Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandson

[johann cruyff]

So,I was wondering,have any of you read this book?Georgiy Ivanovich Gurdjieff is not exactly what you'd call famous,but this book is considered a masterpiece nonetheless.Now,I tried reading it,and have to say,it's quite difficult.(Socrates,after reading Heraclitus,once said something similar to this: What I understand is good,and that what I don't understand is,I'm sure,even better. Yes,I'm Socrates in this comparison:D )

So,have you read it?Any opinions,comments,guidelines to understanding?

[PeterL]

Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson is unlike anything else that I have read. It was years ago, but I sometimes think of. It is a long Sufi teaching story, so, if you understand Sufiism, then it will be easy for you. Ouspensky's writing built from it, or so I have been led to believe, but I have read very little by Ouspensky. As a work of fiction, I don't think that it was well written, and I think that the same material could have been put across better in the form of fiction.

[johann cruyff]

Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson is unlike anything else that I have read. It was years ago, but I sometimes think of. It is a long Sufi teaching story, so, if you understand Sufiism, then it will be easy for you. Ouspensky's writing built from it, or so I have been led to believe, but I have read very little by Ouspensky. As a work of fiction, I don't think that it was well written, and I think that the same material could have been put across better in the form of fiction.

Well,to my understanding,that style of writing was intentional,the author overly complicating in order to capture the reader's attention?

As for Sufism,I'd say I understand it to a certain degree,obviously not enough to fully appreciate the book though...Well,I guess it's going to make me learn a bit more,if nothing else...

[PeterL]

Gurdjieff's version of Sufiism is a little different from others'. Some of his ideas were built into the writing style, but the style was also a matter of it having been written on two language (Armenian and Russian, I think) simultaneously, then translated into English from the Russian version, apparently by someone who wasn't completely fluent in English.

[Ozymandias]

Beelzebub is what Gurdjieff referred to as a Legominism. Basically and ark of knowledge that would be a work of "objective" art that would have the same affect on all who experienced it.

This work was refined over years and was collaborative. He wanted to get the language just right and there are intentional buttons he was pushing.

However there are many pieces of information in his teaching that are just now being verified. (i.e. He refers to Judas as the main character in creating Christianity which only recently was unearthed in the Gospel According to Judas mad public recently.)

Meetings with Remarkable Men is his other book which is an entirely different style and his final text Life is Real Only Then When I AM is yet another form.

All of these texts were intended to be utilized by those who studied his teachings and not merely literary texts. Refer also to P.D. Ouspensky's In Search of the Miraculous and the writings of De Salzmann and his other students to put it a little into context.

If one has studied The Work, other dimensions open up in the writings in accordance with your level of training and understanding.