Quotes from Idries Shah

Whoever has not first dug a well, should not steal a minaret.

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

La sabiduría es cuando entiendes lo que previamente, y en el mejor de los casos, sabías.

LA RESPUESTA A UN TONTO El proverbio dice que "la respuesta a un tonto es el silencio": La observación, sin embargo, indica que prácticamente cualquier otra respuesta tendrá el mismo efecto a largo plazo.

To send a kiss by messenger.

I asked a child, walking with a candle, 'From where comes that light?' Instantly he blew it out. 'Tell me where it is gone — then I will tell you where it came from.' (Hasan of Basra)

The practice of the Sufis is too sublime to have a formal beginning

People in this civilization are starving in the middle of plenty. This is a civilization that is going down, not because it hasn't got the knowledge that would save it, but because nobody will use the knowledge.

Sufism is experiential

Correct teaching brings out human excellence.

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

Put your dough into the oven when it is hot: After making sure that it is in fact dough.

Saying of the Prophet Objects It is your attachment to objects which make you blind and deaf.

Ejercita el poder por medio de la amabilidad, y podrás estar causando más daño que por la crueldad. Ninguno de estos abordajes es correcto.

El Sufismo es, en funcionamiento, pragmático.

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.

The colour of the water seems to be the colour of the glass into which it has been poured

The phenomenal is the channel to the Truth. Al mujazu qantarat al Haqiqa.

Each flies with its own kind: pigeon with pigeon, hawk with hawk.

Cuando te des cuenta de la diferencia entre el contenedor y el contenido, tendrás conocimiento.

A Sufi has a right to be served, but he has no right to demand. Maruf Karkhi of Khorasan

Proverbs and truisms are for this reason dangerous, because they produce blindness or non-thought.

IMPRESSIONS Time brought a thousand impressions. Not one of them had I seen in the mirror of the imagination. (Anwar-i-Suhaili)

Understanding and knowledge are completely different sensations in the realm of Truth than they are in the realm of society.