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Title: Meetings With Remarkable Men by G. I. Gurdjieff ISBN: 0-14-019037-6 Publisher: E P Dutton Pub. Date: September, 1991 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.25 (16 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A tutorial for becoming a remarkable man
Comment: A book that without doubt has the potential to inspire the reader to live consciously and purposefully. The stories of Gurdjieff's life is put forward in a very simple manner and yet allowing a powerful pattern of encouragement to emerge. Each chapter stands independently able to enlighten and entertain. Gurdjieff shows that the path to an ultimate aim is not straight but rather filled with al kinds of obstacles and delays. While emphasising the struggle to achieve, the seeker of truth provides also the answer on how to overcome obstacles. The teacher shows that sometimes survival requires ingenious solutions and at other times shrewd and calculated plans. Attainment requires the influence of resourceful people with inner qualities rather than external presentation. Gurdjieff demonstrates the inner qualities of people who know how to be restrained in the manifestations that proceed from their nature while conducting themselves justly and tolerantly towards weaknesses of others. The ultimate aim is to enlighten the reader of the inner qualities that constitute remarkable men. Gurdjieff succeeds to develop in his readers the desire to become remarkable men themselves. Men that will on their turn influence the rest of the lives of all they interact with. Ultimately the book aims to transfer an experiential understanding of what Gurdjieff, as a teacher, expect from his pupils as a result of his teaching.
Rating: 3
Summary: Just a Con Man
Comment: Anyone who has traveled in Central Asia or the outbacks of Russia has met thousands of con men like Mr Gurdjieff (admittedly with far fewer scruples). Gurdjieff made his living from analyzing and capitalizing on the weaknesses (cupidity, ignorance, trust) of others and then justified his actions by asserting that his victims were really even bigger victmizers than he was and therefore deserving of their fates (to be fleeced by Mr Gurdjieff). That having been said, Gurdjieff is often an entertaining writer. I enjoyed the travelog aspects of the book as well as the depictions of various colorful characters. He narrated events from his childhood extremely well. What seems so exotic to Western readers in this book is just everyday life in the area of the world where Gurdjief came from. Even in the act of writing the book, he showed his need to con: Every time he started telling us something interesting and vaguely "spiritual," he would say, "Well, I can't go into that now; it will be in my next book." In other words, he was conning the reader into buying the next book. The life he lived in the latter part of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th century in Russia was harsh and poverty-stricken, and misery, of course, pushes many people to choose being a victimizer over being a victim, but Gurdjieff managed to glorify his decision to be a victimizer by surrounding it with spiritual hoopla -- the ultimate cynicism. In his own words in this book, he was an Oriental carpet seller most of his life. In Russia, he began supplementing his rug selling by developing a line of spirituality to offer Russian intellectuals. Later when he had to emigrate with thousands of other Russians to Paris, he just put most of his efforts into the spiritual trade. In Paris, where spiritual exotica and not rugs (as he observes) were more in demand, he found a greater market for his spiritual product. To prey upon people's spiritual searching is indeed Beelzebub's tale.
Rating: 3
Summary: There is a lot that can be learned from Gurdjieff
Comment: Gurdieff is one of those men, who are hard to understand. They are hard to understand because they are different, they shun the very beliefs that are a part of our everyday living.
While there were many instances where I thought "what is he talking about?", this book was a good read.
If you are to read this book, I suggest that you read it like a fantasy travel journal.
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