Learning...Real & Imagined

[Joe Fulton]

Always an admirer of Sufi traditions, and after having thrown out some ideas on education earlier, perhaps it's a good thing to combine the two concepts. These are from Idres Shah's "Learning How to Learn".

"In Winter you look for a fur garment, but when Summer comes you have no time for it, it is an encumbrance. So it is with imitations of real teachings. They keep people warm until the time comes when they can be warmed by the Sun..."

- Rumi

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You yourself are your own barrier - rise from within it.

- Hafiz

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What is worship?
To realise reality
What is the sacred law?
To do no evil
What is reality?
Selflessness

- Sheikh Abdullah Ansari

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The Invisible Cat

As a hoax, Mark Twain advertised that he had lost a cat so black that it could not be seen by ordinary light and he wanted it back. Nearly a thousand people contacted him claiming to have seen it.

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- All approaches to a study or an individual my start with a desire for attention. However they start, they must never end up in this manner.

- Study the assumptions behind your actions. Then study the assumptions behind your assumptions.

- 'Why did I do such and such a thing?' is all very well. But what about 'How otherwise could I have done it?'

- You have come a long way, and you do not know it. You have a long way to go and you do know what that means.

- In respect to some, you may have advanced. In relation to others, you have not progressed at all. Neither observation is more important than the other.

- Idres Shah