Reflections (Sufi literature)

Reflections by Idries Shah is a collection of eighty fables, aphorisms, and statements that seek to challenge the conditioned mind. The book intends to confront the reader with unaccustomed perspectives and ideas, in an attempt to set the mind free, to see how things really are.[1] As the book’s foreword states, "Do you imagine that fables exist only to amuse or to instruct, and are based upon fiction? The best ones are delineations of what happens in real life, in the community and in the individual’s mental processes".[2]

Reflections
Book cover
AuthorIdries Shah
Cover artistRenata Alvares
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
GenreEastern philosophy and culture. Sufism. Psychology.
Published1968-2015
PublisherISF Publishing. The Idries Shah Foundation
Media typePrint (Paperback & eBook). Audiobook
Pages160
ISBN9781784790189
Preceded byCaravan of Dreams 
Followed byThe Way of the Sufi 

Content

Reflections is a collection of a foreword and eighty brief literary pieces which were designed for reflection. Many are as brief as this example:

History is not usually what has happened. History is what some people have thought to be significant.

Reception

This small, pocket-sized book was well received by critics. In her review in The Observer, author Doris Lessing called Reflections "... a lively collection of fables, comments, aphorisms, its quality astringency."[3] The New York Times Book Review called it "... witty, tart and instructional - they tend to come into your mind at appropriate moments."[4] Pat Williams, reviewing for BBC's Review of the Year, stated that Reflections was "Very funny ... more wisdom than I have found in any other book this year. I found myself sitting up straight."

gollark: I know you can put your pages into categories in basically everything, but what if I want to look up a specific term or something?
gollark: Although handwritten digital notes are still annoying since they're hard to index.
gollark: Yes, paper bad.
gollark: I have about four A4-sized books of maths notes from this year and every additional one makes looking up information harder.
gollark: I mostly have paper notes for things because school, but they're annoying when I have to reference them because I generate a *lot* of notes and have to linear-search them.

References
  1. Staff. "Reflections". Octagon Press. Archived from the original on 7 August 2012. Retrieved 4 October 2012.
  2. Shah, Idries (1968). Reflections. London: Octagon Press. pp. 3. ISBN 0 900860 07 3.
  3. Lessing, Doris (January 19, 1969). "Some Kind of a Cake". The Observer.
  4. Lessing, Doris (May 7, 1972). "What Looks Like an Egg and Is An Egg". New York Times Book Review.
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