Idries Shah Quotes - Page 7

The word 'choice' is a fraud while people choose only what they have been taught to choose.

Saying of the ProphetHumilityHumility and courtesy are themselves a part of piety.

A Sufi is one who is not bound by anything nor does he bind anything

Form is useful, but it is secondary.

Ignorance is the Mother of Opposition

Deep in the sea are riches beyond compare. But if you seek safety, it is on the shore.

Sufism is the essence of all religions.

What you are pleased to call Sufism is merely the record of past method.

Our heads are filled with ‘knowledge’, a knowledge that in some areas pre-empts our seeing anything at all.

Two people can illustrate crudity to you.The first is the crude man, whom you see perceiving the diamond as a stone.The other is the refined man, who makes clear to you the crudity of the first one.

With enough information, it is almost impossible "not" to predict people's action.

God provides the food, men provide the cooks.

To say "yes" to the Sufi way is to say "no" to imagined escapes.

The definition of the word 'finished' is: 'This word means finished.

Knowledge. How curious that a man who closes his hand upon air so often thinks that he has a ruby within his grasp.

These lecture provide material for the consideration of common factors, in theory and in development, from the viewpoint of the idea of surrender to the Divine Will, reviewing some aspects of the interplay between Christians and Moslems, and introducing material from and about Sufis.

Study institutions may become visible when the head is more emptied of imaginings.

Sufism is education, in that it has a body of knowledge which it transmits to those who have not got it.

When sense has left a head, it should be called a tail.

When you feel least interested in following the Way which you have entered, this may be the time when it is most appropriate for you.

Sufis deny the absolute reality of time, space and physical form. These things are both relative and local. They only appear to be absolute.

One of the basic Sufi needs is to enable people to see themselves as they really are.

Much smoke has been seen, and caused great fear of fire — even when no fire ensued.

Man (as he imagines himself to be), in general, is a possibility, not a fact.

Almost every day I am reminded of Saadi's reflection that there is no senseless tyranny like that of subordinates.

The degree of necessity determines the development of organs in man… therefore increase your necessity.

If you really want to learn, do not be surprised if someone tries to teach you. And do not lightly reject the method.

If your desire for 'good' is based on greed, it is not good, but greed.

Brave is the thief who carries a lamp in his hand.

Hariri says, in his Maqamat: ‘Safety is on the river’s BANK.

What you have to learn is how to find the unworldly in everything.

A donkey eats a melon, it remains a donkey

They have fixed our nutrition and arranged our life-span. More than this, and ahead of this, efforts will not be productive.

If a Manx cat tells you that it is trying to preserve its long, beautiful tail, you don't have to believe it - especially if you have eyes.

WisdomSufian said: 'The wisdom which is invisible but which sustains is a hundred times better than the appearance of wisdom, for that has itself to be sustained.

If you are 'humble', it may help you in ordinary life. If you are not, you will get nowhere in higher things.

if... says: 'Do not be greedy, be generous', you may inwardly interpret this in such a manner that you will develop a greed for generosity

He is the completed Man who, from his completeness, performs, with his Mastership, the work of a slave.

The human being, whether he realises it or not, is trusting someone or something every moment of the day.

It is not 'Have I got a chance?' It is more often: 'Have I seen my chance?

You can keep going on much less attention than you crave.

Why did I do such-and-such a thing?' is all very well. But what about 'How otherwise could I have done it?

Sayings of the ProphetTrust: Trust in God – but tie your camel first.

Trying to force something is the best way to stop it happening.

Definitions from Mulla Do-PiazaEmotionalist:A man or woman who thinks he has experienced the divine.

Self-mortification, far from producing liberation from material things, is far more likely to cause either an unhinged mind, delusions or a masochistic taste for more suffering, experienced, of course, as joy.

Contrary to Expectation. A wise man, the wonder of his age, taught his disciples from a seemingly inexhaustible store of wisdom. He attributed all his knowledge to a thick tome which was kept in a place of honour in his room. The sage would allow nobody to open the volume. When he died, those who had surrounded him, regarding themselves as his heirs, ran to open the book, anxious to possess what it contained. They were surprised, confused and disappointed when they found that there was writing on only one page. They became even more bewildered and then annoyed when they tried to penetrate the meaning of the phrase which met their eyes. It was: 'When you realise the difference between the container and the content, you will have knowledge.

Definitions from Mulla Do-PiazaPenitent: Someone who has been made incapable of enjoying himself.

Correct teaching brings out human excellence.

Sufism was formerly a reality without a name: now it is a name without a reality.

Abu-Yaqub al-Susi: 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.

The hearts of the noble are the graves of confidences.

The totality of life cannot be understood, so runs Sufi teaching, if it is studied only through the methods which we use in everyday living.

There is no wisdom where there is no common sense: it cannot under those conditions find any expression.

A great deal of thought is only a substitute for the thoughts that the individual would really find useful at the time.

Q: How can I help myself?A: By remembering the proverb: ‘The Path is not to be found anywhere except in human service’, from Saadi.

Have the nature of a dervish: then wear a stylish cap.

Knowledge is something which you can use. Belief is something which uses you.

The existence of relative truth does not prove the non-existence of universal truth.

And there are many people, both Moslem and Christian, who have a good grasp of each others0 conceptions of surrender to God an other principles. But the widespread existence of bias, misinformation and lack of knowledge (…) militate against the effectiveness of dialogue, (…) by the most subtle and one of the most effective of instruments, the subconscious, almost the subliminal, introduction of hostility.