Idries Shah

Based on university lectures at the New School for Social Research, New York, and the University of California, San Francisco, Neglected Aspects of Sufi Study 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 unrecognised assumptions which we make about ourselves and about learning and its process.

How can it be that the same story is found in Scotland and also in Pre-Columbian America? What can account for the durability and persistence of tales? Was the tale of Aladdin and his wondrous lamp really taken from Wales (where it has been found) to the ancient East and, if so, when and by whom? These questions and more are answered in Idries Shah's remarkable volume World Tales, which is subtitled "The extraordinary coincidence of stories told in all times, in all places." In his introduction, Shah remarks, "Working for thirty-five years among the written and oral sources of our world heritage in tales, one feels a truly living element in them which is startlingly evident when one isolates the 'basic' stories; the ones which tend to have traveled farthest, to have featured in the largest number of classical collections, to have inspired great writers of the past and present."

Based on university lectures at the New School for Social Research, New York, and the University of California, San Francisco, Neglected Aspects of Sufi Study 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 unrecognised assumptions which we make about ourselves and about learning and its process.

How can it be that the same story is found in Scotland and also in Pre-Columbian America? What can account for the durability and persistence of tales? Was the tale of Aladdin and his wondrous lamp really taken from Wales (where it has been found) to the ancient East and, if so, when and by whom? These questions and more are answered in Idries Shah's remarkable volume World Tales, which is subtitled "The extraordinary coincidence of stories told in all times, in all places." In his introduction, Shah remarks, "Working for thirty-five years among the written and oral sources of our world heritage in tales, one feels a truly living element in them which is startlingly evident when one isolates the 'basic' stories; the ones which tend to have traveled farthest, to have featured in the largest number of classical collections, to have inspired great writers of the past and present."

How can it be that the same story is found in Scotland and also in Pre-Columbian America? What can account for the durability and persistence of tales? Was the tale of Aladdin and his wondrous lamp really taken from Wales (where it has been found) to the ancient East and, if so, when and by whom? These questions and more are answered in Idries Shah's remarkable volume World Tales, which is subtitled "The extraordinary coincidence of stories told in all times, in all places." In his introduction, Shah remarks, "Working for thirty-five years among the written and oral sources of our world heritage in tales, one feels a truly living element in them which is startlingly evident when one isolates the 'basic' stories; the ones which tend to have traveled farthest, to have featured in the largest number of classical collections, to have inspired great writers of the past and present."

How can it be that the same story is found in Scotland and also in Pre-Columbian America? What can account for the durability and persistence of tales? Was the tale of Aladdin and his wondrous lamp really taken from Wales (where it has been found) to the ancient East and, if so, when and by whom? These questions and more are answered in Idries Shah's remarkable volume World Tales, which is subtitled, 'The extraordinary coincidence of stories told in all times, in all places'. In his introduction, Shah remarks, 'Working for thirty-five years among the written and oral sources of our world heritage in tales, one feels a truly living element in them which is startlingly evident when one isolates the 'basic' stories; the ones which tend to have travelled farthest, to have featured in the largest number of classical collections, to have inspired great writers of the past and present'.

How can it be that the same story is found in Scotland and also in Pre-Columbian America? What can account for the durability and persistence of tales? Was the tale of Aladdin and his wondrous lamp really taken from Wales (where it has been found) to the ancient East and, if so, when and by whom? These questions and more are answered in Idries Shah's remarkable volume World Tales, which is subtitled "The extraordinary coincidence of stories told in all times, in all places." In his introduction, Shah remarks, "Working for thirty-five years among the written and oral sources of our world heritage in tales, one feels a truly living element in them which is startlingly evident when one isolates the 'basic' stories; the ones which tend to have traveled farthest, to have featured in the largest number of classical collections, to have inspired great writers of the past and present."

El camino del Sufi presenta una incomparable variedad de materiales enseNantes y escritos clAsicos provenientes de las principales Ordenes Sufis, los cuales conforman un curso bAsico de estudio Sufi. El autor comienza con los aspectos externos de la enseNanza que probablemente resulten desconcertantes para el estudiante que reciEn se adentra en el tema. Entre otras cuestiones, Idries Shah considera las diversas actitudes histOricas y del presente para con las ideas Sufis y las evidencias que muestran su absorciOn tanto por parte del cristianismo del medioevo como tambiEn del hinduismo y el misticismo judIo; las modernas enseNanzas filosOficas tampoco estAn exentas de dicha influencia. Esencialmente, el libro estA destinado a iluminar e ilustrar diversos aspectos de las actividades y prActicas Sufis que son relevantes al mundo contemporAneo.

Small in size, but with a powerful punch, Idries Shah'sReflections is a collection of fables, aphorisms, and statements that challenge the conditioned mind. The book confronts the reader with unaccustomed perspectives and ideas, in an attempt to set the mind free, to see how things really are. As the book's foreword states, 'Do you imagine that fables exist only to amuse or to instruct, and are based upon fiction? The best ones are delineations of what happens in real life, in the community and in the individual's mental processes'.

El camino del Sufi presenta una incomparable variedad de materiales enseNantes y escritos clAsicos provenientes de las principales Ordenes Sufis, los cuales conforman un curso bAsico de estudio Sufi. El autor comienza con los aspectos externos de la enseNanza que probablemente resulten desconcertantes para el estudiante que reciEn se adentra en el tema. Entre otras cuestiones, Idries Shah considera las diversas actitudes histOricas y del presente para con las ideas Sufis y las evidencias que muestran su absorciOn tanto por parte del cristianismo del medioevo como tambiEn del hinduismo y el misticismo judIo; las modernas enseNanzas filosOficas tampoco estAn exentas de dicha influencia. Esencialmente, el libro estA destinado a iluminar e ilustrar diversos aspectos de las actividades y prActicas Sufis que son relevantes al mundo contemporAneo.

Based on university lectures at the New School for Social Research, New York, and the University of California, San Francisco, Neglected Aspects of Sufi Study 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.