A PERFUMED SCORPION The Way to the Way

Idries Shah

Octagon Press, London, 1978

Using the powerful approach of classical teachers, Shah has crafted a contemporary teaching tool that blends a fast-paced look at today's world with the timeless teachings of the Sufis.

The book brings into sharp focus the conditioned behavior and self-deception that are common in Western minds.

Far more than a literary tool for breaking loose old mental habits, it is a blueprint for a process of self-development that precludes self-deceit. Truly a book among books, A Perfumed Scorpion is treasured the world over for its clarity of wisdom and the forcefulness of insight.

The book is also available from ISHK in Spanish (UN ESCORPIÓN PERFUMADO, Code ESPE1).

Whoever might perfume a scorpion
Will not thereby escape its sting.
--Sufi master, Bahaudin Naqshband, from A Perfumed Scorpion © 1978 by The Estate of Idries Shah

BEARD, CLOAK AND ROSARY
I cannot resist, thinking of ancient formulae, referring to the story of the man with a bushy beard, wearing a rosary around his neck, dressed in a hooded cloak, with long and greasy hair, who was anxious, recently, to tell everyone that he was 'A Sufi.'
Someone -- who really was a Sufi -- asked him why he was behaving like that. He said: 'I am following the instructions and information contained in this ancient handbook for disciples.'
'But,' said the real Sufi, 'that cannot apply now -- it was written several centuries ago...'
'That may well be,' said the new 'Sufi,' 'but I only found it last month!'
--From A Perfumed Scorpion © 1978 by The Estate of Idries Shah