Idries Shah

'What was I? 'A writer, a traveller - and an outlaw in a sense.'Idries Shah wrote this book before he became Idries Shah. It's an adventure within an adventure. On one level it's an immensely engaging collection of traveller's tales. Whether stowing away on a smugglers' ship or having an audience with a king, it's a pleasure to spend time with Shah. On another level, you'll see a young man seeking out the experiences he needs to work towards his own spiritual development. So travel along with Idries Shah on his own personal quest to develop the intuition that would underpin his philosophical ideas.

Un grupo de hombres intenta examinar un elefante en una habitaci n oscura. Agarrando diferentes partes - una oreja, una pierna, la cola - cada uno de ellos confunde la parte que est tocando con la totalidad... y se convence de que el elefante es un abanico o una cuerda o un pilar, etc tera. Con esta f bula del gigante Sufi Jalaluddin Rumi, la cual tiene m s de setecientos a os de antig edad, Idries Shah presenta el punto de vista Sufi de que la cristianismo y el islam surgen a partir de un mismo origen esencial. Basado en sus famosas charlas en la Universidad de Ginebra, este libro deslumbra por la amplitud de su erudici n y la profundidad de sus ideas. En un mundo dividido por las diferencias culturales y religiosas, El elefante en la oscuridad nos ofrece nuevas ideas, esperanza y la habilidad para mirar de un modo novedoso aquello que ya creemos saber.

Un grupo de hombres intenta examinar un elefante en una habitaci n oscura. Agarrando diferentes partes - una oreja, una pierna, la cola - cada uno de ellos confunde la parte que est tocando con la totalidad... y se convence de que el elefante es un abanico o una cuerda o un pilar, etc tera. Con esta f bula del gigante Sufi Jalaluddin Rumi, la cual tiene m s de setecientos a os de antig edad, Idries Shah presenta el punto de vista Sufi de que la cristianismo y el islam surgen a partir de un mismo origen esencial. Basado en sus famosas charlas en la Universidad de Ginebra, este libro deslumbra por la amplitud de su erudici n y la profundidad de sus ideas. En un mundo dividido por las diferencias culturales y religiosas, El elefante en la oscuridad nos ofrece nuevas ideas, esperanza y la habilidad para mirar de un modo novedoso aquello que ya creemos saber.

Un grupo de hombres intenta examinar un elefante en una habitaci n oscura. Agarrando diferentes partes - una oreja, una pierna, la cola - cada uno de ellos confunde la parte que est tocando con la totalidad... y se convence de que el elefante es un abanico o una cuerda o un pilar, etc tera. Con esta f bula del gigante Sufi Jalaluddin Rumi, la cual tiene m s de setecientos a os de antig edad, Idries Shah presenta el punto de vista Sufi de que la cristianismo y el islam surgen a partir de un mismo origen esencial. Basado en sus famosas charlas en la Universidad de Ginebra, este libro deslumbra por la amplitud de su erudici n y la profundidad de sus ideas. En un mundo dividido por las diferencias culturales y religiosas, El elefante en la oscuridad nos ofrece nuevas ideas, esperanza y la habilidad para mirar de un modo novedoso aquello que ya creemos saber.

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 himself 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. Based on Shah's celebrated Geneva University lectures, this book dazzles with the breadth of its scholarship, and the profound depth of its message. In a world riven by cultural and religious differences, The Elephant in the Dark offers fresh thinking, hope, and the ability to look at what we think we know in new ways.

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. Among the book's contributors are Idries Shah, Doris Lessing, Peter Brent and Dr. Arthur J. Deikman.

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. Kara Kush is the definitive story of freedom fighters. It is a story of patriotism-in-action, mobilized and fuelled not by a mass-media propaganda machine, or the charisma of a single individual, but by a thousands-of-years-old tradition of proud independence, deep love of one s land, and fierce will to survive. Kara Kush was first published in 1986, at a time when most of the outside world dismissed the Afghan resistance as a rag-tag lot of rival guerrilla factions in a futile holdout against an invincible military machine. With extraordinary insight into human nature and the course of human history, Kara Kush told the real story. According to Shah, almost all of the people in the text of the novel actually exist or did. The accounts of battles and raids, precise military details, and the stories of Soviet and red Afghan atrocities were all from primary sources eye witnesses, participants, defectors, victims, and prisoners. This remarkable book, among all other sources, offers keys to understanding not only this important strategic region, but the very phase in world history in which we find ourselves today. Much more than a novel, even more than a tribute, Kara Kush stands as a model of human vision, leadership, cooperation, and capacity at a time when we need it most.'I collected this material from freedom fighters, some of them my own relatives, from refugees, and from men and women, fighting shoulder to shoulder, from all over Afghanistan.' --Idries Shah

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. Kara Kush is the definitive story of freedom fighters. It is a story of patriotism-in-action, mobilized and fuelled not by a mass-media propaganda machine, or the charisma of a single individual, but by a thousands-of-years-old tradition of proud independence, deep love of one s land, and fierce will to survive. Kara Kush was first published in 1986, at a time when most of the outside world dismissed the Afghan resistance as a rag-tag lot of rival guerrilla factions in a futile holdout against an invincible military machine. With extraordinary insight into human nature and the course of human history, Kara Kush told the real story. According to Shah, almost all of the people in the text of the novel actually exist or did. The accounts of battles and raids, precise military details, and the stories of Soviet and red Afghan atrocities were all from primary sources eye witnesses, participants, defectors, victims, and prisoners. This remarkable book, among all other sources, offers keys to understanding not only this important strategic region, but the very phase in world history in which we find ourselves today. Much more than a novel, even more than a tribute, Kara Kush stands as a model of human vision, leadership, cooperation, and capacity at a time when we need it most.'I collected this material from freedom fighters, some of them my own relatives, from refugees, and from men and women, fighting shoulder to shoulder, from all over Afghanistan.' --Idries Shah

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 himself 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. Based on Shah's celebrated Geneva University lectures, this book dazzles with the breadth of its scholarship, and the profound depth of its message. In a world riven by cultural and religious differences, The Elephant in the Dark offers fresh thinking, hope, and the ability to look at what we think we know in new ways.

El libro Magia oriental es reconocido como un brillante estudio acerca de c mo, qu y por qu piensa la gente, en territorios que se extienden desde el norte de frica hasta Jap n. Profusamente ilustrado, el libro es el resultado de a os de investigaci n y trabajo de campo en una docena de diversas regiones culturales. Su erudita precisi n y genuina contribuci n al entendimiento cultural lo han transformado en un texto fundamental para cualquiera interesado en creencias informales y pr cticas esot ricas. El trabajo incluye material sobre alquimia india, el sistema abjad de los rabes, la adivinaci n y los hechizos talism nicos, e incluso contiene un antiguo conjuro Brahm n para conseguir la inmortalidad.

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 text. Each chapter includes a selection from the works of Idries Shah on topics such as Sufism, Nasrudin, fables, poetry, proverbs, and teaching stories. It includes methods of the masters and themes for study and contemplation. This new compilation of excerpts from the classic texts of Idries Shah will leave you with a new perspective on his work. From the introduction: In his writing about Sufism, Idries Shah did some revolutionary things. Critically, and almost alone, he said that it was possible to divorce the essence of Sufi philosophy from what he insisted were secondary accretions of islamic culture and religion. Moreover, he said, in making this material available to the West, you could not only do this, you must do it. This is because, he believed, you can only absorb materials that are designed for your own time and place. Sufism as an essence may be 'truth without form' but, in order to penetrate into the human mind, it must be delivered in a package shaped to fit the receiving culture.'When something new enters a culture, there is a period where, like a new object being thrown into the chimpanzee pen at a zoo, all the chimps rush over to touch it, throw it on the floor, fight over it and so on, ' he once told me. 'We must wait until the dust settles; only then will people be in a position to assess this material.'My father died in 1996 and the dust is settling fast. He leaves a body of work behind and, on this work alone, he believed, he should and would be judged. This anthology is intended to provide a basic sample of his work, an essential reader, to allow people to do exactly what he would have wished them to do: to think for themselves and to make up their own minds.-- From the Editor's Note, by Saira Shah