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Knowledge is not gained, it is there all the time. It is the "veils" which have to be dissolved in the mind.
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The sufis believe that they can experience something more complete.
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The proverb says that 'The answer to a fool is silence'. Observation, however, indicates that almost any other answer will have the same effect in the long run.
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If, from time to time, you give up expectation, you will be able to perceive what it is you are getting.
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The Path is not to be found anywhere except in human service
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The union of the mind and intuition which brings about illumination, and the development which the Sufis seek, is based upon love.
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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.
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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.
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Anybody or anything may stand between you and knowledge if you are unfit for it.
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Meditation - Before you learn how to meditate, you must unlearn what you think meditation might be.
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From time to time ponder whether you are unconsciously saying: 'Truth is what I happen to be thinking at this moment.
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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.
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The Way of the Sufis cannot be understood by means of the intellect or by ordinary book learning.
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Effort makes some great men famous. Even greater effort enables other great men to remain unknown.
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There is a succession of experiences which together constitute the educational and developmental ripening of the learner, according to the Sufis. People who think that each gain is the goal itself will freeze at any such stage, and cannot learn through successive and superseding lessons.
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If you can turn a murderer into a mere thief, you are making progress.
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... when we are talking about 'Christians' and 'Moslems' we must first make sure that we are talking about people who have an idea, which should be more or less correct, as to what the other is supposed to believe and what he is expected to do as a consequence of that belief.
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If you want to strengthen an enemy and make him exult - hate him.
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The more wakeful a man is to the things which surround him, the more asleep is he, and his waking is worse than his sleep.
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When Fortune knocks, open the door,' they say. But why should one make fortune knock, by keeping the door shut?
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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!
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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.
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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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Better to be safe than to be sorry' is a remark of value only when these are the actual alternatives.