“A year before my father died, he sat me down in a quiet corner of his garden. We shared a pot of Darjeeling tea and listened to the sound of a pair of wood pigeons in a nearby tree. I poured a second cup of tea. As I was putting the strainer back on its holder, my father said: 'Some time soon I will not be here any more. My illness has reached another phase. I can feel it.'
“I sat there, touched with sadness. I didn't say anything because I could not think of anything appropriate to say.
“'When I am not here,' my father continued, 'some people we have always trusted will betray us. Beware of this. Others will stand forward as true friends, people who were in the shadows before. Many more will ask who I left as my successor. They will hound you, asking for a name. It is important that you tell them that my successor is my printed work. My books form a complete course, a Path, and they succeed when I cannot be there.'”
~ Tahir Shah,
In Arabian Nights, New York: Bantam Dell. pp. 215-6. See:
tahirshah.com.
There is now an official page for
Idries Shah at Facebook, maintained by the Estate of Idries Shah, and you can follow
@IdriesShah at Twitter.
A new official web site,
The Idries Shah Foundation, has now gone live, and there's a new article about
The Idries Shah Foundation at Wikipedia.
See also:
• By Etienne de L'Amour ~
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