I came across mention today that the mystical tradition of Sufism is based largely around the concept of teaching mystical truths “indirectly” through stories, rather than through indoctrination. I found a bunch of really good quotes about it, and here they are.

From The Use of Stories in Sufi Psychological Teaching

Thus, Sufi teachers provide students with stories to soak themselves in, stories that provide some information useful right away, and additional dimensions of potential value which become activated as and when the student is ready for them. Sufis do not indoctrinate, and, indeed, one of the things that most appealed to me when I began reading Sufi literature, as presented by the Afghan Sufi writer Idries Shah, is that the Sufis see conditioning as a widespread, often unsuspected, and nearly entirely destructive force in humanity’s existence.

From The Sufis and Idries Shah

Sufis have always taught through stories, and pedants and traditionalists have perennially complained– and sometimes about the greatest of the Sufis– “But these are merely tales of the kind you tell to children.” The claim is that the action of the genuine Sufi teaching story is “direct and certain” upon the innermost self of the human being, and this is true whether or not the said human is prepared to acknowledge that he or she has an innermost self. This attitude to literature brings us into an unfamiliar relation with our own literary heritage. The tales, anecdotes, illustrative recitals, jokes are not meant to be attacked by the intellectual apparatus.

From Tales of the Dervishes : Teaching-Stories of the Sufi Masters over the Past Thousand Years

They stand comparison in wit, construction and piquancy with the finest stories of any culture, yet their true function as Sufi teaching stories is so little known in the modern world that no technical or popular term exist to describe them. For centuries, dervish masters have instructed their disciples by means of these tales, which are held to convey powers of increasing perception unknown to the ordinary man.

These are teaching stories in the Sufi tradition. Those who probe beyond the surface will find multiple meanings to challenge assumptions and foster new ways of thinking and perceiving.

From What is Sufism?

The Sufis have been using carefully constructed stories for teaching purposes for thousands of years. Throughout his life Idries Shah (1924-1996), recognized as the foremost authority on contemporary Sufi education, wrote more than thirty books containing such teaching stories and narratives. Though on the surface these often appear to be little more than fairy or folk tales, the Sufis hold that they enshrine — in their characters, plots and imagery — patterns and relationships that nurture a part of the mind not reachable in more conventional ways, thus increasing our understanding, flexibility and breadth of vision. Familiarization with this body of material can eventually provide answers to questions about our origins and our destiny.

… what is called in some disciplines enlightenment, can be in the Sufi process, the result of the falling into place of a large number of small impacts and perceptions (from these stories and one’s own experiences) producing insights when the individual is ready for them.”

From On Sufism and Idries Shah’s The Commanding Self

When the Sufis claim they use stories to teach, our associations with the words “teach” and “teacher” limit understanding. Their insistence that the inculcation of a simple morality of an ethic is a very low-level stage of instruction begins to explain something of their scope. A real teaching story, whether thousands of years old, or new, goes far beyond the parables that are still part of our culture. A parable has a simple message: this means that. But in a Sufi teaching story, there may be layers of meaning, some of them not to be verbalized. Current ways of “teaching” literature in schools and universities may make it difficult for literary people to approach Sufi literature as it should be: Sufis do not pull apart a tale to find its meaning, but cite the case of the child who has dismantled a fly and, left with a heap of wings, a head, legs, asks “Where is the fly?” In other words, a student learns to use the mind in ways unfamiliar to us. They “soak themselves” in the material. They ignore the analytical approach, and the practice of memorizing and regurgitating. The meaning of a Sufi tale comes through contemplation, and may take years.

[For more info on mystical religious traditions, check out my article on the three types of religion.]