Idries Shah has 12 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 1 narrator, with an average listener rating of 4.8★ across 9 ratings. The most-rated is Learning How to Learn.
Learning How to Learn
Summary
100 Conversations with Idries Shah Condensed from more than three million words, these conversations involve housewives and cabinet ministers, professors and assembly-line workers, on the subject of how traditional psychology can illuminate current human, social, and spiritual problems. More than 100 tales and extracts from Sufi lore, ranging from the eighth century (Hasan of Basra) to the modern Afghan poet Khalilullah Khalili, are woven into Shah’s narratives of how and why the Sufis learn what they learn and how spiritual understanding develops and deteriorates in all societies.
©1978 Idries Shah Foundation (P)2018 Idries Shah Foundation
World Tales
Summary
How can it be that the same story is found in Scotland and also in pre-Columbian America? What can account for the durability and persistence of tales? Was the tale of Aladdin and his wondrous lamp really taken from Wales (where it has been found) to the ancient East and, if so, when and by whom? These questions and more are answered in Idries Shah’s remarkable volume World Tales, which is subtitled “The extraordinary coincidence of stories told in all times, in all places.” In his introduction, Shah remarks, “Working for thirty-five years among the written and oral sources of our world heritage in tales, one feels a truly living element in them which is startlingly evident when one isolates the ‘basic’ stories; the ones which tend to have traveled farthest, to have featured in the largest number of classical collections, to have inspired great writers of the past and present.”
©1979, 2017 The Estate of Idries Shah (P)2018 ISF Publishing
The Secret Lore of Magic
Summary
First published in 1957, The Secret Lore of Magic contains within it a series of major source books of magical arts. Many of them translated into English for the first time, these works are annotated. The book’s title in itself signaled the fact that the bulk of material in this bibliographical study had never been published openly before. Together with Oriental Magic, which appeared in the preceding year, it provided a complete survey of fundamental magical literature and thus a comprehensive reference system for psychologists, ethnologists, and others interested in the rise and development of human beliefs. Both books also introduced the general audience to dependable information about what was a shadowy and confusing subject.
©1957 ISF Publishing (P)2018 ISF Publishing
The Hundred Tales of Wisdom
Summary
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.
©2018 ISF Publishing (P)2018 ISF Publishing
Darkest England
Summary
In his best-selling Darkest England, Idries Shah asserts that the English hail from a little-known place called "Hathaby", but their roots go back much farther, perhaps to the distant Asian realm of Sakasina. Once a nomadic tribe of warriors, the English fled westward, bringing with them epic tales, traditions, and an Oriental way of thought. Shah charts the genius of the English in adopting and adapting "almost anything spiritual, moral or material" for their own use - a faculty that has transformed them from warrior nomads into successful diplomats, businessmen, thinkers, and scientists.
©1987 The Estate of Idries Shah (P)2020 ISF Publishing
Seeker After Truth
Summary
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.
©1982, 2018 Idries Shah Foundation (P)2018 Idries Shah Foundation
Caravan of Dreams
Summary
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. Its title is inspired by the couplet written by the Sufi mystic Bahaudin: Here we are, all of us: in a dream-caravan, A caravan, but a dream - a dream, but a caravan. And we know which are the dreams. Therein lies the hope.
©2015 Idries Shah Foundation (P)2015 Idries Shah Foundation
Wisdom of the Idiots
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.
©1969 Idries Shah Foundation (P)2016 Idries Shah Foundation
Sufi Thought and Action
Summary
Previously published only as separate essays, Sufi Thought and Action - assembled and introduced by Idries Shah - covers an extraordinary diversity of Sufi ideas and activities in many countries and cultures. Included in the volume are papers on Sufi principles and learning methods; ritual, initiation, and secrets in Sufi circles; and key concepts in Sufi understanding. The volume stands as a clear and simple handbook to many facets of Sufi study and thought. Shah’s introduction begins, "The object of Sufi spiritual teaching can be expressed as: to help to refine the individual’s consciousness so that it may reach the Radiances of Truth, from which one is cut off by ordinary activities of the world."
©1990 ISF Publishing (P)2018 ISF Publishing
The Way of the Sufi
Summary
The Way of the Sufi presents an unparalleled cross-section of material from Sufi schools, Sufi teachings, and classical writings as a basic course of Sufi study. The author begins with the outward aspects of the teaching most likely to puzzle the student coming fresh to the subject. He considers various attitudes to Sufi ideas and evidence of their absorption into medieval Christianity, Hinduism, Jewish mysticism, and modern philosophical teachings. The greater part of the book illuminates aspects of Sufi activity and practice relevant to the contemporary world.
©1974-2015 Idries Shah Foundation (P)2015 Idries Shah Foundation
The Subtleties of the Inimitable Mulla Nasrudin
Summary
Many countries claim Nasrudin as a native, although few have gone so far as Turkey in exhibiting a "grave" of the wisest fool who ever lived, and holding an annual Nasrudin Festival. He is the greatest, most intriguing, character of folklore found in any Eastern land.
©1973, 2018 ISF Publishing (P)2018 ISF Publishing
The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin
Summary
"Perfectly designed models for isolating and holding distortions of the mind which so often pass for reasonable behavior." (Idries Shah) Today we find Idries Shah in a high-level physics report, illustrating phenomena that can't be described in ordinary technical terms. He appears in psychology textbooks, illuminating the workings of the mind in a way no straightforward explanation can. Here, in three definitive volumes, Shah takes us to the very heart of this mysterious mentor, the Mulla Nasrudin. They're comprised of skillful contemporary retellings of hundreds of collected stories and sayings bringing the unmistakable wisdom, wit, and charm of the timeless jokester to life. The mulla and his stories appear in literature and oral traditions from the Middle East to Greece, Russia, France - even China. Many nations claim Nasrudin as a native son, with the Turks going so far as to exhibit a grave with his date of death as 386. But nobody really knows who he was or where he came from. According to a legend dating from at least the 13th century, Nasrudin was snatched as a schoolboy from the clutches of the "old villain" - the crude system of thought that ensnares man - to carry through the ages the message of how to escape. He was chosen because he could make people laugh, and humor has a way of slipping through the cracks of the most rigid thinking habits. Today - as they have for centuries - the Sufis use these stories as teaching exercises, in part to momentarily freeze situations in which states of mind can be recognized. In these delightful volumes, Shah not only gives the mulla a proper vehicle for our times; he proves that the centuries-old stories and quips of Nasrudin are still some of the funniest jokes in the world.
©1973 Idries Shah Foundation (P)2015 Idries Shah Foundation