
A Perfumed Scorpion
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Narrated by:
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David Ault
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By:
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Idries Shah
About this listen
The "perfuming of a scorpion", referred to by the great Sufi teacher Bahaudin, symbolizes hypocrisy and self-deception: both in the individual and in institutions.
In A Perfumed Scorpion, Idries Shah directs attention to both the perfume and the scorpion - the overlay and the reality - in psychology, human behavior and the learning process.
Crammed with illustrative anecdotes from contemporary life, the book is nevertheless rooted in the teaching patterns of Rumi, Hafiz, Jami, and many other great Oriental sages. It deals with the need for and the path to knowledge and information.
©1978 ISF Publishing (P)2017 ISF PublishingListeners also enjoyed...
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Knowing How to Know
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Contemporary esoteric systems almost always play on the desire of mankind to seek or acquire knowledge. All but universally neglected in such systems are the often unrecognized barriers which prevent knowledge and understanding. Before learning can take place, certain conditions and basic factors must be in place, in the individual or the group.
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Neglected Aspects of Sufi Studies
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Based on university lectures at the New School for Social Research, New York, and the University of California, San Francisco, Neglected Aspects of Sufi Studies deals with many of the problems of Sufic methods of study and those which militate against its effective progress in the modern world, notably the unrecognized assumptions which we make about ourselves and about learning and its process.
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A Veiled Gazelle
- Seeing How to See
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- Length: 2 hrs and 44 mins
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A Veiled Gazelle, as the great mystic Ibn Arabi explains in his interpreter of desires, is a subtlety, an organ of higher perception. Sufi experientialists refer to the activation of these centres of awareness as the awakening of real knowledge of truth beyond form. A Veiled Gazelle considers the symbolic and instrumental employment of its literature in Sufi studies. Seldom didactic, and never meant only as entertainment, such works are regarded as some of the world’s greatest and most important writing.
By: Idries Shah
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Destination Mecca
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- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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First published in 1957, Destination Mecca was both an ambitious travel book and a work of ethnographic and cultural research. Shah documents a wide range of fascinating journeys, from his quest for the gold mines of King Solomon on Sudan's Red Sea Coast, to encounters in desert caravanserais and sojourns with Mediterranean contraband smugglers, to his time as a personal guest of the elderly King Ibn Saud.
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Enchanting
- By Abdul-Infinite on 05-20-18
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The Idries Shah Anthology
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- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
The Idries Shah Anthology is a special collection of previously published work by Idries Shah, and was edited by Saira Shah. This title includes an Introduction by Saira Shah, as well as comments and annotations throughout the audio.
By: Idries Shah
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The Dermis Probe
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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A serious, yet entertaining, look at the impediments in current thought which prevent certain forms of understanding between people. The title story was made into an award-winning film with script by Idries Shah, and chosen as an Outstanding Film of the Year.
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Sufi Wisdom
- By Ulrika Eriksson on 09-21-17
By: Idries Shah
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Knowing How to Know
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Contemporary esoteric systems almost always play on the desire of mankind to seek or acquire knowledge. All but universally neglected in such systems are the often unrecognized barriers which prevent knowledge and understanding. Before learning can take place, certain conditions and basic factors must be in place, in the individual or the group.
By: Idries Shah
-
Neglected Aspects of Sufi Studies
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 2 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Based on university lectures at the New School for Social Research, New York, and the University of California, San Francisco, Neglected Aspects of Sufi Studies deals with many of the problems of Sufic methods of study and those which militate against its effective progress in the modern world, notably the unrecognized assumptions which we make about ourselves and about learning and its process.
By: Idries Shah
-
A Veiled Gazelle
- Seeing How to See
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 2 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Veiled Gazelle, as the great mystic Ibn Arabi explains in his interpreter of desires, is a subtlety, an organ of higher perception. Sufi experientialists refer to the activation of these centres of awareness as the awakening of real knowledge of truth beyond form. A Veiled Gazelle considers the symbolic and instrumental employment of its literature in Sufi studies. Seldom didactic, and never meant only as entertainment, such works are regarded as some of the world’s greatest and most important writing.
By: Idries Shah
-
Destination Mecca
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First published in 1957, Destination Mecca was both an ambitious travel book and a work of ethnographic and cultural research. Shah documents a wide range of fascinating journeys, from his quest for the gold mines of King Solomon on Sudan's Red Sea Coast, to encounters in desert caravanserais and sojourns with Mediterranean contraband smugglers, to his time as a personal guest of the elderly King Ibn Saud.
-
-
Enchanting
- By Abdul-Infinite on 05-20-18
By: Idries Shah
-
The Idries Shah Anthology
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Idries Shah Anthology is a special collection of previously published work by Idries Shah, and was edited by Saira Shah. This title includes an Introduction by Saira Shah, as well as comments and annotations throughout the audio.
By: Idries Shah
-
The Dermis Probe
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A serious, yet entertaining, look at the impediments in current thought which prevent certain forms of understanding between people. The title story was made into an award-winning film with script by Idries Shah, and chosen as an Outstanding Film of the Year.
-
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Sufi Wisdom
- By Ulrika Eriksson on 09-21-17
By: Idries Shah
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Seeker After Truth
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A treasure house of teaching materials, assembled in the Sufi manner. Seeker After Truth contains both traditional tales and stories gleaned from contemporary sources, and snippets of table talk, discussions and teachings, letters, and lectures by Idries Shah. Taken together, it constitutes a handbook of materials designed to provoke a different kind of thought.
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A treasury of wisdom for all of us
- By George R. Collison on 05-14-22
By: Idries Shah
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Thinkers of the East
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 4 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Thinkers of the East is a collection of anecdotes and "parables in action" illustrating the eminently practical and lucid approach of Eastern Dervish teachers. Distilled from the teachings of more than 100 sages in three continents, this material stresses the experimental rather than the theoretical - and it is that characteristic of Sufi study which provides its impact and vitality.
By: Idries Shah
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The Commanding Self
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Commanding Self, in Sufic terminology, is that mixture of the primitive and conditioned responses, common to everyone, which inhibits and distorts human progress and understanding. This audiobook was described by Shah as the key to understanding his entire corpus of work. While complete in itself as an anthology of hitherto unpublished work, it serves to illustrate and amplify Idries Shah’s preceding books on the Sufi Way.
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Fantastically relevant for our times.
- By George R. Collison on 07-28-22
By: Idries Shah
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The Sufis
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 18 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When it first appeared in 1964, The Sufis was welcomed as the decisive work on the subject of Sufi thought. Rich in scope, author Idries Shah explained clearly the traditions and philosophy of the Sufis to a Western audience for the first time. In the five decades since its release, the book has been translated into more than two dozen languages, and has found a wide readership in both East and West. Containing detailed information on the major Sufi thinkers, and literary characters, such as Nasrudin, it is regarded as a key work on both Sufism and Eastern Philosophy.
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The Sufis is laudable and audible and readable
- By Ulrika Eriksson on 06-24-16
By: Idries Shah
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Tales of the Dervishes
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Although enormously attractive as sheer entertainment, Dervish tales were never presented merely on the level of a fable, legend, or folklore. They stand comparison in wit, construction, and piquancy with the finest stories of any culture, yet their true function as Sufi teaching stories is so little-known in the modern world, that no technical or popular terms exist to describe them. The material in Tales of the Dervishes is the result of a thousand years of development, during which Dervish masters used these and other teaching stories to instruct their disciples. The tales are held to convey powers of increasing perception unknown to the ordinary man.
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Very well done on all levels
- By Geology Justin on 01-16-22
By: Idries Shah
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Learning How to Learn
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Condensed from more than three million words, these conversations involve housewives and cabinet ministers, professors and assembly-line workers, on the subject of how traditional psychology can illuminate current human, social, and spiritual problems. More than 100 tales and extracts from Sufi lore, ranging from the eighth century (Hasan of Basra) to the modern Afghan poet Khalilullah Khalili, are woven into Shah’s narratives of how and why the Sufis learn what they learn and how spiritual understanding develops and deteriorates in all societies.
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bracing and illuminating
- By Nicholas Lesiecki on 09-29-21
By: Idries Shah
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The Way of the Sufi
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Way of the Sufi presents an unparalleled cross-section of material from Sufi schools, Sufi teachings, and classical writings as a basic course of Sufi study. The author begins with the outward aspects of the teaching most likely to puzzle the student coming fresh to the subject. He considers various attitudes to Sufi ideas and evidence of their absorption into medieval Christianity, Hinduism, Jewish mysticism, and modern philosophical teachings.
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Would Not Recommend.
- By Uniqleeme on 04-06-16
By: Idries Shah
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Sufi Thought and Action
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Previously published only as separate essays, Sufi Thought and Action - assembled and introduced by Idries Shah - covers an extraordinary diversity of Sufi ideas and activities in many countries and cultures. Included in the volume are papers on Sufi principles and learning methods; ritual, initiation, and secrets in Sufi circles; and key concepts in Sufi understanding.
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Thanks for the thoughts and examples of actions
- By Bryant Barber on 11-25-18
By: Idries Shah
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Wisdom of the Idiots
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 3 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In Idries Shah's Wisdom of the Idiots, the "idiots" are Sufis, called this because their wisdom penetrates to a depth which renders it inaccessible to the merely intelligent or academically knowledgeable. The stories of the Sufis are tools prepared for a specific purpose. On this level the movements of the characters in a story portray psychological processes, and the story becomes a working blueprint of those processes.
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Great Experience
- By Haresh Raichura on 01-24-18
By: Idries Shah
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Caravan of Dreams
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Caravan of Dreams distills the essence of Eastern thought in a feast of Sufi stories, sayings, poems, and allegories collected by one of the world's leading experts in Oriental philosophy and Sufism. Idries Shah builds up a complete picture of a single consciousness, relating Eastern mythology to reality, illuminating historical patterns, and presenting philosophical legends in this unique anthology.
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Awesome Narrator
- By Ulrika Eriksson on 11-26-15
By: Idries Shah
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God 4.0
- On the Nature of Higher Consciousness and the Experience Called “God”
- By: Robert Ornstein
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In a stunning unification of modern science, religion, and spirituality, God 4.0 presents a provocative new view of transcendence and connection as the activation of an innate quiescent faculty in the brain, a second system of cognition we all share. If developed, it can help to dissolve religious, tribal and cultural biases and usher in a higher level of conscious connection — a new “spiritual literacy.”
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An immense gift to humanity
- By George R. Collison on 07-17-23
By: Robert Ornstein
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Modern Man in Search of a Soul
- By: Carl Jung
- Narrated by: Christopher Prince
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Modern Man in Search of a Soul is the classic introduction to the thought of Carl Jung. Along with Freud and Adler, Jung was one of the chief founders of modern psychiatry. In this book, Jung examines some of the most contested and crucial areas in the field of analytical psychology: dream analysis, the primitive unconscious, and the relationship between psychology and religion.
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Could have almost been an automated text reader
- By Chicken Love on 04-24-15
By: Carl Jung
What listeners say about A Perfumed Scorpion
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Bryant Barber
- 06-12-19
A great book for re-evaluations
This book helped me re-evaluate aspects of how I see myself, individuals, communities, and the environment. I gained a greater understanding for why a guide is needed in the search for truth and the requirements necessary for the would-be student. This book is packed with information and will need multiple readings from me. I recommend this book to those that can learn.
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Overall
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Performance
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- JK
- 06-05-24
INTERESTING
I totally enjoyed the stories and I learned a lot about Sufism, all very interesting.
I highly recommend listening, as with all of Idries Shah’s books, narrated by David Ault.
My thanks to all involved, JK.
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Overall
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Performance
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- Haresh Raichura
- 02-27-18
Opened up Mind
As I listened, barriers to acquiring knowledge, began to lift one by one. I began to see a new world. I began to learn a new way to listen to these stories.. Truly, I found this book as Way to Way
The world is so full of so many leaders and politicians who continue to perfume a scorpion in hope that it will not sting them. But few of them know that it will always sting them. In fact, many of them themselves are perfumed scorpion. Apart from this title book, I enjoyed every story this book contains. Some of these stories made instant, effortless, changes in my attitudes. 🍁
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Overall
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Performance
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- Peekay
- 08-05-20
All the best as always
MR. Ault gives a stirring performance with inspiration teaming in his voice. MR. Shaw provides groundwork and material of beauty in his writing of an artist.
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