"Meetings with Remarkable Men" by G.I. Gurdjieff

This is the Second Series of the Gurdjieff writings, as he envisioned them.  According to the original plan, after the illusions were destroyed with the First Series (Beelzebub), the Second Series was supposed to point out to the right way to educate oneself and harmoniously develop in all directions to become a Normal Man.

The book is divided in multiple chapters, each dedicated to an allegorical story about an authority figure or a close friend and associate from Gurdjieff's life.  The last chapter is called "The Material Question" which is a separate essay on the various ways Gurdjieff earned money to support his pupils' needs, which also appears in other publications.

Each story, from Gurdjieff's own father, through Dean Borsh and Bogachevsky to Yelov and Profesor Skridlov, teaches a certain aspect of the Work, appropriate for a certain period and sequence.  All the names of the characters sound a bit like from the Russian fairy tales (many of which include three bearded sailors on the Seven Seas) and they probably are made up, like much of the material, which, although probably based on some real events and people, is actually meant to be a "Teaching Story" in the Sufi sense that Idries Shah popularized in the West.  Thus, this book is a manual for the sequence and quality of the work on oneself that a student of the Gurdjieff's System needs to follow.

In that spirit, and alike Beelzebub, there's very little to be said about the actual content.  It needs to be read and the sentences need to sink into the unconscious, where Mr.Gurdjieff intended them to go, as he saw the unconscious as the last possibility for salvation of Man Kind, and he called the unconscious - "the real conscious."

"Investing for dummies" by Eric Tyson

I wanted to read a foundational generalist book about investing, so that, after my MBA, I can check if there are some gaps still left that need further research and education.  Mr. Tyson's book is as general as it can get! I understood after the first chapter that the more appropriate book would have been "Stock Investing for Dummies" since Mr. Tyson's book covers real estate, small business and extensive tax shelter retirement strategies.  These are, of course, amazing, but I meant only investing in the stock market sense when starting my research.

Mr. Tyson is an investor of the old school.  He says that if one doesn't hold a stock at least 5-7 years before selling, then one is not doing investing, but trading, which Mr. Tyson equals with gambling.  Like most investors of the old school Mr. Tyson does not believe in day trading and technical analysis, but instead concentrates on sheltering as much money as possible in predominantly retirement vehicles and keeping solid investments (not stellar, but solid) for as long as possible, and having the long average of the market (which is always rising on a very long time scale) to bring profits, even though in the "golden" years of one's life.

Mr. Tyson's strategy is proven and the only one that can somewhat guarantee results, of course, for the most patient and most enduring among us.  Many would reject such advice and jump on the day trading wagon, which, if looked at a long enough time line, is really like gambling.  However, on short distances, the market can be beat.  But still, like a gambler, the really high rollers pride themselves on knowing when to enter and when to exit a position, precise timing being everything.  And it only takes one bad bed to erase all the good ones.

Ultimately Mr. Tyson's book is for the people with enough nervous strength and constant income to afford the luxury of being "armchair investors" where one allocates the investments, sets up a monthly transfer plan and just checks once or twice a year if some kind of re-balance is needed.  No following of the markets; no checking stock prices every 20 minutes, no fretting when the Dow drops, no euphoria when the Dow skyrockets, as the armchair investors knows that over the longest investment time period (40 years or so) they will be on the market, all the ups and downs will cancel each other and finally come down to a nice constant return of about 6-10%. 

"Susila Budhi Dharma (Subud) and its doctrines" by Chuzaimah Batubara

This is a master thesis from McGill University but published in PDF format.  Going around 200 pages the author gives a succinct and very detail-heavy presentation of the situation in Post-Independence Indonesia, especially on the Java island which forms the core of the country and the term "Javanese" is used to imply belonging nearing ethnicity.

Javanese nationalism was reflected in the rise of "Aliran Kebatinan" so called "Mystical Movements" that originated from the animistic and Hindu original beliefs, predating Islam.  The Islam that was spread in Indonesia was an eclectic mix of heterodox Islam and the local animistic and Hindu beliefs, with a very small part of the population sticking to strict, heterodox Islam and Shari'a. 

Among the literally dozens of movements originating in this period (1920-1940), Susila Budhi Dharma (SuBuD), founded by Javanese Mohammad Subuh in 1925 was the only one that gained significant international presence and exists in significant numbers today, members numbering over 10,000 in several dozen countries.

The author describes in detail the socio-ethnic conditioning that necessitated the rise of the Aliran Kebatinan movements with their emphasis on direct, experiential link with the Higher Power, instead of through books like Islam and Christianity.  Subud was influenced by the local animistic beliefs, by the Hindu-Vedic theology (Susila = Suzila in Sanskrit, Budhi = Bodhi and Dharma is the same) ,by Mystical Sufism (where the ideas of the "nafsu" was borrowed from) and orthodox Islam. 

The author analyzes the basic concepts in Subud; like the concept of God or a Higher Power, the concept of Man and the concept of spiritual development which is done through the practical exercise "Latihan Kejuiwan" which is "channeled" for each new initiate ("opened") and usually consists of a verbal, mental, emotional and physical element. 

The thesis is very informative, if overly detailed, and gives a good overview of the milieu in which Subud arose and explains why it contains the elements it has today.