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If A Pot Can Multiply. One Day Nasrudin Lent His Cooking Pots To A Neighbour, Who Was Giving A Feast. The Neighbour Returned Them, Together With One Extra One – A Very Tiny Pot. 'what Is This?' Asked Nasrudin. 'according To Law, I Have Given You The Offspring Of Your Property Which Was Born When The Pots Were In My Care,' Said The Joker. Shortly Afterwards Nasrudin Borrowed His Neighbour's Pots, But Did Not Return Them. The Man Came Round To Get Them Back. 'alas!' Said Nasrudin, 'they Are Dead. We Have Established, Have We Not, That Pots Are Mortal?'.

-Idries Shah

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If A Pot Can

Idries Shah

...

If A Pot Can Multiply. One Day Nasrudin Lent His Cooking Pots To A Neighbour, Who Was Giving A Feast. The Neighbour Returned Them, Together With One Extra One – A Very Tiny Pot. 'what Is This?' Asked Nasrudin. 'according To Law, I Have Given You The Offspring Of Your Property Which Was Born When The Pots Were In My Care,' Said The Joker. Shortly Afterwards Nasrudin Borrowed His Neighbour's Pots, But Did Not Return Them. The Man Came Round To Get Them Back. 'alas!' Said Nasrudin, 'they Are Dead. We Have Established, Have We Not, That Pots Are Mortal?'.

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History Is Not Usually What Has Happened. History Is What Some People Have Thought To Be Significant.

Have You Noticed How Many People Who Walk In The Shade Curse The Sun?

Study The Assumptions Behind Your Actions. Then Study The Assumptions Behind Your Assumptions.

The Sufi Way Is Through Knowledge And Practice, Not Through Intellect And Talk.

If You Are Uninterested In What I Say, There's An End To It. If You Like What I Say, Please Try To Understand Which Previous Influences Have Made You Like It. If You Like Some Of The Things I Say, And Dislike Others, You Could Try To Understand Why. If You Dislike All I Say, Why Not Try To Find Out What Formed Your Attitude?

It Is The Message, Not The Man, Which Is Important To The Sufis.

People Used To Play With Toys. Now The Toys Play With Them.

To Be Obsessed By The Idea Of Freedom, For Instance, Is Itself A Form Of Slavery. Such People Are In The Chains Of The Hope Of Freedom, And Are Therefore Able To Do Little Else Than Struggle With Them.

Knowledge Is Not Gained, It Is There All The Time. It Is The "veils" Which Have To Be Dissolved In The Mind.

A Motto Of The Human Race: Let Me Do What I Like, And Give Me Approval As Well.

To 'see Both Sides' Of A Problem Is The Surest Way To Prevent Its Complete Solution. Because There Are Always More Than Two Sides.

None Should Say: 'i Can Trust' Or 'i Cannot Trust' Until He Is A Master Of The Option, Of Trusting Or Not Trusting.

Enlightenment Must Come Little By Little - Otherwise It Would Overwhelm.

Effort Makes Some Great Men Famous. Even Greater Effort Enables Other Great Men To Remain Unknown.

Knowledge Is Something Which You Can Use. Belief Is Something Which Uses You.

The Sufi Is One Who Does Not Care When Something Is Taken From Him, But Who Does Not Cease To Seek For What He Has Not.

When The Lion Had Eaten Its Fill, And The Jackals Had Taken Their Share, The Ants Came Along And Finished Up The Meat From The Bones Of The Haughty Stag.

Do Not Try To Be Humble: Learn Humility.

If You Give What Can Be Taken, You Are Not Really Giving. Take What You Are Given, Not What You Want To Be Given. Give What Cannot Be Taken.

The Sufis Believe That They Can Experience Something More Complete.

The Laziness Of Adolescence Is A Rehearsal For The Incapacity Of Old Age.

You Must Empty Out The Dirty Water Before You Fill The Pitcher With Clean.

If You Can Turn A Murderer Into A Mere Thief, You Are Making Progress.

It Is Not Only A Matter Of Not Caring Who Knows - It Is Also A Matter Of Knowing Who Cares.

The Impatient Man Is His Own Enemy; He Slams The Door On His Own Progress.

The Colour Of The Water Seems To Be The Colour Of The Glass Into Which It Has Been Poured'.

A Real Secret Is Something Which Only One Person Knows.

The Chicken Had His Wish, And Was Magically Transformed Into A Fox. Then He Found That He Could Not Digest Grain.

You Have Not Forgotten To Remember; You Have Remembered To Forget. But People Can Forget To Forget. That Is Just As Important As Remembering To Remember - And Generally More Practical.

Dramatic. A Well Developed Sense Of The Dramatic Has Values Beyond What People Usually Imagine. One Of These Is To Realise The Limitations Of A Sense Of The Dramatic.

Better To Be Safe Than To Be Sorry' Is A Remark Of Value Only When These Are The Actual Alternatives.

If You Want To Make An Ordinary Man Happy, Or Think That He Is Happy, Give Him Money, Power, Flattery, Gifts, Honours. If You Want To Make A Wise Man Happy - Improve Yourself!

When Prayer, Rituals And Ascetic Life Are Just A Means Of Self-indulgence, They Are Harmful Rather Than Beneficial. This Is Quite Obvious To People Nowadays, When It Is Widely Recognised That Fixations Are Not The Same As Valuable And Laudable Observances. One Should Not Pray If That Prayer Is Vanity; Rituals Are Wrong When They Provide Lower Satisfactions, Like Emotional Stimulus Instead Of Enlightenment; He Or She Should Not Be An Ascetic Who Is Only Enjoying It.

Premature Independence Is The Daughter Of Conceit.

Anyone Can See That An Ass Laden With Books Remains A Donkey. A Human Being Laden With The Undigested Results Of A Tussle With Thoughts And Books, However, Still Passes For Wise.

Learn To Be As Analytical About Things Of Which You Are Credulous As You Are Of Those Which You Criticise.

Christian Scholars Often Say That Sufi Theories Are Close To Those Of Christianity. Many Moslems Maintain That They Are Essentially Derived From Islam. The Resemblance Of Many Sufi Ideas To Those Of Several Religious And Esoteric Systems Are Sometimes Taken As Evidence Of Derivation. The Islamic Interpretation Is That Religion Is Of One Origin, Differences Being Due To Local Or Historical Causes.

It Is Not Enough That There Is A Collection Of People With The Common Aim Of Working In Unison Towards An Objective... Aspiration And Desire Only Are Not Enough.

Opinion Is Usually Something Which People Have When They Lack Comprehensive Information.

One Of The Tragedies Of Modern Times Is That People Have Come To Believe That Something Said By Someone In The Past, Perhaps For Illustrative Or Provocation Purposes, Actually Represents That Person's Beliefs At The Time.

If, From Time To Time, You Give Up Expectation, You Will Be Able To Perceive What It Is You Are Getting.

Enemies Are Often Former Or Potential Friends Who Have Been Denied - Or Think That They Have Been Denied - Something.

But One May Say Something And Yet Not Be Able To Do It. Try, For Instance, Lifting Yourself Up By The Bootstraps.

Banality Is Like Boredom: Bored People Are Boring People, People Who Think That Things Are Banal Are Themselves Banal. Interesting People Can Find Something Interesting In All Things.

You Are Adrift While You Still Think That A Means Is An End.

The Human Being, Whether He Realises It Or Not, Is Trusting Someone Or Something Every Moment Of The Day.

Trusting Someone

The Union Of The Mind And Intuition Which Brings About Illumination, And The Development Which The Sufis Seek, Is Based Upon Love.

Trying To Force Something Is The Best Way To Stop It Happening.

When Tomorrow Comes, Think Tomorrow's Thoughts.

Advice Is Priceless: When It Becomes Interference It Is Preposterous.

The More You Look At 'common Knowledge', The More You Realise That It Is More Likely To Be Common Than It Is To Be Knowledge. No Real Knowledge Is Common.

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If A Pot Can Multiply. One Day Nasrudin Lent His Cooking Pots To A Neighbour, Who Was Giving A Feast. The Neighbour Returned Them, Together With One Extra One – A Very Tiny Pot. 'what Is This?' Asked Nasrudin. 'according To Law, I Have Given You The Offspring Of Your Property Which Was Born When The Pots Were In My Care,' Said The Joker. Shortly Afterwards Nasrudin Borrowed His Neighbour's Pots, But Did Not Return Them. The Man Came Round To Get Them Back. 'alas!' Said Nasrudin, 'they Are Dead. We Have Established, Have We Not, That Pots Are Mortal?'.

If You Want To Strengthen An Enemy And Make Him Exult - Hate Him.

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An Egocentric Pessimist Is A Person Who Thinks He Hasn't Changed, But That Other People Are Behaving Worse Than Before.

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Meditation - Before You Learn How To Meditate, You Must Unlearn What You Think Meditation Might Be.

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Prescribing Hard Work For The Soft, Or Easy Work For The Hardy, Is Generally Nonsense. What Is Always Needed In Any Aim Is Right Effort, Right Time, Right People, Right Materials.

When Fortune Knocks, Open The Door,' They Say. But Why Should One Make Fortune Knock, By Keeping The Door Shut?

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

Exercise Power By Means Of Kindness, And You May Be Causing More Damage Than You Could By Cruelty. Neither Approach Is Correct.

Materialism, Attachment To Things Of The World, Includes Pride. Many Religious People Suffer From Pride: Taking Pleasure Or Even Delight In Being Good, Or Religious.

When The Higher Man Does Something Worthy Of Admiration, It Is An Evidence Of His Mastership, Not The Object Of It.

The Learned Person Who Only Talks Will Never Penetrate To The Inner Heart Of Humans.

The Path Is Not To Be Found Anywhere Except In Human Service

Right Time, Right Place, Right People Equals Success. Wrong Time, Wrong Place, Wrong People Equals Most Of The Real Human History.

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Talking About Straws And Camels' Backs Is Just One Way Of Approaching Things. If You Have Enough Camels, No Backs Need Be Broken.

Worry Is A Cloud Which Rains Destruction.

Many Things Which Are Called 'secrets' Are Only Things Withheld From People Until They Can Understand Or Effectively Experience Them.

One Can Give Or Withhold In A Manner Far More Effective, Sophisticated, Useful, Which Is Quite Invisible To People Who Think That Giving Or Withholding Is Done By External Assessment. If You Seek Some Mark Of Favour Or 'promotion', Know That You Are Not Ready For It. Progress Comes Through Capacity To Learn, And Is Irresistible. Nobody Can Stand Between You And Knowledge If You Are Fit For It.

You Need Not Wonder Whether You Should Have An Unreliable Person As A Friend. An Unreliable Person Is Nobody's Friend.

Man (and Woman) Has An Infinite Capacity For Self-development. Equally, He Has An Infinite Capacity For Self-destruction. A Human Being May Be Clinically Alive And Yet, Despite All Appearances, Spiritually Dead.

People Who Speak Or Act In An Ordinary Fashion Are Most Likely To Be Those Who Have Been The Recipients Of Higher Experiences. But Because They Do Not Rage Around, Wild-eyed, People Think That They Are Very Ordinary Folk And Therefore Not Aware Of Anything Unknown To The General Run Of Man.

Anybody Or Anything May Stand Between You And Knowledge If You Are Unfit For It.

People Today Are In Danger Of Drowning In Information; But, Because They Have Been Taught That Information Is Useful, They Are More Willing To Drown Than They Need Be. If They Could Handle Information, They Would Not Have To Drown At All.

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