Report to Greco

The spiritual travels to find himself and his inner soul are fascinating and the geography covered is extensive and with Kazantzakis' descriptions of the scenery, one feels that they are walking right along side him from Europe to Greece, the Mid East and beyond. At one point, Kazantzakis is traveling with his friend Buddhaki to Mt. Athos to visit the many monasteries there and they come upon a Father Makarios. They muse on the ego, separation from God, etc., and when it is time to go, the good Father says, ["Good luck. God be with you." And a moment later, mockingly: "Regards to the world." "Regards to heaven," I retorted. "And tell God it's not our fault but his-because He made the world so beautiful."] (p 225) On a trip to Jerusalem they meet a young man who ["...was passionately condemning the dishonesty and injustice of present-day economic and social life. The masses went hungry while the great and powerful piled up fortunes. Women sold themselves, priest did not believe, both heaven and the infernal pit were here on earth. The afterlife did not exist; here was where we had to find justice and happiness.... Cries rang out: "Yes, yes, you're right!" "Fire and axe!" Only one person attempted to object." ..."It was frightening. The purpose of trip was to worship the sweet, familiar face of God-so gentle, so tortured, so filled with hopes for life everlasting." ..."...we were carrying as a terrifying gift the seed of a new, dangerous, and as yet unformed cosmogony."] (p 245) Later and on the road to the Dead Sea, "I had found it necessary to purge my bowels and expel the demons inside me-wolves, monkeys, women; minor virtues, minor joys, successes-so that I could remain simply an upright flame directed toward heaven. Now that I was a man, what was I doing but enacting what I had so ardently desired as a child in the courtyard of our family home! A person is only born once; I would never have another chance!" (p 252) *Kazantzakis begins to summarize his spiritual journey with, "Our journey to the fatal intellectual Golgotha thus becomes more loaded with responsibility because now, looking at the Cretans, we know that if we fail to become human, the fault is ours, ours alone. For this lofty species-man-exists, he made his appearance on earth, and there is no longer any justification whatever for our deterioration and cowardice." (p 441)* At the end is, "Just then-as fate was in a mood to play games-I made the acquaintance of an elderly mineworker named Alexis Zorba." (Zorba the Greek). This leads Kazantzakis to an introductory chapter on Zorba wherein he states, "My life's greatest benefactors have been journeys and dreams. Very few people, living or dead, have aided my struggle. If, however, I wished to designate which people left their traces imbedded most deeply in my soul, I would perhaps designate Homer, Buddha, Nietzsche, Bergson, and Zorba." (p 445) Kazantzakis was a prolific writer with incredible insight and wisdom and some of

I have read the book in both the original Greek and the translated version. The translated version is exceptional which is a rarity in literature. The book is a quasi-autobiography of Nikos Kazantzakis but the main theme is not his life. It's the spiritual struggle of man to find his place on earth and to understand the concept of a God. A deeply spiritual person, Kazantzakis, struggled throughout his life trying to draw the right path for him. He traveled throughout the world in order to witness how other cultures dealt with the same notions. He returns home at the end because the call of his birth land is too strong. The book is written supposedly as an account to his grandfather, an arab pirate, but a view also exists that it is a report to El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos), a famous Greek artist (1541-1614). Kazantzakis was a great admirer of El Greco and a visit to his homeland is described in the book. Kazantzakis is a literary giant, Albert Camus was one of his friends and admirers, and the book is not for the casual reader.To me this is the book I would choose to have if I was only allowed to own one book.

This superb tome is meant to be read as part metaphor, part autobiography, and part myth. A truly glorious and inspirational work. Here, fellow readers, is the essence of the book: "Rise up, brothers! Join the struggle of life! Have no fear! Yes, all is vanity, but by boldly confronting the Abyss and experiencing each day anew, we can overcome the pettiness and sheepishness of the Age! Stand and fight! Though life is but a finite struggle, do not despair! Live life to its fullest! By doing so, each one of us may existentially triumph over our own mortality." Remember what is written on Kazantzakis' tombstone in Crete: "I want nothing, I fear nothing. I am free!"

To make the most of this occasionally confusing spiritual journey, one ought to pay close attention to the introduction by Helen Kazantzakis, Kazantzakis' wife of 33 years. She tells us that, with the exception of the first chapter, REPORT TO GRECO was still in first draft form when Kazantzakis died, and that "If he had been able to rewrite this Report, he would have changed it. Exactly how, we cannot know." It is a "mixture of fact and fiction." And, finally that, if he had lived long enough, "he would have poured it . . . . into the mold of reality."She also states that his times (i.e. the sequence of events as he relates them) are wrong. In fact, if you read a bibliography of his works, you will find that both "Zorba" and "The Odyssey, a Modern Sequel." were written much earlier in his life than one would infer from what Kazantzakis has written in this book.Whatever it is, REPORT TO GRECO is not an autobiography. If this is the case, what then, is it? I believe it to be the story of one man's lifelong search for his own raison d'etre. For many years he didn't seem to be consciously aware of his own motivation.His quest led him first to the Christian Saints and Christ; then to his teacher, the French philosopher Henri Bergson; then to the philosophic teachings of Nietzsche; then to Buddha and Lenin; and finally to the Odysseus within himself. Dominating all of these was his own Cretan soul. Each time he moved from one philosophy or set of teachings to the next, he thought that the new one was the answer he sought, and that he was discarding the old. What he finally came to realize was that, all along, he had been building, not rejecting. The culmination of this search came with his sequel to Homer's "Odyssey."Kazantzakis was a child of Crete, and it was to Crete that he always returned for rejuvenation. It was also the spirit of Crete and his Cretan forebears that infused all his works. According to him, his works went through a sort of internal germination period, and only when THEY were ready to be written could he begin to write. This was particularly so when he wrote "Zorba, the Greek." Zorba was a real person who, in the three months that Kazantzakis and Zorba spent together, had taught Kazantzakis "how to live and how to love life." Kazantzakis says that after he heard that Zorba had died,it took months before the story of Zorba allowed itself to be written,I would love to have been able to experience Crete with the eyes and soul of Kazantzakis. Whin I visited the site of Knossos, I saw archeological ruins and reconstructions, mosaics and frescoes, pots and statuary, ancient cart roads, what may or may not have been part of the famous labyrinth, and the religiously symbolic double axe. I'm afraid, though, that I only saw them as objects. When Kazantzakis would visit Knossos, which he frequently did throughout his life, he would feel its mystery. As an example, in a fresco of a flying fish (dolphin?), he sensed bo

How can one put down on words the synopsis of the Teacher's life? His childhood years in the island of Crete where he was first subjected to the demonic spirit of Cretans. The relationship to the Turks (at that time occupiers of Crete), this inexpicable relation of hatred, necessity and mysteriously enough love, albeit disguised. His puberty years in Naxos and his adolescence years, the time of self discovery... The time with Sikelianos, the quest of knoledge and the burst of the Search at the Holy Mountain. His travels to Europe, Aftrica and Asia.This a brief and inappropriate summary of a boook that touches on all aspects of self exploration, a book that nurishes our eternal struggle to reach - to find God. The path of the few and as Kazantzakis reflects : "Eagles I wnated them to be, wings they did not have, they crushed on the rocks..." Should one wish to delve on the psyche of such prolific a writer then one should remember that the power of the Teacher's words can reach the inner depth of a soul and induce the silent desperation of being, the single monopole; who has strength enough to stare it, who ?