Capacity comes before Opinion

Q: Some people say they can learn through studying books,
others that there isn't anything worthwhile in books, and others
that they haven't found the right books yet. What are your reactions
to this sort of thing?


A: I can't do better than repeat an old story told by a Sufi.
He described how at one time he looked for books and did not
find them; then he found them and thought that everything was in
them; then he decided that there was nothing in them. Finally,
but only after going through all these phases - and phases they are
- he realised which were the books useful to him, and what their
use really was.


What had been wrong was his attitude of accepting or rejecting
books before he himself attained the capacity to study the matter
properly. He was forming opinions without first developing ordinary
capacities further; and asking for things without being able
to profit from them.


He should have started with more common sense.


Rumi speaks of people who rely upon the written word as
sometimes being no more than donkeys laden with books. Why do
people always wonder whether books are any good, without wondering
whether they are themselves in a state to profit from them?


When I was first taught this, I was given this saying, so that by
calling it to mind I could again experience the shallowness of the
discussions about books, as carried out in so many circles:


'Premature independence is the daughter of conceit.'


If you write the question down and look at it, you will, I think
(and hope) at once see that it is not a question about Sufi learning,
but about books. This person is concentrating on the idea of
books, not the ideas in the books.


Idries Shah, Learning How to Learn