Ryan’s Comments (group member since Jun 18, 2012)

Ryan’s comments from the Q&A with Tahir Shah group.

Thank you for the many counsels.

Hi again, thanks for answering my previous question. I'm demobing off of a fire in a van, and typing on the phone. One of the counsels of Bahaudin in thinkers of the east mentions not travelling in search of knowledge unless you're sent. I've been thinking about the Capilongo & the trail of feathers, house of the Tiger king, and in search of King someone's mines intros that describe how you followed obsessions (if that's the right word) or a nudge from a friend to initiate your journeys. I would like to travel to the right place this winter, do you have any advice for your readers on how to figure out destinations that will help transform them?

Hi Tahir, thank you for all the amazing writing and hard work you've been doing to get your work out through self publishing and ebooks. I'm wondering how you would recommend a reader to perceive or look at the use of animals like snakes, cats, dogs, toads, etc in your stories. I've been wondering how to look at them in collections like Kalila & Dimna and Alf Layla wa Layla, etc. There's some great books that use the genome to link us to the common ancestors we share with animals and show us the behaviors we share so we can discover what makes us uniquely human. It seems like we still often access animal behaviors and I'm wondering if your animal characters are intended to represent these qualities.

I've been able to read the e-version of the book and just got the hardback,--it was like Christmas receiving it and it's truly amazing! I love the first image of "An ornate Queen Anne brazier was crackling with coals" and how the desert and other images fit with the cover. I need more time exploring the hardback before I can think of a worthy question, all I can say is thank you for the amazing story, maps, and book and please tell everyone who helped that your readers love it.

Hi Tahir, thank you for your time answering these questions. I've read most of your blog entries and several interviews where you've commented on your writing process. One of my favorite interviews is Morocco: Hunt for Jinns and Sorcerer's at:

http://www.moroccoboard.com/news/5592...

In that interview you mention you make a detailed plan that you may not even touch, but sits there like a scaffold or framework that is there for you when you need it. One of the things that interests me about functional and instrumental literature is how it seems like it's partially designed to provide a nutrient or seed for a readers mind along with the entertainment value. It seems like classical sufi writers do something similar in how they focus on a beautiful word, name, or quality that their literature is designed around like an arabesque exploring its different facets. Would you comment on how you discover what will be the radix of your design or framework. In your travel literature it seems possible that your design comes from examining your own zig zag path and discovering the core, essence, or connecting link of your experiences. It seems like in your Morocco books you're utilizing more of an initial blueprint or sieve that you present the reader with that are like pieces of a mosaic they may finally perceive when they can hold all the pieces in their mind. It seems like the title and number of pages in the book are even carefully chosen. How would you recommend a person discover their own radix or focus for their writing.

Hi friends. I'm from the Pacific Northwest in the US. I work as a smokejumper. We parachute into remote areas to manage emerging forest fires so we can protect water sheds and other vital forest elements. A good example of why I'm such a fan of Tahir's phenomenological writings is at the end of chapter 12 of "In Arabian Nights" when he's listening to Monsieur Reda. In order to have a good jump we have to be able to read the wind, which is difficult because it's hard to see the streamers and wind indicators through a tiny port hole inside a plane that's turning circles. After we get all the little snippets of visual data we can, I do like Tahir did, close my eyes and activate my imagination. It's an important moment because to a jumper the sound of the static line clip sliding down the ridges of the static line is like lighter grooves sparking fire under a junkies spoon. With neuro receptors primed, the salivating adrenaline gets your heart racing... that's when I close my eyes and some part of me calmly puts the pieces together, jumps out the door, perceives the wind, and guides me into the jump spot and a safe landing. I'm not sure I would have learned how to do this if it wasn't for Tahir's writings, so thanks for the help!