JACOB NEEDLEMAN

In the current issue of PARABOLA MAGAZINE, JACOB NEEDLEMAN has an interesting article and he continues to mention GURDJIEFF and his teachings which have influenced him, as many may know or realize, and in his book, which I recently bought to examine his points and considerations of such, WHAT IS GOD?, I found several interesting things, although I did not think the title other than asking a question on this 'philosophical' question suitable, in that, one tries to make God into an Object, rather than a BEING....subject/object notions are,old ways of thinking that are still with us, and,though some of us still continue to think and feel in this way, others want to avoid such considerations if possible, and,of course, they usually aren't possible...due to the level(s) of understanding and experience,etc. To ask,Who is God? has been asked by some and also Where is God? another important question with serious implications for those who neither believe or disbelieve in the usual manner of contemporary persons who take up such notions..... Needleman is well-known as a writer and author,whose books I have not read much of but whose wrestling with both religious and philosophical and even'Gnosti-Occult' ideas I can sympathize with and appreciate certainly, since, as he mentions in this book, he came to the ideas of Gurdjieff in the same way and at the same time i did in 1957...but he was led to the book by P.D. Ouspensky: THE SEARCH OF THE MIRACULOUS, while I was led to the book by P.D. OUSPENSKY, as I have said before: THE FOURTH WAY, published also the a same year.... Like Needleman, I also became aware of the writings of D. T. Suzuki in the fifties while at UNH...for one thing, one of my pscyhology professors had been in Japan and talked a lot about Zen Buddhism from that standpoint and had written, if I recall, some articles in the various Psych Journals of the Day...and in my history of Religion classes, Asian Art Class, and some of my philosophy classes, I came across both Zen and Susuki....and later to the more popular writings on such, such as those of "The Beat Generation" to which I belonged along with everyone else at that time....but I mention all this nopt to compare myself to Needleman who is a proficient and outstanding writer,scholar, etc. but to give an indication that everyone, sooner or lated, has to confront certain 'cherished' notions they may hold in and about life and to ask further questions before they eventually die...