Quotes from Idries Shah

ANDAKI: EFFORT IS NOT EFFORT WITHOUT ZAMAN, MAKAN, IKHWAN (RIGHT TIME, RIGHT PLACE, RIGHT PEOPLE).

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

SENTENCES OF THE KHAJAGAN RUDBARI : Heart to heart is an essential means of passing on the secrets of the Path.

Cualquier cosa puede interponerse entre tú y el conocimiento, si eres inepto para éste.

Yo anhelaba enseñar, pero tuve que esperar a que el deseo se desvaneciera antes de que pudiese hacerlo realmente.

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

But the Sufis work IN the world, and therefore WITH 'things of the world'.

Eruditos de Oriente y Occidente consagraron heroicamente sus existencias profesionales a poner a disposición del público el material literario y filosófico sufi, utilizando para ello sus propias disciplinas. En muchos casos hicieron referencia a la insistencia de los propios sufis en que el camino de los sufis no puede ser comprendido valiéndose del intelecto o mediante el común aprendizaje a través de libros.

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

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

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

Una barba mejor que la tuya. "Todos los verdaderos devotos llevan barba," dijo el Imán a su audiencia. "Muéstrenme una barba espesa y brillante, y yo les mostraré a un verdadero creyente!" "Mi cabra tiene una barba mucho más tupida y larga que la tuya," contestó Nasrudín. "¿Eso significa que es mejor musulmán que tú?".

The basic urge toward mysticism is never, in the unaltered man, clear enough to be recognized for what it is.

Definitions from Mulla Do-Piaza Community: Irrationals unified by hope of the impossible.

Hay un proverbio persa: "Examinar lo que ha sido examinado es ignorancia". Intentar examinar algo sin los medios para hacerlo es aún peor.

Lo Aparente es el Puente hacia lo Real'.

The hearts of the noble are the graves of confidences.

It is experience which teaches, not controversy based on supposed logic and assumptions of what is likely to be true.

Definitions from Mulla Do-Piaza Intellectual: One who knows no craft.

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

To drown in treacle is just as unpleasant as to drown in mud.

Knowledge of yourself may involve, if we are learning at the present time, a knowledge of the way of thinking of your society and to realise that you are probably its product, and that this knowledge can be attained in fact by such anthropological and psychological observations made by the Sufis in the course of their teaching how to pursue new and more promising extra perspectives.

Sufis hold that the superior experience and knowledge comes to a man or woman in exact accordance with his worth,capacity,and earning of it.

Trust is needed before lessons can be learnt.