Idries Shah Quotes - Page 8

Forms are vehicles and instruments, and vehicles and instruments cannot be called good or bad without context.

If you seek a teacher, try to become a real student. If you want to be a student, try to find a real teacher.

Whoever gives knowledge to a fool loses itAnd who keeps it from the deserving does wrong.

The major barrier to understanding is wishful thinking and following that which pleases one.

It is the message, not the man, which is important to the Sufis.

And Rumi tells us, ‘Soul receives from soul that knowledge, therefore not by book nor from tongue’.

Saying of the ProphetObligation to LearnThe pursuit of knowledge is obligatory on every Muslim.

He discards a quilt for fear of bugs.

Much religious teaching in the world is in reality a confused or deteriorated form, very different from its roots.

Definitions from Mulla Do-PiazaPatience: A support for the disappointed.

Saying of the Prophet.Lies, promises, trustHe is not of mine who lies, breaks a promise or fails in his trust.

Forms have changed through the centuries in obedience to the external world to which all forms belong.

The bird which has no knowledge of pure water, has his beak in salt water all year round.

Learning how to learn involves examining assumptions. Mulla Nasrudin tales very often fulfil this funcition.

They asked Abboud of Omdurman: 'Which is better, to be young or to be old?' He said: 'To be old is to have less time before you and more mistakes behind. I leave you to decide whether this is better than the reverse.

Give and TakeThe Chief takes less than he is givenAnd gives more than he has taken

Saying of the ProphetStruggleThe holy warrior is he who struggles with himself.

Many things which are called 'secrets' are only things withheld from people until they can understand or effectively experience them.

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.

DeathIf he is a good man, death will be a release;If he is a bad one, it will release others from him.

Saying of the Prophet.Ink and Blood:The ink of the learned is holier than the blood of the martyr.

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.

The institution of teachership is there for this reason, that the learner must learn how to learn.

Saying of the ProphetAngerYou ask for a piece of advice. I tell you: 'Do not get angry.' He is strong who can withhold anger.

One day we will all wear a garment which has no pockets...

Superior experience and knowledge will be made available to a man or woman in exact accordance with his worth, capacity and earning of it

It is the goldsmith who can assay the gold.

If you want special illumination, look upon the human face:See clearly within laughter the Essence of Ultimate Truth.

Generosity is also marked by doing what one says one will do.

If you want to strengthen an enemy and make him exult - hate him.

Definitions from Mulla Do-PiazaBribetSubstitute for law, which is a substitute for justice.

If you will not reprove yourself,’ Saadi says, ‘you will not welcome reproof from another.

You have come a long way, and you do not know it. You have a long way to go, and you do know what that means.

Salute to the Thief. Junaid of Baghdad was passing the scene of a public hanging, where a thief was on the scaffold. Junaid bowed towards the criminal. Someone asked him: 'What did you do that?' Junaid said: 'I was bowing before his single-mindedness. For his aim, that man has given his life.

Saying of the ProphetSome behaviourI am like a man who has lighted a fire, and all the creeping things have rushed to burn themselves in it.

The aspirant has to be guided by a mentor. The stage at which this guidance can take effect is seldom, if ever, perceptible to the learner.

Definitions from Mulla Do-Piaza. Worry: Something to make you unnecessarily ill.

You can perceive a person's aspiration if it is genuine, because this creates a change in the emanations from such a person.

You may have forgotten the Way: But those who came beforeDid not forget you.Saying of Master Bahaudin Naqshband of Bokhara

When a belief becomes more than an instrument, you are lost. You remain lost until you learn what 'belief' is really for.

BARQI: AESTHETICS IS ONLY THE LOWEST FORM OF PERCEPTION OF THE REAL.

People think that they think things, and they also think that they know things. They could usefully give some attention to the question of whether they know what they think and know what they think they know.

...most systems end up by making imagined humility into a form of vanity, so they end up with vanity just the same.

Saying of the ProphetTHE PEOPLEIt is the people who are God's family.(Muhammad the Prophet)

The liar has a bad memory.

One cannot learn from someone whom one distrusts.

People today are in danger of drowning in information; but, because they have been taught that information is useful, they are more willing to drown than they need be. If they could handle information, they would not have to drown at all.

There are as many paths to Truth as there are souls of men.

There is a saying that, according to what a person's mentality is, even an angel may seem to him to have a devil's face.

Ibn El-Arabi wrote, ‘The Teacher is he who hears you, then unveils you to yourself

History is not usually what has happened. History is what some people have thought to be significant.

The tongue is the best masseur of furrowed brows.

If you seek small things to do, and do them well, great things will seek you, and demand to be performed.

Patience is bitter, but bears a sweet fruit.

Knowledge cannot be attained except through humility.

Worry is a cloud which rains destruction.

One should not pray if that prayer is vanity.

Better the demon which makes you improve than the angel who threatens.

As the Eastern saying, by the sage Hilali, has it, 'one person who understands is worth a hundred who merely obey a custom.

Voice in the nightA voice whispered to me last night: 'There is no such thing as a voice whispering in the night!