Idries Shah
Idries Shah
Idries Shah, also known as Idris Shah, né Sayed Idries el-Hashimiand by the pen name Arkon Daraul, was an author and teacher in the Sufi tradition who wrote over three dozen books on topics ranging from psychology and spirituality to travelogues and culture studies...
NationalityIndian
ProfessionAuthor
Date of Birth16 June 1924
CountryIndia
prayer mean emotional
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.
glasses water colour
The colour of the water seems to be the colour of the glass into which it has been poured'.
christian religious taken
Christian scholars often say that Sufi theories are close to those of Christianity. Many Moslems maintain that they are essentially derived from Islam. The resemblance of many Sufi ideas to those of several religious and esoteric systems are sometimes taken as evidence of derivation. The Islamic interpretation is that religion is of one origin, differences being due to local or historical causes.
criticise
Learn to be as analytical about things of which you are credulous as you are of those which you criticise.
attitude trying why-not
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?
path found humans
The Path is not to be found anywhere except in human service
thinking moments truth-is
From time to time ponder whether you are unconsciously saying: 'Truth is what I happen to be thinking at this moment.
real looks common
The more you look at 'common knowledge', the more you realise that it is more likely to be common than it is to be knowledge. No real knowledge is common.
educational thinking goal
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.
information sometimes pessimist
Sometimes a pessimist is only an optimist with extra information.
book mean way
The Way of the Sufis cannot be understood by means of the intellect or by ordinary book learning.
hard-work people effort
Prescribing hard work for the soft, or easy work for the hardy, is generally nonsense. What is always needed in any aim is right effort, right time, right people, right materials.
real secret persons
A real secret is something which only one person knows.
ignorance mean trying
There is a Persian proverb: 'To test that which has been tested is ignorance.' To try to test something without the means of testing is even worse.