“Learning how to learn involves examining assumptions. Mulla Nasrudin tales very often fulfil this funcition.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“They say: 'Seek wisdom while you have the strength, or you may lose the strength without gaining wisdom.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“He who knows himself, knows his Lord' means, among other things, that self-deception prevents knowledge.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
Study the assumptions behind your actions. Then study the assumptions behind your assumptions. — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“One of the basic Sufi needs is to enable people to see themselves as they really are.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
If your desire for 'good' is based on greed, it is not good, but greed. — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The institution of teachership is there for this reason, that the learner must learn how to learn.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The selection and following of a spiritual guide is the most important duty of a Sufi.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Remedy Your medicine is in you, and you do not observe it. Your ailment is from yourself, and you do not register… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Self-mortification, far from producing liberation from material things, is far more likely to cause either an unhinged mind, delusions or a masochistic… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“There can be no spirituality, according to the Sufi masters, without psychology, psychological insight and sociological balance.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Abu-Yaqub al-Susi declara que el Sufi es “alguien que no se preocupa cuando le quitan algo, pero que no cesa de buscar… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
He that is purified by love is pure; and he that is absorbed in the Beloved and hath abandoned all else is… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Abu-Yaqub al-Susi: the Sufi is 'One who does not care when something is taken from him, but who does not cease to… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Real generosity is anonymous to the extent that a man should be prepared even to be considered ungenerous rather than explain it… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Many a “learned” man is destroyed by ignorance and by the learning which is of no use to him’ (Hadrat Ahmed ibn… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
Christian scholars often say that Sufi theories are close to those of Christianity. Many Moslems maintain that they are essentially derived from… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“It is no accident that Sufis find that they can connect most constructively with people who are well integrated into the world,… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The Sufi way is through knowledge and practice, not through intellect and talk. As Prince Dara Shikoh says, in a Persian poem:… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
Like the bat, the Sufi is asleep to 'things of the day' - the familiar struggle for existence which the ordinary man… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
There is a succession of experiences which together constitute the educational and developmental ripening of the learner, according to the Sufis. People… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
We view Sufism not as an ideology that molds people to the right way of belief or action, but as an art… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
The main problem is that most commentators are accustomed to thinking of spiritual schools as 'systems', which are more or less alike,… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
Scholars of the East and West have heroically consecrated their whole working lives to making available, by means of their own disciplines,… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Sufis are those who have expunged from their minds the human tendencies of envy and enmity.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The Sufi teacher’s mission is to be in the service of those who can learn.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
When Fortune knocks, open the door,' they say. But why should one make fortune knock, by keeping the door shut? — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The major barrier to understanding is wishful thinking and following that which pleases one.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Cuando se ejercita la humildad, la gente comienza a advertir que, por así decirlo, no existe en modo alguno.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Virtually all organisations known to you work largely by means of your greed.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“To be a Sufi is to detach from fixed ideas and from preconceptions; and not to try to avoid what is your… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
When a belief becomes more than an instrument, you are lost. You remain lost until you learn what 'belief' is really for. — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The Sufis,' runs the saying, 'understand with their hearts what the most learned scholars cannot understand with their minds” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Aprender a aprender: Decir "sí" a la vía sufi es decir "no" a las fugas imaginadas.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“To be a Sufi is to detach from fixed ideas and from preconceptions; and not to try to avoid what is your lot.” — Idries Shah Copy Share
Prescribing hard work for the soft, or easy work for the hardy, is generally nonsense. What is always needed in any aim is right… — Idries Shah Copy Share
A king who feared wasps once decreed that they were abolished. As it happened, they did him no harm. But he was eventually stung… — Idries Shah Copy Share
“Do not tell your secrets to everyone in this headquarters, Earth. We have surveyed it well. There was nobody to whom to entrust secrets.” — Idries Shah Copy Share
“Sufis are those who have expunged from their minds the human tendencies of envy and enmity.” — Idries Shah Copy Share
The human being, whether he realises it or not, is trusting someone or something every moment of the day. — Idries Shah Copy Share
“You may be able to get the bone down your throat But if it reaches your stomach it will tear your navel. (Gulistan)” — Idries Shah Copy Share
“People are always trying to understand. There is only one way to do that. It is to discover < + i + >why< +… — Idries Shah Copy Share
We view Sufism not as an ideology that molds people to the right way of belief or action, but as an art or science… — Idries Shah Copy Share
