There is a woman visiting Anda right now. She is the daughter of the woman whose house I stayed in for my first three months here. She works for the Red Cross and has been on missions all over the world including Pakistan and Sudan. This woman, Gema, is a breath of fresh and someone I’m grateful to have met.
She brought a couple books with her. Three of which are written by Paulo Coelho, who is an author I greatly admire. I don’t know if the mechanics of his writing are anything profound, although this may be that I’m only reading the English translations of his work, but his stories, characters and remarks on spiritualty, religion, magic, the unknown, wisdom, love, and knowledge are all things I greatly admire and find refreshing, just like Gema’s visit.
I know it’s sort of trendy to read Coelho these days, but this week as I read two of his books for the first time and re-read the Alchemist it felt like he was writing me personal letters as his words are words my soul had been trying to hear through dialogue with forces that have left me feeling alone. That probably sounds cliché after hearing that I’ve read Coehlo, but Im okay with that.
Here are some of my favorite parts of my time with Coehlo this week:
The Author’s Note in By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept:
“A Spanish missionary was visiting an island when he came across three Aztecpriests.
‘How do you pray?’ the missionary asked.
‘ ‘We have only one prayer.’ Answered one of the Aztecs. ‘We say, God , you are three, we are three. Have pity on us.’
‘A beautiful prayer,’ said the missionary. ‘But it is not exactly the one that God heeds. I’m going to teacher you one that’s much better.”
The priest taught them a Catholic prayer and then continued on his path of evangelism. Years later, when he was returning to Spain, his ship stopped again at the island. From the deck, the missionary saw the three priests on the shore and waved to them.
Just then, the three men began to walk across the water toward him.
‘Padre! Padre!” one of them called, approaching the ship. ‘Teach us again that prayer that God heeds. We’ve forgotten how it goes.’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ responded the missionary, witnessing the miracle and promptly asked God’s forgiveness for failing to recognize that He speaks all languages.
This story illustrates just what this book is about. Rarely dowe realize that we are in the midst of the extraordinary. Miracles occur all around us, signs from God show us the way, angels plead to be heard, but we pay little attention to them because we have been taught that we must follow certain formulas and rules if we want to find God. We do not recognize that God is wherever we allow Him/Her to enter.
Traditional religious practices are important: they allow us to share withothers the communal experience of adoration and prayer. But we must never forget that spiritual experience is above all a practical experience of love. and with love, there are no rules. Some may try to control their emotions and develop strategies for their beahvoir; others may turn to reading books for advice from ‘experts’ on relationships—but this is all folly. The heart decides and what it decides is all that really matters…
For in every love lies the seed of our growth. The more we love, the closer we come to spiritual experience. Those who are truly enlightened, those whose souls are illuminated by love, have been able to overcome all inhibitions and preconceptions of their era. They have been able to sing, to laugh, and to pray out loud; hey have danced and shared what Saint Paul called ‘the madness of saintliness.’ They have been joyful—because those who love conquer the world and have no dear of loss. True love is an act of total surrender… sooner or later, we have to overcome our fears, because the spiritual path can only be traveled through the daily experience of love.
Thomas Merton once said that the spiritual life is essentially to love. One doesn’t love in order to do what is good or to help r to protect someone. If we act that way, we are perceiving the other as a simple object, and we are seeing ourselves as wise and generous persons. This has nothing to do with our love. to love is to be in communion with the other and to discover in that other the spark of God…”—Paulo Coehlo
“Sometimes an uncontrollable feeling of sadness grips us, he said. We recognize that the magic of the moment of the day has passed and that we’ve done nothing about it. Life begins to conceal its magic and its art.
We have to listen to the child we once were, the child who still exists inside us. That child understands magic moments. We can stifle its cries, but we cannot silence its voice…
If we are not reborn—if we cannot learn to look at lie with the innocence and enthusiasm of childhood—it makes no sense to go on living…
We must allow this child to take the reins of our lives. The child knows that each day is different from every other day…
Remember the human wisdom is madness in the eyes of God. But if we listen to the child who lives in our soul, our eyes will grow bright. If we do not lose contact with that child, we will not lose contact with life.”--By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
“ ‘You had that wrong’ he said. ‘A person who goes in search of God is wasting his time. He can walk a thousand roads and join many religions and sects—but he’ll never find god that way.
God is right here, right now, at our side. We can see Him in this mist, in the ground we’re walking on, even in my shoes. His angels keep watch while we sleep and help us in our work. In order to find God, you have only to look around.
But meeting Him is not easy. The more God asks us to participate in His mysteries, the more disoriented we become because He asks us constantly to follow our dreams and our hearts. And that’s difficult to do when we’re used to living in a different way.
Finally we discover, to our surprise, that God wants us to be happy, because He is the father..and the mother’ “--By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
“ ‘I just want t say one thing to you,’ she said. ‘Don’t bother trying to explain your emotions. Live everything as intensely as you can and keep whatever you felt as a gift from God. If you think that you won’t be able to stand a world in which living is more important than understanding, then give up magic now. The best way to destroy the bridge between the visible and the invisible is by trying to explain your emotions.’ “—Brida
“‘But the path of magic—like the path of life—is and always will be the path of Mystery. Learning something means coming into contact with a world of which you know nothing. In order to learn, you must be humbles.’”—Brida
“’Right now, while we’re here eating, ninety-nince percent of the people in this planet are, in their own way, struggling with that very questions. Why are wee here? Many think they’ve found the answer in religion or in materialism. Other despair and spend their lives and their money trying to grasp the meaning of it all. a few let the question go unanswered and live for the moment, regardless of the results or the consequences.
Only the brave and those who understand the Traditions of the Sun and the Moon are aware that the only possible answer to the question is I DON’T KNOW.’” –Brida
“’ We don’t look for an answer, we accept, and then life becomes much more intense, much more brilliant, becase we understand that each minute, each step that we take, has a meaning that goes far beyond us as individuals. We realize that somewhere in time and space this question does have an answer. We realize that there is a reason for us being here, and for us, that is enough…and we surrender ourselves full to each moment, knowing that there is always a hand to guide us, and whether we accept it or not is entirely up to us.’”—Brida
“So, why is it so important to live our personal calling if we are only going to suffer more than other people?
Because, once we have overcome the defeats—and we always do—we are filled by a graet sense of euphoria and confidence. In the silence of our hearts, we know that we are proving ourselves worthy of the miracle of life. Each day, each hour, is part of the good fight. We start to live with enthusiasm and pleasure. “—Coelho
“’Dreams are the language of God. When he speaks in our language, I can interpret what he has said. But if he speaks in the language of the soul, it is only you who can understand.’”—The Alchemist
“’It’s [Personal Legend] what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone, when they are young, knows what their Personal Legend is.
At that point in their lives, everything is clear and everything is possible. They are not afraid to dream, and to yearn for everything they would like to see happen to them in their lives. But, as time passes, a mysterious force begins to convince them tht it will be impossible for them to realize their Personal Legend.’”--The Alchemist
“’There is one great truth on this planet: whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, it’s because that desire originated in the soul of the universe. It’s your mission on earth.”--The Alchemist
“’To realize a one’s destiny is a person’s only real obligation. All things are one.”--The Alchemist
“’Everything on earth is being continuously transformed, because the earth is alive…and it has a soul. We are part of that soul, so we rarely recognize that it is working for us. “--The Alchemist
“’The secret is here in the present. If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it. And, if you improve on the present, what comes later will also be better. Forget about the future, and live each day according to the teachings, confident that God loves his children. Each day, in itself, brings with it an eternity.’”--The Alchemist
“’You must understand that love never keeps a man from pursuing his Personal legend. If he abandons that pursuit, it’s because it wasn’t true love…the love that speaks the Language of the World.’”--The Alchemist
“’Wherever your heart is, that is where you’ll find your treasure.’”--The Alchemist
“’Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search si a second’s encounter with God and with eternity.’”--The Alchemist
“’It [The Soul of the World] said that all people who are happy have God within them. And that happiness could be found in a grain of sand from the desert, as the alchemist had said. Because a gain of sand is a moment of creation, and the universe has taken millions of years to create it.’”--The Alchemist
