Well-meant techniques such as arbitrary self-mortification, are useless.
~ Idries Shah
People change and needs change. So what was Sufism once is Sufism no more.
The would-be Sufi needs guidance precisely because books, texts, while telling you what is needed, do not tell you when.
It is as true as anything else which can be spoken to say that all knowledge is really available everywhere.
Man (as he imagines himself to be), in general, is a possibility, not a fact.
A MOTTO OF THE HUMAN RACETell me what to do, but it must be what I want you to tell me.
The basic urge toward mysticism is never, in the unaltered man, clear enough to be recognized for what it is.
Certain levels of human understanding cannot be attained, it is claimed, until the brain can work in more than one way.
Humility has to precede instruction.
Saadi: Be a true renouncer, (zahid) and [you can even] ware satin.
Humility is a teacher of itself. It is learnt by means of its practise.
For every Pharoah there is a Moses.
among roses, be a rose, among thorns, be a thorn
Disappointment cannot exist without expectation. “The expected apricot is never as sweet when it reaches the mouth.
A Sufi school comes into being in order to flourish and disappear, not to leave traces in mechanical ritual, or anthropologically survivals.
Do not think that your magic ring will work if you are not yourself Solomon.
EXPECTATION If, from time to time, you give up expectation, you will be able to perceive what it is you are getting.
You must improve yourself on a higher level if you are to be able to help people, and not just weep over them.
There is something in man which can detect real love. We rub it out, or muffle it, by substitute-love.
The liar has a bad memory.
Life: sometimes the man on the saddle, sometimes the saddle on the man.
In the distorting mirror of your mind, an angel can seem to have a devil's face.
The happiness of the superficial: when a man who has lost his donkey finds it again.
To bind one free man with love is better than to release a thousand slaves.
He discards a quilt for fear of bugs.
A man must be a Salomon before his magical ring will work
The process of learning is the process of discovering what really exists.
How many friends would you have if you went from one to another asking them to conceal a dead body?
The door of illumination is open to those for whom other doors are closed.
Hit your hand on a stone and expect it to hurt.
Patience is bitter, but bears a sweet fruit.
Definitions from Mulla Do-PiazaWisdom: Something you can learn without knowing it.
Because sugar is not arsenic, many graves are full.
Definitions from Mulla Do-PiazaPoverty: The result of marriage.
Definitions from Mulla Do-PiazaPenitent: Someone who has been made incapable of enjoying himself.
Definitions from Mulla Do-Piaza. Worry: Something to make you unnecessarily ill.
If you have no troubles – buy a goat.
Saying of the ProphetUnderstandingSpeak to everyone in accordance with his degree of understanding.
Patience is a garment which has never worn out.
Poor greedy one, wherever he runs He's after food, and death is after him.(Saadi)
