Life Is Real Only Then, When I Am (All and Everything Series, 3)

Rating:
Summary: No, You Won't Find It Here
Review: Back when the Third Series was hard to come by, people imagined --- based on rumor and hype, not the least of which from Gurdjieff himself -- that this volume would contain Gurdjieff's most significant teachings. You know, the stuff that SERIOUS and ADVANCED students of esoterica, like you, were looking for. The powerful methods that would enable you to do or be whatever it is you think you ought to do or be, other than what you already are (anything but that!) Well, keep looking, because the Third Series is pretty tame. No secrets. No mind-blowing methods. You won't be able to kill a yak at fifty paces after you read it. You'll just be back looking for that one book that will save you the trouble of self-remembering, not expressing negative emotions, etc., etc. Better to read Beelzebub's Tales that third time. Yeah, that'll do it.

Rating:
Summary: Good G, Worse Presentation
Review: First part of this book is okay - reveals the mystical part of G. Rest is difficult to follow, probably because of the rigid translation. If someone who is familiar with G attempts to translate this book again, that will be a great service to humanity.
I could tastefully swallow G through "Views form the Real World" and "In Search of the Miraculius" than any of his books although "Belzebe" and "Meeting with.." are lot better than this "I am..".
G has a great influence in moulding my spiritual journey and I hate to see a book that's so badly translated and presented.

Rating:
Summary: Good stuff in the back
Review: Gurdjieff was certainly a man ahead of his time and shares with us terrific insights and exercises that could possibly help raise one's consciousness. And I have no doubt that there are many people who have found a path of discovering about Self through his teachings. I can understand why Gurdjieff's teachings are taught directly from teacher to pupil. Be sure to do research about the groups of people around the world who pass on G's teachings. This book does not do justice to those teachings. It is only a glimpse of it.

Whats more, this book makes for difficult reading. Probably because the translation from Russian is not in the most concise and clear manner. In many instances, you will find that the parts of a normal english sentence now come in a very different order, and that one sentence can be full of interjections and are so long as to make one paragraph. I have an easy time conversing with people whose foreign accents and awkward english translation permeate their words. But I didn't have such an easy time of it when reading a translated version from Russian such as this. If you are used to reading books that are written in easy-to-read english, and find dialectic tones difficult to read through, than this book will indeed be a hard read.

If you want to learn a bit more from Gurdjieff's wisdom---his philosophy and cosmology, than try other books by Gurddjieff and/or his pupils. Search the web on his biography to know more about him. Choose your purchase well.

Rating:
Summary: I Keep Returning to this Book
Review: I agree with one reviewer that this book should be read only after the first series and the second series have been read. I agree with another reviewer that the core of Gudjieff's teaching, as far as it can be communicated in a book, is in "Beelzebub's Tales." I also agree with A.R. Orage that there are only three ways of influencing people, namely, magnetization, competition, and example. There is no question that Gurdjieff was a master at each and everyone of these three ways. As a genuine Teacher he opted, however, for the most demanding and most difficult of the three, the way of example. In this book he shows, by example, the inner-world struggle and outer-world struggle a person must necessarily go through in order to fulfil a purpose in life. That is why I keep returning to this book from time to time, particularly when I feel that I am beginning to loose my purpose in life. The book serves as a reminder of the inner and outer struggles I must endure, at my own level of existence and being, to be worthy one day, when the time arrives, of having what Gurdjieff referred to as "an honorable death."

Rating:
Summary: difficult to understand idea
Review: I would have to recomend that you skip this installment of the Guirdjeff triology. If you have read Beelzebub or Remarkable Men then there really is no need to waste your time lumbering through what can only be described as disjointed and stuttering translation. Perhaps the worst translation ever - which is saying alot considering Penguin's long lineage of word butchery. If you must read this - learn French and read the original or skip to the last third of the Penguin version. The last third is really the only information worth reading in either language. The first 100 or so pages has Gurdjieff is a rather false humility trying to matter a factly self grandize his life and work. Not the last taste of his remarkable ideas and life that you want on your lips.

Rating:
Summary: an afterthought
Review: There are some pretty good reviews of this book, which somewhat surprises me given the nature of it and how poor some reviews are of Gurdjieff's first series or, for example, of Pentland's book. I wish to add that Gurdjieff himself, as many of you probably know, requested the reading of his books in sequence, and the third series in particular was to be reserved for his experienced pupils. Perhaps it is too strict to keep to this request - I don't presume to be the best judge. But in spite of being incomplete, this book - as others have indicated - has a depth to it that a superficial reading may not succeed in discriminating. I can vouch for that first hand: The first time I read this book was many years ago, and I was dissappointed. Fifteen years passed and I read it again. My being had changed some in the interim, even if not impressively. Yet it was a "different" reader, and it proved to be a different book. This time I was amazed that I had been so unimpressed the first time. I think it is a mistake to read this book only with the thinking center. This book cannot be understood that way. One must read it with the emotional center actively engaged. I do think Gurdjieff's request was not frivolous, and is worthy of respect and consideration. Like many fourth way books that are among the best, this book can be a mirror in which the being of a reader is more on display from a review than the merits - or lack of merit - of the book. These books are not always easy to review. Fortunately this one has not yet, as I write, suffered the kind of severe abuse and foolishness that some of the others have received from egos with exaggerated perceptions of their understanding.

Rating:
Summary: Recall Gurdjieff's wishes about reading in sequence
Review: There are some pretty good reviews of this book, which somewhat surprises me given the nature of it and how poor some reviews are of Gurdjieff's first series or, for example, of Pentland's book. I wish to add that Gurdjieff himself, as many of you probably know, requested the reading of his books in sequence, and the third series in particular was to be reserved for his experienced pupils. Perhaps it is too strict to keep to this request - I don't presume to be the best judge. But in spite of being incomplete, this book - as others have indicated - has a depth to it that a superficial reading may not succeed in discriminating. I can vouch for that first hand: The first time I read this book was many years ago, and I was dissappointed. Fifteen years passed and I read it again. My being had changed some in the interim, even if not impressively. Yet it was a "different" reader, and it proved to be a different book. This time I was amazed that I had been so unimpressed the first time. I think it is a mistake to read this book only with the thinking center. This book cannot be understood that way. One must read it with the emotional center actively engaged. I do think Gurdjieff's request was not frivolous, and is worthy of respect and consideration. Like many fourth way books that are among the best, this book can be a mirror in which the being of a reader is more on display from a review than the merits - or lack of merit - of the book. These books are not always easy to review. Fortunately this one has not yet, as I write, suffered the kind of severe abuse and foolishness that some of the others have received from egos with exaggerated perceptions of their understanding.

Rating:
Summary: It's worth the effort, as all intentional suffering is
Review: This book contains some direct and also very profound statements of one's tasks/commitments/obligations to truly be called a man/woman of the universe. In ways it's about his own self revelation and conveying that man/woman can fulfill one's destiry and achieve a purpose for our existence if we truly understand and are ready to suffer and make sacrifices. This is not a book for those who wish for an epiphany about how to BE. It requires effort and so does one's commitment to truly understand this book and the message deep within. It's a wonderful book if one takes the time, truly takes the time, to hear the message. We are a society who wishes for a quick fix and this book does not provide one. So for those who dismiss this book with all sorts of critisims, I say re-read it with your being, not your mind.

Rating:
Summary: Keep this book in perspective
Review: This book is indeed incomplete. Apparently Gurdjieff had decided that his proposed project of the third book was not a sufficient way to transmit the level of teaching it was to contain. Therefore, this teaching was passed through his closest students to in turn pass on by direct transmission. Beyond the beginning levels, the teaching is not bound by mere ideas. However, the notes he had been working on were eventually published several decades after his death in this form. It serves really as only a footnote to his first two books. But as such it is not without interest. There is actually much that could be valuable in this book, and it reveals much about what drove the author. It also has something to say about the value of ideas in isolation from work on being. But the core of his teaching, as far as can be communicated in a book, is in "Beelzebub's Tales." His suggestion to read the Tales three times before proceeding should not be taken lightly. But from there one must think about making contact with people who were actually given the teaching.

Rating:
Summary: difficult to understand idea
Review: This work takes many hours of self examination and doing what you find uncomfortable then examining your thoughts as to why.
The idea is to see what really is rather than what you automatically think and feel.This work will expand your abilities to look and see things from your individual perspective and react from a intergrated rather than a fractured mental process. The process allows you to see others in their fractured states and without understanding of why they react the way they do as they think from a small universe of habits.Once you become free of habitual thinkings and habits a third force comes into play and enlightens the struggle of your-self opposing nature-this is what is divine essence in this work.Keep in mind nature wants to receate you without your essence but knowing your indivuality fights nature.Using your personality to understand the essence of your indivuality is difficult and much like a search in a dark room but the third element is anchored by way of the sychronicity of events in your life and its time line but your mind must be free of its learned ways to see and be guided.Once your path is established un-natural- things will happen -it is magic!Fight nature and you knock it off balance and the laws of the universe begin to release their hold on your reality -sounds insane but you will be the most sane as you look out and see who has really examined their reality inside out and upside down. Good luck!