"Gurdjieff, G I - Beelzebubs Tales To His Grandson" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gurdjieff G I)

to the end, was animated in the whole of my entirety with the idea, arisen in my mentation, to take every
possible measure in order that you, as is said "my brother in appetite and in spirit"—in the event of your
proving to be already accustomed to reading books, though of all kinds, yet nevertheless only those
written exclusively in the aforesaid "language of the intelligentsia"—having already paid money for my
writings and learning only afterwards that they are not written in the usual convenient and easily read
language, should not be compelled as a consequence of the said human inherency, to read my writings
through to the end at all costs, as our poor Transcaucasian Kurd was compelled to go on with his eating
of what he had fancied for its appearance alone—that "not to be joked with" noble red pepper.
And so, for the purpose of avoiding any misunderstanding through this inherency, the data for which are
formed in the entirety of contemporary man, thanks evidently to his frequenting of the cinema and thanks
also to his never missing an opportunity of looking into the left eye of the other sex, I wish that this
commencing chapter of mine should be printed in the said manner, so that everyone can read it through
without cutting the pages of the book itself.
Otherwise the bookseller will, as is said, "cavil", and will without fail again turn out to act in accordance
with the basic principle of booksellers in general, formulated by them in the words: "You'll be more of a
simpleton than a fisherman if you let go of the fish which has swallowed the bait", and will decline to
take back a book whose pages you have cut. I have no doubt of this possibility; indeed, I fully expect
such lack of conscience on the part of the booksellers.
And the data for the engendering of my certainty as to this lack of conscience on the part of these
booksellers were completely formed in me, when, while I was a professional "Indian Fakir", I needed, for
the complete elucidation of a certain "ultraphilosophical" question also to become familiar, among other
things, with the associative process for the manifestation of the automatically constructed psyche of
contemporary booksellers and of their salesmen when palming off books on their buyers.
Knowing all this and having become, since the misfortune which befell me, habitually just and fastidious
in the extreme, I cannot help repeating, or rather, I cannot help again warning you, and even imploringly
advising you, before beginning to cut the pages of this first book of mine, to read through very
attentively, and even more than once, this first chapter of my writings.
But in the event that notwithstanding this warning of mine, you should, nevertheless, wish to become
acquainted with the further contents of my expositions, then there is already nothing else left for me to do
but to wish you with all my "genuine soul" a very, very good appetite, and that you may "digest" all that
you read, not only for your own health but for the health of all those near you.
I said "with my genuine soul" because recently living in Europe and coming in frequent contact with
people who on every appropriate and inappropriate occasion are fond of taking in vain every sacred name
which should belong only to man's inner life, that is to say, with people who swear to no purpose, I
being, as I have already confessed, a follower in general not only of the theoretical—as contemporary
people have become—but also of the practical sayings of popular wisdom which have become fixed by
the centuries, and therefore of the saying which in the present case corresponds to what is expressed by
the words: "When you are in Rome do as Rome does", decided, in order not to be out of harmony with
the custom established here in Europe of swearing in ordinary conversation, and at the same time to act
according to the commandment which was enunciated by the holy lips of Saint Moses "not to take the
holy names in vain", to make use of one of those examples of the "newly baked" fashionable languages
of the present time, namely English, and so from then on, I began on necessary occasions to swear by my
"English soul."
The point is that in this fashionable language, the words "soul" and the bottom of your foot, also called
"sole", are pronounced and even written almost alike.
I do not know how it is with you, who are already partly candidate for a buyer of my writings, but my
peculiar nature cannot, even with a great mental desire, avoid being indignant at the fact manifested by
people of contemporary civilization, that the very highest in man, particularly beloved by our COMMON
FATHER CREATOR, can really be named, and indeed very often before even having made clear to oneself
what it is, can be understood to be that which is the lowest and dirtiest in man.