The colour of the water seems to be the colour of the glass into which it has been poured'. Idries Shah More Quotes by Idries Shah More Quotes From Idries Shah There is a succession of experiences which together constitute the educational and developmental ripening of the learner, according to the Sufis. People who think that each gain is the goal itself will freeze at any such stage, and cannot learn through successive and superseding lessons. Idries Shah educationalpeoplethinking You need not wonder whether you should have an unreliable person as a friend. An unreliable person is nobody's friend. Idries Shah should-havewonderneeds When prayer, rituals and ascetic life are just a means of self-indulgence, they are harmful rather than beneficial. This is quite obvious to people nowadays, when it is widely recognised that fixations are not the same as valuable and laudable observances. One should not pray if that prayer is vanity; rituals are wrong when they provide lower satisfactions, like emotional stimulus instead of enlightenment; he or she should not be an ascetic who is only enjoying it. Idries Shah emotionalprayermean Sometimes a pessimist is only an optimist with extra information. Idries Shah pessimistinformationsometimes When the ignorant have become numerous or powerful enough, they have been referred to by a special name. This names is 'the Wise'. Idries Shah powerfulwisenames Anyone can see that an ass laden with books remains a donkey. A human being laden with the undigested results of a tussle with thoughts and books, however, still passes for wise. Idries Shah asswisebook The secret of Sufism is that it has no secret at all'. Idries Shah sufismsecret If you are uninterested in what I say, there's an end to it. If you like what I say, please try to understand which previous influences have made you like it. If you like some of the things I say, and dislike others, you could try to understand why. If you dislike all I say, why not try to find out what formed your attitude? Idries Shah why-notattitudetrying If the path has been laid down, why the successive appearance of different teachers? Why would anyone reinvent the wheel, if everything were as cosy and sequential as primitive longing so easily convinces us? Idries Shah convince-usdifferentteacher Like the bat, the Sufi is asleep to 'things of the day' - the familiar struggle for existence which the ordinary man finds all-important - and vigilant while others are asleep. In other words, he keeps awake the spiritual attention dormant in others. That 'mankind sleeps in a nightmare of unfulfillment' is a commonplace of Sufi literature Idries Shah strugglespiritualsleep The learned person who only talks will never Penetrate to the inner heart of humans. Idries Shah learned-personlisteningheart No practice exists in isolation. Idries Shah isolationpractice The Sufi is One who does not care when something is taken from him, but who does not cease to seek for what he has not. Idries Shah caretakendoe It is not important to have said a thing first, or best - or even most interestingly. What is important is to say it on the right occasion. Idries Shah importantsaidfirsts One can give or withhold in a manner far more effective, sophisticated, useful, which is quite invisible to people who think that giving or withholding is done by external assessment. If you seek some mark of favour or 'promotion', know that you are not ready for it. Progress comes through capacity to learn, and is irresistible. Nobody can stand between you and knowledge if you are fit for it. Idries Shah assessmentpeoplethinking To be obsessed by the idea of freedom, for instance, is itself a form of slavery. Such people are in the chains of the hope of freedom, and are therefore able to do little else than struggle with them. Idries Shah strugglepeopleideas We view Sufism not as an ideology that molds people to the right way of belief or action, but as an art or science that can exert a beneficial influence on individuals and societies, in accordance with the needs of those individuals and societies ... Sufi study and development gives one capacities one did not have before. Idries Shah viewspeopleart The union of the mind and intuition which brings about illumination, and the development which the Sufis seek, is based upon love. Idries Shah illuminationintuitionmind Scholars of the East and West have heroically consecrated their whole working lives to making available, by means of their own disciplines, Sufi literary and philosophical material to the world at large. In many cases they have faithfully recorded the Sufis' own reiteration that the Way of the Sufis cannot be understood by means of the intellect or by ordinary book learning. Idries Shah philosophicalmeanbook A real secret is something which only one person knows. Idries Shah realpersonssecret
