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Reflections
"Do you imagine that fables exist only to amuse or 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." --from the Introduction This pocket-size collection of sayings and stories from real life, and from the author's observations of our mental processes, is a perfect gift book. It's contemporary, fun to read--like a splash of ice water for the mind.
147 pages, Hardcover
First published February 28, 1972
21 people are currently reading
156 people want to read
About the author
Idries Shah
457 books422 followersIdries Shah (Persian: ادریس شاه), also known as Idris Shah, né Sayed Idries el-Hashimi (Arabic: سيد إدريس هاشمي), was an author and teacher in the Sufi tradition who wrote over three dozen critically acclaimed books on topics ranging from psychology and spirituality to travelogues and culture studies.
Born in India, the descendant of a family of Afghan nobles, Shah grew up mainly in England. His early writings centred on magic and witchcraft. In 1960 he established a publishing house, Octagon Press, producing translations of Sufi classics as well as titles of his own. His most seminal work was The Sufis, which appeared in 1964 and was well received internationally. In 1965, Shah founded the Institute for Cultural Research, a London-based educational charity devoted to the study of human behaviour and culture. A similar organisation, the Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge (ISHK), exists in the United States, under the directorship of Stanford University psychology professor Robert Ornstein, whom Shah appointed as his deputy in the U.S.
In his writings, Shah presented Sufism as a universal form of wisdom that predated Islam. Emphasising that Sufism was not static but always adapted itself to the current time, place and people, he framed his teaching in Western psychological terms. Shah made extensive use of traditional teaching stories and parables, texts that contained multiple layers of meaning designed to trigger insight and self-reflection in the reader. He is perhaps best known for his collections of humorous Mulla Nasrudin stories.
Shah was at times criticised by orientalists who questioned his credentials and background. His role in the controversy surrounding a new translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, published by his friend Robert Graves and his older brother Omar Ali-Shah, came in for particular scrutiny. However, he also had many notable defenders, chief among them the novelist Doris Lessing. Shah came to be recognised as a spokesman for Sufism in the West and lectured as a visiting professor at a number of Western universities. His works have played a significant part in presenting Sufism as a secular, individualistic form of spiritual wisdom.
Idries Shah's books on Sufism achieved considerable critical acclaim. He was the subject of a BBC documentary ("One Pair of Eyes") in 1969, and two of his works (The Way of the Sufi and Reflections) were chosen as "Outstanding Book of the Year" by the BBC's "The Critics" programme. Among other honours, Shah won six first prizes at the UNESCO World Book Year in 1973, and the Islamic scholar James Kritzeck, commenting on Shah's Tales of the Dervishes, said that it was "beautifully translated".
The reception of Shah's movement was also marked by much controversy. Some orientalists were hostile, in part because Shah presented classical Sufi writings as tools for self-development to be used by contemporary people, rather than as objects of historical study. L. P. Elwell-Sutton from Edinburgh University, Shah's fiercest critic, described his books as "trivial", replete with errors of fact, slovenly and inaccurate translations and even misspellings of Oriental names and words – "a muddle of platitudes, irrelevancies and plain mumbo-jumbo", adding for good measure that Shah had "a remarkable opinion of his own importance". Expressing amusement and amazement at the "sycophantic manner" of Shah's interlocutors in a BBC radio interview, Elwell-Sutton concluded that some Western intellectuals were "so desperate to find answers to the questions that baffle them, that, confronted with wisdom from 'the mysterious East,' they abandon their critical faculties and submit to brainwashing of the crudest kind". To Elwell-Sutton, Shah's Sufism belonged to the realm of "Pseudo-Sufism", "centred not on God but on man."
Doris Lessing, one of Shah's greatest defenders,stated in a 1981 interview: "I found Sufism as taught by Idries Shah, which claim
Born in India, the descendant of a family of Afghan nobles, Shah grew up mainly in England. His early writings centred on magic and witchcraft. In 1960 he established a publishing house, Octagon Press, producing translations of Sufi classics as well as titles of his own. His most seminal work was The Sufis, which appeared in 1964 and was well received internationally. In 1965, Shah founded the Institute for Cultural Research, a London-based educational charity devoted to the study of human behaviour and culture. A similar organisation, the Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge (ISHK), exists in the United States, under the directorship of Stanford University psychology professor Robert Ornstein, whom Shah appointed as his deputy in the U.S.
In his writings, Shah presented Sufism as a universal form of wisdom that predated Islam. Emphasising that Sufism was not static but always adapted itself to the current time, place and people, he framed his teaching in Western psychological terms. Shah made extensive use of traditional teaching stories and parables, texts that contained multiple layers of meaning designed to trigger insight and self-reflection in the reader. He is perhaps best known for his collections of humorous Mulla Nasrudin stories.
Shah was at times criticised by orientalists who questioned his credentials and background. His role in the controversy surrounding a new translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, published by his friend Robert Graves and his older brother Omar Ali-Shah, came in for particular scrutiny. However, he also had many notable defenders, chief among them the novelist Doris Lessing. Shah came to be recognised as a spokesman for Sufism in the West and lectured as a visiting professor at a number of Western universities. His works have played a significant part in presenting Sufism as a secular, individualistic form of spiritual wisdom.
Idries Shah's books on Sufism achieved considerable critical acclaim. He was the subject of a BBC documentary ("One Pair of Eyes") in 1969, and two of his works (The Way of the Sufi and Reflections) were chosen as "Outstanding Book of the Year" by the BBC's "The Critics" programme. Among other honours, Shah won six first prizes at the UNESCO World Book Year in 1973, and the Islamic scholar James Kritzeck, commenting on Shah's Tales of the Dervishes, said that it was "beautifully translated".
The reception of Shah's movement was also marked by much controversy. Some orientalists were hostile, in part because Shah presented classical Sufi writings as tools for self-development to be used by contemporary people, rather than as objects of historical study. L. P. Elwell-Sutton from Edinburgh University, Shah's fiercest critic, described his books as "trivial", replete with errors of fact, slovenly and inaccurate translations and even misspellings of Oriental names and words – "a muddle of platitudes, irrelevancies and plain mumbo-jumbo", adding for good measure that Shah had "a remarkable opinion of his own importance". Expressing amusement and amazement at the "sycophantic manner" of Shah's interlocutors in a BBC radio interview, Elwell-Sutton concluded that some Western intellectuals were "so desperate to find answers to the questions that baffle them, that, confronted with wisdom from 'the mysterious East,' they abandon their critical faculties and submit to brainwashing of the crudest kind". To Elwell-Sutton, Shah's Sufism belonged to the realm of "Pseudo-Sufism", "centred not on God but on man."
Doris Lessing, one of Shah's greatest defenders,stated in a 1981 interview: "I found Sufism as taught by Idries Shah, which claim
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
May 5, 2017
Uncommon Common Sense
Idries Shah’s eye-popping literary gem sparkles with an uncommon common sense; and pokes and provokes us in unexpected ways. Whether we agree or disagree with the thought-provoking tales, observations and proverbs in his little book, Shah gives us plenty of room to reflect on our reactions. Here are a few samples:
Truth
From time to time ponder whether you are unconsciously saying: ‘Truth is what I happen to be thinking at this moment.’
Optimist and Pessimist
Sometimes a pessimist is only an optimist with extra information.
Prejudice
People cannot handle prejudice because they try to deal with the symptom. Prejudice is the symptom; wrong assumptions are the cause. ‘Prejudice is the daughter of assumption.’
Idries Shah’s eye-popping literary gem sparkles with an uncommon common sense; and pokes and provokes us in unexpected ways. Whether we agree or disagree with the thought-provoking tales, observations and proverbs in his little book, Shah gives us plenty of room to reflect on our reactions. Here are a few samples:
Truth
From time to time ponder whether you are unconsciously saying: ‘Truth is what I happen to be thinking at this moment.’
Optimist and Pessimist
Sometimes a pessimist is only an optimist with extra information.
Prejudice
People cannot handle prejudice because they try to deal with the symptom. Prejudice is the symptom; wrong assumptions are the cause. ‘Prejudice is the daughter of assumption.’
April 4, 2019
I absolutely love this book. This is one of those collections of very short stories and phrases that you can either dip into at random, or read straight through. This book will challenge your perspective and your ways of thinking. Whether you're new to Idries Shah's work, or you're a longtime fan, this book belongs on your shelf.
March 2, 2019
Of all the pocket book-type works on the market offering nuggets of traditional wisdom (I have read many of them) this has to be the most genuine and far-reaching in impact. What you’re getting here are not cookie cutter pronunciations or poetic extracts translated from some far away culture and language into a bland and obscure sounding English, but a random and wildly incongruous collection of bite sized epiphanies and stories written to help you see the world entirely anew.
“Sometimes a pessimist is only an optimist with extra information,” reads one epigram.
“A secret is something which only one person knows,” goes another.
Each yields a different perspective when the book is read and re-read. This book makes the ultimate gift.
“Sometimes a pessimist is only an optimist with extra information,” reads one epigram.
“A secret is something which only one person knows,” goes another.
Each yields a different perspective when the book is read and re-read. This book makes the ultimate gift.
March 18, 2019
Idries Shah was a clear-eyed, nimble thinking outsider who came to settle among us. He noticed how the people he met lumbered under heavy, suffocating, restricting layers of cultural clothing, seeing the world through opaque, media-tinted glasses. In a book where words shape shift into many different forms he could also be direct and very forthright when necessary.
This book was published over fifty years ago, but it is as relevant today as it was then, or more so. As he writes, ‘Water shrinks wool, urgency shrinks time.’ Shah understood attention needs. Today we live in an attention economy where our attention is continually sought for the main purpose of exploiting it. He mentioned denial, a subject receiving much attention today. ‘Denial and affirmation are games which people play.’ About problem solving, at a time when politics seems to present insurmountable problems, he affirms, ‘Solutions come through knowledge, so much so that, where there is real knowledge, there is no real problem.’ And a warning about the dangers of failing to develop tolerance:
‘Tolerance and trying to understand others, until recently a luxury, has today become a necessity.
‘This is because: unless we can realise that we and others are generally behaving as we do because of inculcated biases over which we have no control, while we imagine they are our own opinions, we might do something which would bring about the destruction of all of us.’
Reflections is not a comfortable read. It attracts, but also irritates. It challenges you to think when you would prefer to lose yourself in a good story, and abandon the effort to try to improve and understand the world, or worlds. Then you accept that, ‘The human mind has capacities of “taste” which in contemporary societies are not satisfied at all.’ And:
‘The people of our time are not employing their superior resources to retrieve and develop the remnants of wider knowledge possessed elsewhere and also at other times. This is because, while the tools and the general freedom are there for the first time, desire, resolution and breadth of vision are absent, also for the first time.’
There are thoughts to be thought, and work to be done.
This book was published over fifty years ago, but it is as relevant today as it was then, or more so. As he writes, ‘Water shrinks wool, urgency shrinks time.’ Shah understood attention needs. Today we live in an attention economy where our attention is continually sought for the main purpose of exploiting it. He mentioned denial, a subject receiving much attention today. ‘Denial and affirmation are games which people play.’ About problem solving, at a time when politics seems to present insurmountable problems, he affirms, ‘Solutions come through knowledge, so much so that, where there is real knowledge, there is no real problem.’ And a warning about the dangers of failing to develop tolerance:
‘Tolerance and trying to understand others, until recently a luxury, has today become a necessity.
‘This is because: unless we can realise that we and others are generally behaving as we do because of inculcated biases over which we have no control, while we imagine they are our own opinions, we might do something which would bring about the destruction of all of us.’
Reflections is not a comfortable read. It attracts, but also irritates. It challenges you to think when you would prefer to lose yourself in a good story, and abandon the effort to try to improve and understand the world, or worlds. Then you accept that, ‘The human mind has capacities of “taste” which in contemporary societies are not satisfied at all.’ And:
‘The people of our time are not employing their superior resources to retrieve and develop the remnants of wider knowledge possessed elsewhere and also at other times. This is because, while the tools and the general freedom are there for the first time, desire, resolution and breadth of vision are absent, also for the first time.’
There are thoughts to be thought, and work to be done.
June 3, 2015
A small blue book that can fit easily into a pocket, Reflections contains more wisdom and practical sense than many much larger tomes. Here is one piece:
CONTRARIES
Try to remember, as a corrective against automatic assumptions, the story of the wise dervish and the mother.
A woman was carrying her baby down a hill when she saw what looked like a reverend dervish, and she asked him to bless her child.
He immediately started to curse it.
This made her weep bitterly, and regard the man as utterly evil.
What she did not know about him was that he belonged to a realm where things always went by contraries. (Reflections, p. 29.)
This is one piece out of many.
DETAILS:
Published: London: The Octagon Press, 1969. (First published 1968.)
A new audiobook edition is available from ISF Publishing; and a new edition of the book will be released soon: http://isf-publishing.org/
Written by Afghan author Idries Shah, notable traveler, collector of stories, and commentator upon the Sufis.
147 pgs., hardcover
Reflections is a small book chock-full of wisdom and good sense.
But it is difficult to convey the quality of the book in a review. I recommend reading it to get the real flavour and content.
Here are some of the Reflections:
CAT AND DOG
A cat and a dog were fighting. A man asked them what they were doing.
They said: 'The winner will decide which of us is a rat.'
'You are both wrong,' said the man.
So they set upon him, and put him to flight.
VIABILITY
You can keep going on much less attention than you crave.
LAZINESS
The laziness of adolescence is a rehearsal for the incapacity of old age.
The book is a collection of tales, anecdotes, aphoristic-type expressions, and short disquisitions or essays. It seems that these reflections have been collected because, in the words of the Foreword, they are 'delineations of what happens in real life, in the community, and in the individual's mental processes.' The tone is upbeat, and often challenging: challenging of one's assumptions and comfortable patterns of thought, that is.
There are useful indications about broadening one's attitude, such as 'I,' or 'Truth,' or this one, 'Expectation':
If, from time to time, you give up expectation, you will be able to perceive what it is you are getting.
Help to reduce the self-satisfaction of seekers and disciples is found in 'Why He was Chosen':
The disciple of a Dervish master whose name resounded from one end of Islam to the other one day visited the Grand Sheikh of Korasan.
'I have been honoured by my acceptance as a pupil,' he said, 'singled out from among the hundreds who approach my master every day, and yet are sent away.'
'My dear brother,' said the Grand Sheikh, 'I will try to further your education by giving you a piece of essential information. You were chosen because of being in the greatest need of teaching, not because of qualities greater than those of the other applicants.'
And as one might expect from a book by Idries Shah, there are also some very funny sections, like 'Two Gurus' or 'Grit.'
The section 'Golden Rule' challenges cherished assumptions about that concept -- and indicates something of the subtlety of traditional psychology.
Indeed the book is full of sophisticated psychological awareness. This seems ubiquitous, but is exemplified in 'Manoeuvring' (which helps uncover people's real motivations), 'Opinions' ('Do not ask people how they arrived at their opinions if you want the truth.'), 'Report on the Planet Earth,' 'Being,' and 'The Intelligent Man' (in part a warning against diffusing one's attention and effort too much). The almost unnoticed but powerful presence of brainwashing techniques in society is addressed in 'Monstrous Suggestion.' And the section 'Attention' contains valuable and not-yet-well-understood facts about the importance of attention in human exchanges.
Reflections also contains numerous wonderful and pointed tales, like 'Occasion,' 'The Execrated Sheikh,' 'The King Without a Trade,' 'The Demon's Oath,' and 'Delights of a Visit to Hell.' Sufi foresight, and ability to use materials of the world for instructional ends, are some of the themes of 'The Wandering Baba'; while 'The Aim,' concerning Alexander the Great and the Water of Eternal Life, underscores 'that the aim must be formulated in accordance with knowledge and not just desire.'
Variation in Sufic methods, and the importance at times of exclusion, are addressed in 'Higher Perceptions.'
All these examples are taken almost at random from the book and only hint at the range of material. This process, and that of adding a comment on the examples, seem to create a distorted emphasis. Again: the best thing is to get and read the book itself.
That materials once central can become obsolete is discussed in 'Aphorisms':
Few things are more absurd than wise saws originally designed to inculcate or maintain the social needs of a society long past -- when they are applied to today.
We see a grimmer side of the contemporary world in 'Toys':
People used to play with toys.
Now the toys play with them.
Yet Shah seems never to tire of trying to assist people to learn and genuinely improve. Thus:
If you want to make an ordinary man happy, or think that he is happy, give him money, power, flattery, gifts, honours.
If you want to make a wise man happy -- improve yourself!
And:
Instead of giving one a religious tract, people interested in that kind of thing ought to make sure first that the recipient has a digestive [ital.] tract, to be able to absorb the real content of spiritual materials.
Reflections well repays the effort to read and think about what it's saying.
CONTRARIES
Try to remember, as a corrective against automatic assumptions, the story of the wise dervish and the mother.
A woman was carrying her baby down a hill when she saw what looked like a reverend dervish, and she asked him to bless her child.
He immediately started to curse it.
This made her weep bitterly, and regard the man as utterly evil.
What she did not know about him was that he belonged to a realm where things always went by contraries. (Reflections, p. 29.)
This is one piece out of many.
DETAILS:
Published: London: The Octagon Press, 1969. (First published 1968.)
A new audiobook edition is available from ISF Publishing; and a new edition of the book will be released soon: http://isf-publishing.org/
Written by Afghan author Idries Shah, notable traveler, collector of stories, and commentator upon the Sufis.
147 pgs., hardcover
Reflections is a small book chock-full of wisdom and good sense.
But it is difficult to convey the quality of the book in a review. I recommend reading it to get the real flavour and content.
Here are some of the Reflections:
CAT AND DOG
A cat and a dog were fighting. A man asked them what they were doing.
They said: 'The winner will decide which of us is a rat.'
'You are both wrong,' said the man.
So they set upon him, and put him to flight.
VIABILITY
You can keep going on much less attention than you crave.
LAZINESS
The laziness of adolescence is a rehearsal for the incapacity of old age.
The book is a collection of tales, anecdotes, aphoristic-type expressions, and short disquisitions or essays. It seems that these reflections have been collected because, in the words of the Foreword, they are 'delineations of what happens in real life, in the community, and in the individual's mental processes.' The tone is upbeat, and often challenging: challenging of one's assumptions and comfortable patterns of thought, that is.
There are useful indications about broadening one's attitude, such as 'I,' or 'Truth,' or this one, 'Expectation':
If, from time to time, you give up expectation, you will be able to perceive what it is you are getting.
Help to reduce the self-satisfaction of seekers and disciples is found in 'Why He was Chosen':
The disciple of a Dervish master whose name resounded from one end of Islam to the other one day visited the Grand Sheikh of Korasan.
'I have been honoured by my acceptance as a pupil,' he said, 'singled out from among the hundreds who approach my master every day, and yet are sent away.'
'My dear brother,' said the Grand Sheikh, 'I will try to further your education by giving you a piece of essential information. You were chosen because of being in the greatest need of teaching, not because of qualities greater than those of the other applicants.'
And as one might expect from a book by Idries Shah, there are also some very funny sections, like 'Two Gurus' or 'Grit.'
The section 'Golden Rule' challenges cherished assumptions about that concept -- and indicates something of the subtlety of traditional psychology.
Indeed the book is full of sophisticated psychological awareness. This seems ubiquitous, but is exemplified in 'Manoeuvring' (which helps uncover people's real motivations), 'Opinions' ('Do not ask people how they arrived at their opinions if you want the truth.'), 'Report on the Planet Earth,' 'Being,' and 'The Intelligent Man' (in part a warning against diffusing one's attention and effort too much). The almost unnoticed but powerful presence of brainwashing techniques in society is addressed in 'Monstrous Suggestion.' And the section 'Attention' contains valuable and not-yet-well-understood facts about the importance of attention in human exchanges.
Reflections also contains numerous wonderful and pointed tales, like 'Occasion,' 'The Execrated Sheikh,' 'The King Without a Trade,' 'The Demon's Oath,' and 'Delights of a Visit to Hell.' Sufi foresight, and ability to use materials of the world for instructional ends, are some of the themes of 'The Wandering Baba'; while 'The Aim,' concerning Alexander the Great and the Water of Eternal Life, underscores 'that the aim must be formulated in accordance with knowledge and not just desire.'
Variation in Sufic methods, and the importance at times of exclusion, are addressed in 'Higher Perceptions.'
All these examples are taken almost at random from the book and only hint at the range of material. This process, and that of adding a comment on the examples, seem to create a distorted emphasis. Again: the best thing is to get and read the book itself.
That materials once central can become obsolete is discussed in 'Aphorisms':
Few things are more absurd than wise saws originally designed to inculcate or maintain the social needs of a society long past -- when they are applied to today.
We see a grimmer side of the contemporary world in 'Toys':
People used to play with toys.
Now the toys play with them.
Yet Shah seems never to tire of trying to assist people to learn and genuinely improve. Thus:
If you want to make an ordinary man happy, or think that he is happy, give him money, power, flattery, gifts, honours.
If you want to make a wise man happy -- improve yourself!
And:
Instead of giving one a religious tract, people interested in that kind of thing ought to make sure first that the recipient has a digestive [ital.] tract, to be able to absorb the real content of spiritual materials.
Reflections well repays the effort to read and think about what it's saying.
October 15, 2022
Put this book in your pocket. Reading and re-reading, clichéd attitudes of thought and expression begin to loosen their hold.
‘Shut Doors.'
'People often say that a door to something is or has been shut. Do they however, go so far as to investigate whether it has been locked as well?
When you really face a problem and see it clearly, you realise that it is not the door and its shutting which are significant, but the presence and condition of a lock.
This is one reason for informing the pessimist-cultures which imagine that their heritage is optimism and constructive response to challenge, that they need vision.
A response based on inadequate data is not a response.’
5th Feb 2020.
‘Shut Doors.'
'People often say that a door to something is or has been shut. Do they however, go so far as to investigate whether it has been locked as well?
When you really face a problem and see it clearly, you realise that it is not the door and its shutting which are significant, but the presence and condition of a lock.
This is one reason for informing the pessimist-cultures which imagine that their heritage is optimism and constructive response to challenge, that they need vision.
A response based on inadequate data is not a response.’
5th Feb 2020.
May 2, 2019
Would give this 10 stars if I could!
Very difficult to say anything better than cover note, so I shall repeat it again here:
“Shah’s Reflections 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.”
If you are ready to start taking on some unaccustomed perspectives this is the best place to start. Enjoy!
Very difficult to say anything better than cover note, so I shall repeat it again here:
“Shah’s Reflections 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.”
If you are ready to start taking on some unaccustomed perspectives this is the best place to start. Enjoy!
March 9, 2019
This book has a much larger reach than its small size indicates. It is full of short phrases and stories, told in a contemporary style, that annoy, please, agitate, placate, and generally provide fuel for reflecting on the nature of living.
March 13, 2019
This compact book contains over 280 small tales, thoughts and proverbs holding up a mirror to the limits that our culture transmits about thinking, understanding our self and our relationships with others.
One area of focus is that ‘words are an aspect of the attempted communication of thought’ not to be confused with thought. He points out that ‘the culture becomes unable to communicate experiences because it has no means of doing so: no patterns, and a mutilated language.’ By way of example he uniquely suggests ‘proverbs need to be kept ‘in proper repair’ or succeeded with more relevant ones. The limitations on our ability to think clearly imposed by a score of deteriorated proverbs are illustrated. A favourite is:
‘Better Try Something Than Nothing at All’.
Three examples are all that are required to show ‘This appalling statement holds good in the most restricted fields.’
It is not like this author to describe the poor situation without providing some corrective and this he does with a mixture of humour, subtlety and gentle provocation. A range of ‘new’ proverbs are provided to stimulate questions and flexible thought. A treasured one is:
Understanding
People are always trying to understand.
There is only one way to do that.
It is to discover why you want to understand.
Another area of study is the effect that unacknowledged attention has on our social interchanges and motives. The influence of M.C.O. (Mutual Comfort Operation!) and other psychological processes are illustrated in some striking contemporary fables that the author has created in a modern idiom. As in this entire author’s writing, there much more to discover in this illuminating little book.
One area of focus is that ‘words are an aspect of the attempted communication of thought’ not to be confused with thought. He points out that ‘the culture becomes unable to communicate experiences because it has no means of doing so: no patterns, and a mutilated language.’ By way of example he uniquely suggests ‘proverbs need to be kept ‘in proper repair’ or succeeded with more relevant ones. The limitations on our ability to think clearly imposed by a score of deteriorated proverbs are illustrated. A favourite is:
‘Better Try Something Than Nothing at All’.
Three examples are all that are required to show ‘This appalling statement holds good in the most restricted fields.’
It is not like this author to describe the poor situation without providing some corrective and this he does with a mixture of humour, subtlety and gentle provocation. A range of ‘new’ proverbs are provided to stimulate questions and flexible thought. A treasured one is:
Understanding
People are always trying to understand.
There is only one way to do that.
It is to discover why you want to understand.
Another area of study is the effect that unacknowledged attention has on our social interchanges and motives. The influence of M.C.O. (Mutual Comfort Operation!) and other psychological processes are illustrated in some striking contemporary fables that the author has created in a modern idiom. As in this entire author’s writing, there much more to discover in this illuminating little book.
January 20, 2019
If all I did was read others' reviews of this book, I'd know I was faced with a very unusual volume and I would obtain a copy as soon as I possibly could. Just scanning the Amazon.com comments for the book I saw things things like "amazing gems of wisdom," "contrary to automatic thinking," "quotes that develop the brain," "small container, large content," "unfamiliar concepts," "a taste of practical wisdom," "a delightful tonic," and so on.
But I am late to reading (and largely agreeing with) others' reviews of Reflections. I'm been too busy reading the book itself (and a few years later, re-reading it). Each time I read this small book packed with short quotes, stories, and anecdotes, I see new things in it and learn new things that I had not realized before. In each reading, certain passages (quite often different ones from the previous reading) stand out, strike me powerfully, and help me to understand myself and the world I live in a little better.
If you like books that give you an astonishingly different perspective on life, help to widen your horizons without preaching or exercises, and are like a snug cabin in a furious winter storm, a warm refuge you can return to again and again when you need shelter from the randomness, stupidity, meanness, and madness of the world...you will like this book a lot, despite the fact that a lot of the passages are irritatingly baffling, like chests in puzzle games that don't open no matter what you try...until you try the right thing. In addition, when reading _Reflections_, you may learn some mental/emotional skills for coping with all of the insanity that is around us these days. I certainly have!
But I am late to reading (and largely agreeing with) others' reviews of Reflections. I'm been too busy reading the book itself (and a few years later, re-reading it). Each time I read this small book packed with short quotes, stories, and anecdotes, I see new things in it and learn new things that I had not realized before. In each reading, certain passages (quite often different ones from the previous reading) stand out, strike me powerfully, and help me to understand myself and the world I live in a little better.
If you like books that give you an astonishingly different perspective on life, help to widen your horizons without preaching or exercises, and are like a snug cabin in a furious winter storm, a warm refuge you can return to again and again when you need shelter from the randomness, stupidity, meanness, and madness of the world...you will like this book a lot, despite the fact that a lot of the passages are irritatingly baffling, like chests in puzzle games that don't open no matter what you try...until you try the right thing. In addition, when reading _Reflections_, you may learn some mental/emotional skills for coping with all of the insanity that is around us these days. I certainly have!
April 14, 2019
There is many a Little Book of Spiritual Soft Soap available to buy these days. Usually full of cosy, unchallenging, vaguely inspirational snippets from one tradition or teacher or another, randomly collected and wrapped for easy consumption. These books, at best, give a rosy glow of sanctity for a short while but are easily forgotten or erased by the next one you might care to read.
Not so with Reflections. It is indeed a little book but it fights like a cornered Tasmanian Devil. With propositions, questions, challenges and statements as short as a single sentence, to tales extending over several pages, Reflections will fill you with hope, buffet you with self doubt, turn your thinking around, perplex you, intrigue you and encourage you to question the arrangement of your whole interior world. What it won't do is bore you: “bored people are boring people, people who think that things are banal are themselves banal” as one of the sections avers.
Do a few rounds with Reflections – you will learn more sparring with this book than being limply massaged by most of the so-called spiritual literature you may find.
Not so with Reflections. It is indeed a little book but it fights like a cornered Tasmanian Devil. With propositions, questions, challenges and statements as short as a single sentence, to tales extending over several pages, Reflections will fill you with hope, buffet you with self doubt, turn your thinking around, perplex you, intrigue you and encourage you to question the arrangement of your whole interior world. What it won't do is bore you: “bored people are boring people, people who think that things are banal are themselves banal” as one of the sections avers.
Do a few rounds with Reflections – you will learn more sparring with this book than being limply massaged by most of the so-called spiritual literature you may find.
March 10, 2019
I have read all Shah's books, and this is my favourite. Reflections is, no doubt, unlike any other book you've read. An assortment of thoughts, observations, aphorisms, short stories and so on - every one of which will defy expectation and jar your mind out of its well-worn patterns. This may well feel awkward, even uncomfortable, but if you think this means it's a book you'd rather not read, consider this passage titled "Stimulus":
"A pungent thought is a corrective to deterioration of the thinking: like cold water helping slack muscles to work again. If you dislike the thought more than the sting of a shower which stimulates, and you do not feel its regenerating power - prepare for your mental obesity to possess you completely: it won't be long now."
"A pungent thought is a corrective to deterioration of the thinking: like cold water helping slack muscles to work again. If you dislike the thought more than the sting of a shower which stimulates, and you do not feel its regenerating power - prepare for your mental obesity to possess you completely: it won't be long now."
March 5, 2018
Idries Shah's 'Reflections' is full of profound thoughts which still have true validity today, 50 years after its publication. It is as if he had written it for our times, with so much wisdom and insight, compacted in a small book that fits into a pocket. Highly recommendable to readers interested in pausing to reflect on, between one page and the next one, to let the thoughts sip in slowly. Can't be hurried but it is absolutely worth the time spent reading it.
November 14, 2023
Merits many re-readings. Shah’s aphorisms are very intriguing, entertaining, and give way to many self-guided opportunities for contemplation in general. In this sense, it is hard to summarize this book in a satisfactory way, so I won’t try necessarily, but I will say that if it’s read correctly, you will begin to go about things differently for sure.
April 16, 2019
Fables that are reflections of our daily reality, social and, potentially, spiritual. This short book is most effective in leaving pungent stories in the mind, to be recalled later, at the right moment, of reality.
May 26, 2020
Wow. This book is one of the most thought provoking one's I've read in quite awhile. Shah in short thoughts challenges so much we take for granted, it would take the rest of my life to think through all these new ideas. Definitely worth checking out.
October 7, 2021
I wanted to finish this so bad but I couldn't, I got most of the way through. None of the little blurbs felt very profound to me and most went over my head 😭🥲
I bought it at the cool bookstore I went to.. thought I'd like it but nope. lol
I bought it at the cool bookstore I went to.. thought I'd like it but nope. lol
May 3, 2023
Late to the 60's cultural revolution, I expected this 1972 book of vaguely Sufi aphorisms to have dated, but found it both entertaining and humorous. Jaded, yes, but often insightful. Short, pithy, easy to digest, yet profound.
January 20, 2018
A small, simple and interesting collection of stories and aphorisms. There is much that can be deconstructed within - and at such a short length it is a worthwhile read.
October 11, 2019
When your thinking gets snarled up, this can help you get untangled. I don't know if Shah's books will help you to be enlightened, but this one will make it easier to think effectively.
January 5, 2021
Idris Sah iyidir.
March 18, 2019
Let me be truthful right up front: I’m a huge fan of books containing sayings and stories. From contemporary writers like Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Bed of Proscrustes) to Oscar Wilde’s compilations of wit, I enjoy the art of capturing wisdom in a short form. Which is why Reflections is a book I return to again and again.
Shah’s “reflections” run a very wide gamut, and many, if not most, could be used for meditation purposes. They range from the sharply observant - “You can keep going on much less attention that you crave.” – to longer observations on many of the problems that plague most of us who are trying to find our way in the world.
One of the challenges of reviewing a book like this is avoiding the tempation of simply listing my favorite entries. So I’ll end by providing just one and hope you’ll check out the rest on your own:
“While you use thoughts which attract or repulse you only for purposes of stimulation, you are only half alive. You are also cooperating in keeping yourself in good training to be conditioned by others.”
Shah’s “reflections” run a very wide gamut, and many, if not most, could be used for meditation purposes. They range from the sharply observant - “You can keep going on much less attention that you crave.” – to longer observations on many of the problems that plague most of us who are trying to find our way in the world.
One of the challenges of reviewing a book like this is avoiding the tempation of simply listing my favorite entries. So I’ll end by providing just one and hope you’ll check out the rest on your own:
“While you use thoughts which attract or repulse you only for purposes of stimulation, you are only half alive. You are also cooperating in keeping yourself in good training to be conditioned by others.”
March 2, 2019
Like many of Idries Shah's 20 or so other books, this contains short stories but also statements, thoughts, ideas to suggest alternative ways of considering the world and ourselves.
Some I have taken as maxims - 'Advice is priceless: when it becomes interference it is preposterous.'
Others I am still unpacking years after first reading them - 'Many people try to avoid using the word "I" to show or practice humility. The consequence is to fixate them upon the concept of "I". ...
What is important is to know which "I" is involved in any act or statement. ...'
'If you want to strengthen an enemy and make him exult - hate him.'
But:
'While you use thoughts which attract or repulse you only for purposes of stimulation, you are only half alive. You are also co-operating in keeping yourself in good training to be conditioned by others.'
There is so much diverse material here in a small volume it could feed one for years
Some I have taken as maxims - 'Advice is priceless: when it becomes interference it is preposterous.'
Others I am still unpacking years after first reading them - 'Many people try to avoid using the word "I" to show or practice humility. The consequence is to fixate them upon the concept of "I". ...
What is important is to know which "I" is involved in any act or statement. ...'
'If you want to strengthen an enemy and make him exult - hate him.'
But:
'While you use thoughts which attract or repulse you only for purposes of stimulation, you are only half alive. You are also co-operating in keeping yourself in good training to be conditioned by others.'
There is so much diverse material here in a small volume it could feed one for years
May 28, 2015
What I loved most about this book is that, even though it is full of succinct parables, they provide nothing immediate in the spiritual sense. The reader is supposed to think about the parable and more often than not what is most apparent is only the surface of a bigger mountain the reader will have to tunnel through for deeper truths; and the manner in which these parables are written... they do not have one size fits all answers. This book follows the aspect of Shah's philosophy which essentially is of the accord that technical knowledge and diagnostic ability, in and of themselves are nothing, what is truly required is the ability to to cater to specific spiritual cases.
September 17, 2015
In its own quiet way, this pocket-size gem of a book offers something that's often claimed but rarely found: a true means of rousing the sluggish brain from its customary, comfortable state of automatic-pilot torpor. Comprised of bite-size sayings and stories, it avoids the emotional, the obvious and the sententious in favor of an entirely different approach that nudges the attentive reader in new and unexpected directions, chipping away at assumptions and habitual thought-patterns that screen us from seeing things the way they really are. I found it thought-provoking, bracing and a pleasure to read as well as a real eye-opener. Its size and format also make it an ideal gift.
September 9, 2013
This is a book of great, short vignettes that prompt one to rethink a lot of the things that one has been accustomed to. Some are absolutely redolent with wisdom. I loved that one on attention: one could go on so much less attention than one feels one needs. I'm going to have to re-read this someday just to remind myself of my shortcomings, and to teach myself to be more mature.
July 9, 2015
A book that is actually the opposite of its size: monumental. A book written with love for the same humanity that it so perfectly depicts. A magnifying glass of the human ego, our mind processes, our basic psychology: like a Shakespearan work for the modern reader. If you want to know more about yourself, read this little though gigantic book.
February 15, 2018
Pithy and punchy short stories, commentaries, proverbs, aphorisms as well as tall tales and true accounts. An example of the 'action philosophy of the Sufis it functions as exercise for the mind as much as entertainment. A book that can be read and re-read many times without giving up all its secrets.
September 7, 2015
I've carried a copy of this small book in my vehicle and pack. The short statements continue to surprise. They feel to widen my humanity.
July 5, 2016
Slobber.
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