Showing results by author "Idries Shah" in All Categories

Many countries claim Nasrudin as a native, although few have gone so far as Turkey in exhibiting a "grave" of the wisest fool who ever lived, and holding an annual Nasrudin Festival. He is the greatest, most intriguing, character of folklore found in any Eastern land.

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.

Assembled by Idries Shah, The World of the Sufi is a comprehensive collection of learned essays and papers on the subject of Sufi thought. One of the book’s attractions is the way that it considers central questions and areas of study from different angles. Sufi literature, the use of humour, and Sufi communities in various cultural settings are some of the many subjects discussed. In addition, experts in their fields comment on areas such as Sufism and psychiatry, Indian thought and the Sufis, and therapy and the Sufi.

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.

Many of Idries Shah's books are comprised of tales and teaching stories taken from both written and oral sources, which illustrate the instructional methods employed by Eastern wise men for thousands of years. The Magic Monastery differs from its predecessors in that it contains not only traditional tales - mostly unpublished - but also stories specially written by Shah to complete the book as a "course in non-linear thinking".

Nasrudin is the greatest of all Arab folk heroes, and is found across the Islamic World, from Morocco to Pakistan, and beyond. He is said to have been the wisest fool who ever lived - that is if he ever did live at all. Stories of Nasrudin’s many incarnations are studied by Sufis for their hidden wisdom, and are universally enjoyed for their humor. Sometimes Nasrudin is an impoverished itinerant or stallholder, and at others, he is the mayor, judge, vizier, or even the King.

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.

Special Illumination is a term used by the great poet and mystic, Jalaluddin Rumi, to stress the importance of humor in metaphysical experience. Of it, Idries Shah says, "Rumi directly contradicts such numerous sour-faced religionists as, in all persuasions, find that humor disturbs the indoctrination which is all that they usually have to offer."

In a darkened room, a group of men once sought to examine an elephant. Taking hold of a different part - an ear, a leg, the tail - each one mistook his particular part for the whole. In the darkness each of the men became convinced that the elephant was the object he had felt - a fan, a rope, a pillar, and so on. With this ancient fable, first described by the Sufi Master Jalaluddin Rumi, Idries Shah presents the Sufi perspective that Christianity and Islam stem from one inner origin.

According to the Sufis, human faculties, although perceptive, are limited: Like a radio set, which can receive only certain electromagnetic waves and not other parts of this band. The inability to transcend the barrier of limited senses explains human subjectivity. The Sufis assert that through familiarization with concepts, patterns of thought, and ideas that form part of their contemporary literature, one can learn to penetrate beyond this apparent reality.

In December of 1979, Soviet tanks rolled across the borders of Afghanistan, beginning a period of barbaric aggression that triggered a turning point in modern history. Idries Shah's brilliant novel chronicles the courageous 10-year resistance of the Afghan people, an epic story of triumph over tyranny that deserves to be immortalized.

In his best-selling Darkest England, Idries Shah asserts that the English hail from a little-known place called "Hathaby", but their roots go back much farther, perhaps to the distant Asian realm of Sakasina. Once a nomadic tribe of warriors, the English fled westward, bringing with them epic tales, traditions, and an Oriental way of thought.

Un grupo de hombres intenta examinar un elefante en una habitación oscura. Agarrando diferentes partes - una oreja, una pierna, la cola - cada uno de ellos confunde la parte que está tocando con la totalidad... y se convence de que el elefante es un abanico o una cuerda o un pilar, etcétera. Con esta fábula del gigante Sufi Jalaluddin Rumi, la cual tiene más de setecientos años de antigüedad, Idries Shah presenta el punto de vista Sufi de que el cristianismo y el islam surgen a partir de un mismo origen esencial.

Read by David Ault, this unabridged recording of Idries Shah's Reflections is a collection of Sufi fables, aphorisms, and statements that challenge the conditioned mind. The audiobook confronts the listener with unaccustomed perspectives and ideas in an attempt to set the mind free, to see how things really are.

The Sufis have been using carefully constructed stories for teaching purposes for thousands of years. Though on the surface these often appear to be little more than entertaining fairy tales or folktales, they enshrine - in their characters, plots, and imagery - patterns and relationships that nurture a part of the mind not reachable in more conventional ways, thus increasing our understanding, flexibility, and breadth of vision.

¿Sabes cómo aprender? Este libro está condensado a partir de las más de tres millones de palabras que Shah utilizó para responder a las preguntas de sus lectores. Esto es lo más cercano a un manual práctico de sus enseñanzas Sufis que ha dejado. Explica lo que es y lo que no es el Sufismo. Habla de las conexiones entre espiritualidad, psicología y autodesarrollo. Y, de paso, incluye unos cuantos chistes estupendos. Es lo más parecido a pasar un rato con el propio Idries Shah: ¿por qué no probarlo?

A remarkable conspectus of philosophical contacts between East and West through the ages. This important monograph constitutes the whole text of Idries Shah’s Seminar at Sussex University, fully annotated, indexed and with a bibliography and notes. It knits together the available knowledge about Sufi thought and literature in its passage through many deforming influences, such as the development of cults, the misinterpretation by literalist scholars, and the fallacious comparisons of committed “specialists”.

According to the Sufis, human faculties, although perceptive, are limited: like a radio set, which can receive only certain electromagnetic waves and not other parts of this band. The inability to transcend the barrier of limited senses explains human subjectivity. The Sufis assert that through familiarization with concepts, patterns of thought, and ideas that form part of their contemporary literature, one can learn to penetrate beyond this apparent reality.

En La sabiduría de los idiotas, los “idiotas” son los Sufis, llamados así debido a que su sabiduría penetra a una profundidad que la transforma en inaccesible para el conocedor meramente académico o inteligente. Los cuentos-ejercicios de los Sufis son herramientas preparadas para propósitos específicos.

Caravana de sueños condensa la esencia del pensamiento oriental a través de un banquete de cuentos, dichos, poemas y alegorías, recopilado por uno de los más destacados expertos en filosofía oriental. Idries Shah construye una imagen completa de una consciencia única, relacionando la mitología con la realidad, iluminando patrones y diseños históricos, y presentando leyendas filosóficas en esta antología excepcional.