Customer Reviews

Eating the I: A Direct Account of the Fourth Way- The Way of Using Ordinary Life to Come to Real Life (In Search of the Self), Revised & Expanded Edition

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This is an esoteric book that most people won't recognize as such. That's because of the picture most people have of what constitutes an esoterically spiritual person. The pursuit of an ultimate reality beyond the cacophony of mundane life is connected with images of serene meditating monks, of wandering recluses, of wide-eyed dreamers and spooky mystics. To read instead a book full of parties and socializing, office politics, career moves, flirtation and adultery, and ego posturing seems odd. "Real" esoteric and spiritual people are expected to get away from petty socializing, to take vows of poverty and chastity, and to put their all into the pursuit of some strenuous austerity or achievement, as do monks, yogis and fakirs. But this book is about the Fourth Way, in which mundane life is grist for the mill of self-development.

It covers a period in the adult life of William Patrick Patterson. He's a writer and editor in the cutthroat milieu of New York City. He's also married, and tempted by bold, modern women. He rises like a meteor and is shot down by an office competitor. He knows wealth and poverty, arrogance and fear. He finds and honors a rare spiritual teacher. More than one in fact. There's cussing, drinking, verbal clashes, and relationships gone bad.

It's not the bald subject matter, but the insights and principles that illuminate it that distinguish this book from an ordinary memoir. Here is one of many examples: Patterson faces an ugly truth underlying his employment situation concerning the way a boss is using and mistreating him. He withdraws his cooperation from the boss at a critical moment, knowing full well the it will at least create extreme unpleasantness at the office if not result in his ultimate dismissal. He has upset an equilibrium that needed to be upset, yet what will the consequences be? Can he get control and set the situation right or not? There is no way of knowing this at the moment his decision must be made. He is on a fatal trajectory that continues when the co-worker confronts him and demands an explanation for Patterson's absence from an award dinner. Should he appease his adversary by making a phony excuse? "These two "I"'s inside me debate. The one, very rational, mature-sounding. The arguments are so reasonable, sensible. So what if I lie - so what? But then, just at the last instant, a feeling comes of total disgust - disgust for what stood before me, disgust with that whole way of life. And inside that feeling a silent voice declares: I-am-not-going-to-lie-to-him.

I tell him: "No excuse."

"What!" he screams and sags, a look of horror, bewilderment, frozen to his face .......

And something falls away and I know right then: I have broken free of him."

Later he tells his wife that he'll apologize if she really wants him too but is not optimistic about doing it, because: "I feel like there's you know, a big movement going on. Big wheels are turning. I'm at the interval in the octave. all this has to happen. I'm being moved on now."

How right he was. At the end of the book he had moved on and found some peace. With his wife, with his departed teacher the formidable Lord Pentland, and with a new career. No this is not a book claiming that the Fourth Way will make one rich, sexy, happy, or lucky. But it is about what the study and practice of the Fourth Way looks like from the inside of a modern man in modern society, which is where it was meant to be practiced all along.

A brilliant and `can't put down' book that shows an individual's efforts to come to something for themselves and how this can add up within the context of the Fourth Way. What does it take to be `in the Work'? We see the author against a background of family relationships, social situations, job relations and, embroidered in high relief, the archetypes that are present in everyone's life; particularly noteworthy is the `father-son' relation. He illuminates with clarity how the teaching Gurdjieff brought uses `life' to come to `higher life.'

In a wider context, William Patterson brings the Fourth Way teaching into modern times, and in particular, these modern times. We get a look and feeling of what it would be like to be on this fourth path of transformation. One also gets the sense that the Work does `stand above life.'

Given is the perspective of how a person wrestles with the questions necessary for oneself that can produce real individuality. Irresistible book for an initial introduction to the Fourth Way and invaluable for people already there.

This is a very honest book. In Eating the "I", Patterson speaks sincerely of his efforts to find understanding of himself and life. For him, as it is for all of us, there is no clear right or wrong direction to take, no simple road signs to follow to finding oneself, and Patterson takes the reader along through every step and misstep he makes on his own personal path. It is interesting and entertaining, as well as being an accessible introduction to the teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff and the Fourth Way.

I first read Eating the `I' over 10 years ago as I was very interested in learning more about Lord John Pentland, the man G.I. Gurdjieff had directed to spread the Fourth Way in America. Even with the publication of Exchanges Within, Eating The `I' remains a vibrant record of the remarkable Lord Pentland.

But I didn't quite know quite what to make of the author at the time. It was only in a subsequent reading, some years later, that I realized what had thrown me off-balance. Autobiographies generally carry a thread of commentary, explaining or justifying, whenever behavior might be considered unflattering (although I suspect more often the facts are simply `adjusted' to deliver a more agreeable accounting). Instead I was confronted with simple reporting, including thoughts and moods of the moment, with no "commentary". Could I have done this, simply reporting on my life to a wide audience? Even in a private journal entry, I either come out the "good guy" or the breast-beater crying "mea culpa". Now, I began to read with more care. Not only was Lord Pentland's dynamic teaching presented, but also this student's deep acceptance of, as well as rebellion against, this teaching.

As Mr. Patterson struggles with the ideas of the Fourth Way, as well as with "Patterson", he shares many of his hard-won insights. But it is the struggle itself that is the center of gravity of this book. As one truly opens to the way one's life is "lived", there is an inevitable collision with what one imagines about one's self.

If struggle is the center of gravity in this book, courage may well be the corresponding theme. Lord Pentland is portrayed as the courageous warrior bringing the Fourth Way to America; though Mr. Patterson does not speak of his own courage, it is only through courage that he can put this very personal account of his efforts, and failings, on public display.

Eating the "I" is the story of a man's search for reality. Told first hand by William Patrick Patterson, the author is confronted by contradictions in his life which he cannot seem to escape. His search takes him to a school of the "Fourth Way," the legacy of a man by the name of G. I. Gurdjieff. This teaching was continued in America by Lord John Pentland, the author's teacher.

What is striking about the book is Patterson's sincerity. His genuine telling of the story takes the reader to places of the psyche rarely talked about and shows us the kinds of issues confronted by a spiritual seeker in today's world.

Patterson's story shows us that a man's life is subject to random forces taking place inside and outside of him and that "nobody" is in control.

An indispensable part of any true seeker's library.

The very first time I saw Eating The "I" on the shelf of downtown bookstore, I instantly had a strong gut feeling about it, which was a mixture of fear and of a strange recognition. And it was true, once I read this book, my life has never been the same. Right from the beginning one finds the book was written in a very rare way, almost unique for our times. Patterson made a pact with himself not to invent, not to lie about anything that happened to him. So, from the first pages one gets an uncovered, unpolished, naked truth about inner and outer life of a man who has been blessed enough to come in contact, enter, and endure the action of ancient spiritual teaching of transformation in ordinary life, brought to the West by G.I. Gurdjieff.
Through the main practices of the teaching - self-remembering and self-observation and with the guidance of an authentic teacher, Lord John Pentland, Patterson takes off on the biggest adventure of one's life-coming out from the dead through the labyrinth of one's own psyche to a new, real life.
In Patterson's life we see the action of the Work in everyday life. With his attention galvanized, energy refined and vibration increased through the application of the teaching, he attracts new people, relationships, and situations, which bring up his deepest conditioning, and test through the fire of impartial observation his new understanding. As he continues his quest for self-knowledge we see it all: mistakes, blame, confusion, judgments, beliefs, rises and falls.
Through Patterson's quest and his exposed truth about himself, every serious spiritual seeker, no matter where life may find them, may recognize a real possibility of spiritual self-transformation in their own life. But, as one learns through this book, one must be willing to learn to be sincere, to follow the line of action brought by this sincerity, and to eat their own I.

As someone who has been interested in the Gurdjieff work for over forty years I read Patterson's "Eating the I" with a great deal of admiration for the author's honesty, integrity and knowledge. Many of the accounts written by those who were fortunate enough to work with Mr. Gurdjieff are full of interesting insights and experiences. But for one who is living in the contemporary world, Patterson's work is especially relevant and meaningful. The current biographical trend toward self-disclosure is counterbalanced by the depth and purpose of the "story." The way in which Patterson relates his life with the ideas of the Work made the Work come alive for me, partly because I could see myself in the author especially in the beginning stages of his encounter. His willingness to be totally honest, to let all of his "I's" be visible was inspiring to me. I continue to read and reread this book when I feel a need for hope and then realize what this book shows me is that with much effort much is possible. Another positive aspect of the book is its lack of rigidity and righteousness. This author admits to having doubts, to seeing other teachers as he struggles to understand the commitment asked of him. For anyone living in the time of the spirtual supermarket, this book exemplifies what one peron goes through to come to understanding. It is only when one learns that Patterson has written four other books dealing with the Gurdjieff work that he or she realizes that eventually the author came to continue on a path leading to deeper and deeper levels of understanding and commitment.

I found the title of this book to be quite mysterious at first. What could this possibly mean?
Mr. Patterson is a true storyteller, and in this book, a "spiritual autobiography", he reveals his awakening and development in Gurdjieff's Fourth Way Teaching - The Work, as it's called, a teaching of self transformation for modern day man, a work in ordinary life - not in the temple or the ashram, but in every day living.

I was very impressed with the honesty and depth that he reveals here. I've read a fair number of these kinds of books by others (or their ghost writers) and have always found them to "sugar coat" the lives of their subjects to make them look good. Patterson peels away the layers of the onion - the good, the bad AND the ugly. Not many will admit to their very human desires and the subconscious urges that govern and rule our lives so deeply.

I found that he writes on several different levels. The book can be read as an interesting account of one person's story caught up in the whirlwind of life, searching for something higher and more meaningful. On another level, he portrays a more universal quest, that of the perennial seeker, the human being searching for understanding and the meaning of life. The thing that really distinguishes Patterson from many others is that he makes this quest accessible to anyone who is interested. We understand him, feel his struggle and travel with him on his path. We can do this because his brutal self-honesty doesn't paint him as a saint, rather as an honest man trying to understand and find his place in this vast universe in these very crazy times.

I have read this book twice now and I shall do so again - I keep finding new connections and levels of understanding. I highly recommend this book and look forward to reading his other books...serious writing for those who seek understanding in the modern world.

Eating the "I", by William Patrick Patterson.

This is a "core" book for anyone interested in the ideas of G. I. Gurdjieff and his work in the realm of personal growth and transformation.

A spiritual autobiography, it is unusual in the literature of the "work" for its personal approach and it offers a genuine picture of Mr. Patterson's struggles with his own personality, or "I"s, and his relationship with his teacher, as he gradually pieces together the real meaning of this spiritual path. The author was a student of Lord John Pentland, whom Gurdjieff chose to lead the teaching in the United States after his death in 1949.

For the student pursuing these ideas, it is also a useful portrayal of John Pentland, a quiet but forceful teacher who led groups in the U.S. for over three decades after the death of Gurdjieff. Mr. Patterson is a wonderful guide to the uninitiated and this frank account of his own growth is a consolation and support. Gurdjieff's view of the real "terror of the situation" is severe and his teaching is an unforgiving mirror to the student, for whom, according to Gurdjieff, the world appears upside down. One sees one's own bafflement and frustration reflected in the author's encounters with his teacher and we begin to understand the necessity of seeing and discounting our own egocentric worlds as we approach Gurdjieff's ideas.

Somber as it sounds, it is easy to read and the author's style is that of a good storyteller. We see his life develop, change directions, and begin to flower as the story flows from one episode to another. At first reading this book appears simple, but each time it is opened, more layers are revealed and more connections made between disparate ideas. I highly recommend this both to someone with a casual interest in G. I. Gurdjieff and to the more serious seeker.

I learned so much from Eating the 'I' about conscience, and how it differs from morality. We live in the thick of ordinary life, and Patterson shows how to navigate it with the Gurdjieff way of spiritual transformation. As I finished reading this book, it became really clear to me that I could never hope to awaken until I found a teacher, and so I did. This book worked on me in a swift and yet subtle way. It has since become a torch to light the way when the dark hours come. And a way to deepen those times that the veil is pierced. For me it has not been a book to read and put down, but a real reference to go back to again and again. Reading about the author's experiences helps me understand my own better and gives me a way to think that sets things in a truer and clearer perspective.