Quite a few years ago my neighbor, who happened to be from Egypt, mentioned that he was writing a book on Sufism. “What’s that?” I asked, having never heard of it before. He changed the subject, would not say anything more about it, and I could not get him to elaborate further with several questions. Somewhat irritated, I said to myself, “OK, well I’ll just find out about it on my own!” A day or two later I visited a local bookseller (we had plenty of them in those days), and I found this book, Learning How to Learn and another by a different author with “Sufism” in the title. I read them both. I was interested in what I read, and I continued to read other titles by Shah and by the other author. After reading a few books by each I had the vague sense that there was something in Shah’s books that didn’t seem to be in the other’s, so I stopped reading his and continued with Shah’s.
Over the years I have read and reread Learning How to Learn several times, and with each reading I seem to get something more from it, as well as from his other publications. As other reviewers have mentioned, “He (or she) who tastes knows.” Learning How to Learn is an excellent place to start tasting. Read it. Pay attention to how you react. If the impact seems beneficial, then you will be pleased to know that there are many more of his books to experience. If you find nothing there of value, then that is perhaps an end to it. If you hate it, love it, get depressed, react with some other emotion, or even just feel confused, you may wish to see if you can figure out why you are reacting in that way. In my experience the impacts of this and of his other books vary with each subsequent reading, giving you more opportunities to examine your reactions and learn more about yourself and how you operate.
Generally, we all know that books say things. Shah’s books, in the experiences of many, tend to do things. When you read Learning How to Learn, and perhaps others of his books, I hope that you will find even more benefit from his life’s work than I have. Shah, particularly now that he has died, is not to be regarded as a guru or “master,” rather he has something to do with the development of human consciousness. With modern advances in psychology, anthropology, sociology, and so forth, what he writes has a relevance to “scientifically-minded” individuals that was not possible in the past. Even some theologically-oriented individuals may find much of value here. I believe the Sufic stream has always been well accepted by the practically-minded, but now may appeal to and be worthwhile for an even wider audience.
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