The Sufis

It is the message, not the man, which is important to the Sufis.

The sufis believe that they can experience something more complete.

Deep in the sea are riches beyond compare. But if you seek safety, it is on the shore.

Sufism, the "secret tradition," is not available on the basis of assumptions which belong to another world, the world of intellect.

Like the bat, the Sufi is asleep to 'things of the day' - the familiar struggle for existence which the ordinary man finds all-important - and vigilant while others are asleep. In other words, he keeps awake the spiritual attention dormant in others. That 'mankind sleeps in a nightmare of unfulfillment' is a commonplace of Sufi literature

The function of a nutrient is to become transmuted, not to leave unaltered traces.

among roses, be a rose, among thorns, be a thorn

Scholars of the East and West have heroically consecrated their whole working lives to making available, by means of their own disciplines, Sufi literary and philosophical material to the world at large. In many cases they have faithfully recorded the Sufis' own reiteration that the Way of the Sufis cannot be understood by means of the intellect or by ordinary book learning.

It is axiomatic that the attempt to become a Sufi through a desire for personal power as normally understood will not succeed.

If you will not reprove yourself,’ Saadi says, ‘you will not welcome reproof from another.

The Way of the Sufis cannot be understood by means of the intellect or by ordinary book learning.

The secret protects itself. It is found only in the spirit and practice of the Work.

The basic urge toward mysticism is never, in the unaltered man, clear enough to be recognized for what it is.

Practise your knowledge, for knowledge without practice is a body without life

Take the wheat, not the measure in which it is contained

Sufism is known by means of itself.

When you are still fragmentated, lacking certainty — what difference does it make what your decisions are?

El camino de los sufis no puede ser comprendido valiéndose del intelecto o mediante el común aprendizaje a través de libros.

He who is fortunately enlightened [the Sufi] Knows that sophistry is from the devil and love from Adam.

The totality of life cannot be understood, so runs Sufi teaching, if it is studied only through the methods which we use in everyday living.

The Apparent is the Bridge to the Real