Rating: 
Summary: Work is not easy
Review: For all those Americans that want real spiritual or Work ideas presented to them on a silver platter without any effort on their part this is the perfect book. Why? Because these dilitants like Mr Lake, who are just 'consumers' of spiritual ideas, not serious seekers will be greatly disappointed that this platter is pretty vague... but then all you spoon-fed people can buy books that 'supposedly' offer something real... when 'real' is not so easily obtained...
Rating:
Summary: A new conception of God
Review: Gurdjieff (1866?-1949) was an eminently practical philosopher. After a traumatic car accident in 1924 from which he miraculously survived, Gurdjieff decided to transmit all of his lifelong learning into book form, and embarked upon an intensive writing effort that resulted in Beelzebub's Tales to this Grandson.
Gurdjieff advises us to read Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandson thrice, with the open heart of a child listening to a fairy tale. This is not an easy task, for one is dealing here with an account of God, World and Man intentionally composed to provide a self-transforming shock. However, any sincere effort to 'fathom the gist' of this work will provide unexpected benefits. The ultimate impression one recieves is of unsurpassed compassion for the human condition and a heartfelt call to awaken a dormant conscience.
I wish you good hunting in your quest for the Hidden Learning.
Rating:
Summary: One of the most important books ever written.
Review: Gurdjieff's "Beelzebub Tales to His Grandson" is not your everyday type book. Its intentions are not to entertain, but to shock the reader into conscious awareness of the many mechanisms that control his/her own life. Ions after his fall from heaven we find Beelzebub completely transformed through experience into the wisest of beings. In a interplanetary mission to keep our galaxy in order, Beelzebub makes use of a delay to teach his grandson about many things of importance, and especially about those strange beings on the planet earth. The funny thing is that the reader becomes the grandson, and it is Gurdjieff whom teaches us about the reality of our unconscious "living". It is a book not intended to be an easy read, the book demands us to make great conscious efforts to understand the content and to keep alert. However, any effort put into the book is petty in comparison to the gain. "Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson" gives us a choice to remain the automatons we are, or to take a step into realizing our potential as conscious beings. It is one of the most important books...ever.
Rating:
Summary: One of the most important books ever written.
Review: Gurdjieff's "Beelzebub Tales to His Grandson" is not your everyday type book. Its intentions are not to entertain, but to shock the reader into conscious awareness of the many mechanisms that control his/her own life. Ions after his fall from heaven we find Beelzebub completely transformed through experience into the wisest of beings. In a interplanetary mission to keep our galaxy in order, Beelzebub makes use of a delay to teach his grandson about many things of importance, and especially about those strange beings on the planet earth. The funny thing is that the reader becomes the grandson, and it is Gurdjieff whom teaches us about the reality of our unconscious "living". It is a book not intended to be an easy read, the book demands us to make great conscious efforts to understand the content and to keep alert. However, any effort put into the book is petty in comparison to the gain. "Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson" gives us a choice to remain the automatons we are, or to take a step into realizing our potential as conscious beings. It is one of the most important books...ever.
Rating: 
Summary: The delusions of an amateur sociologist
Review: Gurdjieff's fabulous sense of humor notwithstanding, this book, and most of his work, portrays an active imagination and a poor soul who appears to actually believe his delusional, otherworldly explanations for human behavior. "Kunderbuffer?" Come on! In his efforts to "bury the dog deeper" Mr. G accidentally dropped his brain into the hole. I love you George, but slap some sense into your students, please!Stay with "Meetings with Remarkable Men" a great romantic travelogue, very touching, pithy and humorous.
Rating:
Summary: Satire but above all humour.
Review: I cannot fathom two sorts of reactions to this book - the pro- sort, that treats it as a mystic message, or the anti- sort, that treats it as nonsense. In fact, this book is full of belly laughs, that are arrived at in a most unusual fashion. The writer constructs bizarrely complex sentences, inventing words and history, and in the most pompous style imaginable -- but maintains the logic of the sentences, and builds to cascades of punchlines laden with significance, all designed to dissect hypocrisy. I found it a fascinating read, and although I don't read too many reviews seeing the book as I did, I feel confident I am right. :)
Rating:
Summary: The Truth rectifies the Soul for those determined to Work
Review: I have read this book over the recomended three times and each time I have found myself changed. There is always something new to uncover in myself as well as in the book, which to a large extent becomes a mirror of the self if used properly with right effort. There is a uniquness to All & Everything, and that is the book itself is alive and evolving continuously. I only know of one other book which holds this amazing capacity to work on the individual as though a living organism itself, and that book is Li Hongzhi's Zhuan Falun.
Gurdjieff certainly was a Master and a Saint and a divine soul with a mission to fullfill on this Earth. And Master Li, in my opinion has picked up the reigns where Gurdjieff left them, and is currently leading people to higher levels of being as you read this now.
In Gurdjieff's work there is a chapter called the Terror of the Situation. Pay very close attention to this chapter especially about the very saintly Ashiata Shiemash. Ashiata is a divine Saint from prehistoric time's who saved people. Master Li to me is very reflective of this ancient master and his teachings. For those who are determined and feel they are destined to follow esoteric culture I would highly recommend checking out Falun Gong. There are many similarities Between Gurdjieff and Master Li and their aims on this Earth, however Master Li is operating in a new era, an era of final rectification and completion.
The secrets Gurdjieff was unable to bring to public at his time are now being made public. This is an amazing opportunity for all who are deeply concerned with Gurdjieff and his work, that here and now, we are in the midst of a Master who is guiding people in a similar way of Gurdjieff to higher levels. And for sure, the truth rectifies the soul for those whose hearts are determined to labor in this precious work.
Rating:
Summary: An impartial view
Review: I rate this book as I do not because I thought it was well written. After all, no one listens to Dylan to hear the quality of his voice. For well written, I'd turn to Joyce or James or Faulkner - even though they're far from easy reads either! Neither do I rate it for its easy esotericism. I found that it provided no answers whatsoever. For easy esotericism I'd turn to... alas, there probably is no easy esotericism. I admit that I picked up this book to get some answers. I am just putting it down for the third time (the recommended dosage). It gave me no answers. It didn't put me on a path. It didn't unlock anything. Was he sage or was he charlatan? Perhaps he is both. Perhaps he is neither. Perhaps he was just misguided. I really don't care. Neither should you. I rate it as I do because it makes me laugh (out loud). Because it makes me see how really small I am. Because I need to be reminded how precious little I truly know. p.s. If you think the answer can be found in a book, I wish you luck. And can you please, please tell me the author?
Rating:
Summary: An impartial view
Review: I rate this book as I do not because I thought it was well written. After all, no one listens to Dylan to hear the quality of his voice. For well written, I'd turn to Joyce or James or Faulkner. Neither do I rate it for its easy esotericism. I found that it provided no answers whatsoever. For easy esotericism I'd turn to... alas, there probably is no easy esotericism. I admit that I picked up this book to get some answers. I am just putting it down for the third time (the recommended dosage). It gave me no answers. It didn't put me on a path. It didn't unlock anything. Was he sage or was he charlatan? Perhaps he is both. Perhaps he is neither. Perhaps he was just misguided. I really don't care. Neither should you. I will read it yet again because it makes me laugh. Because it makes me see how really small I am. Because I need to be reminded how precious little I really know. p.s. If you think the answer can be found in a book, I wish you luck.
Rating: 
Summary: Devastating Trash Except...
Review: I read about 100 pages worth of book(s) a day, and I consider myself jaded to literature. This book, however, broke through my assumptions of what literature could be. With every fiber of my being, I consider it one of the chronicles of human achievement. Without this book, the world would be a more difficult place in which to live. I don't suggest everyone read it, but if you do, try to throw everything you know about everything away while reading. Relearn how to read.
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