The Sufi way is through knowledge and practice, not through intellect and talk.
Idries ShahRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of both remembering and forgetting to maintain mental clarity and practicality.
Idries Shah's quote reflects on the dual process of memory, suggesting that not only is it important to remember significant information, but it is equally crucial to forget unnecessary details. This interplay of remembering and forgetting allows individuals to prioritize what truly matters, thereby fostering a better understanding of themselves and their experiences.
Themes
MemoryForgettingImportanceWisdomClarity
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about mental health, to emphasize the need for letting go of stressful memories.
More from Idries Shah
All quotes →To 'see both sides' of a problem is the surest way to prevent its complete solution. Because there are always more than two sides.
Idries ShahRead
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.
Idries ShahRead
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.
Idries ShahRead
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.
Idries ShahRead
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.
Idries ShahRead
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Don’t do what you know on a gut level to be the wrong thing to doI don’t think there’s a single dumbass thing I’ve done in my adult life that I didn’t know was a dumbass thing to do while I was doing it. Even when I justified it to myself—as I did every damn time—the truest part of me knew I was doing the wrong thing. Always. As the years pass, I’m learning how to better trust my gut and not do the wrong thing, but every so often I get a harsh reminder that I’ve still got work to do.
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never write a line you'd be ashamed to read at your own funeral.
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Take care of the problems now, or else you'll just have to suffer again later when you scew everything up the next time. And that repetition of suffering - that's hell. Moving out of that endless repetition to a new level of understand - there's where you'll find heaven.
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My favorite three words in the English language are: ’I don’t know’, because every time I say them, I learn something new.
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Seek simplicity, and distrust it.
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