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The Magic Monastery

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In another book called The Commanding Self Idries Shah says that the desired effect of these Teaching stories depends upon someone not knowing the intended effect. And this in a Teaching narrative that next tells us that the person he said this to, an editor for one of his books, then asked for an introduction explaining the intended effect of the stories. If you don't think thats funny, you probably won't like this book. There are no explanations here, no descriptions of spirituality, or theories about personal development. What is here, is very finely crafted Teaching stories and narratives that Shah collected from both oral and written sources, adding some of his own when "Sufic comprehensiveness demanded it". The stories are beautiful, challenging, disturbing, and often banal. And then one reads them again and finds that they are none of these things; that those were simply some of your own personal reactions to them. This book is a remarkable acheivement; a mirror for what can't be written down.

Here are 157 pieces of literature, most on a single page. Each one is like a room in a monastery; not the one in the title story, which is the product of the illusions of the greedy, but a genuine, inner one. Some rooms have windows through which to see the world around us more clearly. Some rooms have mirrors in which to see ourselves more clearly. Both windows and mirrors are specialized to help us see subtle things that we would otherwise miss. Then we realize that the windows have become mirrors, and the mirrors, windows. A handbook for inner work.

This book not only entertains, it educates as well. The tales and vignettes in it are called Teaching Stories because teaching is precisely what they do. They teach the reader how to escape from the confines and limitations of usual, normal thinking processes. They do so by showing the reader to himself or herself, reflected in the actions and motivations of the characters in the tales. The reader can learn how to operate more free of bias. The effect is similar to suddenly coming across riches, the riches buried within ourselves. Repeated readings reveal more layers and depths, each guiding the reader to greater understanding and freedom. 'The Magic Monastery' is, for these reasons, quite a catch.

Parables are sometimes too hard to understand. These Sufi tales tweak your mind yet they also let you in. They show the modern problem is often in the approach. We think we know what we want, how to get it, etc. These funny animal tales and disciple tales show how we don't know anything. How different real listening is from what we think it to be. How we have to learn how to learn.... They put the lie to most modern self-help.

About Sufism, it has been said that "in the West it's become very complicated because spiritual authority is understood on the wrong levels."

Shah's delivery is often times directed toward certain constructs of the ego within this reader's psyche. Painfulness is almost always imminent because he is capable in pointing out the fractures of this reader's brittle comprehension of Life. He points out how I can be my own worst enemy that keeps me from taking necessary steps needed to live a healthy and fulfilling life. In this sense, his tone can, in some instances, become characteristic of a stern father, a strict sensei, or a tough coach helping me steer clear of self-imagined obstructions. These moments aren't really ever pleasant, as they tend to turn my insides, and I feel singed. But, with some help, I am able to understand that this is an essential prerequisite for transformation in the Sufi way; therefore, I choose to understand these types of stern approaches in terms of "tough loving" that help bring equilibrium to my egoic ratios (inflation:deflation), and step in the direction of freeing myself of myself.

The Sufi stories within the Magic Monastery are, for me, the best times of diligent reading and mindful inner listening. I definitely become more aware of any inner voices compelling reactions and responses. Self-punishing? or self-rewarding? You make what you want of it.

Do you want to get to know yourself? That's what I did. Each of these stories is an opportunity to discover another aspect of your personality. Like me, you will find stories which you will like or find amusing, perhaps others that will annoy or startle you. Each is a mine of possibility that enriches with subsequent readings. Spend time with Idries Shah... and get to know You.

"If you want special illumination, look upon the human face:

See clearly within laughter the Essence of Ultimate Truth." Jalaluddin Rumi

The Dimensions of Sufi Learning:

The seven dimensions of Sufi Learning, as ascribed by Idries Shah, in "The Fountain of Endless Learning," are described as :

- A common spring that feeds the inner circle at the core of the world's great religions.

- The "old-fashioned virtues" of simplicity, self-reliance, and sensible attitudes.

- The second dimension of Higher Learning; flexibility.

- The third: thinking with the Heart and learning Sufi wisdom from Al-Ghazali mysticism.

- Releasing the sacred longing of the Heart.

- The leap from the old to the new, discovering the unknown.

- Insight into skill and poise in daily life by Schopenhauer (proclamations of classic wisdom 'Sophia', whose analogical arguments are often used in reasoning about moral issues).

Doris Lessing On Shah:

"The Elephant in the Dark", the little fable about people who feel different parts of an elephant, all believing that what they feel is the whole beast. Each of these, and later books, are a rich mix of tales, ideas, verses, jokes, and at first people's reactions, my own included, illustrated Shah's remark that we should not expect Sufis to teach in an expected manner. With each book there was a slight initial feeling of let-down, even bewilderment, and this was because the words 'Teacher', 'School', 'Teaching', evoke expectations of a person standing in front of a class and saying, "For the next hour I shall instruct you in so-and-so. Now: a, b, c, d..." In a Sufi school you first learn what is being taught and, above all, how. Sufi books are designed to be read differently from our usual habit: quietly, non-argumentatively, willing to absorb what is there, noticing how a question in one part may be answered in another, observing juxtapositions and intimations of the unexpected, above all not interposing screens of 'received ideas' between the author and one's best self. Perhaps this is what Goethe meant when he said he was a very old man and had only just learned how to read."

The magic Monastery:

This book differs from its preceding peers, where Shah assembled figurative fables and tales that make vivid the instructional sayings of middle eastern mystical sages, gathered from a millennia of Oral and written sources. here shah, as a master Sufi, complements through his own experience the ancient tradition with some of his own teaching in the same traditional form started by the Coptic Desert Fathers, and The Hassidics in the Middle ages.

Idries Shah & Sufi Writings:

Idries Shah was born in 1924 in North India, of an ancient family that has always produced remarkable people, influential in their communities in the world. His family holds a special place in the community of the Sufis. Idries Shah's father, Sirdar Iqbal Ali Shah, was a diplomat who worked with cultural organizations that bridged the gap between East and West. He wrote books, still valuable and very entertaining, compilations of tales and adventure, like The Golden Caravan, some directly informational, like The Spirit of the East, The Sufis, The Way of the Sufi, Tales of the Dervishes, The pleasantries of Mulla Nasrudin, The Commanding Self, and Learning how to learn: Spirituality in the Sufi way, within a few dozen books which has characterized his Sufi journey and writings.