“Three Things
Three things cannot be retrieved:
The arrow once sped from the bow
The word spoken in haste
The missed opportunity.
(Ali the Lion, Caliph of Islam, son-in-law of Mohammed the Prophet),”
― Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams
Dear Readers,
Please find below our weekly pearls of wisdom by Idries Shah. He’s buried not very far from where I live. It’s an honour to have such a great man’s resting place near your house.
Idries Shah (16 June 1924 – 23 November 1996), also known as Idris Shah, né Sayed Idries el-Hashimi (Arabic: سيد إدريس هاشمي) and by the pen name Arkon Daraul, was an author and teacher in the Sufi tradition who wrote over three dozen books on topics ranging from psychology and spirituality to travelogues and culture studies. He devoted his life to collecting, selecting and translating key works of Eastern Sufi classical literature, adapting them to the needs of the West and disseminating them in the Occident.
Called by some ‘practical philosophy’, by others ‘templates in straight thinking’ – these works represent centuries of Sufi thought aimed at the development of human potential to its fullest extent.
We hope you’ll enjoy these pearls of wisdom as much as we have .
Study the assumptions behind your actions. Then study the assumptions behind your assumptions.
Nowadays, few people contest the importance of knowing about conditioning in order to examine belief-systems. Why, therefore, is it so difficult to communicate with so many people along these lines? The answer is very simple. We are at a stage in understanding human behaviour analogous to that which obtained when people began to try to talk of chemistry to those who were fixated upon the hope of untold wealth (or, sometimes, spiritual enlightenment) through alchemy. Like the alchemist or those who want easy riches, people want dramatic inputs (emotional stimuli, excitement, reassurance, authority-figures and the rest) rather than knowledge.
It is only when the desire for knowledge and understanding becomes as effective as the craving for emotional stimulus that the individual becomes accessible to change, to knowledge, to more than a very little understanding.
So learning must be preceded by the capacity to learn. THAT, in turn, comes about at least in part by right attitude. And THAT, again, is where the would-be learner has to exercise effort.
From ‘The Commanding Self ‘ Idries Shah
“Right time, right place, right people equals success.
Wrong time, wrong place, wrong people equals most of the real human history.”
― Idries Shah, Reflections
“Enlightenment must come little by little – otherwise it would overwhelm.”
― Idries Shah
“You must empty out the dirty water before you fill the pitcher with clean.”
― Idries Shah
“Opinion is usually something which people have when they lack comprehensive information.”
― Idries Shah, Reflections
“Materialism, attachment to things of the world, includes pride. Many religious people suffer from pride: taking pleasure or even delight in being good, or religious.”
― Idries Shah, Sufi Thought and Action
Knowledge is not gained, it is there all the time. It is the “veils” which have to be dissolved in the mind.
Meditation – Before you learn how to meditate, you must unlearn what you think meditation might be.
Please, not again what you studied, how long you spent at it, how many books you wrote, what people thought of you – but: what did you learn?
