“In actual fact CHRISTianity number one, number two, and number three is simply external imitation. Only man number four strives to be a CHRISTian and only man number five can actually be a CHRISTian. For to be a CHRISTian means to have the being of a CHRISTian, that is, to live in accordance with CHRIST’s precepts. Fragments: Four

“Man number one, number two, and number three cannot live in accordance with CHRIST’s precepts because with them everything ‘happens.’ Today it is one thing and tomorrow it is quite another thing. Today they are ready to give away their last shirt and tomorrow to tear a man to pieces because he refuses to give up his shirt to them. They are swayed by every chance event. They are not masters of themselves and therefore they cannot decide to be CHRISTians and really be CHRISTians. Fragments: Four

“For instance, in all the denominations of CHRISTianity a great part is played by the tradition of the Last Supper of CHRIST and his disciples. Liturgies and a whole series of dogmas, rites, and sacraments are based upon it. This has been a ground for schism, for the separation of churches, for the formation of sects; how many people have perished because they would not accept this or that interpretation of it. But, as a matter of fact, nobody understands what this was precisely, or what was done by CHRIST and his disciples that evening. There exists no explanation that even approximately resembles the truth, because what is written in the Gospels has been, in the first place, much distorted in being copied and translated; and secondly, it was written for those who know. To those who do not know it can explain nothing, but the more they try to understand it, the deeper they are led into error. Fragments: Five

“CHRIST knew that he must die. It had been decided thus beforehand. He knew it and his disciples knew it. And each one knew what part he had to play. But at the same time they wanted to establish a permanent link with CHRIST. And for this purpose he gave them his blood to drink and his flesh to eat. It was not bread and wine at all, but real flesh and real blood. Fragments: Five

This lecture and particularly its ending provoked a great deal of talk in our groups. Many were repelled by what G. said about CHRIST and the Last Supper; others, on the contrary, felt in this a truth which they never could have reached by themselves. Fragments: Five

“I should like to understand the teaching of CHRIST, and to be a CHRISTian in the true sense of the term,” said the next. Fragments: Six

“First of all it is necessary to understand that a CHRISTian is not a man who calls himself a CHRISTian or whom others call a CHRISTian. A CHRISTian is one who lives in accordance with CHRIST’s precepts. Such as we are we cannot be CHRISTians. In order to be CHRISTians we must be able ‘to do.’ We cannot do; with us everything ‘happens.’ CHRIST says: ‘Love your enemies,’ but how can we love our enemies when we cannot even love our friends? Sometimes ‘it loves’ and sometimes ‘it does not love.’ Such as we are we cannot even really desire to be CHRISTians because, again, sometimes ‘it desires’ and sometimes ‘it does not desire.’ And one and the same thing cannot be desired for long, because suddenly, instead of desiring to be a CHRISTian, a man remembers a very good but very expensive carpet that he has seen in a shop. And instead of wishing to be a CHRISTian he begins to think how he can manage to buy this carpet, forgetting all about CHRISTianity. Or if somebody else does not believe what a wonderful CHRISTian he is, he will be ready to eat him alive or to roast him on hot coals. In order to be a good CHRISTian one must be. To be means to be master of oneself. If a man is not his own master he has nothing and can have nothing. And he cannot be a CHRISTian. He is simply a machine, an automaton. A machine cannot be a CHRISTian. Think for yourselves, is it possible for a motorcar or a typewriter or a gramophone to be CHRISTian? They are simply things which are controlled by chance. They are not responsible. They are machines. To be a CHRISTian means to be re­sponsible. Responsibility comes later when a man even partially ceases to be a machine, and begins in fact, and not only in words, to desire to be a CHRISTian.” Fragments: Six

“There is nothing new in the idea of sleep. People have been told almost since the creation of the world that they are asleep and that they must awaken. How many times is this said in the Gospels, for instance? ‘Awake,’ ‘watch,’ ‘sleep not.’ CHRIST’s disciples even slept when he was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane for the last time. It is all there. But do men understand it? Men take it simply as a form of speech, as an expression, as a metaphor. They completely fail to understand that it must be taken literally. And again it is easy to understand why. In order to understand this literally it is necessary to awaken a little, or at least to try to awaken. I tell you seriously that I have been asked several times why nothing is said about sleep in the Gospels. Although it is there spoken of almost on every page. This simply shows that people read the Gospels in sleep. So long as a man sleeps profoundly and is wholly immersed in dreams he cannot even think about the fact that he is asleep. If he were to think that he was asleep, he would wake up. So everything goes on. And men have not the slightest idea what they are losing because of this sleep. As I have already said, as he is organized, that is, being such as nature has created him, man can be a self­conscious being. Such he is created and such he is born. But he is born among sleeping people, and, of course, he falls asleep among them just at the very time when he should have begun to be conscious of himself. Everything has a hand in this: the involuntary imitation of older people on the part of the child, voluntary and involuntary suggestion, and what is called ‘education.’ Every attempt to awaken on the child’s part is instantly stopped. This is inevitable. And a great many efforts and a great deal of help are necessary in order to awaken later when thousands of sleep­compelling habits have been accumulated. And this very seldom happens. In most cases, a man when still a child already loses the possibility of awakening; he lives in sleep all his life and he dies in sleep. Furthermore, many people die long before their physical death. But of such cases we will speak later on. Fragments: Eight

“Of course not,” said G. “People are very fond of talking about morality. But morality is merely self-suggestion. What is necessary is conscience. We do not teach morality. We teach how to find conscience. People are not pleased when we say this. They say that we have no love. Simply because we do not encourage weakness and hypocrisy but, on the contrary, take off all masks. He who desires the truth will not speak of love or of CHRISTianity because he knows how far he is from these. CHRISTian teaching is for CHRISTians. And CHRISTians are those who live, that is, who do everything, according to CHRIST’s precepts. Can they who talk of love and morality live according to CHRIST’s precepts? Of course they cannot; but there will always be talk of this kind, there will always be people to whom words are more precious than anything else. But this is a true sign! He who speaks like this is an empty man; it is not worth while wasting time on him. Fragments: Eight

“Does this mean that we must pay to enter the Kingdom of Heaven?” they said. “People do not pay nor is money asked for such things. CHRIST said to his disciples: ‘Take neither purse nor scrip,’ and you want a thousand roubles. A very good business could be made of it. Suppose that you had a hundred members. This would already make a hundred thousand, and if there were two hundred, three hundred? Three hundred thousand a year is very good money.” Fragments: Eight

“How can it be recognized?” said G. “It is. impossible to recognize a wrong way without knowing the right way. This means that it is no use troubling oneself how to recognize a wrong way. One must think of how to find the right way. This is what we are speaking about all the time. It cannot be said in two words. But from what I have said you can draw many useful conclusions if you remember everything that has been said and everything which follows from it. For example, you can see that the teacher always corresponds to the level of the pupil. The higher the pupil, the higher can be the teacher. But a pupil of a level which is not particularly high cannot count on a teacher of a very high level. Actually a pupil can never see the level of the teacher. This is a law. No one can see higher than his own level. But usually people not only do not know this, but, on the contrary, the lower they are themselves, the higher the teacher they demand. The right understanding of this point is already a very consid­erable understanding. But it occurs very seldom. Usually the man himself is not worth a brass farthing but he must have as teacher no other than Jesus CHRIST. To less he will not agree. And it never enters his head that even if he were to meet such a teacher as Jesus CHRIST, taking him as he is described in the Gospels, he would never be able to follow him because it would be necessary to be on the level of an apostle in order to be a pupil of Jesus CHRIST. Here is a definite law. The higher the teacher, the more difficult for the pupil. And if the difference in the levels of the teacher and pupil go beyond a certain limit, then the difficulties in the path of the pupil become insuperable. It is exactly in connection with this law that there occurs one of the fundamental rules of the fourth way. On the fourth way there is not one teacher. Whoever is the elder, he is the teacher. And as the teacher is indispensable to the pupil, so also is the pupil indispensable to the teacher. The pupil cannot go on without the teacher, and the teacher cannot go on without the pupil or pupils. And this is not a general consideration but an indispensable and quite concrete rule on which is based the law of a man’s ascending. As has been said before, no one can ascend onto a higher step until he places another man in his own place. What a man has received he must immediately give back; only then can he receive more. Otherwise from him will be taken even what he has already been given.” Fragments: Ten

“Because,” G. answered, “laughter relieves us of superfluous energy, which, if it remained unused, might become negative, that is, poison. We always have plenty of this poison in us. Laughter is the antidote. But this antidote is necessary only so long as we are unable to use all the energy for useful work. It is said of CHRIST that he never laughed. And indeed you will find in the Gospels no indication or mention of the fact that at any time CHRIST laughed. But there are different ways of not laughing. There are people who do not laugh because they are completely immersed in negative emotions, in malice, in fear, in hatred, in suspicion. And there may be others who do not laugh because they cannot have negative emotions. Understand one thing. In the higher centers there can be no laughter, because in higher centers there is no division, and no ‘yes’ and ‘no.’” Fragments: Eleven

“CHRISTianity forbids murder. Yet all that the whole of our progress comes to is progress in the technique of murder and progress in warfare. How can we call ourselves CHRISTians? “No one has a right to call himself a CHRISTian who docs not carry out CHRIST’s precepts. A man can say that he desires to be a CHRISTian if he tries to carry out these precepts. If he does not think of them at all, or laughs at them, or substitutes for them some inventions of his own, or simply forgets about them, he has no right whatever to call himself a CHRISTian. Fragments: Fifteen

“It will seem strange to many people when I say that this prehistoric Egypt was CHRISTian many thousands of years before the birth of CHRIST, that is to say, that its religion was composed of the same principles and ideas that constitute true CHRISTianity. Special schools existed in this prehistoric Egypt which were called ‘schools of repetition.’ In these schools a public repetition was given on definite days, and in some schools perhaps even every day, of the entire course in a condensed form of the sciences that could be learned at these schools. Sometimes this repetition lasted a week or a month. Thanks to these repetitions people who had passed through this course did not lose their connection with the school and retained in their memory all they had learned. Sometimes they came from very far away simply in order to listen to the repetition and went away feeling their connection with the school. There were special days of the year when the repetitions were particularly complete, when they were carried out with particular solemnity — and these days themselves possessed a symbolical meaning. Fragments: Fifteen

“This secret part exists in CHRISTianity also as well as in other religions and it teaches how to carry out the precepts of CHRIST and what they really mean.” Fragments: Fifteen

“But, as I have already said, to determine the level of being by the ‘table of hydrogens’ it is usual to take the middle story. “With this as a point of departure it is possible for example to solve such problems: “Let us suppose Jesus CHRIST to be man number eight, how many times is Jesus CHRIST more intelligent than a table? “A table has no stories. It lies wholly between ‘hydrogen’ 1536 and ‘hydrogen’ 3072 according to the third scale of the ‘table of hydrogens.’ Man number eight is ‘hydrogen’ 6. This is the center of gravity of the middle story of man number eight. If we are able to calculate how many times ‘hydrogen’ 6 is more intelligent than ‘hydrogen’ 1536 we shall know how many times man number eight is more intelligent than a table. But, in this connection, it must be remembered that ‘intelligence’ is determined not by the density of matter but by the density of vibrations. The density of vibrations, however, increases not by doubling as in the octaves of ‘hydrogens’ but in an entirely different progression which many times outnumbers the first. If you know the exact coefficient of this increase you will be in a position to solve this problem. I only want to show that, however strange it looks, the problem can be solved. Fragments: Sixteen