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15th out of 122 books
—
20 voters
In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching
A new edition of the groundbreaking spiritual treasure, with a foreword by bestselling author Marianne Williamson .
Since its original publication in 1949, In Search of the Miraculous has been hailed as the most valuable and reliable documentation of G. I. Gurdjieff's thoughts and universal view. This historic and influential work is considered by many to be a primer of mys...more
Since its original publication in 1949, In Search of the Miraculous has been hailed as the most valuable and reliable documentation of G. I. Gurdjieff's thoughts and universal view. This historic and influential work is considered by many to be a primer of mys...more
Paperback, 416 pages
Published
September 28th 2001
by Mariner Books
(first published 1947)
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Jan 24, 2008
Brian
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Those who are interested in enlightenment as a real potential of the human mind
This is another book that totally changed the way I view the world. I read it over a period of 2 or 3 years. I would read a paragraph or two at a time, or sometimes a few pages, and then try to digest it. In this book, Ouspensky meets up with Gurdjieff, a self-professed esoteric teacher. There is a good deal of debate as to whether or not the latter was an authentic teacher or a charlatan. It seems he was some of both and Ouspensky broke with him in the end. It also seems that Gurdjieff got most...more
This is a collection of dialogues and lectures by G. Gurdjieff, the Russian mystic who reputedly studied with the Sufis, as recalled by his student Ouspensky, who at the time had a reputation of his own as a spiritual writer.
The dialogues are roughly organized chronologically, so we listen to Gurdjieff as his students would have, with the questions and answers unwrapping the layers around the central topic of the Divine.
I stopped half-way through. I couldn't go on. The first half of the book was...more
The dialogues are roughly organized chronologically, so we listen to Gurdjieff as his students would have, with the questions and answers unwrapping the layers around the central topic of the Divine.
I stopped half-way through. I couldn't go on. The first half of the book was...more
Had an electronic version of this book since 2008, but only read it two years ago after an old friend of my father suddenly brought it up in a conversation I had with him, saying how he read it in the seventies (he read a french version a friend of his gave him, it was called "Fragments d'un enseignement inconnu", quite peculiar a read) and made him search for more depth later on, which eventually led him to investigate some values with a whole different eye.
A very interesting account is propose...more
A very interesting account is propose...more
An indispensible introduction to and explication of the philosophical/psychological/spiritual system brought to the West by Gurdjieff in the first half of the 20th century. The Russian mathematician and philosopher Ouspensky had been a spiritual seeker for many years before running into Gurdjieff in Moscow. It changed his life forever. The ideas are dificult for most people to acept and dificult for those who accept to understand fully. The book is dense and deserves several readings and study o...more
Jun 17, 2008
Maureen
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
everyone
Recommended to Maureen by:
Robert Fripp
Shelves:
gurdjieff
This book is a treasure trove for anyone wishing to know more about the Gurdjieff work. My copy of it is littered with underlined sentences, enneagrams, scribbled notes on will, being and function, and notes on octaves and self-observation. Is this an easy read? Easier than Gurdjieff, certainly, but so jam-packed with useful information, that it needs to be read over the course weeks, or even months. In these pages you will learn the way of the fakir, the monk, and the yogi, and, with a little l...more
An excellent introduction to the teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff. Fascinating, thorough, engaging and readable; but these traits are secondary.
To those interested in esoteric traditions, this book should be considered an account of one man's crash course in the teachings that underlie the others.
If you're into this sort of thing, this book will likely take a position of strong influence on your perception from here on.
Gurdjieff was a practical man, likely a Sufi master. His teachings sidestepped...more
To those interested in esoteric traditions, this book should be considered an account of one man's crash course in the teachings that underlie the others.
If you're into this sort of thing, this book will likely take a position of strong influence on your perception from here on.
Gurdjieff was a practical man, likely a Sufi master. His teachings sidestepped...more
this book is kinda out there and fairly rough spiritual-esque reading. the guy who wrote it was a student of gi gurdjieff and this book is about his teachings. basically if the dalai lama or buddhists were in touch with the world they would be somewhat a mix of this guy and krishnamurti. this dude however is much more worldy than k-murda...
it stopped me thinking of ader's art just in terms of the dreaminess of it and got me considering the really strong conceptual values behind it.
the book talks abt ader using the romantic figure of the sad loner as a way to challenge the belief that conceptual art has to disavow emotional impact.
the book talks abt ader using the romantic figure of the sad loner as a way to challenge the belief that conceptual art has to disavow emotional impact.
Jun 26, 2012
Levy
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
anyone who wants to make a BIG progress with his already advanced thinking
It's all good when you find your own ideas in the books you read even if they were written half a century before you were actually born.
"Humanity neither progresses nor evolves. What seems to us to be progress or evolution is a partial modification which can be immediately counterbalanced by a corresponding modification in an opposite direction. Humanity, like the rest of organic life, exists on earth for the needs and purposes of the earth. And it is exactly as it should be for the earth's req...more
"Humanity neither progresses nor evolves. What seems to us to be progress or evolution is a partial modification which can be immediately counterbalanced by a corresponding modification in an opposite direction. Humanity, like the rest of organic life, exists on earth for the needs and purposes of the earth. And it is exactly as it should be for the earth's req...more
This book either leaves one with the impression that it is a treasure to be read over and over or a book that you should just sell back. I am of the later. Ouspensky's recollections to me seem to be just as vague as he says his understanding is of Gurdjieff's teachings. I don't mean to demean the book, it was just not for me. I also think that you do not lay out pearl's for just anyone to walk by and pick up. You write a book like this for the public. The real treasure's if you have them, are re...more
This book is a good introduction to Gurdjieff's teachings, presented in a clear and understandable way by the author, who was a student of Gurdjieff himself from 1915 to 1924. Interspersed with this are some interesting personal observations of how Gurdjieff conducted his practice and any special effects of the teachings that the student Ouspensky experienced (which is very little). Ouspensky appears at first attractively somewhat on the side of scepticism rather than blind faith, and seems hone...more
Personalmente questo libro non mi ha lasciato nulla. Nulla di ciò che è scritto per me ha avuto valore. Non condivido neanche quel poco che di serio è raccontato tutto il resto è un insieme di teorie che, presuntuosamente, si presentano come certezze che smontano totalmente la scienza, la filosofia, la psicologia, l'astronomia. G e ouspenzsky cercano in tutti i modi di trovare dei nessi logici nelle loro tavole ma il più delle volte risultano assurdi: esempio palese la tavola del tempo qui l'aut...more
This book triggered a series of life changing events for me. I do not doubt the same would be true for the vast majority of people who read and understand to the best of their ability. Immediately after reading this - and going through it at least five times, marking and reviewing religiously - I purchased Gurdjieff's "All and Everything" series, as well as Ouspensky's "The Fourth Way". I am currently in the process of finishing "All and Everything", but this is the book that started it all.
I had this book on my shelf for years, and had read about Gurdjieff from other authors, but never from one so close to G. as Ouspensky. I had imagined this book would be a hard one to finish, but I actually raced through it and found it vastly interesting. Not only because the many ideas, of which I enjoyed the ones on psychology much more than the ones on the cosmic order of things. But also because of the sketches of the man Gurdjieff himself and how he went about with his work and students. S...more
got to page 180 & then returned it to the library. I'm not sure what I think about this book. It was written in a time before a lot of discoveries in modern science and psychology. At times I found myself being really into it and other times I thought it seemed totally ridiculous. I put it down, not because I didn't feel like reading any further, but because it was due back to the library. If nothing else it's helped me look at myself more psycho-analytically. I might pick it up again someda...more
I would normally not have picked up a book like In Search of the Miraculous, were it not that this one is referenced by the Dutch conceptual artist Bas Jan Ader, who named one of his art works after it. I read it quite a while ago and I still want to return to it, it's quite a strange book and some aspects of it - its readings of Biblical stories from the angle of Eastern philosphy for example, esp. 'set thine house in order' - have stuck with me over the years.
Now I know. Ouspensky focuses on the cosmic teachings of G., with some mention of the dances, movements, and ballets. Long intricate chapters about octaves, "shocks" and the enneagram, the way the universe is organized into absolute, galaxies, stars, planetary systems, the earth people, moons. Ouspensky was really into this formulaic stuff. While G. seemed to lose interest, and move back into being a simple teacher of dance. Food for the moon indeed.
First read as if devoured, it was a Eureka! Experience for me that sent me straight away to find a teacher. Second reading, slowly with deliberation while practicing "The Work" with an amazing teacher and her group who relocated from NYC to VA. Third reading in the midst of my decade and a half of being in the work. I remain deeply grateful to George Ivanovich Gurdjieff and PD Ouspenski for their profound insights and understanding.
Reading it changed my perspectives on life! This is perhaps the most profound book I have ever read along with Marcelo Motta's Astral Attack and Defense. Every day was a wonder and each paragraph seemed to bring a whole flurry of thoughts, ideas and insight. The Fourth Way and Thelema are parallel in that both recommend that an aspirant develop all of his/her faculties - athletic, rational/detached/scientific, intuitive/emotional/artistic, and sensual.
This is an extraordinary mind-altering book, if you allow it to be.
You cannot truly understand G.'s teachings from your own perspective. You have to see it from the perspective that G. wants you to see it from. You have to relinquish your current thinking and surrender to his view, then you can see the truth that lies behind the illusions...
You cannot truly understand G.'s teachings from your own perspective. You have to see it from the perspective that G. wants you to see it from. You have to relinquish your current thinking and surrender to his view, then you can see the truth that lies behind the illusions...
best quotes so far:
"time is breath"
"All at once I remembered I had forgotten to remember."
My Dad recommended this metaphysics/physics series to me. I accidentally started with the last one, but now I am going to go back to the first. Pretty awesome stuff.
"time is breath"
"All at once I remembered I had forgotten to remember."
My Dad recommended this metaphysics/physics series to me. I accidentally started with the last one, but now I am going to go back to the first. Pretty awesome stuff.
It always surprises me that people who have read dozens of new age books don't know Ouspensky. The Gurdjieff/Ouspensky 'system' is a source for scores of modern spiritual books, and In Search of the Miraculous is the story of Ouspensky's discipleship under Gurdjieff.
This book just blowed away my mind, after Osho and Krishnamurti, G. came to show me his point of view of what we are and what we can become. Through Ouspensky and Gurdjieff many doors has opened to me like medieval astrology, yogi respiration technics, hermetic laws and the amazing enneagram (than will be my next tattoo).
For those who constantly look for answers and ways to find theirselves this book is a must-read.
For those who constantly look for answers and ways to find theirselves this book is a must-read.
To me, science and spirituality often seemed to be in contradiction. but this book cleared many things by providing a very clear and systematic way of how it all works and how science is a part of it, still much behind.
I read this valuable book when I was about 25 years old. It has had an enormous impact on my philospy of life and death eversince. I must read this work that is so heavily related to the insights of Guirdjeff.
Jul 30, 2011
Brendan
added it
ouspensky's book provides a great introduction to gurdjieff's teachings. as with the work of gurdjieff himself, sections can be tedious, but the overall results are well worth the effort invested.
One of my favorites. Very thought provoking. Opened my mind to many unnoticed possibilities. This book changed the way I looked at life. It showed me many areas that needed my inquiry.
This is the most dangerous book you will ever read if your world is filled with sacred old ideas you have never questioned.
A masterpiece. I am still reading it after twenty years.
A masterpiece. I am still reading it after twenty years.
Oct 25, 2009
Robtee
added it
if one wishes, one may be free, but much help is needed and only from those who are already free. they are not hiding nor is their teaching secret. it's just that no one is looking for it.
This book was not the intro to Gurdjieff's teaching that I thought it was going to be. It would probably be best to read this after you are already familiar with his work.
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Nov 17, 2008 11:40am
Apr 20, 2013 05:51am