenal world' (insubstantial) and the higher reality of the fourth dimension.

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Gnosis Direct Knowledgesoteriology

Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.

Salvation or understanding is attributed to the 'clear-eyed and steadfast watcher' and the 'intuitive' reader who becomes a creator on their own account.

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Infinite Cosmoscosmology

The doctrine of the universe as boundless and without center or circumference, populated by innumerable worlds — Bruno's rejection of the closed Aristotelian sphere; the divine and the cosmos as ontologically infinite.

The passage references a 'range is far wider than this slum of space' and new ideas regarding space and motion beyond Euclidean limits.

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Kingdom Withinanthropology

The claim that the divine realm is present inside the individual, accessible without external mediation.

It states that higher realms are accessible 'even though already "there,"' suggesting the divine or higher reality is immanently present.

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Mechanical Humanityanthropology

Gurdjieff and Ouspensky's claim that ordinary human beings live in a state of waking sleep, reacting mechanically without unified will or consciousness, and that the spiritual path begins with recognising this condition.

As an introduction to Ouspensky's work, the passage contrasts the awakened superman with those 'shipwrecked on this shoal of time,' implying the ordinary state of waking sleep.

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Paradox As Teachingethics

Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight.

The phrase 'in the world but not of it' utilizes paradox to describe the state of the fourth-dimensional people.

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Pneumatic Electsoteriology

A spiritual elite who possess the divine spark and are predestined for salvation, contrasted with psychic (faithful) and hylic (material) persons.

The text distinguishes a spiritual elite ('people of the fourth dimension,' 'Ouspenskian superman') from the 'timid and purblind' ordinary masses.

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Spiritual Ascentpraxis

A staged journey of the soul upward through heavenly realms or levels of being toward the divine source.

The text describes entering 'realms which others cannot enter,' implying a movement upward or outward from ordinary existence.

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Sunyata Emptinesssoteriology

The Buddhist doctrine that all phenomena lack independent self-nature; emptiness as the positive recognition that things arise only in dependence on conditions — distinct from kenoma's mere deficiency.

The phenomenal world is described as 'insubstantial as the image of a landscape in a lake,' paralleling the concept of emptiness or illusion.

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