Today we find him in a high-level physics report,
illustrating phenomena that can't be described in
ordinary technical terms. He appears in psychology
textbooks, illuminating the workings of the mind in a
way no straightforward explanation can. In three
definitive volumes (The Exploits of the Incomparable
Mulla Nasrudin, The Pleasantries of the Incredible Mulla
Nasrudin, and The Subtleties of the Inimitable Mulla
Nasrudin) Idries Shah takes us to the very heart of this
mysterious mentor, the Mulla Nasrudin. Skillful
contemporary retellings of hundreds of collected stories
and sayings bring the unmistakable - often backhanded -
wisdom, wit and charm of the timeless jokester to life.
The Mulla and his stories appear in literature and oral
traditions from the Middle East to Greece, Russia,
France - even China. Many nations claim Nasrudin as a
native son, but nobody really knows who he was or where
he came from. According to a legend dating from at least
the 13th century, Nasrudin was snatched as a schoolboy
from the clutches of the "Old Villain" - the crude
system of thought that ensnares man - to carry through
the ages the message of how to escape. He was chosen
because he could make people laugh, and humor has a way
of slipping through the cracks of the most rigid
thinking habits. Acclaimed as humorous masterpieces, as
collections of the finest jokes, as priceless gift
books, and for hundreds "enchanted tales", this folklore
figure's antics have also been divined as "mirroring the
antics of the mind". The jokes are, as Idries Shah
notes, "perfectly designed models for isolating and
holding distortions of the mind which so often pass for
reasonable behavior". Therefore they have a double use:
when the jokes have been enjoyed, their psychological
significance starts to sink in. In fact, for many
centuries they have been studied in Sufi circles for
their hidden wisdom. They are used as teaching
exercises, in part to momentarily "freeze" situations in
which states of mind can be recognized. The key to the
philosophic significance of the Nasrudin jokes is given
in Idries Shah's book "The Sufis" and a complete system
of mystical training based upon them was described in
the Hibbert Journal. In these delightful volumes, Shah
not only gives the Mulla a proper vehicle for our times,
he proves that the centuries-old stories and quips of
Nasrudin are still some of the funniest jokes in the
world. |
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