KNOWING HOW TO KNOW

Idries Shah

Octagon Press, London, 1998

Contemporary esoteric systems almost invariably play on the desire of mankind to seek or acquire knowledge. Almost universally neglected in such systems are the -- often unrecognized -- barriers which prevent knowledge and understanding. Before learning can take place, certain conditions and basic factors must be in place; in the individual or the group.

Building on the foundations laid in Learning How to Learn and The Commanding Self, Idries Shah in Knowing How To Know illuminates those factors. Like an ultra-violet light shone onto the petals of flowers, it reveals concealed patterns, normally invisible to our customary modes of thought.

A book of 200 pages may contain nothing of any value at all.
Another may contain as little as one hint, one fact, which is of supreme importance to readers.
Most books could be better written, and very many of them are padded in order to produce a length which the author, the publishers -- or the readers -- (or all three) regard as worthwhile.
This book contains material which, if expanded even in the most acceptable way, could easily fill many hundreds of pages. Such expansion, however, would not necessarily be of any use.
If you are influenced by some prestige-content in a fat book, this book is not for you, for you will be disappointed because it is not crammed with words.
If you could, however, have benefited just as much from seeing the same materials printed in pamphlet form, then you would not have thought that you needed to read this book: you would already have the information which it contains, and would not be reading books like this.
If you can take its message and apply it, while benefiting from its handling qualities, bulk and unspoken communications: this book is for you.
--From the Preface of Knowing How to Know © 1998 by The Estate of Idries Shah.