Observations placeholder
Shah, Idries - A Perfumed Scorpion - The Natural and Supernatural methods
Identifier
008297
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
A Perfumed Scorpion - THE NATURAL AND THE SUPERNATURAL METHOD
The student has iust asked his teacher about the difference between various approaches to the acquisition of knowledge, since he wants to use his present abilities to delve into those which lie, for the moment, beyond him.
The Sage says: 'Yes, there are, of course, two possibilities of gaining higher knowledge, to penetrate and to transcend the barriers to understanding: to discharge the human duty. These are the natural method and the supernatural.'
'What is the natural one?', the student asks.
'The natural is the Sufi path: to pursue the study by its own methods, those which are traditional only because imposed by its source .'
'And the supernatural?'
'Oh, the supernatural - that would be if the academic and the scientific methods (as used in the West) were to obtain any results.'