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El maestro y las magas
En este libro que completa su autobiografía La danza de la realidad, Alejandro Jodorowsky cuenta cómo conoció al maestro japonés Ejo Takata, quien lo inició en la meditación, en el budismo zen y en la enseñanza que transmiten los koans. Sin embargo, su aplicación práctica la aprendió de un reducido grupo de mujeres («magas») que nada tenían que ver con aquella doctrina filosófica y religiosa. Aquí nos habla de la escritora y pintora surrealista Leonora Carrington; de Doña Magdalena, quien le enseñó el masaje iniciático; de la poderosa actriz mexicana Irma Serrano, la Tigresa; y de Reyna D'Assia, hija del ocultista G. I. Gurdjieff. Pero en la vida del autor hubo otras magas: la sacerdotisa de los hongos María Sabina, la curandera Pachita y la cantante chilena Violeta Parra, de quienes ya escribió en La danza de la realidad y en Psicomagia.
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
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1529 people want to read
About the author
Alejandro Jodorowsky
692 books1,942 followersAlso credited as Alexandro Jodorowsky
Better known for his surreal films El Topo and The Holy Mountain filmed in the early 1970s, Alejandro Jodorowsky is also an accomplished writer of graphic novels and a psychotherapist. He developed Psychomagic, a combination of psychotherapy and shamanic magic. His fans have included John Lennon and Marilyn Manson.
Better known for his surreal films El Topo and The Holy Mountain filmed in the early 1970s, Alejandro Jodorowsky is also an accomplished writer of graphic novels and a psychotherapist. He developed Psychomagic, a combination of psychotherapy and shamanic magic. His fans have included John Lennon and Marilyn Manson.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 90 reviews
September 27, 2025
In the early 70s, Alejandro Jodorowsky surprised the world with a surreal western: El Topo. This film, which initially no one wanted, is one of the pioneers of an original mode of exploitation: midnight screenings. Broadcast after midnight in neighborhood cinemas, which sometimes specialized in the pornographic genre, it attracted an increasing number of audiences until it achieved the status of a cult film.
I must confess that I have only hazy memories of the film. I see scenes and images, but I only have a little left of the story. I recall a gunslinger who roamed the desert, sowing violence in his wake, until he was touched by grace and became the object of worship for a community living in caves. I remember a naked child following him. But that's about all.
An aesthetic worthy of the best Westerns, characterized by a dark room dynamic. Read at midnight.
I must confess that I have only hazy memories of the film. I see scenes and images, but I only have a little left of the story. I recall a gunslinger who roamed the desert, sowing violence in his wake, until he was touched by grace and became the object of worship for a community living in caves. I remember a naked child following him. But that's about all.
An aesthetic worthy of the best Westerns, characterized by a dark room dynamic. Read at midnight.
January 18, 2025
Hodorovski je u „Učitelju i čarobnicama“ na zabavan način spojio svoje tri strasti – neprestano pričanje o sebi, nadrealizam i okultizam, stvarajući jedinstven spoj autofikcije, nju ejdža i vašara. Smešteni u Meksiko šezdesetih, ovi fikcionalizovani memoari prikazuju Hodorovskog kako kroz rešavanje koana postaje majstor zen budizma. Sama premisa možda ne bi bila toliko zabavna da je nije pisao Hodorovski – lucidan, hrabar, prava egocentrična diva, nepodnošljiv, ali mudar, uvek spreman da pređe granice i ponosno zađe u treš. Ima svega, baš kao i u njegovim filmovima (do sada sam ga poznavao isključivo kao režisera i tarotologa, a ovo je prvo njegovo književno delo koje sam pročitao). Naposletku, kada bi ono najbolje i najgore od Vesne Vukelić Vendi i Marine Abramović dobilo oblik muškarca Jevrejina iz Čilea, zasigurno bi to bio Hodorovski. A i obe mogu da ih zamislim i u ovoj knjizi kao i u bilo kojem njegovom filmu. Doduše, mogu da ih zamislim i kako se svo troje čupaju za kosu i bacaju kletve jedno na drugo. I to je zaista prelepo.
Sasvim očekivano, autor je daleko jači na polju imaginacije i mudroslovlja, nego što je vešt u pisanju. Ljubitelji filmskog remek-dela „Sveta planina“ ovde bi mogli da pronađu duhovnu panoramu koja ju je uslovila. Veliki broj mudroslovlja u „Učitelju i čarobnicama“ imaju paralele sa nadrealističko-okultnim tabloima filma. Neskrivena poruka kod Hodorovskog je da sam živeći život uvek nadilazi i prevazilazi svaku religiju, verovanje i mudrost. Plus, podsećanje da su bogatstvo/punina i i ništanina/praznina sveta dve strane istog novčića.
Sasvim očekivano, autor je daleko jači na polju imaginacije i mudroslovlja, nego što je vešt u pisanju. Ljubitelji filmskog remek-dela „Sveta planina“ ovde bi mogli da pronađu duhovnu panoramu koja ju je uslovila. Veliki broj mudroslovlja u „Učitelju i čarobnicama“ imaju paralele sa nadrealističko-okultnim tabloima filma. Neskrivena poruka kod Hodorovskog je da sam živeći život uvek nadilazi i prevazilazi svaku religiju, verovanje i mudrost. Plus, podsećanje da su bogatstvo/punina i i ništanina/praznina sveta dve strane istog novčića.
September 28, 2023
This was one of the more intense reading experiences I've had. I kept switching from feeling that what I was reading was total bullshit to find it transcendent and illuminating. It ends up almost being like his movies, somehow vulgar and disgusting then beautiful and transcendent, then all of those things at the same time.
I'm kind of torn between not telling anyone about this and wanting to tell everyone. Why it ends up being meaningful is sort of hard to put into words because I feel like when you do you end up losing what it is because a lot of his process is sort of moving past intellect and applying rational analysis to the world around you, and I can't tell how much of it being impactful is just based on things that have to do with me personally. But yeah this isn't a description of a "clean" trajectory past the mundanity and emptiness of the everyday toward some kind of other pristine plane of spirituality, some of the things that happen (or don't, a lot of its pretty unbelievable) to him and around him is pretty fundamentally disturbing. But impressively for someone who has this kind of metaphysical authority given to him based on his films, he kind of uses himself as the "bad" example. The George Costanza of the book. Constantly responding to questions and situations with an honest depiction of a sort of know it all arrogance, narcissism and egoism, he openly portrays himself as the Goofus to the Gallant of the different spiritual figures he encounters. But yeah, I'd sort of recommend it, and not. I kind of don't know.
I'm kind of torn between not telling anyone about this and wanting to tell everyone. Why it ends up being meaningful is sort of hard to put into words because I feel like when you do you end up losing what it is because a lot of his process is sort of moving past intellect and applying rational analysis to the world around you, and I can't tell how much of it being impactful is just based on things that have to do with me personally. But yeah this isn't a description of a "clean" trajectory past the mundanity and emptiness of the everyday toward some kind of other pristine plane of spirituality, some of the things that happen (or don't, a lot of its pretty unbelievable) to him and around him is pretty fundamentally disturbing. But impressively for someone who has this kind of metaphysical authority given to him based on his films, he kind of uses himself as the "bad" example. The George Costanza of the book. Constantly responding to questions and situations with an honest depiction of a sort of know it all arrogance, narcissism and egoism, he openly portrays himself as the Goofus to the Gallant of the different spiritual figures he encounters. But yeah, I'd sort of recommend it, and not. I kind of don't know.
July 29, 2024
One of my recent literary pledges has been to re-read books which I remember either not understanding that much of, or have completely forgotten the content of. Somewhere between those boxes is this autobiographical account by globetrotting mystic Renaissance man Alejandro Jodorowsky about the development of his spiritual practice and life philosophy. The pivotal events in this process happening when he lived in Mexico in the early 1970's, between the making of his films "El Topo" and "The Holy Mountain". I remembered an amusing chapter about his extramarital affair with a Mexican pop diva and actress of the 1970's who was even more eccentric than him, as well as his admiration for an author of cheap pulp Western novels who put all of his artistic work and all the intricacies of his personal philosophy into his novels despite them not being seen as "serious literature" at all - and that's basically it.
The core substance of "The Spiritual Journey" is Jodorowsky's study of Zen Buddhism under the Japanese monk Ejo Takata, who lived in Mexico in the 1960's and 1970's, doing more than any other individual public figure to popularise his particular spiritual tradition in that country. From Jodorowsky's time as a Zennie come a ton of hilarious anecdotes. One involves an American motorcyclist, who rolled up in front of Takata's monastery and went on to answer every single Koan that Takata could pose him... until Takata figured out that the motorcyclist had bought a particular book that functioned as a "cheat sheet" to every traditional Zen koan! Takata responded to this by bringing out a gas tank and a box of matches, threatening to either set on fire his visitor's motorcycle or his book of solutions to koans. The lesson learned: It is not enough to memorise your teachings in a rote manner; the actual worth is that the discipline cultivated in the process of solving the attendant challenges illuminates your ego.
Other of my favourite anecdotes involving Takata include the one where he reads a "Donald Duck" comic book whose storyline and central joke turns out to parallel a famous Zen koan in minute details, as well as the one involving a monk who tries to solve a koan by murdering a cat (it makes sense in context) which absolutely infuriates Takata. There are specific reasons I find those so important: The former incident points out that important insights are often found in sources that you would not expect them to (cross-reference the pulp Western novels Jodorowsky mentions earlier), by demonstrating that insights which philosophers took convoluted disciplinary routes to discover can be arrived at independently just by attempting to write a funny joke. The latter illustrates a similar point as the motorcyclist about the difference between the letter of the law and the spirit, the latter often requires switching to non-figurative processes of logic to grasp.
The chapters about Jodorowsky's study under Takata are each followed by one about Jodorowsky's encounter with a particular woman in 1970's Mexico who had an important influence on his philosophy and spiritual method. One of them is the aforementioned pop singer, Irma "The Tigress" Serrano - who had branched out to acting by the time Jodorowsky met her and ended up addicted to plastic surgery in order to preserve her youthful looks. Their affair at first appeared to end in disaster, with each half of the couple initiating ridiculous schemes to scam the other out of their money. Here comes the important part: After they break up acrimoniously, both Jodorowsky and Serrano learn from all that to become less financially dependent on other people; which the two end up thanking each other for many years later! There is also another bleakly hilarious anecdote where Jodorowsky and Takata were arrested under suspicions of spying for the KGB, only then to be saved when a gust of wind sent an old newspaper about Jodorowsky's affair with Irma Serrano in front of the gendarmes who let him go after realising he was a beloved celebrity. (and if a person is so bad at keeping secrets that their extramarital affairs end up on the front page of the newsppaers, would any halfways competent spy agency even consider hiring them?) The conclusion is that everything that you do or happens to you is part of such a complex network of interlocking chain reactions that it's impossible to say whether anything in the long run will be good or bad when it happens.
Other of the wisewomen Jodorowsky encounters include surrealist painter and author Leonora Carrington, who comes across as a terrifying yet brilliant person to encounter. I find it interesting that Carrington ends up treating Jodorowsky as a stand-in for her own masculine side the way Jodorowsky treats her as a stand-in for his feminine side. (what C. G. Jung referred to as the anima/animus dynamic) Also noteworthy is how almost everything Jodorowsky describes Carrington actually doing in their interactions is at best profoundly irrational at worst outright reckless by the standards of the rationalistic modern society, yet has a carefully calibrated symbolic meaning on the psychological and religious level. Notice that this is exactly what Jodorowsky went on to prescribe in Psychomagic: The Transformative Power of Shamanic Psychotherapy as the escape route from the multiplex of repressed psychological trauma the typical person living in a modern society struggles with.
I was also struck by Jodorowsky's interactions with a Mexican folk healer named Dona Magdalena, whom even the hoodlums in the neighbourhood treated with utmost respect. He describes Magdalena performing a healing ritual on him that surfaced all his repressed childhood psychological trauma, forcing him to view them objectively and find a constructive solution to all of them. He later went on to study under Reyna D’Assia, daughter of the famous Armenian occultist G. I. Gurdjieff, which I found fairly interesting as well just like his account of undergoing an indigenous ritual involving hallucinogenic mushrooms that would have killed him if a few things were done differently. I find it curious and worth remarking on that Jodorowsky got a coherent and functional insight-system out of practices from unrelated religious traditions that appear mutually incompatible on the surface. Perhaps the point Jodorowsky wants to make here is precisely that sometimes it is necessary to create a "meta-system" for combining points from contradictory systems by having to find out when a particular system is useful to apply?
The edition I read also included an epilogue about subsequent challenges in Jodorowsky's life which he solved using insights and lessons he had learned from the figures encountered in this very book. In any case, "The Spiritual Journey of Alejandro Jodorowsky" is not quite what the average person imagines when they see a "spiritual journey" book at the library or on a bookstore shelf... and all the more interesting for it. Even I took a 2nd reading of it many years later to understand that much, and there are parts I don't think I understand now. It's also rip-roaringly hilarious if you have the same sense of humour as the author, and to be honest I will recommend it just for that alone.
The core substance of "The Spiritual Journey" is Jodorowsky's study of Zen Buddhism under the Japanese monk Ejo Takata, who lived in Mexico in the 1960's and 1970's, doing more than any other individual public figure to popularise his particular spiritual tradition in that country. From Jodorowsky's time as a Zennie come a ton of hilarious anecdotes. One involves an American motorcyclist, who rolled up in front of Takata's monastery and went on to answer every single Koan that Takata could pose him... until Takata figured out that the motorcyclist had bought a particular book that functioned as a "cheat sheet" to every traditional Zen koan! Takata responded to this by bringing out a gas tank and a box of matches, threatening to either set on fire his visitor's motorcycle or his book of solutions to koans. The lesson learned: It is not enough to memorise your teachings in a rote manner; the actual worth is that the discipline cultivated in the process of solving the attendant challenges illuminates your ego.
Other of my favourite anecdotes involving Takata include the one where he reads a "Donald Duck" comic book whose storyline and central joke turns out to parallel a famous Zen koan in minute details, as well as the one involving a monk who tries to solve a koan by murdering a cat (it makes sense in context) which absolutely infuriates Takata. There are specific reasons I find those so important: The former incident points out that important insights are often found in sources that you would not expect them to (cross-reference the pulp Western novels Jodorowsky mentions earlier), by demonstrating that insights which philosophers took convoluted disciplinary routes to discover can be arrived at independently just by attempting to write a funny joke. The latter illustrates a similar point as the motorcyclist about the difference between the letter of the law and the spirit, the latter often requires switching to non-figurative processes of logic to grasp.
The chapters about Jodorowsky's study under Takata are each followed by one about Jodorowsky's encounter with a particular woman in 1970's Mexico who had an important influence on his philosophy and spiritual method. One of them is the aforementioned pop singer, Irma "The Tigress" Serrano - who had branched out to acting by the time Jodorowsky met her and ended up addicted to plastic surgery in order to preserve her youthful looks. Their affair at first appeared to end in disaster, with each half of the couple initiating ridiculous schemes to scam the other out of their money. Here comes the important part: After they break up acrimoniously, both Jodorowsky and Serrano learn from all that to become less financially dependent on other people; which the two end up thanking each other for many years later! There is also another bleakly hilarious anecdote where Jodorowsky and Takata were arrested under suspicions of spying for the KGB, only then to be saved when a gust of wind sent an old newspaper about Jodorowsky's affair with Irma Serrano in front of the gendarmes who let him go after realising he was a beloved celebrity. (and if a person is so bad at keeping secrets that their extramarital affairs end up on the front page of the newsppaers, would any halfways competent spy agency even consider hiring them?) The conclusion is that everything that you do or happens to you is part of such a complex network of interlocking chain reactions that it's impossible to say whether anything in the long run will be good or bad when it happens.
Other of the wisewomen Jodorowsky encounters include surrealist painter and author Leonora Carrington, who comes across as a terrifying yet brilliant person to encounter. I find it interesting that Carrington ends up treating Jodorowsky as a stand-in for her own masculine side the way Jodorowsky treats her as a stand-in for his feminine side. (what C. G. Jung referred to as the anima/animus dynamic) Also noteworthy is how almost everything Jodorowsky describes Carrington actually doing in their interactions is at best profoundly irrational at worst outright reckless by the standards of the rationalistic modern society, yet has a carefully calibrated symbolic meaning on the psychological and religious level. Notice that this is exactly what Jodorowsky went on to prescribe in Psychomagic: The Transformative Power of Shamanic Psychotherapy as the escape route from the multiplex of repressed psychological trauma the typical person living in a modern society struggles with.
I was also struck by Jodorowsky's interactions with a Mexican folk healer named Dona Magdalena, whom even the hoodlums in the neighbourhood treated with utmost respect. He describes Magdalena performing a healing ritual on him that surfaced all his repressed childhood psychological trauma, forcing him to view them objectively and find a constructive solution to all of them. He later went on to study under Reyna D’Assia, daughter of the famous Armenian occultist G. I. Gurdjieff, which I found fairly interesting as well just like his account of undergoing an indigenous ritual involving hallucinogenic mushrooms that would have killed him if a few things were done differently. I find it curious and worth remarking on that Jodorowsky got a coherent and functional insight-system out of practices from unrelated religious traditions that appear mutually incompatible on the surface. Perhaps the point Jodorowsky wants to make here is precisely that sometimes it is necessary to create a "meta-system" for combining points from contradictory systems by having to find out when a particular system is useful to apply?
The edition I read also included an epilogue about subsequent challenges in Jodorowsky's life which he solved using insights and lessons he had learned from the figures encountered in this very book. In any case, "The Spiritual Journey of Alejandro Jodorowsky" is not quite what the average person imagines when they see a "spiritual journey" book at the library or on a bookstore shelf... and all the more interesting for it. Even I took a 2nd reading of it many years later to understand that much, and there are parts I don't think I understand now. It's also rip-roaringly hilarious if you have the same sense of humour as the author, and to be honest I will recommend it just for that alone.
December 24, 2021
Sorprendentemente he tardado una semana en leer un libro que no llega a las trescientas páginas. La lectura se me ha hecho poco interesante debido a la escritura recargada de Jodorowsky, muchas veces se limita a acumular parábolas y metáforas para aumentar artificialmente la noción de sabiduría, en todo momento tienes la sensación que quien firma el texto quiere pasar por alguien muy docto, que vive experiencias muy potentes, tanto con actrices, bohemias o curanderas, todo mezclado con las enseñanzas de su maestro zen que crea un batiburrillo de digestión algo pesada.
Prácticamente he visto todas las películas de Jodorowsky, no puedo decir que me pille por sorpresa esa mezcla de estridencia y chabacanería con lo filosófico y trascendente. De hecho estas memorias noveladas siguen el mismo libro de estilo que sus películas autobiográficas como La danza de la realidad o Poesía sin fin, dónde vemos escenas guionizadas y dramatizadas que se inspiran en hechos autobiográficas. Mientras lees El maestro y las magas esa fórmula no termina de cuajar, tienes la sensación que los pasajes que son claramente fabulados ponen en duda a los más veraces. Si a eso le añades esa escritura recargada, llena de psicologismos y ramalazos de misticismo magufo, entonces está claro que el entusiasmo difícilmente se prenderá, la idea de retomar la lectura del libro no resulta alentadora. Ni resulta atractivo, ni instructivo ni interesante.
Puede que esté pensado para tomar de forma aislada algunos párrafos y maravillarse con sus enseñanzas del zen y las trampas del mundo material, pero en conjunto me empachó, muchas de sus 'monólogos' resultan en exceso discursivos y las situaciones forzadas, algo así no se amasar mucho tiempo, sino resulta una pasta insípida.
Jodorowsky me atrae y me repele a partes iguales, seguramente leeré algún que otro libro suyo, en todo caso toda esa sección de su autobiografía poética queda para mí en cuarentena.
December 15, 2008
This book is a weird cluster of synchronicities for me. Pulp writing, Zen, Surrealism - only a third of the way through it started snapping into place with lots of other things I'd been reading.
It's a suprisingly tight little story, with a focused narrative (all that great stuff like character and plot - things that happen to people you believe in), seasoned with good insights into the process of mindfulness and the "meaning" of Zen koans.
If you're not into Buddhism, specifically, you might find this a little disappointing. There are a few jaunts into Western occultism or Castaneda-style Meso-American indigenous mysticism, but that's mostly superficial set dressing for the real internal work that's going on, which is played out in the ongoing relationship between Jodorowsky and his Zen teacher.
It's a suprisingly tight little story, with a focused narrative (all that great stuff like character and plot - things that happen to people you believe in), seasoned with good insights into the process of mindfulness and the "meaning" of Zen koans.
If you're not into Buddhism, specifically, you might find this a little disappointing. There are a few jaunts into Western occultism or Castaneda-style Meso-American indigenous mysticism, but that's mostly superficial set dressing for the real internal work that's going on, which is played out in the ongoing relationship between Jodorowsky and his Zen teacher.
October 27, 2013
Jodorowsky is a masterful story crafter. His tales, which defy belief, are entertaining, enlightening and profound. This is a great look into Jodo's spiritual life in the time just before the film El Topo and shortly after The Holy Mountain. The journey is largely based in Zen traditions as he studied with his master, a buddhist monk from japan, who declared, "Intellectual, learn to die!" Jodo's artistic vision and intellect remain central despite this call and offer a generous wisdom that only serves to complement the Zen teachings.
May 13, 2018
I wrote myself a contract for how I should behave. My inspiration came from this book. Among the tenets were to 'never contract debts,' 'live only on money you have earned,' 'never regard something as your possession.' All of this requires great self-control, and a transcendence of will beyond normality. I don't know how to pinpoint the exact mind-state that I was in while reading this book, but I felt strangely positive. Alejandro approached Zen Buddhism with a characteristically immoderate demeanor such as mine, and so he tripped and fell a bunch of times. His relationship with Ejo Takata was beautiful, that of master and disciple, disciple and master. I guess the beauty in this book is that, despite being extremely didactic, it confesses to the pretty common naiveté of everyone undergoing, not only their spiritual journey, but their life's journey.
There are questionable anecdotes. That is, the reality of some occurrences can be brought into question. Nevertheless, I was fascinated. This could be an entirely fiction work of art, or an entirely true memoir, and it is still a powerful read. I love Alejandro's writing too. He is obviously an amazingly-polished storytellers. I have yet to watch any of his films in totality, because when I do I feel de-flowered. The images are just so raw, the ideas are so bizarre, that it all crosses into the dystopia-hysteria genre or utopia-dystopia-utopia genre...
There are questionable anecdotes. That is, the reality of some occurrences can be brought into question. Nevertheless, I was fascinated. This could be an entirely fiction work of art, or an entirely true memoir, and it is still a powerful read. I love Alejandro's writing too. He is obviously an amazingly-polished storytellers. I have yet to watch any of his films in totality, because when I do I feel de-flowered. The images are just so raw, the ideas are so bizarre, that it all crosses into the dystopia-hysteria genre or utopia-dystopia-utopia genre...
August 9, 2019
"Mountains do not have rocks any more than the world has individuals. The rocks are the mountain; the individuals are the world. The totality of the universe is one. The mouth is below the eyes; the birds fly in the sky; the fish swim in the sea. Everything has it's natural place, without effort, in happiness. The bird drowns in the water just as the fish drowns in the air. Happiness means being ourselves in the place that is right for us. We think but we are not our thoughts. When we identify ourselves with our thoughts, we cease to be ourselves. Thoughts are, but we are not. The sound of an empty mind is the noise of the words of the one who is asking questions. From where does a thought spring and what is it? That question is a bunch of words that cannot be answered properly by another bunch of words. One thought springs from another thought, and so on to infinity. Yet saying 'bread' does not satisfy ones hunger. I should have just screamed at every question and given that as an answer. When the mind is empty, the observer-actor dualism disappears. If we see ourselves, we are not empty- no one arriving, no one leaving, everything just always here. Every thought is a mirage. There is no first cause; it is neither the chicken nor the egg. No beginning, no end. Permanent impermanence, formless present. Accept the appearance of change!"
August 9, 2020
AaaaaaAaaaaaaaa como é gostoso ter 23 anos e ser fã adolescente de alguém. esse homem é uma das criaturas mais preciosas que já pisou na terra. se não forem ler os livros assistam os filmes!!!
August 14, 2023
I picked up this book because British singer-songwriter Laura Marling based her song "Gurdjieff's Daughter" on the ninth chapter of this autobiography by Chilean film maker Alejandro Jodorowsky. In that particular chapter Jodorowsky meets Reyna D'Assia, the daughter of the Greek-Armenian mystic George Gurdjieff. Prior to Marling's song, I had already watched Jodorowksy's movies "The Holy Mountain" and "El Topo", as well as the documentary on his failed Dune project. However, Marling's lyrics in "Gurdjieff's Daughter" sparked my interest in Jodorowsky further.
Summed up, Jodorowsky's book is about the spiritual lessons four women and his Zen teacher taught him over the years. His book discusses his lessons in-depth, but it seems Jodorowsky regards his Zen education as the most formative and important one. In his appendix, he explains koans, riddles used in Zen practice to which he refers throughout his book, teach flexibility and open-mindedness. They help us approach the difficulties of daily-life with creativity and, when it comes to our enemies, even shrewdness. For example, when Jodorowsky wants to release his first movie in over ten years, a reporter asks him whether he can still shoot a film since he has gotten quite 'rusty'. Jodorowsky replies that a rusty knife has a double power: it cuts and poisons at the same time.
Last but not least, that ninth chapter on which Laura Marling based her song was one of the most bizarre chapters of the book. It describes a rather unusual sex scene between Jodorowsky and D'Assia in which she shows him "the ancient practice of chanting lullabies through a vulva." Jodorowsky mentions it reminds him of the song of whales. But the chapter also contains around 80 different moral codes D'Assia was taught by her father which she recites to Jodorowsky. Finally, I understood Marling's song a little better.
Summed up, Jodorowsky's book is about the spiritual lessons four women and his Zen teacher taught him over the years. His book discusses his lessons in-depth, but it seems Jodorowsky regards his Zen education as the most formative and important one. In his appendix, he explains koans, riddles used in Zen practice to which he refers throughout his book, teach flexibility and open-mindedness. They help us approach the difficulties of daily-life with creativity and, when it comes to our enemies, even shrewdness. For example, when Jodorowsky wants to release his first movie in over ten years, a reporter asks him whether he can still shoot a film since he has gotten quite 'rusty'. Jodorowsky replies that a rusty knife has a double power: it cuts and poisons at the same time.
Last but not least, that ninth chapter on which Laura Marling based her song was one of the most bizarre chapters of the book. It describes a rather unusual sex scene between Jodorowsky and D'Assia in which she shows him "the ancient practice of chanting lullabies through a vulva." Jodorowsky mentions it reminds him of the song of whales. But the chapter also contains around 80 different moral codes D'Assia was taught by her father which she recites to Jodorowsky. Finally, I understood Marling's song a little better.
May 5, 2010
Jodorowsky's Mystical Encounters with Miraculous People and his immersion in the study of koans and Zen Buddhist meditation. Like the Fool of the Tarot, Alejandro steps into the unknown, exposing his own damaged childhood psyche and finding himself in completely crazy situations without really bothering that he often portrays himself as a bumbling spiritual barbarian. Reminds me of Carlos Castandeda's books, except most of this probably happened.
It was through reading this book that the idea finally sunk in that zen koans aren't meant to be understood immediately. That they're not meant to be answered through clever words. That they work best when allowed to work through time, experience and the unconscious.
It was through reading this book that the idea finally sunk in that zen koans aren't meant to be understood immediately. That they're not meant to be answered through clever words. That they work best when allowed to work through time, experience and the unconscious.
April 27, 2011
THis book blew my mind. I thought it would be a somewhat flat, reporter-esque sort of thing ala Carlos Castaneda. But boy was I wrong! Jodorowsky is just as gifted with the written word as he is with filmmaking. His encounters with Leonora Carrington are incredibly well written and wonderfully surreal. All in all, it was an interesting look into the life of a gifted artist, as well as a remarkabl;e study on Buddhist Koans (questions that are impossible to answer logically), and an interesting look into the spiritually intoxicating world of Mexico in the early seventies.
July 28, 2020
Visiones algo estereotipadas de lo femenino y lo masculino: con el maestro, Jodorowsky se dedica a resolver acertijos y buscar la iluminación del espíritu, mientras que con las "magas" tiene sexo (ya bueno, no con todas) y aprende valiosas lecciones sobre la intuición, el cuerpo, el inconsciente.
Al inicio tuve cierto aprecio por la locura gloriosa y poética de la primera de las magas, la "maestra surrealista", Leonora Carrington – aunque no haga mucho sentido presenta ciertas imágenes que me toman, estéticamente. En algunos momentos he deseado o pensado o imaginado tener ese tipo de vida de escenas delirantes. Pero al final... son abstracción, imágenes vacuas, en cierto modo superficialidad disfrazada de profundidad. Me parece que la vida no está ahí, en voladas poéticas y surreales. Por otro lado, la Tigresa –que puede describirse como la "maestra del artificio"– me parece mucho más repugnante estéticamente pero su lección de abrazar las ilusiones a la vez que se reconocen como tales me parece a la larga más provocadora. Sin embargo, en términos concretos de lecciones no tiene tanto este libro, porque narra más bien una búsqueda súper personal, el tipo de búsqueda que me imagino debe ser vivida y eso no se transmite del todo aquí. Este no es un manual de "lecciones" de budismo zen, ni nada por el estilo. Tampoco creo que presente una imagen del budismo muy aterrizado, muy que se pueda aplicar a la vida cotidiana del siglo XXI, salvo quizás en el genial anecdotario. Más bien, el budismo de Ejo parece ser uno que incita a la renuncia a la cotidianidad, a rechazar las obligaciones sociales y vivir la vida con cierta volatilidad de identidad e inestabilidad en las relaciones.
Lo mejor del libro, esta gran imagen sobre el ego: "él con su ego y yo con el mío, como dos ciegos que han logrado ver pero que conservan su perro guía no porque lo necesitan sino porque le han tomado cariño" (p. 257).
En todo caso, empecé a disfrutar harto más este libro cuando dejé de leerlo como auto-ayuda, como buscando verdades que me ayuden a vivir. Otra gente (me cuentan) parece que no consume de esa forma la cultura, buscando la iluminación o la sabiduría en cada libro. En cambio, lo que hacen (me dicen) es buscar "mera" entretención, como cuando uno ve un reality, ese concepto (para mi gusto) absurdo de "pasar el rato" - ¿pasar el rato hasta cuando, exactamente? "Placer" quizás sea un término más preciso, y placer es finalmente lo que busqué en este libro, más que la pretendida iluminación: el placer de las imágenes surrealistas, y de seguir a este narrador en su búsqueda, sin esperar que ello arroje luces sobre mi búsqueda propia o siquiera sea verosímil como autobiografía. Y con ese switch pude disfrutarlo harto más.
Al inicio tuve cierto aprecio por la locura gloriosa y poética de la primera de las magas, la "maestra surrealista", Leonora Carrington – aunque no haga mucho sentido presenta ciertas imágenes que me toman, estéticamente. En algunos momentos he deseado o pensado o imaginado tener ese tipo de vida de escenas delirantes. Pero al final... son abstracción, imágenes vacuas, en cierto modo superficialidad disfrazada de profundidad. Me parece que la vida no está ahí, en voladas poéticas y surreales. Por otro lado, la Tigresa –que puede describirse como la "maestra del artificio"– me parece mucho más repugnante estéticamente pero su lección de abrazar las ilusiones a la vez que se reconocen como tales me parece a la larga más provocadora. Sin embargo, en términos concretos de lecciones no tiene tanto este libro, porque narra más bien una búsqueda súper personal, el tipo de búsqueda que me imagino debe ser vivida y eso no se transmite del todo aquí. Este no es un manual de "lecciones" de budismo zen, ni nada por el estilo. Tampoco creo que presente una imagen del budismo muy aterrizado, muy que se pueda aplicar a la vida cotidiana del siglo XXI, salvo quizás en el genial anecdotario. Más bien, el budismo de Ejo parece ser uno que incita a la renuncia a la cotidianidad, a rechazar las obligaciones sociales y vivir la vida con cierta volatilidad de identidad e inestabilidad en las relaciones.
Lo mejor del libro, esta gran imagen sobre el ego: "él con su ego y yo con el mío, como dos ciegos que han logrado ver pero que conservan su perro guía no porque lo necesitan sino porque le han tomado cariño" (p. 257).
En todo caso, empecé a disfrutar harto más este libro cuando dejé de leerlo como auto-ayuda, como buscando verdades que me ayuden a vivir. Otra gente (me cuentan) parece que no consume de esa forma la cultura, buscando la iluminación o la sabiduría en cada libro. En cambio, lo que hacen (me dicen) es buscar "mera" entretención, como cuando uno ve un reality, ese concepto (para mi gusto) absurdo de "pasar el rato" - ¿pasar el rato hasta cuando, exactamente? "Placer" quizás sea un término más preciso, y placer es finalmente lo que busqué en este libro, más que la pretendida iluminación: el placer de las imágenes surrealistas, y de seguir a este narrador en su búsqueda, sin esperar que ello arroje luces sobre mi búsqueda propia o siquiera sea verosímil como autobiografía. Y con ese switch pude disfrutarlo harto más.
August 25, 2016
From that moment on, I began to work on myself: to affirm the conviction that the world desires
my existence. This world includes all of humanity, past, present, and future. My father and mother
identified themselves with their acquired personalities, their families, and social and cultural
influences. Their insane ideas (inherited from their parents and ancestors) gave rise to negative
emotions, unhealthy desires, and false needs.
“The wisdom of the master depends on your own capacity to use it
to find yourself.”
freeing ourselves from identification with our thoughts—the firefly, like the awakened human being, arrives at the border where concepts dissolve in the infinite void before it drinks and communes with the world, accepting the unending change of everything that was thought to be fixed and permanent, making a gesture of reverence in gratitude for its ephemeral life.”
“Over the years, countless fears have condensed under your skin in the form of tiny grains: the
fear of dying, of seeing loved ones die, of losing your identity, your territory, work, health. . . . Also,
the auras of the six subtle bodies have been inhibited in their expression, which makes them fold in on themselves, forming an invisible armor attached to the skin, preventing us from union with the true world—not the world we think of, but the one that thinks us. This armor encloses you and separates you from others, from the planet, and from the cosmos. It makes you live in the darkness of hell instead of the light of the soul, which is union. You will come to realize that the human soul is immense..."
Realize how you treat yourself: like a machine or a donkey to be punished. We allow our
body to see, hear, feel, and savor things—but its touch stirs up unwholesome associations. Even when
we are naked, we are wearing gloves. Civilization has turned our hands into tools, weapons, fingers
made to push buttons. Like clever animals, we serve words, but our words serve only concepts. They
have ceased to communicate soul. My son, you do not have two hands; you have two guilt-ridden pairs of pliers. Whenever you touch, you steal. You must relearn to feel your hands. Let me see you open them . . . spread out your fingers, stretch out your palms fully. You see? You can’t do it completely. You have trouble letting go of what you think is yours. You are lugging around an invisible corpse: your security, your fears of possessing nothing, of losing what you think is necessary. You content yourself with a handful of coins, not realizing that all the money on the planet belongs to you."
“Do you now understand the power that you can transmit? If you can get rid of those mental
gloves, your hands will radiate a golden aura.”
I shall conquer your willfulness. You do not yet want to let go of the rage
of your painful memories. They accumulate in your muscles in the form of contractions and these give
you the sensation of existing. If you let go of them, allowing your demand to be loved to disappear
along with your fears of abandonment and your bitterness, you will feel yourself disappearing. My sad
child, you believe that your suffering is who you are.
“Now be aware of the real sensation of your muscles. Stop seeing them through a mental image
of yourself. Every time you catch yourself returning to your mind, return instead to your body
sensations. You are not a character in a movie. If you flee the body to take refuge as an mental
observer, the mind immediately becomes a dungeon. Come now . . . come in further . . . more than
that! Come into your flesh and stay there to learn humility. You understand? Until now, you thought
that humility meant lowering your values, hiding them behind a mask of submission. You must realize that you have been walking through the world without seeing it directly, distracted by what you believed was worthy or unworthy. My child, humility means ceasing to defend your beliefs and prove to others that you have a right to be alive. Let it all go; you have no need to prove anything! Go into your body, uncover it once and for all, relinquish your doubts and defenses, surrender yourself—even if vultures devour your entrails, even if you rot, even if you turn to ashes, let go; every one of your muscles is like a closed box, and I’m going to open them.”
“You are so used to living like a victim that the happiness you are now receiving makes you cry.
You must finish once and for all with this orphan’s suffering."
“The moment you open your mouth to speak ‘the truth,’ you betray yourself.”
"To follow after the Buddha slavishly was no better than rolling in dog shit. As long as I seek the light outside myself, the world will never be at peace. I observed my body invaded by nervousness, I saw my insatiable appetite for knowledge, my desire to plunder the secrets of all the masters instead of realizing myself, instead of repairing the self-esteem that my father, like a competitive child, had destroyed with his sarcasm."
—“Nothing for myself
that is not also for others.” To find yourself is to give yourself to the world, body and soul. To be an
integral part of the world, let things happen naturally, without useless effort, surrendering confidently to the present. In accepting Ejo Takata as my teacher, I had moved from me to you. Yet because I still saw others as them, I had rejected the we.
I was repeating constantly the same mistake: setting up a mental border between
“inside” (my conception of myself) and “outside” (the world that is not myself). I was living as a
subject confronted by an object. Even in saying that the entire earth is a remedy, I was still subtly
trying to use an external object to heal my individual self, not realizing that this very separation of
myself from the world is its sickness. “The world is my life and essential being. Inasmuch as I do not
dissolve this border, I am dead.”
When your mind formulates a wish with true passion, it appears before you in the mirror we call reality.
The only true couple is not a symbiosis, but a collaboration between two free, conscious beings.
You have been searching for a static awakening, whereas there is only continual change . .
Free yourself from all conceptual chains
Zen must adapt itself to each country according to the customs of its people.
“I never surrendered, because the more you struggle, the more possibilities you have of winning
and receiving help. It has always been in the last minutes, when everything seemed lost that
someone came to help me go beyond my limits.”
real madness is to refuse to believe
in miracles.”
my existence. This world includes all of humanity, past, present, and future. My father and mother
identified themselves with their acquired personalities, their families, and social and cultural
influences. Their insane ideas (inherited from their parents and ancestors) gave rise to negative
emotions, unhealthy desires, and false needs.
“The wisdom of the master depends on your own capacity to use it
to find yourself.”
freeing ourselves from identification with our thoughts—the firefly, like the awakened human being, arrives at the border where concepts dissolve in the infinite void before it drinks and communes with the world, accepting the unending change of everything that was thought to be fixed and permanent, making a gesture of reverence in gratitude for its ephemeral life.”
“Over the years, countless fears have condensed under your skin in the form of tiny grains: the
fear of dying, of seeing loved ones die, of losing your identity, your territory, work, health. . . . Also,
the auras of the six subtle bodies have been inhibited in their expression, which makes them fold in on themselves, forming an invisible armor attached to the skin, preventing us from union with the true world—not the world we think of, but the one that thinks us. This armor encloses you and separates you from others, from the planet, and from the cosmos. It makes you live in the darkness of hell instead of the light of the soul, which is union. You will come to realize that the human soul is immense..."
Realize how you treat yourself: like a machine or a donkey to be punished. We allow our
body to see, hear, feel, and savor things—but its touch stirs up unwholesome associations. Even when
we are naked, we are wearing gloves. Civilization has turned our hands into tools, weapons, fingers
made to push buttons. Like clever animals, we serve words, but our words serve only concepts. They
have ceased to communicate soul. My son, you do not have two hands; you have two guilt-ridden pairs of pliers. Whenever you touch, you steal. You must relearn to feel your hands. Let me see you open them . . . spread out your fingers, stretch out your palms fully. You see? You can’t do it completely. You have trouble letting go of what you think is yours. You are lugging around an invisible corpse: your security, your fears of possessing nothing, of losing what you think is necessary. You content yourself with a handful of coins, not realizing that all the money on the planet belongs to you."
“Do you now understand the power that you can transmit? If you can get rid of those mental
gloves, your hands will radiate a golden aura.”
I shall conquer your willfulness. You do not yet want to let go of the rage
of your painful memories. They accumulate in your muscles in the form of contractions and these give
you the sensation of existing. If you let go of them, allowing your demand to be loved to disappear
along with your fears of abandonment and your bitterness, you will feel yourself disappearing. My sad
child, you believe that your suffering is who you are.
“Now be aware of the real sensation of your muscles. Stop seeing them through a mental image
of yourself. Every time you catch yourself returning to your mind, return instead to your body
sensations. You are not a character in a movie. If you flee the body to take refuge as an mental
observer, the mind immediately becomes a dungeon. Come now . . . come in further . . . more than
that! Come into your flesh and stay there to learn humility. You understand? Until now, you thought
that humility meant lowering your values, hiding them behind a mask of submission. You must realize that you have been walking through the world without seeing it directly, distracted by what you believed was worthy or unworthy. My child, humility means ceasing to defend your beliefs and prove to others that you have a right to be alive. Let it all go; you have no need to prove anything! Go into your body, uncover it once and for all, relinquish your doubts and defenses, surrender yourself—even if vultures devour your entrails, even if you rot, even if you turn to ashes, let go; every one of your muscles is like a closed box, and I’m going to open them.”
“You are so used to living like a victim that the happiness you are now receiving makes you cry.
You must finish once and for all with this orphan’s suffering."
“The moment you open your mouth to speak ‘the truth,’ you betray yourself.”
"To follow after the Buddha slavishly was no better than rolling in dog shit. As long as I seek the light outside myself, the world will never be at peace. I observed my body invaded by nervousness, I saw my insatiable appetite for knowledge, my desire to plunder the secrets of all the masters instead of realizing myself, instead of repairing the self-esteem that my father, like a competitive child, had destroyed with his sarcasm."
—“Nothing for myself
that is not also for others.” To find yourself is to give yourself to the world, body and soul. To be an
integral part of the world, let things happen naturally, without useless effort, surrendering confidently to the present. In accepting Ejo Takata as my teacher, I had moved from me to you. Yet because I still saw others as them, I had rejected the we.
I was repeating constantly the same mistake: setting up a mental border between
“inside” (my conception of myself) and “outside” (the world that is not myself). I was living as a
subject confronted by an object. Even in saying that the entire earth is a remedy, I was still subtly
trying to use an external object to heal my individual self, not realizing that this very separation of
myself from the world is its sickness. “The world is my life and essential being. Inasmuch as I do not
dissolve this border, I am dead.”
When your mind formulates a wish with true passion, it appears before you in the mirror we call reality.
The only true couple is not a symbiosis, but a collaboration between two free, conscious beings.
You have been searching for a static awakening, whereas there is only continual change . .
Free yourself from all conceptual chains
Zen must adapt itself to each country according to the customs of its people.
“I never surrendered, because the more you struggle, the more possibilities you have of winning
and receiving help. It has always been in the last minutes, when everything seemed lost that
someone came to help me go beyond my limits.”
real madness is to refuse to believe
in miracles.”
June 27, 2024
Alejandro es un poeta. Acompañarlo en su viaje, en sus aprendizajes, puede ser frustrante, cada capítulo parecía aprender lo mismo, en su eterna búsqueda por el amor de una madre ve a las mujeres que se encuentra como un camino para saciar su deseo, en la búsqueda de la aprobación de un padre voltea a su maestro.
Se da de golpes con la verdad, la ve, la entiende, la intelectualiza, intentando imitar el camino de otrxs. Hasta que abraza el suyo. La iluminación deja de ser un premio, se entrega a su arte y asume su aprendizaje como parte de él. Se asume como su arte y así aprende lo que nos viene diciendo desde el inicio del libro.
Leer a Jodorowsky aunque (para mí) a ratos fue frustrante, nunca fue pesado. Sus palabras te llevan, te traen y te regresan. En ocasiones sus largos párrafos, llenos de poesía, entraban en mi cabeza con naturalidad. Leer sus encuentros con Las Magas era eso, mágico.
Encontré este libro en un puesto de libros usados de la FILEY, hasta pocos días antes nunca había escuchado nada de Alejandro Jodorowsky y después de que mi mejor amigo me hablara de él, estaba ahí, delante de mí. Decidí llevármelo. Me gusta creer que todo llega a mí cuando tiene que hacerlo, creo que como Alejandro estoy buscando quién me enseñe y creo que este libro volvió evidente lo que ya sabía: lo que soy nadie me lo puede dar ni quitar y lo que no es no es y ya. Y así con todo.
Me encantó la manera de escribir de este señor con mommy issues y me hizo querer abrir el corazón a lo que está en mi cabezota y a lo que es el mundo y lo que soy dentro de este.
Se da de golpes con la verdad, la ve, la entiende, la intelectualiza, intentando imitar el camino de otrxs. Hasta que abraza el suyo. La iluminación deja de ser un premio, se entrega a su arte y asume su aprendizaje como parte de él. Se asume como su arte y así aprende lo que nos viene diciendo desde el inicio del libro.
Leer a Jodorowsky aunque (para mí) a ratos fue frustrante, nunca fue pesado. Sus palabras te llevan, te traen y te regresan. En ocasiones sus largos párrafos, llenos de poesía, entraban en mi cabeza con naturalidad. Leer sus encuentros con Las Magas era eso, mágico.
Encontré este libro en un puesto de libros usados de la FILEY, hasta pocos días antes nunca había escuchado nada de Alejandro Jodorowsky y después de que mi mejor amigo me hablara de él, estaba ahí, delante de mí. Decidí llevármelo. Me gusta creer que todo llega a mí cuando tiene que hacerlo, creo que como Alejandro estoy buscando quién me enseñe y creo que este libro volvió evidente lo que ya sabía: lo que soy nadie me lo puede dar ni quitar y lo que no es no es y ya. Y así con todo.
Me encantó la manera de escribir de este señor con mommy issues y me hizo querer abrir el corazón a lo que está en mi cabezota y a lo que es el mundo y lo que soy dentro de este.
August 6, 2021
At times it can feel like zen dribble(but isn't that the point?). He has insights into living a spiritual life that are incisive for creatives. Good for seeing a spiritual path that does not involve joining a monastery and devoting your life to it.
February 21, 2022
Osobista podróż Jodorowskiego. W tonie pokory i zwątpienia, mimo bogactwa niesamowitosci, która się przydarza. Anegdoty na końcu niewiarygodnie fascynujące
May 31, 2021
Antes que nada, mi opinión sobre este libro está cargada de prejuicios, pués el autor no me cae bien desde la primera vez que me leí una obra suya, lo encuentro insoportable, engreído, egócentrico, infantil, parcial y sesgado. Así que ya me puse con pocas ganas y aún siendo un libro breve tardé un mes en leerlo.
Básicamente me ha dejado una sensación de vulgaridad; para mí es muy vulgar, pero no por las referencias a partes del cuerpo, actos sexuales, etc, sino por la presunción con la que este hombre busca lo que anda buscando (iluminación, verdad, lo que sea) en otros paradigmas culturales sin ni siquiera preocuparse de intentar deconstruir previamente su propio marco de referencia sociocultural; y va contando sus experiencias creyéndose un anticonformista, un innovador, sin darse cuenta que todo eso puede hacerlo por qué vive en un sistema social que se lo permite en cuanto persona con privilegios.
Las personas de las que aprende son un hombre y quatros mujeres; el hombre es un maestro mientras que las mujeres no son maestras, sino magas (la referencia arquetípica es muy diferente). Con el primero la enseñanza se transmite a través de la palabra y de la meditación, con las otras a través de actos que involucran la sexualidad o que de todas formas giran alrededor del miembro del autor.
Sin más, creo que -para mí- la frase que más representa a Jodorowsky la encontré en las últimas líneas del epílogo: "Si nosotros dos podemos hacer la paz, creo que también los israelitas y los palestinos pueden". Así de simple.
Básicamente me ha dejado una sensación de vulgaridad; para mí es muy vulgar, pero no por las referencias a partes del cuerpo, actos sexuales, etc, sino por la presunción con la que este hombre busca lo que anda buscando (iluminación, verdad, lo que sea) en otros paradigmas culturales sin ni siquiera preocuparse de intentar deconstruir previamente su propio marco de referencia sociocultural; y va contando sus experiencias creyéndose un anticonformista, un innovador, sin darse cuenta que todo eso puede hacerlo por qué vive en un sistema social que se lo permite en cuanto persona con privilegios.
Las personas de las que aprende son un hombre y quatros mujeres; el hombre es un maestro mientras que las mujeres no son maestras, sino magas (la referencia arquetípica es muy diferente). Con el primero la enseñanza se transmite a través de la palabra y de la meditación, con las otras a través de actos que involucran la sexualidad o que de todas formas giran alrededor del miembro del autor.
Sin más, creo que -para mí- la frase que más representa a Jodorowsky la encontré en las últimas líneas del epílogo: "Si nosotros dos podemos hacer la paz, creo que también los israelitas y los palestinos pueden". Así de simple.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 12, 2017
Deeply enjoyable and enlightening, altough at times unnecessarily lengthy.
I couldn't get rid of the feeling that had Jodorowsky choosed a different way of telling the story of his mystique journey, it might have been for the better. First person narration with "transcriptions" of incredibly lenghty and metaphore-heavy monologues of certain protagonists (that he simply couldn't have remembered word by word, therefore he must have made them up from past sensations and memories) kind of subvert his intention and overall authenticity of the text.
Last chapter, where he steps down from the position of all-remembering sage and simply recalls various moments in life when the koans helped him solve seemingly unsolvable situations is one of the best in the entire book, with the exception to those with Ejo Takata.
Not a lifechanging piece of work, but well worthy of reading.
I couldn't get rid of the feeling that had Jodorowsky choosed a different way of telling the story of his mystique journey, it might have been for the better. First person narration with "transcriptions" of incredibly lenghty and metaphore-heavy monologues of certain protagonists (that he simply couldn't have remembered word by word, therefore he must have made them up from past sensations and memories) kind of subvert his intention and overall authenticity of the text.
Last chapter, where he steps down from the position of all-remembering sage and simply recalls various moments in life when the koans helped him solve seemingly unsolvable situations is one of the best in the entire book, with the exception to those with Ejo Takata.
Not a lifechanging piece of work, but well worthy of reading.
January 20, 2016
While you may doubt the veracity of a lot of these stories (things are recounted in incredible detail, especially for tales which frequently involve either the consumption of sake or altered states), to do so would be to miss the point of Jodorowsky in general and this book in particular. Absolutely essential in achieving a deeper understanding of some of my favorite films. And, while not leading me to necessarily the same conclusions, this book has certainly inspired my own quest to begin tearing down the mental, emotional and intellectual walls that I've built. Probably the most important book I'll read this year, and one I see myself coming back to for inspiration again and again.
January 10, 2019
Niezwykła podróż przez rozwój duchowy Jodorowsky'ego. Książka obfituje nie tylko w liczne zagadki i przemyślenia dotyczące Drogi, istoty życia i wszechświata, ale i wyjątkowe i niewiarygodne wydarzenia opisane w tak zajmujący i lekki sposób, że nie sposób nie dać się porwać strumieniowi historii.
Można traktować tę opowieść jak książkę biograficzną, można jak powieść realizmu magicznego - kto wie, jak wygląda rzeczywistość, gdy ma się oczy i serce otwarte.
Można traktować tę opowieść jak książkę biograficzną, można jak powieść realizmu magicznego - kto wie, jak wygląda rzeczywistość, gdy ma się oczy i serce otwarte.
September 26, 2019
a gem, just like jodorowsky's films. this is beautiful and hilarious, full of synchronicity, mystical experiences, vivid descriptions of mexico, koans, shamans, fascinating people, wondrous places... storytelling at its best.
July 10, 2023
Es una novela autobiográfica surrealista, abominable, pretenciosa y aburrida. El transcurrir a la iluminación del protagonista está teñido por un narcisismo importante.
Es el libro que más me fastidió en 50 años de vida. Al principio te aburre con los Koans del budismo Zen. Como ya no lo aguantaba más pasé a otro capítulo y me encuentro con vaginas que cantan canciones de cuna y que no se cuantas cosas más hacen. Me indigno y lo dejo de leer. Lo retomo años después con la intención de leerlo sin prejuicios y con tiempo y me doy cuenta que es aburrido, pretencioso y un bodoque infumable y que no vale la pena. Lo dejo nuevamente para siempre.
Esta bien que te expliquen lo que es un Koan, pero ametrallarte con doscientos koan, siendo que cada uno tiene su complejidad, es un martirio. La batalla de Koans entre el maestro y el gringo es tan previsible como artificial.
Desde que pedestal juzga este señor a George Harrison por no querer mostrar el anoo en una de sus películas (si! tal cual lo leen) Que todavía está preso de su ego dice de Harrison! Y este pretendido iluminado que? No será que el tiene un ego grande como una montaña?
En fin, no me dan ganas de ver ninguna película de Jodorowsky después de esta experiencia.
Es el libro que más me fastidió en 50 años de vida. Al principio te aburre con los Koans del budismo Zen. Como ya no lo aguantaba más pasé a otro capítulo y me encuentro con vaginas que cantan canciones de cuna y que no se cuantas cosas más hacen. Me indigno y lo dejo de leer. Lo retomo años después con la intención de leerlo sin prejuicios y con tiempo y me doy cuenta que es aburrido, pretencioso y un bodoque infumable y que no vale la pena. Lo dejo nuevamente para siempre.
Esta bien que te expliquen lo que es un Koan, pero ametrallarte con doscientos koan, siendo que cada uno tiene su complejidad, es un martirio. La batalla de Koans entre el maestro y el gringo es tan previsible como artificial.
Desde que pedestal juzga este señor a George Harrison por no querer mostrar el anoo en una de sus películas (si! tal cual lo leen) Que todavía está preso de su ego dice de Harrison! Y este pretendido iluminado que? No será que el tiene un ego grande como una montaña?
En fin, no me dan ganas de ver ninguna película de Jodorowsky después de esta experiencia.
January 18, 2024
Genije genije genije, jedan od retkih mudraca savremenog doba.. Neverovatna priča, neverovatne misli. Jedini problem je što mislim da bi bila baš nerazumljiva za nekoga ko nije upoznat sa Zen Budizmom i koanima, a ja sam imao tu sreću da, pola godine pre nego što ću naići na ovu knjigu, pročitam baš onu knjigu koju je on odmah na početku i referencirao, Zen Budizam od Froma i Suzukija. Kroz svaku stranicu se provlače koani, drevna budistička pitanja, na koje je nemoguće razumom naći odgovor. Nije da sam ja sad nešto posebno razumeo te mudrosti, ali mislim da mi je pomogla ta svesnost da i ne moramo nužno razumeti koane, niti njegovo pisanje, dovoljno je da čitamo i upijamo. A možda sam samo glup.
November 20, 2019
Jodorowsky's growing pains and efforts to work through old upsets from his youth allow for instructive learning for the reader, as he reflects upon his own unfolding. This tale could be real or fantasy, it makes no difference, as the ideas that come from it are revelatory. The compassion of the writer and his envisioning of a present that allows each person to become what she or he needs to be in this time is powerful. It is a text that is best revisited and used as fuel for one's own growth.
August 25, 2021
Genial. Un libro autobiográfico, lleno de cuentos y ficciones, historias reales casi inverosímiles; todo según la vision del artista y director de cine Alejandro Jodorowsky. Sus encuentros con las magas, y la conexión con su maestro, la evolución en el transcurso de su narrativa de alumno, a igual, a maestro. Encontré en este fantástico libro, el baile de la vida, mágica de por sí, y como hay similitudes en mi vida, mis maestro/s y mis magas.
Es un libro para volver a leer.
Es un libro para volver a leer.
May 30, 2022
Gostei muito de ler o livro. Não é uma biografia convencional, passa somente por alguns episódios da vida do Jodorowsky e parece muito editada em relação ao que é contado a respeito dos episódios. De alguma maneira lembra O Alquimista ou o Diário de um Mago, e nessa comparação estão o que há de bom e ruim do livro. A tradução que eu li era ruim, ruim ao ponto de eu perceber que era ruim, o que, acredite, não é bom.
August 10, 2025
Debolsillo (Penguin Random House Editorial)
Santiago de Chile, 2023.
Bakan que el libro se tiene que leer al revés.
Un texto autobiográfico con muchas partes ensayistas cuales tienen la naturaleza filosófica basada en el taoísmo.
Describe su vida en México.
No creo en todo que dice Jodorowsky, mi sexto sentido me segura que unas partes inventó para que el texto sea más literario.
Eso fue mi primera lectura de Jodorowsky, hasta ahora su obra, para mi, era solamente una obra cineasta.
Santiago de Chile, 2023.
Bakan que el libro se tiene que leer al revés.
Un texto autobiográfico con muchas partes ensayistas cuales tienen la naturaleza filosófica basada en el taoísmo.
Describe su vida en México.
No creo en todo que dice Jodorowsky, mi sexto sentido me segura que unas partes inventó para que el texto sea más literario.
Eso fue mi primera lectura de Jodorowsky, hasta ahora su obra, para mi, era solamente una obra cineasta.
September 28, 2021
I came into reading this book expecting one thing and finished it receiving something that I hadn't even imagined it existed. Its one of those books that made me reflect on my own sort of journey and where I'm currently in comparison to Jodorowsky when he was around my age. It was quite funny at times, it was a bit sad on others. A lot of koans to find answers to.
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