To Live Within has value for those who study Yoga philosophy as well as those who study Gurdjieff.
It is a story of the writer's long time relationship with her teacher Sri Anirvan and her efforts to follow his teachings.
Sri Anirvan's own studies included the Vedas and his teaching has elements of these ancient texts going back three thousand years.
The concept of 'Sahaja' is defined as Yoga in life. Sri Anirvan: 'To accept Prakriti in its totality is pure Sahaja'... And what has Gurdjieff created for you in the West? Surely a field of prakriti corresponding to your own possibilities.'

This book is about that "thing", not intellect, knowledge, skill, not even intuition, but that much more basic "thing" in one human being that can initiate the self-healing response in another human being. A must for anyone in the "health care delivery" field.

There were times when I had to just put this book down and breathe because of the truth in its pages. Needleman gets to the heart of "time and the soul." It is a short book and can be read quickly, but one reading will not suffice. An incredibly honest book.

If you try to understand this book with your head, you will be torn into a million pieces. It is amazingly difficult to explain what this book is about... you should just know that if you read it, at some point something very strange happens to you... this something is very disturbing, but it is also very sweet. Take a chance and read it!

Needleman's ideas, while simply stated, need to be pondered and re-read. This book is amazing. You may want to remove the jacket cover - I think it cheapens the book, and you'll notice the "...and how to get it back" portion of the title is nowhere else to be found. Obviously a marketing technique for the lowest common denominator. Needleman's rejection of time management techniques seems to prove to me that the tabloidesque cover was not his idea.

Here is a great book of meditations for both believers and atheists. Marcus Aurelius was emperor of Rome with an unfaithful wife, a worthless son, and the duties of leading an army for 13 years in what is now Germany. Trying to cheer and console himself in the middle of a desolate area, he wrote down what he remembered of the Stoic philosophy which he had studied. His thoughts are inspiring and provoking. This is the book you want with you when life becomes tough. As Marcus' view of god is a pantheistic one, anyone can profit from his thoughts, whether atheist or believer. A book to read ever few years. Highly recommended.

The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius is the most insightful book I have ever read. I think that young people would especially benefit from Marcus's wisdom. His advice about how to deal with life's trials is invaluable. He teaches that the praise or censure of others is meaningless. This is so important to teenagers trying to discover where they belong in the world. He teaches people to have courage in the face of adversity and to always live their lives by the highest standard.

This is a truly great book, and I've read it three times now. This is inspite of the fact that the style is a bit dense for the modern reader.
Personally, I have always been attracted to the Stoic emphasis on inner peace and ethical living according to the example of nature and the cosmos.
It is not surprising that Aurelius was also a great influence on Henry David Thoreau. I understand that President Clinton cited this as his favorite book, though for the life of me I cannot concieve of him as a Stoic- Epicurian perhaps, but not Stoic....
I was struck by Aurelius's repeated admonition that it makes no difference whether one lives 40 years or 10,000- you will still have experienced everything, for nothing is new and everything repeats in endless cycles. He is right, once you get past 40, these repeating cycles become more and more apparent....

The number of writers included in this book is 43 and the number of articles even more than that. Many of these writers have not written about Gurdjieff elsewhere.

The best in this book is that it presents many views of the people who had worked with Gurdjieff himself or those who were around him and carried his work on. Many of the articles are based on direct experience of the Work and only a few are speculative and theoretical. The tone of the book is positive; if you are looking for a critical approach to Gurdjieff and his ideas you will have to look elsewhere.

People are different and so are their reflections. Some of the articles are brilliantly written both in content and expression; some are badly translated from French, vague and with very little content.

About 70% of the book is on the Gurdjieff psychology and philosophy, 15% on the Movements and the music and 15% on cosmology.

This fat collection of essays comes at Gurdjieff from seemingly every angle but one--criticism. While Gurdjieff was indeed a serious, sometimes brilliant observer of many facets of human experience in his day, his best insights are hardly unique, and even those have mostly been surpassed in the half-century since his death. The real flaw in this book, however, is that no one here seems to mind that a very large part of Gurdjieff's life was spent conforming perfectly to the same old sad pattern of a "guru" working a typical religious con, exploiting a gang of pitiful, starry-eyed cult members who believed, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that he could do no wrong. In an age that has seen the ravages of Bhagwhan Rajneesh, Free John, David Koresh and thier like, many of whom almost seem to have deliberately lifted from Gurdjieff's huge grab-bag of techniques for taking advantage of the gullible, it would perhaps be constructive to have included an essay on the dangers of blind faith to these manipulative "masters", no matter how brilliant they might seem on the surface.

For Gurdjieff followers, both school and independent; this work verifies much of Gurdjieff's cosmology and psychology. The different contributors offer a sifting ground to seperate the fine from the coarse. The "factionalization" of the Gurdjieff movement cannot deter this infusion of new/old knowledge. Its 'Alice's' restaurant.

Corbin is one of the foremost interpreters of Iranian, Sufi and Persian gnosticism in the west. This volume is a terrific introduction to his other works as it is a collection of short essays in which he discusses how he grew from being a student of Heidegger to a scholar of Persian mysticism. I would highly encourage those interested in the imaginal realm to begin their quest here and then take on his other works, especially "Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth" afterward. More people should know of Corbin's work, but unfortunately its audience is largely limited to students of Islam and Sufism. Highly recommended.

The last place I would have looked for a profound spiritualism would have been Iran, but this book proved me wrong. It is amazing and disturbing how much influence cheap media has on our views. After reading this book, I am not surprised that, of all places, Iran should be the country to exhibit such a sharp contrast with modern flashy and shallow philosophies. Obviously these guys know their stuff and can distinguish between real thing and fake ones, something that we in the west need to learn since our spiritualism usually ends up in some sort of sex or money scandal.

I usually don't think much of religious scholars and their books, but have found Mr. Corban and his writings very different and profound. No doubt Corban is an icon for religious scholarship.

Had I read this book at age 15, I would have found it more enchanting. While the style strives for the simple, the plot -instead of building up to what had implicitly been announced as something new and "philosophically" refreshing- decays to a not well-planned absurd interpretation of existence. The in-between philosophy lessons are oversimplified and at times completely misleading. The constant allusions to Creation, even in contexts which are supposedly non-religous, bothered me enough to conclude that the author's beliefs are imposed upon Alberto and speak up through his voice as a philosophy teacher. Please do not take the lessons too seriously. I caution naive readers and philosophy amateurs to read this book skeptically (ironically, that is exactly what the author advises us to do), or they may be taken over by what some have called "a book of cult". PS- If you are planning to give this book as a gift to an adolescent, do take responsibility in his/her further philosophical (and literary) education.

Sophie's World is about a 15-year-old girl (named Sophie of course) who comes home and finds a strange letter in her mail box. She soon finds out that it is about a private philosophy course that an anonymous teacher offers her. After starting the course, she soon finds out that the world that she lives in isn't as it seems...

Throughout the novel, Sophie and her teacher talk about some pretty heavy subjects. But this book is great for anyone wanting to learn a little bit about philosophy. I mean, we are all born with the faculty of wonder, so we all wonder about the world and the different facts of life that are discussed in this book.

Sophie's World is a very different novel! And it is definitely not for someone looking for an easy read. I read it alone and then pondered about the different philosopher's theories. Then I reread some of it just to get the whole meaning to it. I'll have to admit that when I first started reading it I was skeptical and a few sections of the book were hard to get through. But in the end, I learned a lot!

'Sophie's World' is a great mixture of fantasy and philosophy. It's an excellent book especially for those who are interested in philosophy but don't know where to start. It's gentle introduction to this subject that could very easily turn into a complicated jumble of theories, fails to lose the plot, both of what Gaarder is trying to teach us and of the story. Sophie's journey through this adventure, keeps us reading, not just to learn, but to know what happens to the young girl on her birthday. The constant twists, especially at the end, inabled me to put this book down. Gaarder's explanations of certain philosophical theories makes the book a lot easier to understand, and more believable due to the fact that I doubt that many teenage girls would understand the beliefs of Ancient Greecian men if laid out to them without any trace of an explanation. Overall, an excellent read, full of adventure and theories. Highly recommended.

Needleman presents a philosophical discussion of the role of money in personal life. Rather than blanketly dismissing the material side of our existence he seeks to demonstrate the necessary balance between the spiritual and the mundane.

The book is strongly based in traditional philosophy as the author attempts to clarify, sythesize, and interpret classic works that support (or can be made to support) his premise. In some instances there is inadeqate discussion of the philosophical context on which the arguments are based. A portion of the work is a narrative which I found distracting. The book is an attempt to present a philosophical treatise to non-philosophers - perhaps the author should have either written an academic text or resigned himself to more adequately developing his thesis in the beginning with more limited supporting material.

Overall this is a provocative book for those who are searching to resolve the apparent conflicts between the spiritual and the material. How likely is this to occur in a global economy built on consumerism? An interesting sequel to the work might be an edited volume of articles by economists, sociologists, theologians and anthropologists related to the implications and feasibility of infusing some degree of moderation into this market-oriented world.

Could there be a subject more charged with the drama of human life? Each of us lives in some private, personal struggle with money that to a great extent dictates the course of our dreams, our search for meaning, and our compromises with deep Self. If you read nothing else about money, give yourself the great treat of opening the pages of this book. You may finally begin to comprehend why, if you have ever attempted to make money conscious, make it work for you rather than against you, take it into the domain of spirit, you have not succeeded. Not succeeded in finding deep or lasting satisfaction with it: as it squeezes you this way, frightens you that way, appears, disappears, plays with your hidden shame, seduces you to give up your heart's desire for more of it, etc. Beginning to understand why, you may also begin to have compassion for yourself in the midst of this journey, this search for The Way, in and through money. Needleman is fluent, wise, humble, and provocative as he lays out the foundation of a timely and really comprehensible thesis about the power of the most ubiquitous of elements fueling our lives and fantasies, money.

This book is extraordinary. Literally. It takes a mercyless look at the "unbalanced" importance human beings are giving to money nowadays, particularly in the american society. Needleman himself describes his most intimate feelings towards the power of money, and this he does objectively, corageously, without lie and -most important- with enlightning. Unfortunately I guess, not a tenth of the readers will be able to fully appreciate the unvaluable ideas (in fact many of them were new to me) contained in this book. If you are ready to stop self-deceiving as what to the incidence of money in your life refers, or if you already have, then you should read this book, no matter what.

In 1945 a couple of Egyptians digging in the Nile River valley found a sealed storage jar that contained a collection of fifty-two ancient manuscripts, most of which were devoted to the teachings of Gnosticism, early Christians who believed that matter is evil and that emancipation comes through "gnosis" (the Greek word for "knowledge"). The Gnostic inner quest for spiritual understanding put them at odds with the authority of the Church in the first, formative centuries of Christianity. It is not surprising that the Gnostic writings were suppressed by the early Church and were really only known to us through the writings of their opponents. The discovery of these manuscripts allows us to read what these early Christians were thinking and to judge for ourselves the value of their beliefs.

Marvin W. Meyer has provided new English translations of several of the most important and revealing of these early Christian texts. Of these, the Gospel of Thomas is the most interesting. Biblical scholars have long maintained that one of the source documents for the Gospels was a collection of sayings that was integrated with the Gospel of Mark to produce the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. The Gospel of Thomas is an example of such a collection, providing dozens of sayings attributed to Jesus. For example, Saying 75: "I am the light that is over all things. I am all: all came forth from me, and all attained to me. Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Pick up a stone, and you will find me there." The words might be different, but certainly the idea is recognizable, which is true of the vast majority of 144 Sayings collected in the Gospel of Thomas. These sayings are not a radical depature from what we have in Scripture and at the very least we can accept them as being accurate representations of early Christian beliefs. Certainly they are more familiar than the other Gnostic writings Meyer has translated. You will have to judge for yourself how compatable they are with the New Testament. But I think they are definitely worth thinging about.

To my utter surprise, this book in question, i.e., The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus by Marvin Meyer (Translator) was so much better then I had ever expected. In fact, one can and should draw striking similarities between the Thomas's gospel and that of the book of Q. The similarities are very striking; in both version one is presented with a prophet (whom is not the son of God or divine in any way, shape or form and tells parables in order for people to understand the real nature of God) and this picture is so much more compelling to a person whom is a Unitarian Universalist by choice, will and credo. The picture of Thomas's Jesus is very compelling and some of the things that he says can be attributed more to the study, the craft and the art of ethics and morality then to purely religious thought, ideas and study. Overall, I thought that this book, i.e., The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus by Marvin Meyer (Translator) was extremely thought provoking, intellectually stimulating and was written with a sense of scholarly authority that is rarely seen in any book (regardless of subject which the book covers).

The Gospel of Thomas was found in 1945 along with the Nag Hammadi Library near the town of Nag Hammadi in Egypt. It's text dates back some 1600 years. The gospel contains many sayings which are found in the New Testament Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke & John). However, it also includes many sayings never found before. Unlike the other gospels, "The Gospel of Thomas" has no story line but instead focuses on the specific sayings of Jesus Christ. There are 114 sayings, spoken by Jesus and recorded by Judas Thomas the twin. Many have come to know this man as Thomas the disciple or "doubting Thomas". Either way the fact that it was written by one of the twelve disiples adds credibility to the text. As far as the translation goes; in the preface, Marvin Meyer explains his careful use of coptic text to translate the document. Nothing is added, nor is anything taken out. What a relief for christians seeking the truth! I highly recommend this book, however, I would advise skipping the reading by Harold Bloom.

The editors of this book add an interesting note at the end on the subject of the translation of the text. They point out that the sayings of Jesus contained in the book represent a 'paraphrase' since the principal of 'dynamic equivalence' was followed in producing their work. They do not seek a word-for-word translation but rather an overall meaning. Many scholars may be turned off by this approach.

The arguments for the existence of THE LOST GOSPEL Q put forth by Marcus Borg in the Preface are the most interesting and provocative part of this book. It is easy to understand why the work of the Jesus Seminar is challenged by skeptics. However, I do think it is important not to dismiss it too quickly before it receives the attention and scrutiny it deserves. THE LOST GOSPEL Q is a serious attempt to shed light on the historical Jesus.

This book is based on the theory that the Gospel of Mark was written before any of the other synoptic Gospels. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke were then written with the help of those from Mark and another unknown source which is called the Gospel Q. In 1838 a German noticed that there were many sayings of Jesus which were common to Matthew and Luke but not included in Mark. The Lost Gospel Q is comprised of these sayings. Adding fuel to the argument was the discovery in 1945 near the Upper Nile River in Egypt of a codex called the Gospel of Thomas. It contained 114 sayings of Jesus. Over one-third of these sayings were similar to those found in the Lost Gospel Q.

If you accept the idea of the probable existence of Q, then you can look forward to reading sayings of Jesus which were recorded and used by some of His earliest followers less than two decades after His death and resurrection.