Quotes by Idries Shah

About Idries Shah:

Idries Shah 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.
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Like the bat, the Sufi is asleep to 'things of the day' - the familiar struggle for existence which the ordinary man finds all-important - and vigilant while others are asleep. In other words, he keeps awake the spiritual attention dormant in others....

Idries Shah

Al Sufismo se lo conoce por medio de sí mismo.

Idries Shah

Sufism, in one definition, "is" human life.

Idries Shah

Sólo la búsqueda de la verdad resulta válida, siendo el deseo de saber el motivo inicial. El método es la asimilación, no el estudio.

Idries Shah

El camino de los sufis no puede ser comprendido valiéndose del intelecto o mediante el común aprendizaje a través de libros.

Idries Shah

La visión de Dios en la mujer es la más perfecta de todas.” Ibn el Arabi

Idries Shah

Sufism, the "secret tradition," is not available on the basis of assumptions which belong to another world, the world of intellect.

Idries Shah

Lo Aparente es el Puente hacia lo Real’.

Idries Shah

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

Idries Shah

The sufis believe that they can experience something more complete.

Idries Shah

The donkey which brought you to this door must be dismissed if you want to get through it’.

Idries Shah

it was being written in the East that 'Sufism was formerly a reality without a name: now it is a name without a reality'.

Idries Shah

Sufism is experiential. Capacities, even those for learning beyond a certain point, are provoked by Sufis, by one's own efforts and what results from them, and by an element of what is referred to by Sufis as the Divine.

Idries Shah

Knowledge is not gained, it is there all the time. It is the "veils" which have to be dissolved in the mind.

Idries Shah

The would-be students wish to transcend books. But, ask yourselves: if someone says that books do not contain wisdom, and yet he writes books; books do not contain Sufism, and yet he continues to publish books on Sufism, what is really happening? It ...

Idries Shah

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

Idries Shah

El Sufismo es sistematizado sólo por períodos transitorios o limitados; él es principalmente instrumental, no para disfrute o exposición.

Idries Shah

Hace más de mil años, en oriente se escribía que “Antes el Sufismo era una realidad sin nombre: ahora es un nombre sin una realidad”.

Idries Shah

In the modern world we are in a paradoxical situation; because although in theory man knows that he can extend his attention to something and then remove it, he very often does not do so. In many areas he does not look at something and then detach fr...

Idries Shah

No cuentes tus secretos a todo el mundo en esta sede central, Tierra. La hemos examinado bien. No había nadie a quien confiar secretos.

Idries Shah

Muéstrale a un hombre demasiados huesos de camello, o muéstraselos demasiado a menudo, y no será capaz de reconocer a un camello cuando se cruce con uno vivo.

Idries Shah

Author Bio

  • NameIdries Shah
  • DescriptionWriter and Sufi teacher
  • BornJune 16, 1924
  • DiedNovember 23, 1996
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionWriter