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Wisdom of the Idiots
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 3 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Politics & Social Sciences, Philosophy
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The Commanding Self, in Sufic terminology, is that mixture of the primitive and conditioned responses, common to everyone, which inhibits and distorts human progress and understanding. This audiobook was described by Shah as the key to understanding his entire corpus of work. While complete in itself as an anthology of hitherto unpublished work, it serves to illustrate and amplify Idries Shah’s preceding books on the Sufi Way.
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The Pleasantries of the Incredible Mulla Nasrudin
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The appeal of Nasrudin is as universal and timeless as the truths he illustrates. His stories are read by children, by scientists and scholars, and by followers of philosophy. Sufi scholar Idries Shah assembled this collection of Nasrudin's trials and tribulations from ancient Eastern manuscripts and oral literature, from sources in North Africa and Turkey, the Middle East and Central Asia. Many were known to the great Sufi masters, Rumi, Jami, and Attar the chemist.
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Most pleasant
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Overall
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A treasure house of teaching materials, assembled in the Sufi manner. Seeker After Truth contains both traditional tales and stories gleaned from contemporary sources, and snippets of table talk, discussions and teachings, letters, and lectures by Idries Shah. Taken together, it constitutes a handbook of materials designed to provoke a different kind of thought.
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The Commanding Self
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The Commanding Self, in Sufic terminology, is that mixture of the primitive and conditioned responses, common to everyone, which inhibits and distorts human progress and understanding. This audiobook was described by Shah as the key to understanding his entire corpus of work. While complete in itself as an anthology of hitherto unpublished work, it serves to illustrate and amplify Idries Shah’s preceding books on the Sufi Way.
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The Idries Shah Anthology
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Idries Shah Anthology is a special collection of previously published work by Idries Shah, and was edited by Saira Shah. This title includes an Introduction by Saira Shah, as well as comments and annotations throughout the audio.
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Idries Who ?
- By Amazon Customer on 15-07-22
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The Magic Monastery
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 4 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Many of Idries Shah's books are comprised of tales and teaching stories taken from both written and oral sources, which illustrate the instructional methods employed by Eastern wise men for thousands of years. The Magic Monastery differs from its predecessors in that it contains not only traditional tales - mostly unpublished - but also stories specially written by Shah to complete the book as a "course in non-linear thinking".
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- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 2 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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The appeal of Nasrudin is as universal and timeless as the truths he illustrates. His stories are read by children, by scientists and scholars, and by followers of philosophy. Sufi scholar Idries Shah assembled this collection of Nasrudin's trials and tribulations from ancient Eastern manuscripts and oral literature, from sources in North Africa and Turkey, the Middle East and Central Asia. Many were known to the great Sufi masters, Rumi, Jami, and Attar the chemist.
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Traditionally known as The Hundred Tales of Wisdom, this collection comprises excerpts from the life, teachings, and miracles of the Sufi teacher Jalaluddin Rumi, together with certain important stories from his works. As well as being part of the bedrock of classical Persian literature, these tales, anecdotes, and narratives are believed, by Sufis, to aid in the development of insights beyond ordinary perceptions. Here, they are translated and presented by Idries Shah.
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The "perfuming of a scorpion", referred to by the great Sufi teacher Bahaudin, symbolizes hypocrisy and self-deception: both in the individual and in institutions. In A Perfumed Scorpion, Idries Shah directs attention to both the perfume and the scorpion - the overlay and the reality - in psychology, human behavior and the learning process. Crammed with illustrative anecdotes from contemporary life, the book is nevertheless rooted in the teaching patterns of Rumi, Hafiz, Jami, and many other great Oriental sages. It deals with the need for and the path to knowledge and information.
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Read by David Ault, this unabridged recording of Idries Shah's Reflections is a collection of Sufi fables, aphorisms, and statements that challenge the conditioned mind. The audiobook confronts the listener with unaccustomed perspectives and ideas in an attempt to set the mind free, to see how things really are.
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Great Rendition of a Favourite Book
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A Veiled Gazelle
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A Veiled Gazelle, as the great mystic Ibn Arabi explains in his interpreter of desires, is a subtlety, an organ of higher perception. Sufi experientialists refer to the activation of these centres of awareness as the awakening of real knowledge of truth beyond form. A Veiled Gazelle considers the symbolic and instrumental employment of its literature in Sufi studies. Seldom didactic, and never meant only as entertainment, such works are regarded as some of the world’s greatest and most important writing.
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A serious, yet entertaining, look at the impediments in current thought which prevent certain forms of understanding between people. The title story was made into an award-winning film with script by Idries Shah, and chosen as an Outstanding Film of the Year.
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Special Illumination
- The Sufi Use of Humor
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Special Illumination is a term used by the great poet and mystic, Jalaluddin Rumi, to stress the importance of humor in metaphysical experience. Of it, Idries Shah says, "Rumi directly contradicts such numerous sour-faced religionists as, in all persuasions, find that humor disturbs the indoctrination which is all that they usually have to offer."
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Observations
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Performance
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According to the Sufis, human faculties, although perceptive, are limited: Like a radio set, which can receive only certain electromagnetic waves and not other parts of this band. The inability to transcend the barrier of limited senses explains human subjectivity. The Sufis assert that through familiarization with concepts, patterns of thought, and ideas that form part of their contemporary literature, one can learn to penetrate beyond this apparent reality.
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Evenings with Idries Shah
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Performance
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Story
The Sufis have been using carefully constructed stories for teaching purposes for thousands of years. Though on the surface these often appear to be little more than entertaining fairy tales or folktales, they enshrine - in their characters, plots, and imagery - patterns and relationships that nurture a part of the mind not reachable in more conventional ways, thus increasing our understanding, flexibility, and breadth of vision.
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Letters and Lectures
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- Narrated by: David Ault
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
According to the Sufis, human faculties, although perceptive, are limited: like a radio set, which can receive only certain electromagnetic waves and not other parts of this band. The inability to transcend the barrier of limited senses explains human subjectivity. The Sufis assert that through familiarization with concepts, patterns of thought, and ideas that form part of their contemporary literature, one can learn to penetrate beyond this apparent reality.
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Knowing How to Know
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
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- Unabridged
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Contemporary esoteric systems almost always play on the desire of mankind to seek or acquire knowledge. All but universally neglected in such systems are the often unrecognized barriers which prevent knowledge and understanding. Before learning can take place, certain conditions and basic factors must be in place, in the individual or the group.
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The World of Nasrudin
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Nasrudin is the greatest of all Arab folk heroes, and is found across the Islamic World, from Morocco to Pakistan, and beyond. He is said to have been the wisest fool who ever lived - that is if he ever did live at all. Stories of Nasrudin’s many incarnations are studied by Sufis for their hidden wisdom, and are universally enjoyed for their humor. Sometimes Nasrudin is an impoverished itinerant or stallholder, and at others, he is the mayor, judge, vizier, or even the King.
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Caravan of Dreams
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Caravan of Dreams distills the essence of Eastern thought in a feast of Sufi stories, sayings, poems, and allegories collected by one of the world's leading experts in Oriental philosophy and Sufism. Idries Shah builds up a complete picture of a single consciousness, relating Eastern mythology to reality, illuminating historical patterns, and presenting philosophical legends in this unique anthology.
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enchanting
- By Peter Davies on 29-10-15
Summary
In Idries Shah's Wisdom of the Idiots, the "idiots" are Sufis, called this because their wisdom penetrates to a depth which renders it inaccessible to the merely intelligent or academically knowledgeable. The stories of the Sufis are tools prepared for a specific purpose. On this level the movements of the characters in a story portray psychological processes, and the story becomes a working blueprint of those processes. Wisdom of the Idiots has been awarded many prizes, including two gold medals, one for being "Best Book", in conjunction with UNESCO's World Book Year.
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What listeners say about Wisdom of the Idiots
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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- Zehra
- 19-08-19
great
great book second read enjoyed the ancodotes a lot!
reader had a good voice too
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- R.S.
- 28-11-16
"...the sharpened knife ..."
"...the exercised arm..."
Appropriate tales told appropriately to an appropriate audience. An interesting format to explore.
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- Haresh Raichura
- 24-01-18
Great Experience
The book causes many paradigm shifts in mind. The teaching is through stories which one can relate to real world. Some of these stories have very deep meanings. Such works are true inheritance from those who thought well and lived well. This is my first book on Sufism. I felt as if I am introduced to treasures of human wisdom with its practical application. Reading this story and their analysis and meaning, causes instant paradigm shifts in minds which are ready and hungry for wisdom. The language is lucid. The listening is a profound pleasure. This is what I think. I also wish that prices are lower so that more and more human being can be benefited.