2

PROFILE

BE Grand
of learning have influenced educational
institutions everywhere. Shah himself
has won a host of literary prizes and
recently was the subject of a festschrift.
o collection of published commentaries
by 24 renowned scholars discussing his

August 1977 Vol. 6 No.8

Sheikh work-an honor usually reserved for a
professor emeritus of 70 who has been
tending his scholarly vineyard for 50
years. One small sample of Sha h's im·

of the
poet can be seen in his recent appearance
at a U.S. seminar sponsored by the
Institute for the Study of Human KnowI·
edge. Twelve hundred persona turned
Edwin Kiester, Jr., is a contribut- out to hear him. at $65 a pop.

Sufis
ing editor to HUMAN BEHAVIOR. Ironically. the "product" Shah is
"peddling"- to use his term-Is any-
thing but new. The Sufis are often called
"Muslim mystics.'' but their roots go
much deeper than Islam. In that cradle
I ask the man of the world's great religions, the Middle
who has almost singlehandedly re- by EDWIN KIESTER. JR. East. Sufi influence has been traced
awakened West ern interest In the thing. You can either do something. or back to the second &entury e.c. and is
ancient tradition of Su!i5m whether you can pretend to be doing something. said to have crossfertiliud Hinduism.
Sufis follow a special diet. "Western society seems to have ex· Christianity and Judaism along with
Three hours of talking with Shah and hausted all its i.n vesligative potential. the followers of Mohammed. In the
a generous sample of his writings hould It is largely composed of cui-de-sacs. golden days of thecallphs, from o\.D. 800
have taught me that Suns concern them- One cul-de-snc is marked Lifestyle: one to 1800. many of the world's great
selves with internal mailers. not ex- is marked Vegetarianism, and so on. writers and thinkers were Sufis. They
ternal ones. and that a prime Sufi People want to know about the Sufis included Omar J<hayyam and Jala ed-Din
objective is to rid people of just the kind in terms of what limitations they ob- Rumi. considered one of the titans of
of preconceived notions and limited serve. 'What do you eat for breakfast?' world literature: long befont Einstein
thinking I had just display~d. I should 'How many pairs of socks do you wear?' and Darwin, Sufis theorized that time
also know that ill -informed questions "What is the relevance of such ques- and space were identical and that
make Shoh's beard bristle. tions? Why don't they ask something huma.n s had ascended from lower ani·
"A Sufi lifestyle. is it?" heasks. spac· about what I am doing? One of our tra- mals. One of the West's own great minds
ing the words out evenly for emphasis. ditional functions has been to point out was a Su fi. The Franciscan Roger
"No. my friend. not a bit of it. That's the limitations other people have been Bacon, considered the originator of
what people crave. That's what they putting on themselves. not to impose modern scientific thought, studied with
demand. Recently another man come to limitations on other people. That's what the Sufis in Saracen Spain. It was for
interview me. and his first question the gurus do. We seek to expand. in- learning their "black arts" that he ran
was. 'What do Sufis eat? You're vege· crease vision. deepi)n perception. You afoul of oocleslastical authority.
tartans. of course.' 'No.' I said. 'You don'tllve by decreasing these qualities. Exp la ining Sufism to a word-oriented.
amaze me!' he said. "That's why you don't find any life- llnear-thinking Westerner is difficult
"I said to him. 'Now if I can be of any style with us. brother. There's no eating even for an articulate a nd insightful
use to you. write that down and sec of brown rice, ond no muttering of San· man such as Shah. "He who tastes not.
what it means. What II means Is that skrit mantras in our way." knows not: he says. quotingjala ed-Din
you have been able to elicit from me a Rumi. Although there are said to be
reaction which helps you to describe five million Sufis. mostly affiliated
yourself. 'You amaze me.' Why do I with established sects, Shah says that
amaze you? I amaze because you think Over the past 15 years, Sayyed !dries Sufism is "not a religion but n body of
that all metaph ysicians must be vegc· Shah. 53. the grand sheikh of the Sufis knowledge"; the sects represent a "de-
tnrians. Does that tell you anything and a lineal descendant of the prophet terioration" or "cultural elaboration
about me? No. It tells you things about Mohammed, has had myriad opportun- of the original internal teaching." Sufism
yourself! Now when aro you going to it ies to learn how little the West knows has no rituals, no holy city and no ec-
get out of that, and learn things about about Sufism-and how much it yearns clesiastical hierarchy. Although Shah
yourself, and not think that you're learn- to know. Since his book The Sufis was carries the title grand sheikh. all Sufis
ing things about other people?" published in 1963. the lean. intense. are considered equal. Poet Robert
Shah leans forward. gesturing with Afghan-born prince has been propelled Graves. a Shah admirer, compares him
the knife and fork. Into international celebrity. sought to a "fugleman." which Graves defines
"We arc nottotemists who eat brown on lecture plot forms all over the world. as an old army term for the soldier who
rice and consult the I Ching. That is not Twenty more books have followed the stood before a company on the parade
theSu!i at all, my friend. We have other first, and all have been bought up ground ond served as the exemplar In
things to do than have u lifestyle. We eagerly: Sufi "study circles" have pro- arms drill. Sufis do not even call them·
are getting on with our thJng. And our liferated (often without Shah's bless- selves Sufis. which is a nickname akin
thing does not impose on us the sort of ing) across the United States and Europe; to Quakers. They use the terms We
restrictions which other people use as a courses in Sufism are the "in" thing friends or Our people.
substitute for getting on with their at colleges and universities; Sufi theories Genuine Sufism is inward. concern-
Photoarapht by Jean·Ciaude Le(tune HUMAN RettAVIOR. AUIJU&t 1917 25
 "If you really want to see Shah's beard bristle,
suggest that Sufism is part of the
yoga- and-transcendental-meditation craze."

ing itself with "t rue reality-what exists heard use the word phontosmogorio the Middle East. Their influence trans-
beyond what is obse•·ved." Like peeling in r.asual conversation. As his books cends national boundaries and mere
an on ion. Sufism tries to strip away show. he is a gifted storyteller; but in sectarian lines. Shah's father served as
the outer layers of limi ted thinking. person. his tales are even more com- an unofficial adv iser to several Middle
misconception and social conditioning pelling. because he acts out all the parts Eastern countries. and often carried
to disclose the kernel that lies beneath- and mimics all the voices. Once. telling out diplomat ic missions between East
that unity of ex istence that Shah calls of an encounter with a Nubian student and West. Often the young Shah ac-
"the essence of all religion ." Sufism's from the Sudan during a lecture. he companied him, gaining access to the
goal i~ to reorganize human mentation leaped to his feet, put his hand on top highest ruling and spiritual levels in
so that it is more sensitive to things of his head to represent a Nubian top- his part of the world. The experience
that are there anyway-"We say in knot and dl'Opped his voice a full octave stood him in good stead. Today, one of
Sufism that exclusion is just as impor- to impersonate the man's basso. the little-known and little-discussed
tant as inclusion," Shah says. You can He also leads the life of a country aspects of his life is to serve as
gain Sufi truths from other people and squire. The Shah home. Langton House adviser to several African and Asian
by intuition, insight. folk wisdom and at Langton CreP.n, a tiny hamlet nestled governments.
experience. Long before the work on in to the Kent ish countryside southeast As Shah was growing up. he also
brain hemispheres of Dr. Robert E. of Tunbridge Wells, once belonged to adhered to the Sufi stricture that every
Ornstein, the Sufis knew that part of Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Sufi must earn his own way . "We have
the brain learned through words ar- Boy Scout movement. A rambling. a sense of priorities," Shah says. "To
ranged in sequence and the other part whitewashed. green-shuttered mansion. belong to the human community is es-
by hunchP.s and selling the whole situa- it is surrounded by 50 acres of gardens sential. We say, 'If you cannot earn your
tion at once. and pastureland and by the village livelihood. go out and learn how and
Of course. over the past two decades. green. Inside. like Shah himself. it is then become a Sufi."' Shah's education
literally dozens of mystical. quasi- a subtle blend of East and West. Orien- had given him a thorough grounding in
mystical and semimystical Eastern tal carpets, hammered brass trays and literature. history and economics but
sects have invaded the West. If you a children's peacock swing designed no profession; he chose to enter the
really want to see Shah's beard bristle. by Shah's wife contrast with a massive world of business and finance. He es-
suggest that Sufism is part of the yoga- desk Shah picked up in a junk shop and tablished three successful electronics
and-transcendental -meditation craze. an IBM Selectric typewriter. £i•·ms. a carpet factory and a publish-
"That gray area of mumbo jumbo and When asked how long he had kept a ing house and still serves as chairperson
guru s and mantras," he says, bitingly. foot in both Eastern and Western worlds. of each. This record also gave him entree
"It has little connection with any tra· he said. "All my life." Although a resi- to London financial and social circles.
dition except the circus. In Eastern dent of Britain for many years nnd !l "Many of my sober business acquain-
countries like India that is fairly well British subject, he was born in the East tances would never believe I am to be
understood. Only the 'new boys' profess and groomed from boyhood for his bracketed with wh~t they ~.;onsider the
to see anything significant in the phe- eventua l role of building bridges be- guru phenomenon," he says. laughing.
nomenon. But here the carnival has tween cultures. The eldest son of the "They know me too well to believe that."
taken over. We have a grotesque of the late Sil'dar Ikbal Ali Shah. one of the As Shah poured a cup of tea from a
true Indian guru ." He also has a few legendary figures of contemporary glittering heirloom tea service, I asked
disparaging words for Zen. "No Sufi Middle Eastern history, he was born him how the campaign to familiari:te
would ever think it importan t to think nPar Simla in the Himalayns and was the West w ith Sufi principles was faring.
of a phrase like, 'What is the sound of raised in Afghanistan. India and Saudi He lit one of his favorite small cigars
one hand clapping?' He would regard it Arabia, "thus being exposed to three of befor·e o·esponding.
as training for automatism. You wou ld the five main cultural traditions of the "The people of the West arc starving
obsess people with one hand." The Sufi Middle Eas t." (The other two are Per- in the midst of plenty," he began. '"!'hey
has nothing in common, either. with sian and Turkish.) He never attended have made all these discoveries ahout
groups that seek to withdraw from the school in the formal sense. ''I was ed- human behavior but t hey have not ''e-
world. "Be in the world, hut not of it," ucated by the old oriental tradition lated them to their own behavior. And
is the Sufi watchwoo·d. that if I needed to learn something, un til they in tegrate this knowledge. I
When I firs t met Shah. he struck me someone was procured to teach it to don't know if we can help them. It may
as anything but the stereotype of the me," he recalls. However, his father be aoo years before t hey have properly
Eastern holy man. He greeted me in a insisted that he learn firsthand about absorbed this knowledge.
red turtleneck sweater. glen-plaid the world. The young prince worked a "People can learn from one another
slacks, magenta socks and calfskin year as a laborer on a farm and served a which att itudes aren't scientific. which
sandals. He speaks Oxford-accented hitch in the Afghan army. attitudes don't work. It's just a ques-
English with a rich vocabulary and a As descendants of Mohammed through t ion of absorption. It's no use just
range of expression that is stunning the prophet's eldest son. the family reading about behavior in a paperback
in its scope; he is the only man I ever carries considerable prestige through and then throwing it away and reaching
I lUMAN 8€HAVI0R.Augusl 1971
 4
for the next paperback, or reading to sions in order to do anything at all. routes, but you would be able to addrcs~
answer questions in an examination. or For example. say that you- or the com- the same sort of problem.
to torture your friends with a few gim- munity at large. or Western society- "That's what I'm interested in doing
micks. like 'You hav~ an Oedipus com- concludes that r.ontemporary physics in the West." he concluded. "Or rather.
plex' or 'That's a defense mechanism.' shows that it is unlikely or impossible in the modet·n Western culture that now
"The potential is there," he continued. that one will be able to exceed a certain covers so much of the world that people
"There's an old Sufi story that's rele- velocity of travel in space. so that our of my generation in the Middle East
vant tc.> that. An old traditional Su fi galaxy is closed to us. And as we want are in fact often indistinguishable from
used to dress his disciples in patch- to go farthe•· there must be some other Europeans."
work cloaks and have them carry a way discovered in order to slip through According to Shah, he had dabbled in
beggar's bowl and repeat certain for- the imprisonment of these dimensions writing ever since his youth and. i:n
mulae in order to concentra te their of time and space. fact. had produced a widely acclaimed
minds. He recommended that they eat
mulberries off a certain tree.
"One day somebody said to him.
'Suppose yo~.> went to a country where
they didn't have patchwork, and you
couldn't dress your disciples in cloaks.
Suppose the seed coconut from which
beggars' bowls at·e tradit ionally made
was not available. Suppose mulberries
were considered unlucky and suppose
these repetitions which you require
wet·e considered socially undesirable.
What would you do under those cir-
cumstances?' And he sa id. 'Ah. well. if

At right, Shah ond one uf his daughters on

tlu: wounds uf Langton House. Below. Shah
b·urrovndcd by morionellcs of the prom1ncnt
characters jn Sufi tofas.

book. De~tiuotion Mecca, In 1957; hut

the idea or a book on the Sufis did not
tAke flower until he was past 40. Graves
was one of those who encouraged him
to "write for th e natural Sufis every-
where," but. Shah says modestly. "I did
not yet feel I had the proper literary
skills." In addition. severa l other de-
velopments were necessary before the
West was ready for a book on Eastern
mysticism. The East had to live down
the Rudyard Kipling view of mystics
as freaky savages who slept on nails
and charmed cobr&s: and the West had
to accept that human beings were con-
ditioned into limited ways of thinking
that obscured their humanity within,
rather than creatures of free will. Shah
places the Korean War as a landmark.
Discovering that American fliers could
he "conditioned in •·everse" by their
captors. Amcric.:an social scientists
were rorced to acknowledge and to
I were undet' those circumstances. I "You, or your society. would have study the whole conditioning process.
would have to get myself a totally dif- arrived at that conclusion through your This development. Sh~h believes, n.ot
ferent kind of disciple.' investigations into the physical sci- only explains B.F. Skinner but the re-
"The challenge now is embodied in ences. An Oriental might ha ve arrived vtval of Pavlov. "If I had discussed how
the Sufi tradition that you must teach at an identical conclusion l>y some man has been conditioned away frum
people in the way that they can learn. other route. But you two would be in his origins before 1950.'' Shah says.
The West has the requirements to learn, prcciscl y the s~mc posture if you decided "I would simply have been put into the
hut nontraditional approaches-that to start your fut·ther investigation uy same box with Pavlov."
is. nonoriental approaches-mus t l>e some metaphysical method or non- A more •·ecent impetus was given
made. material mcthon. You'd h~vc Mrivcd at Sufism by Ornstein's work into the bi-
''You have to come to certain r.onclu - the same jumpoff puint by different lateral specialization of the brain. For
lllJMAN RF.ItAYIOR. i\ui(U$t H~77 2?
the first time, science supported the poin ted, the now-famous tales are in- Another tale recalls the time Nasrudin
Sufi view that learning could be achieved terspersed in Shah's books wi th his went in to the shop of a man who sold
both sequentially ami holistically. own reflections and gathered into an· all kinds of miscellaneous things.
"After Ornstein's work, we were able thologies of their own. Many of them "Have you leather?" Nasrudin asked.
to introduce what we were saying in .a concern Mulla (Master] Nasrudin, a "Yes."
framework not available before. because kind of Middle Eas tern Everyman who "And nails?"
there was no scientific word for it,'' is sometimes court jester, some times "Yes."
Shah says. "Previously we had to say cracker-barrel philosopher, sometimes "And dye?"
that our way was not scientific. bu t village sage and sometimes buffoon. He "Yes."
artistic-and those words were much combines native shrewd ness and in· "Then why don 't you make yourself a
too loaded. Now we can t alk about the sight in a way that helps him sec to the pair of boots?"
left brain and the right brain and it is heart of a s ituat ion tha t his more analyt- Once Nasrudin was called upon to
respectable, in th e sense that people ical "betters" cannot. He also illustrates. preach a sermon. From the pulpit, he
will listen to it.
"It also helps us to explain by anal·
ogies derived from Ornstein's work
what happens to human thinking sys·
terns once rooted in human beings and
the human community and how our
way d iffers from-and resembles-
other ways of thinking. It can be put
down almost diagrammatically, and it
does help a person looking into it to
understand: whatever is this man talk-
ing about? Whet·e does he place h imself
or what he is saying in the pattern of
human thought?"
When Shah began to wl'ite, he reached
back into his childhood anrl brought

At righl. Shah and his daughter studying

Persian books. Below. performing the duties
of country squiro. Shah oversees the gar·
dmoer's work in the hot lwuse.

asked the congo•egAtion: "Oo ynu know

what I am going to preAch abou t'?"
"No," they replied.
"In that case," he said, "it would tHke
too long to explain." And he went home.
Next day he ascended the pulpit and
a~ke<.l the same question.
"Yes," the people said this t ime, de·
!ermined to put him on the spot.
"In that case," said Nasrudin, "there
is no need for me to say more." And he
went home.
Yet again the following d~c~y he put
the same question. "Do you know what
I am going to preach about?"
But now the congregation was o·eady
to corner him. "Some of us do and some
of us don't," they answered.
"In that case," said Nas rudin, "let
those who know tell those who don't.''
forth literally hundreds of simp le folk- in exaggerated form. the kind of fal- Although each of these tales has a
t ales he had learned from servants, lacious thinking that hobbles the more punch line, Shah explained. it also t:on-
from village story tellers. from Persian sop hist icated. ta ins a teaching moral and •:an be ex·
literature and "just out of the air." (In When asked to tell some of his favorite a mined on many levels for illumination
fact. they are so commonplace that one Nasrudin stories and to explain their of human behavior. Nasrudin's sermon,
Turkish publisher refused to publish rule in Sufism, he offered several: for example, rlepir.ts the Sufi helief that
one of Shah's collections, declaring, "Nasrurlin was throwing handfuls of theo·e can he no tear.hing to those com-
"It is unbelievable to me that anyone bread all round his house. 'What are pletely ignorant. none to those who
could make a book of nothing more t han you doing?' someone asked. profess to know all the answers and
he could collect from the lips of peasants '"Keep ing the tigers away.' that the best tear.hing method is when
while touring the villages of Anatolia.") "'But there are no tigers around here.' one who has learned by experience
Some witty, some epigrammatic, some '"Exactly. Effective: isn't it?'" teaches ano ther.
I lUMAN OEIIAVIOR. Augusl 1977
 -6

"Some witty, some pointed, the

now-famous Sufi tales are interspersed in Shah's
books with his own reflections."

Shah considers the ta les an ideal way understood. Shah said. Like Christ's gu ru?' And he pointed to a stone in the
to communicate with the West. "One parables. they are designed to enable road and said. 'Look. if l fall ove r that
way we use them is as a sort of a test," the listener t o hold in his mind a kind or stone and I learn from that event to look
he said. "For instance. we often use the structure to which he can relate philo- where I'm going. that stone is my guru.'
old Sufi tale of the sands. A little river sophical or other considerations. "That's A guru is an instrument. The t eaching
has to cross a desert, you see, and it why there are twn men and a dancing role should be an instrument. not an
runs into the sand. II fi nds it's becoming bear. or two mysterious dervishes." opportunity for theat er. no t a source of
a marsh. So the wind says to it. 'Come S hah says. Because the stories are often self-grat ification. A Sufi teacher does
with me and 1 will carry you over the funny. they are regarded as slight or what he can to produce what he has to.
desert .' But the little river says. 'No, no. insignificant by scholars-"It is not He teaches what he can in a way students
1 can't! I'll lose my idenlily! I refuse to my discovery alone that academ ics do can learn it.
be turned into water vapor!' So the not encourage humor in what they take "We see teach ing as a system of inter-
wind says. 'Well. all right. But look at to be serious areas." In fact. they are action. In the ordinary course of events,
you. You're becoming '' marsh. You the very core of Sufi teaching. people persis t in certain courses to
have t o decide whether you wish to "T.he Sufi people.'' Shah explains. achieve something. Sometimes they
bec~ome c) marsh or become water vapor.' "have been held in very grea t esteem learn by experience that they can't do
So after a great deal of consideration while armed with these stories and it. Say. climbing a wall. They find they
the river Hnally yields up to the wind. using them all the time for nearly a can't climb the wall. so they have to
which carries it into the high mountains thousand years. They have built them adjust . Should I get a ladder? Is it worth
and drops it in the form of rain. where· into some of the great class ics of the cli mbing? Are there other ways to get
after it continues as a river. East. They are universally revered as over it? By the interplay of themselves
"Now when you tell this tale. some classics. Some of these people have and the wall and their knowledge and
people-crude. barbaric types-see it been people or great gravit y. grea t mys- experience. they learn.
as a sort of commercial. The guru is tical attainments and great discoverers "A lot of people in esoteric circles.
asking his disciples to surrender them· of scientific things- the very flower of that is. philosophical and psychological
selves to him and he will carry them various civilizations. It hardly seems circles. ignore this fact. They tend to
safely over the marsh. which is death or likely when you approach it rationally look for a sort of Eureka! system, a
some other condition in which they are that such people would have gone to golden key. They look at our stories.
goi ng to stagnate or putrefy. Other such lengths to prepare and maintain for example. for what mysterious depths
peop le react in a quite different way. these stories. even building them into and teachings are in them. or fo r what
They say. 'Oh. isn't that a beautiful major facets of their thought. if they golden key they might be able t o worry
s tory!' And they talk about nature and were a sideline. something old men in out of them. in spite or the fact that the
the transposition of substances and their dotage mumbled to each other. stories themselves often illustrate the
ecology and so on. The stories are a n integral part of Sufi interplay between the people a nd their
"People who don't react in either or teaching. If the Sufis are to be respected experience and the teacher or the cir-
these ways can then use the story for -as they enormously are-then surely cumst ances. w hich is very sim il ar to
further training of their hemispheres. one or their major teaching instruments the person trying to climb the wall.
as il were. They don't have the hangup must be given some considerat ion in "There's an old Sufi story about a
that they think you are trying to con- the light of their status and achieve- young man who set off to receive illumi-
vince them of something. or that they ments.'' nation from an old teacher who lived in
desperately want to be convinced. The role of the teacher in Sufism is a remote cave on the top of a mountain.
"What makes it very difficult in deal- also often misinterpreted. "T here is no He was an old man with a long white
ing with these stories is that people Sufism without a teacher," Shah h;)s beard dressed in a white shroud. a sort
want to know, 'Is it a t est or is it a teach- w ritten. But the teaching role is quite of hermit. When the young man. after
ing?' and 'How am l supposed to react to different from that of the gurus in other great privation and enormous difficul-
it?' 'At what point does it become per- sects. whose antics Shah dismisses as ties. reached that cave and al most col -
ceptible to me what it really means?' filled with "chanti ng. ritual and phan- lapsed in front of him. he said. 'I have
Which is rather like sayin'g, 'Is a house tasmagoria." "A teacher is somcono) come all this way. and had all this
for eating in or sleeping in or blow ing who is able to connect instructionally trouble. and I want yo u to teach me
up?' It's all those things. But the so- with you," Shah says. "He need not be illumination.' But the old man said.
called linear mind always want s you to physically present. You don't even 'Certainly not.' The young fellow begged
'get to the point.' A great deal of Sufism have to know him. He doesn't have to and begged. but t he old man simply
involves learning not in the sequence have a white beard and sanda ls. In " said. 'No. 1can' t teach you that.' Finally
the Western mind expects to learn it. sense, a teacher need not even be a the old man said. 'Go.'
That is not acceptable to the sequential person. "So t he young man went back down
thinker who is incapable of thinking in "1 was once walking with a group of the mountain track . Almost at the bot-
any other way.'' people includi ng a spiritual teacher, tom. he looked back and saw a white
The value or these tales is often mis- and someone asked him. 'What is a figure and he realized that the o ld man
IIUMAN BEHAVIOR.. IW8U&I J977 29