Idries Shah Quotes - Page 10

I longed to teach, but I had to wait until the desire had left me before I could really do so.

Sufis aim to refine human consciousness. This is Sufi mysticism: not mystification or magic, but a specific Path.

THE HEAVENSTo the mallet of the Highest MindThe heavens are the smallest possible ball.(Akhlaq-i-Mohsini)

Saying of the ProphetTasksWhoever makes all his tasks one task, God will help him in his other concerns.

Careful preparation is necessary before people can perceive something which is there all the time.

Real generosity is anonymous to the extent that a man should be prepared even to be considered ungenerous rather than explain it to others.

The teaching must, of course, work with the best part of the individual, must be directed to his or her real capacity.

Sufism, in one definition, "is" human life.

It is not only a matter of not caring who knows - it is also a matter of knowing who cares.

If you are covetous, you are a prisoner: If you are greedy, you will never be filled.

The people of the world have a fixed destiny. But the spiritually developed receive what is “not” in their destiny.

Definitions from Mulla Do-PiazaSupporter: Someone who will say anything.

Humility cannot be taught by propaganda, though slavery can. Shouting for humility is a form of arrogance. One of my most abiding recollections is of a priest at a religious occasion once roaring, in the most threatening way imaginable: t‘O our Lord God, we most humbly pray…!’Real humility is not always the same as apparent humility. Remember that fighting against self-conceit is still fighting: and that it will tend to suppress it temporarily. It does not cure anything.Remember, too, that humility itself does not bring an automatic reward: it is a means to an end. It enables a person to operate in a certain manner.

Sufism is known by means of itself.

Enlightenment must come little by little - otherwise it would overwhelm.

Show a man too many camels' bones,or show them to him too often,and he will not be able to recognize a camel when he comes across a live one.

Sufism is always systematised only for limited or transitory periods: because Sufism is primarly instrumental, not for enjoyment or display.

The Apparent is the Bridge to the Real

Sufism, they say, is that which enables one to understand religion, irrespective of its current outward form.

The Sufis regard systems which treat everyone alike as mechanical and degenerate.

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.

If you have two shirts, sell one and with the money buy a flower’.

Patience is a garment which has never worn out.

A short time in the presence of the Friends (the Sufis) is better than a hundred years’ sincere, obedient dedication.

He who knows himself, knows his Lord' means, among other things, that self-deception prevents knowledge.

Opinion is usually something which people have when they lack comprehensive information.

Most of the supposedly Sufi organizations, exercises and “orders” are in fact only of archaeological interest.

A motto of the human race: Let me do as I like, and give me approval as well.

Neither imagine that you are false, nor lash yourself, for both may be forms of self-indulgence.

Well-meant techniques such as arbitrary self-mortification, are useless.