A Veiled Gazelle: "Seeing How to See"
A Veiled Gazelle: "Seeing How to See"
Author: Idries Shah
Desc: "And among the wondrous things is a veiled gazelle: a Divine Subtlety veiled by a state of the Self Referring to the States of those who know. Unable To explain their perceptions to others they can only indicate them to whoever has started to feel something similar. . . ." --Muhiyuddin Ibn El-Arabi The Interpreter of Desires The title A Veiled Gazelle is taken from this beautiful poem by 12th-century mystic Ibn Arabi. The "gazelles" are extraordinary experiences and perceptions latent in ordinary man. "Veiling" refers to the action of the subjective or "commanding" self which partly through indoctrination and partly through base aspirations prevents higher vision. Says Shah in the introduction: "Sufi poetry literature tales and activities are the instruments which when employed with insight and prescription rather than automatically or obsessively help in the relationship between Sufi and pupil toward the removal of the veils." This book is a remarkable working example of these instruments.