Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way

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Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way (Reprint) Pub. Date: 9/28/1996 Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated

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Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way (1st U.S. ed) Pub. Date: 5/1/1981 Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

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Overview

In response to the many inquiries he has received about the Sufi tradition from people from all walks of life, leading Sufi expert Idries Shah presents a clarifying series of questions and answers that illustrates how traditional Sufi concepts can resolve our social, psychological, and spiritual problems.

For everyone interested in alternative spiritual thought.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780140195132
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
Publication date: 9/28/1996
Edition description: Reprint
Pages: 304
Sales rank: 1,007,400
Series: Compass Series
Product dimensions: 5.16 (w) x 7.92 (h) x 0.71 (d)

Meet the Author

Doris Lessing, whose many writings include The Golden Notebook, has received numerous awards, including Spain's Prince of Asturias Prize.

Learning How to Learn Introduction by Doris Lessing
'Beginning to Begin'

1. Real and Imagined Study
Sufis and their Imitators Attaining Knowledge Secrets and the Sufis When to have Meetings The Ceiling Conflicting Texts Self-Deception Journeys to the East What a Sufi Teacher Looks Like Books and Beyond Books Saintliness Secrecy
'You Can't Teach by Correspondence'
Background to 'Humility'
How Serious is the Student?
Social and Psychological Elements in Sufi Study

2. On Attention
Characteristics of Attention and Observation Operation of the Attention Factor Motivation of Transactions Attention under Personal Control Excess and Deprivation of Attention Study of People and Ideas apart from their Attention Value Identification of Underlying Factors Raising the Emotional Pitch Fossil Indicators

3. Sufi Study Themes
Assumptions Behind Actions Exercising Power through Kindness Copying Virtue Finding a Teacher What is gained from Repetition Robes and Apparatus of the Sufi Why you are asked to Help Laziness

4. Things of the World
An Eastern Sage and the Newspapers Basis for People's Interest Thinking in Terms of Supply-and-Demand The Effect of Tales and Narratives Stories of the Miraculous Continuous versus Effective Activity Capacity comes before Opinion Sanctified Greed Psychic Idiots When Criticism can Stop Information and Experience The Teaching is a Matter of Conduct Knowing one's own Sincerity The Would-Be and Should-Be people Satisfactions and Purpose of Ritual Real and Ostensible Self-Improvement Roles of Teacher and Student

5. Action and Meaning
Real and Relative Generosity Why do Sufis Excel?
Confusion as a Personal Problem Being a 'Guru'
Systems The Vehicle and the Objective Concern and Campaign Use, Misuse and Disuse of forms of Study Potentiality and Function Conditioning and Education The Search for an Honest Man How can one method be as good as another?

6. Twenty-Three Study Points
A Viable Unit Being Supported Being Physically present Intensely Standardised Organisations and Greed Generosity as a Greed What you do for Yourself Graduating to a Higher Morality Concluding that we are Worthless That which attracts you about us...
Giving and Withholding and External Assessment Standing between you and Knowledge Direct Contact with a Source of Knowledge Latent Knowledge Provoking Capacity Systematic Study Consistency and System Illumination and Information Habit of Judging Higher-Level Work Games and Annoyance Aspirations and Acquisition Opinion and Fact

7. Overall Study
Learning and Non-Learning Some Characteristics of Sufi Literature Impartiality as a Point of View Characteristics and Purposes of a Sufi Group Prerequisites for a Student of Sufism In Step is out of Step
'Dye your Prayer-Rug with Wine'
The Master-Dyer Method, System and Conditioning Western Culture The Western Tradition How does the Sufi Teach?
Idiot's Wisdom?
Attacking Fires A Bridge and its Use Deterioration of Studies Community and Human Growth The Value of Question and Answer Sessions Dedication, Service, Sincerity Sufis and Scholars An Enterprise is measured by Intention, not by Appearance Sufi Organisations

8. Sufi Studies
Coming Together Concealment of Shortcomings Saints and Heroes The Levels of Service Ritual and Practice To be Present The Way to Sufism The Giving of Charity The Number of Readings of a Book Decline in Religious Influence Why can't we have a British Karakul Lamb?
Teaching Methods and Prerequisites Sorrow in 'Spiritual Enterprises'
Shock-Teaching Emotional Expectations Jumping to Conclusions The Rosary and the Robe Random Exercises On the Lines of a School Conduct-Teaching The Curriculum of a School Knowing all About Someone Remarks upon the Matter of the Dervish Path Meetings, Groups, Classes Internal Dimensions Explanation

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Anonymous

Posted August 31, 2001

An Extraordinary Book

This is an extraordinary book. It shows the reader how to approach the study of Sufism. It does so by highlighting the blocks to learning, blocks that abound in our own distorted thinking processes. But, like Shah's other's books, it does much more. It helps the reader gain access and insight into the part of her than is capable of learning. In so doing, the reader, prevented from using faulty mental wiring, is encouraged to bring the other, 'learnable' part into focus. The result is greater understanding.
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Anonymous

Posted September 5, 2001

Essential Guidance for Those Who Can Profit from It.

We in the West tend to have a sort of 'Manifest Destiny' attitude toward spirituality. 'All that's required is to spend the time, make the effort, and all my goals will be achieved'. In Learning How to Learn Idries Shah shows how unproductive such an attitude can be. On the Sufi path, as well as many aspects of ordinary life, certain prerequisites are required before learning can take place. The book, also subtitled Beginning to Begin, provides essential information that allows the reader to arrive at a place where higher learning can begin. An essential book and key to the Shah corpus.
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Anonymous

Posted September 23, 2001

A Journey through the Human Mind

In this book, Idries Shah describes how peoples' basic assumptions and conditioned thinking prevent them from learning. He portrays the average person's mind as a closed system which new information can't penetrate. Fortunately, Shah also casts light on ways people can break through their customary patterns of thinking. His suggestions, rooted in an ancient tradition based on observation and experience, may surprise you, as they did me. This is more than a book about 'creativity.' It is about the prerequisites needed to become fully human.
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Anonymous

Posted July 16, 2001

A Liberating Book

The idea that higher learning is not something that automatically takes place in the presence of a teaching influence, but that how to learn may itself have to be learned before real learning can take place, may be new to many people. But on careful consideration it makes a lot of sense. For the fields of psychology, sociology and education provide us with ample evidence that such things as wrong assumptions, incorrect approaches and idées fixes can pose formidable barriers to knowledge. In this remarkable and fascinating book, Sufi author Idries Shah shows how these and other seemingly innocuous factors can be every bit as hindering as high walls and locked doors ¿ indeed even more so, since they are far less obvious to those whom they impede. I found LEARNING HOW TO LEARN to be a breath of fresh air and ¿ as with Shah¿s other books ¿ strongly recommend it to anyone interested in the development of higher forms of understanding.
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Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way

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An Extraordinary Book

Essential Guidance for Those Who Can Profit from It.

A Journey through the Human Mind

A Liberating Book