Idries Shah, Neglected Aspects Of Sufi Study Quotes

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

When the mind is full of established biases, it will not be able to graft Sufism on top of them.

Sufism was formerly a reality without a name: now it is a name without a reality.

You may have forgotten the Way: But those who came beforeDid not forget you.Saying of Master Bahaudin Naqshband of Bokhara

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

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

Sufism is experience, and hence not to be defined – imprisoned – in perennial, static categories.

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