9 posts tagged “warrior of the lightnewsletter”
By Paulo Coelho
The seventh and last cardinal virtue: Equilibrium
With this column we bring to a close the series of seven cardinal virtues composed of three theological virtues (Faith, Hope and Love) and four classic virtues (Wisdom, Justice, Courage and Equilibrium).
According to the New Testament (which appears not to agree very much with this particular virtue): These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm - neither hot nor cold - I am about to spit you out of my mouth. (Apocalypse 3: 14-16)
In a Zen story: A
fervent Buddhist lady made every effort to love others. But every time
she went to the market, a merchant made indecent proposals to her.
One
rainy morning, when the man bothered her once again, she lost control
and hit him on the face with her umbrella. That same afternoon, she
sought out a monk and told him what had happened.
"I am ashamed," she said. "I couldn't control my hate."
"You
did wrong to hate him," answered the monk. "The next time he says
something, fill your heart with goodness. And hit him again with your
umbrella, because that's the only language he knows."
The fifth cardinal virtue: Justice
According to the dictionary:
from the Latin justitias: conformity with the law; act of giving to
each what belongs to them; equity; group of magistrates and the people
who work with them.
According to Jesus Christ: You have heard that
they were told, 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.' But I
tell you not to resist injury, but if anyone strikes you on your right
cheek, turn the other to him too. (Matthew 5: 38-39)
At another
moment of the Gospel: And Jesus went into the Temple of God and drove
out all who were buying and selling things in it, and he upset the
money-changers' tables and the pigeon-dealers' seats. (Matthew, 21:12)
According
to Bankei: during one of Zen master Bankei's classes, a pupil was
caught stealing. All the disciples demanded he be expelled, but Bankei
did nothing. The following week, the pupil stole again. The others,
irritated, demanded that the thief be punished.
"How wise you all
are," said Bankei. "You know what is right and wrong, and you can study
anywhere you like. But this poor brother – who does not know what is
right or wrong – has only me to teach him. And I shall go on doing
that." A flood of tears purified the thief's face; the desire to steal
had disappeared.
Paulo Coelho
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According to the dictionary: from the Latin amor: strong affection that drives us towards the object of our desires; inclination of the soul and heart; affection; passion; exclusive inclination; theological grace.
In the New Testament: So faith, hope and love endure. These are the great three, and the greatest of them is love. (Corinthians 13:13)
According to etymology: the Greeks had three words to designate love: Eros, Philos and Agape. Eros is the healthy love between two persons that justifies life and perpetuates the human race. Philos is the sentiment that we dedicate to our friends. Finally, Agape, which contains both Eros and Philos, goes far beyond "liking" someone. Agape is total love, the love that devours those who feel it. For Catholics, this was the love that Jesus felt for humanity, and it was so great that it shook the stars and changed the course of the history of men. Those who know and feel Agape realize that nothing else in this world has any importance, only loving.
For Oscar Wilde:
Yet each man kills the thing he loves
By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!
(Ballad of Reading Jail, 1898)
Continue...
Paulo Coelho
The second cardinal virtue: Hope
According to the dictionary:
a tendency of the spirit to consider something as probable; the second
of the theological virtues; expectation; supposition; probability.
In
the words of Jesus: Look at the wild birds. They do not sow or reap, or
store their food in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are
you not of more account than they? But which of you with all his worry
can add a single hour to his life? Why should you worry about clothing?
See how the wild flowers grow. They do not toil or spin, and yet I tell
you, Solomon in all his splendor was never dressed like one of them.
But if God so beautifully dresses the wild grass, which is alive today
and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not so much more surely
clothe you, you who have so little faith? (Matthew, 6: 26-30)
For the ancient Greeks: In one of the classic myths of the Creation, one of the gods, furious at the fact that Prometheus stole fire and in doing so gave men their independence, sends Pandora to marry her brother Epimetheus. Pandora brings along a box, which she is forbidden to open. However, just as happens to Eve in the Christian myth, her curiosity gets the better of her: she raises the lid to see what is inside, and at this moment all the troubles of the world spill out and spread all over the Earth. Only one thing remains inside: Hope, the only arm to combat the misfortune that has scattered throughout the world.
Continue...
Paulo Coelho
www.warriorofthelight.com
When angels talk
Nobody is courageous all the time. The unknown is a constant challenge, and being afraid is part of the journey.
What to do? Talk to yourself. Talk alone. Talk to yourself even if others think you have gone crazy. As we talk, an inner force gives us the security to overcome the obstacles that need to be surmounted. We learn lessons from the defeats that we are bound to suffer. And we prepare ourselves for the many victories that will be part of our life.
And just between you and me, those who have this habit (and I'm one of them) know that they never talk alone: the guardian angel is there, listening and helping us to reflect. What follows are some stories about angels.
Conversation in heaven
Abd Mubarak was on his way to Mecca when one night he dreamed that he was in heaven and heard two angels having a conversation.
"How many pilgrims came to the holy city this year?" one of them asked.
"Six hundred thousand", answered the other.
"And how many of them had their pilgrimage accepted?"
"None of them. However, in Baghdad there is a shoemaker called Ali Mufiq who did not make the pilgrimage, but did have his pilgrimage accepted, and his graces benefited the 600,000 pilgrims".
When he woke up, Abd Mubarak went to Mufiq's shoe shop and told him his dream.
"At great cost and much sacrifice, I finally managed to get 350 coins together", the shoemaker said in tears. "But then, when I was ready to go to Mecca I discovered that my neighbors were hungry, so I distributed the money among them and gave up my pilgrimage".
Continue...
Paulo Coelho
In this case the title of the newsletter is not right. Since in the previous Warrior of Light Online I said refused to write about the reasons why men love woman (I would be considered a male chauvinist South-American writer who despises the liberation movement of the opposite sex), a reader called Julia decided to do it for me. So now we have the feminine version of why we love women. Of course, I don't agree with everything, but this is a (relatively) free tribune. Let's see what Julia has to tell us:
We men love women because they still feel they are adolescents even after they grow old.
Because they smile every time they pass a child.
Because they walk down the street erect, always looking straight ahead, never turning round to say thanks or return the smile or compliment we make when they pass by.
Because they are bold in bed, not because they have a perverse nature but because they want to please us.
(Continue)
Paulo Coelho
A friend of mine, Julia, sent me the text below. When I tried to get in touch with her to ask if she herself had written it, she had already left on a trip and I don’t know exactly when she will be coming back.
I checked on the Internet and guess what I discovered? That there are many discussion groups on this subject! In other words, nowadays women are looking for reasons to fall in love with the opposite sex. As a man who agrees with some of these reasons, I made a list based on what they say:
We love men because they can’t fake an orgasm, even if they wanted to.
Because they will never understand us, yet even so they go on trying.
Because they still manage to see our beauty, even when we ourselves no longer believe it.
Because they understand equations, politics, maths and economics, but not the feminine heart.
Because they are lovers who only rest when we have had (or pretend to have had) pleasure.
Because they manage to raise sport to something bordering on religion.
Because they are never afraid of the dark.
Paulo Coelho
www.warriorofthelight.com
Why go on fighting
Reader Gerson Luiz tells the story of a rose that longed for the company of the bees, but none would come to her.
Even so, the flower was still capable of dreaming. When she felt all alone, she would imagine a garden filled with bees that came to kiss her. And so she managed to resist until the next day, when she opened her petals again.
“Aren’t you tired?” someone must have asked her.
“No. I have to go on fighting,” answered the flower.
“Why?”
“Because if I don’t open up, I wither.”
Learning to see
Buddha gathered his disciples and showed them a lotus flower.
“I want you to tell me something about what I hold in my hand.”
The first gave a whole treaty on the importance of flowers. The second composed a lovely poem about its petals. The third invented a parable using the flower as an example.
Now it was Mahakashyap’s turn. He came up to Buddha, smelt the flower, and caressed his face with one of the petals.
“This is a lotus flower,” said Mahakashyap. “Simple, like everything that comes from God. And beautiful, like everything that comes from God.”
“You were the only one who saw what I hold in my hand,” was Buddha’s comment.
In search of a wise man
For days the couple traveled almost without speaking. Finally they arrived in the middle of the forest, and found the wise man.
“My companion said almost nothing to me during the whole journey,” said the young man.
“A love without silence is a love without depth,” answered the wise man.
“But she didn’t even say that she loved me!”
“Some people always claim that. And we end up wondering if their words are true.”
The three of them sat down on a rock. The wise man pointed to the field of flowers all around them.
“Nature isn’t always repeating that God loves us. But we realize that through His flowers.”
In the flower shop
The woman was strolling through a shopping mall when she noticed a poster announcing a new flower shop. When she went in, she got a shock; she saw no vases, no arrangements, and it was God in person who stood behind the counter.
“You can ask for whatever you want,” said God.
“I want to be happy. I want peace, money, the capacity to be understood. I want to go to heaven when I die. And I want all this to be granted to my friends too.”
God opened a few pots that were on the shelf behind him, removed some grains from inside, and handed them to the woman.
“Here you have the seeds,” He said. “Begin to plant them, because here we don’t sell the fruits.”
(c) Paulo Coelho
