The Commanding Self

By: Idries Shah

Narrated by: David Ault

The Commanding Self, in Sufic terminology, is that mixture of the primitive and conditioned responses, common to everyone, which inhibits and distorts human progress and understanding. This audiobook was described by Shah as the key to understanding his entire corpus of work. While complete in itself as an anthology of hitherto unpublished work, it serves to illustrate and amplify Idries Shah’s preceding books on the Sufi Way.

In its introduction, he writes, "Thousands of books and monographs have been written on Sufism and the Sufis, almost all of them from the point of view of other ways of thinking. The result has been chaos in the literature, and confusion in the reader. Over the centuries, some of the world’s most eminent scholars have fallen into the trap of trying to examine, access or consider the Sufi phenomenon through a set of culture-bound preconceptions".

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An unusual depth of insight.

Whether one wants to go deeper into human psychology or increase one's understanding of Sufism this is a wonderful book which reveals new dimensions with each reading.

More please!

I simply love all of the books from Idries Shah and cherish the knowledge recieved from this series. Even more so since David Ault reads them to me!

Fantastically relevant for our times.

I got this book when it first came out. By some wizards of the publishing or typesetting art, it is definitely not the same book
I read 20 years ago, Sorcery. A very unusual writing style, exceptionally subtle, Seemingly disparate elements connect intimately on subsequent readings, The insights offered into the structure and function of the mind are unlike anything else I have ever read, Shah reaches beyond the surface on mentation to a deeper substrate that one barely perceived until he enlightens the reader of its existence, Our salvation as a species lies in understanding this book