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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 297.4
EAN num: 9780385079662
ISBN number: 0385079664
Label: Anchor
Manufacturer: Anchor
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 480
Printing Date: February 05, 1971
Publishing house: Anchor
Release Date: January 05, 1971
Sale Popularity Level: 277458
Studio: Anchor
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
A unique and little-known religion, Sufism follows a mystical teaching and a way of life that has had an enormous though largely unrecognized impact on both the East and West for four thousand years. This authoritative book fills a colossal gap in Western documentation of Eastern subjects.
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Rated by buyers 
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This book is a stellar presentation about Sufism. It has really given me a comprehensive understanding of a topic that has long interested me as an aspect of mysticism without my feeling that I know much about it -- despite reading a fair amount. Most presentations are rather nonspecific, but Idries Shah makes a chapter of each of many specific issues to create a whole that gives me a really consistent picture of sufism. His analysis would, I think, appeal to someone with an analytic approach to things as well as to someone with a more "spiritual" approach as he shows how a person who truly understands sufism would use both at appropriate stages in his growth.
Rated by buyers -
This is an insightful book on Sufism, not an academic analysis of Sufism as in the case of many books by University professors..Whatever may be the authenticity of Shah as a Sufi master[about which several articles have been written] his book is great...it leads you into an appreciation of Sufi methods which are not easy to understand....Since it is a mystical path,words and literary accounts and books can provide only an indirect approach to it.Much depends on one's practice...I had been influenced by a Sufi master in India who is not alive....I can relate better to Shah's book because this master used similar methods and inspired others....Therefore, commenting on this book purely from the aspect of information and literary style is not correct....I wish we have more Sufi masters who can write like Shah ,whatever may be the tradition or linealogy [Silsila] of such a master.
Rated by buyers -
I was one time last year doing some cleaning. This book fell off the shelf and bumped me on the head. I put it in my pack and when I finished, I read it for hours in a coffeshop. Then I read everything by Shah I could find, Tales of the Dervishes, etc. They say you can't be a sufi by reading about it. To a point, I agree with that, unless it triggers something inside you that you 'remember' or 'discover' that you are one perhaps.
Rated by buyers -
A woman owns a talking bird that came from India. The woman is going back to India for a visit, so she asks the bird whether he'd like anything from his old homeland.
The bird asks for his freedom, but the woman says 'No.' So the bird asks that his relatives be found, and told that he's being held prisoner.
This, the traveller does. When she gets back, the bird asks if she has any news from his relatives. The woman says, "Yes, but I'm sorry to say that it's not good news. When I told your relatives about your captivity, one of them dropped dead at my feet the instant he heard your story."
At this, the Indian bird stiffens in shock, twirls on his perch, and pitches forward, landing inert at the bottom of the cage.
The woman sadly picks up her prized bird, detects no signs of life, takes its limp body out of the cage, and lays it on the windowsill. She turns away, and the bird instantly revives and flies out the window to freedom, taking up a perch in a nearby tree.
The bird turns to his former mistress and says, "You thought that you were bringing bad news from my relatives--but in fact, you carried a message from them that told me how to escape."
One of the contentions of the Sufis is that humans are in a very important sense "caged," and have a real self that instinctively seeks freedom and self-expression.
Another Sufi contention is that, since this real self is kept captive by "doting owners," the means to freedom have to be communicated in a way that is at once obvious, but disguised and subtle: rather like an "open secret" that can slip past (and even be delivered by) the guards, but be recognized and applied by those who are looking for it and capable of using it effectively.
In "The Sufis," you'll find many things: Information that seems clearly false, dubious, slanted, confusing, trivial, and irrelevant--or possibly lively, entertaining, engagingly "strange," and even useful to you as you struggle with the conundrums of "your," and humankind's, existence. Depending on your mindset, you may dismiss it as uninteresting--even contemptible--and/or find it to some extent unique, provocative and challenging.
The book itself notes that Sufic communications often evoke both scorn and praise, irritation and delight--even in the same reader--but that superficial reactions such as these are quite irrelevant, since the practical question is, "Can the intended recipient make use of, and gain from, the material?"
As the Indian Bird said, "You thought you were bringing bad news, but in reality, you gave me the hint I needed to escape."
Rated by buyers -
Refrain from reading this book let alone buying it unless you are prepared to accept the possibility that this is not merely a book, but a doorway to ineffable experience. Each read reveals a new layer of understanding - an understanding that is within you, latent and unprovoked. Yet for all that this book is useless if your approach is analytical rather than experiential, prejudicial rather than sincere...
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