Looking further for the ‘undercurrent’ in all Sins. At the moment, to me it appears to be ‘desires’, not per se, but desires gone uncontrolled. Desire in itself will not be sinful, afterall desires is what makes us human, diffrent from animals. When object of desire becomes laced with lust we get what we call sin.

But the last deadly sin sloth will go against the above, apparently ! let’s wait to see what the master quotes on this last deadly sin. How I wish Paulo would have written a few lines on each of these in his own words, but then masters have their own ways, and we can only request. maybe after the series of quotations is over maybe he will grace us with one issue where he can write HIS words on each sin and maybe little a more. amen to that !!

aditya

Do u see an undercurrent in all ’sins’, does it appear that sins are not the roots but the branches of something. that something finds its manifestation in diffrent forms as in diffrent sins.¨
¨

What do you think that ¨something¨ is? Boredom, learned behavior, scape of reality, habits, lack of centerdness, the matrix trying to control us, lack of love, our longing for reunion manifested as a craving for something else? All of the above? Interesting comment.

I know what you mean, the present can seem so boring one cannot help sometimes but dream, specially when a dream takes us to a beautiful place. I dream therefore I am -did I just change that?-

Debbie- We are all dreamers, keep on writing. You never know when your words might be just the ones a person needs to hear, like some God sent Angel.

Envy is out, going to read it now.

Cheers,

Clover

Good to have u back. In the final analysis individual lives are little more than making hills of beans ( remeber Ozymadis). so it’s OK.
I saw u’r ‘ad’, not bad, i will say. if u have not ‘sold’ u’r spiritual knowledge then rest assured u remain on the high pedestal.

U know in Hindusism, vedantha to be precise, about reality they say ‘advaita’ – not two. they don’t say two or one, they say reality is not two. so it’s you all over the place, all you ever come across is yourself only, so don’t get ‘sick’ of listening to yourself and ya me too.

An interesting thought hits me – all revelotions personal or social begin with sound, in the beginning of creation there was first sound, all our knowledge specially the passing down of the knowldge aquired by humanity begins with sound or words if u prefer. So let’s not discount the power of words. Keep on writing.

By the way the video and the model ( u ? ) were wonderful, editing could have been better though !!!! ( said like a true critic ?!!)

aditya

I’ve been taking a break from the blog lately because, first off, I’ve actually been having a bit of a life! Ha! ;) (No time to come here). And secondly, because I get sick of listening to myself…and I also feel like all this talking really only amounts to a hill of beans. ;) Sort of like what I think Peter (hi Peter!) was talking about, perhaps?

Anyhow! I just wanted to tell you all that I made a video ad for HP, as well! ;) If you’ve seen Paulo’s ad, then, check out mine now. And, dear Aditya, I do hope that you won’t be dismayed that I did this ad, and knock me off of the pedestal that you have me on! ;) hee hee! :)

I’ve missed chatting with you all…even if we’ve only been making hills of beans. ;) ha!

Check out my video! Here’s the link!

Love to all,

Deb ;) The ALMOST silent one!

This is Ireland at the moment…. The Celtic Tiger and all that….

Money for Money.. It’s not so much the rural country people think it is.. There are plenty of skinny cappuccinos for the rich to go with their Bentley cars.

House prices have just leveled off, but mortgage rates are going up and up. Four months ago the houses were expensive but now the banks rule and we cannot buy a house, unless you buy for cash or face a life time of repaying the bank hundreds of Euro every month.

The Government is still crazy, recently the Leader of the government was found to have taken money during the 90′s and more recently he was told that 4/10 Irish teenagers try drugs. He did not care. He said that it is not a problem and that just because they try it that they will not become users. He probably still thinks that Global warming is a myth!

God bring me to Munich!!

Kealan

I meant freeze with your feeling of happiness, retain it as long as u can. Ceartainly life is to be lived here & now, in fact that is the only real living, living with the past is carrying an unnecessary burden, living in the future is fantasy. Yet for most of us the present is so ‘boring’ that hope seems like the only sustaining factor. Present is ‘boring’ only till we learn to ‘count our blessings’ !

Do u see an undercurrent in all ‘sins’, does it appear that sins are not the roots but the branches of something. that something finds its manifestation in diffrent forms as in diffrent sins.

peace

aditya

That actually sounds very lonely. But I still believe we would find those answers, even then, all alone in this vast universe, we’d somehow find our way home. Listen so freeze, freeze, freeze. Ok I’ll try, but maybe I will be missing out, no? Life’s to be lived, right here and now.

Hugs,

Clover

“Hey there Aditya- You sound like a little child at times.” Thanks !! “The answers are within ourselves, don’t forget that.” . Answers are winthin ourselves but ‘others’ help us ‘see’ that our’self’ initially. Imagine if u would have been the only living entitity or the only entity existant, would the thought of God, universe or even u’rself etc. even cross u’r mind …

Clover U further said “-i’m just in a happy mood right now-.” Stay there, freeze, ha ha ..

love
aditya

I just saw about the party invitations, I would have loved to attend and meet you, perhaps one day, if God so wills.

Aren’t you a little puzzled at some of the multiple personality bloggers? lol I could understand.

Hey there Aditya- You sound like a little child at times. The answers are within ourselves, don’t forget that.

AVC- Brake free from the illusion and you’ll see, life, so simple, use your heart. I wake up to the sound of the birds and the sun in my face, so nice, nature is life.

So gluttony, my favourite sin… sorry guys might not be making much sense today -i’m just in a happy mood right now-.

Love,

Clover

Nice to read your comments again.
Understand what you all mean. Sometimes there are many words to come out, just to find a simple truth. Sometimes there are many layers in which we have to work, to find the heart of things, the heart of the labyrinth.

Peace to you all.

What u write help me clarify some ‘things’, so keep on

amen to u’r “love & peace & wisdom”

aditya

i went to a blog the other day, i cannot remember the name, that showed the world as it looks based on certain perimeters, for example ‘military spending’ or ‘doll exports.’ it was so imbalanced. it was both funny and sad that most of the time the u.s. was bloated concerning things such as wealth or imports – funny because the bloating made the outline shape of the u.s. look like a blueish pig, sad because most often africa and other continents were deflated lines.

War & peace bloggers are very much part of the gang, wonder why they are shying away ! have u noticed – peace has any ‘real’ meaning only when there is some memory of war too.

About “trying to unravel reams and reams of meandering thoughts and emotions”. Not everyone is equally fortunate in being able to distill his/her thoughts, so while what u have written is true, love & patinece are called for ! what say u !
regards

aditya

To my experience, there is nothing as complicated as the simple; and we are all at different stages of our personal search.

Many of us are still at the stage where we believe in the possibility of finding our answers through reason.

One way forward is to continue to explore and divide everything into smaller and smaller units. As we do, the structure of relationships between the increasing number of units will grow in complexity.

But perhaps one day, we will recognize somthing beyond the complicated structures. Something beyond reason.

Perhaps we will then realize the simplicity of it all.

But this cannot be explained – only experienced.

I have read with interest all of your comments, on the various ‘sins’ that Paulo has raised and a thought struck me – I wonder as humans do we over complicate things when we try and explain them?

Whilst I find of the contributions gave me additional insight on the subject in question, often I literally get a headache trying to unravel reams and reams of meandering thoughts and emotions…did anyone else experience this?

I know this is a blog and everyone is of course entitled to their point of view, so forgive me if anyone of you feels I am critical of what was no doubt a sincere expression from your heart.

But (here’s my gluttony for getting in the last word in an argument/discussion!) to quote my fellow countryman, the late great George Bernard Shaw, when writing a long-winded letter to a good friend of his “ I am sorry but I did not have time to write you a shorter letter” (or words to that effect)

My point being, sometimes we need to distil the truth of any matter or issue down to its essence, like the Emerald Tablet in Paulo’s Alchemist tale…and that of course takes time and thought and more time and more thought…of course time seems to be the missing ingredient, at least in my own life anyway.

To Aditya: maybe this is the reason for the ‘silence’ on the Blog – people who are used to contributing short, insightful comments have been scared away by the ‘War and Peace’ bloggers () and the War and Peace bloggers have decided they are wasting their breath on the desert air!!

To Kealan: Congrats on your ‘All Ireland’..!

Sorry for such a long winded ‘whinge’ (Irish for gripe or complaint) , on the importance of being short, sharp and to the point…

And thank you once again Paulo for the gift of such a precious platform for our thoughts, whatever their content..

I wish you all a happy and peaceful day 

Peter

About Gluttony & my preposition that Lust seems to be quite fundamental to all sins – Can gluttony be understood as lust for food ?

silence ( on this blog ) becomes deafening at times !! so shoot u all !!

aditya

It’s meaning is Death to old things, much like cutting away from our past and rewriting our personal legends.. It signifies that we must be ready to accept the change. The Priest holds his power of God up to Death, a girl kneels on the ground awaiting her faith. Only the child sits, knowing what the omen really means.

Death only signifies death when coupled with other cards.

Anyway, it signified a change in my life as I got the job offered to me from the head of recruitment for the whole country of Ireland.

My life is about to get a whole lot better :)

Kealan

When you think about it, it is really nothing but sheer stupidity.

In our hearts, we know what will be required from us to reach our goals. But we keep denying it. We want it all.

Like little children, we refuse to let go, even of things hurtful.

the ‘six’ is the remaining deadly sins

kind regards
John

I am officially unemployed! A multinational offered me a job and pulled out at the very last day, I had handed in my notice to my present job and am now job less..

I’m sure I can get a job in Hairdressing as I did that for 3years, but I am so gutted ant the Gluttony involved in these companies. I think that I will try and sue their asses off!! My life is now a mess because of them. :(

The universe works in mysterious ways!!

Kealan

We are bored in the North because we have no life or death problems and our animal nature cannot handle such luxury. So, we live to excess and become neurotic.

Thanks Paolo for always keeping me thinking…
xx
‘Pink’

Thanks for the ‘good idea’. I delibrately not inluded anything other that silence because anything else like yoga, laughter, love etc can become controversial if someone wants it to. e.g Yoga can be associated with hinduism, laughter & love are good but the moment one starts work on its how, they too can be made controversial. One step at a time. Ya there is a problem here. How to get the message across to people who matter. Let’s all try in our small capacities to convince others, anyway most of us live a ‘goal-less’ drifting lives, let’s do it, if we fail, so be it, if we succeed the world becomes a better place. i am writing articles for newpapers based on these concepts; but u know getting a break is well it’s damn difficult, does not mean I will leave it just because it’s difficult.

On gluttony, if u visualise these sins as say children of 3-4 years of age, won’t gluttony be the chubbiest of them all !!.

regards

Aditya

Aditya- good idea. Schools should teach children not only this but yoga, love, laughter, compassion. Problem is getting this msg through to Education Ministers, or to most people for that matter.

Hugs,

Clover

(the story of the goose is terrible, we are such horrible creatures at times…)

it is the time to rise beyond all of these

within the Silence of our being
let pride dissolve in the pure waters flowing
that there is no longer any identification
with the six

easier said than done you may say
but perhaps too much is being said
and perhaps too much is being done
we must become silent -
in our humility we must enter the temple
and in all honesty face our self

see the beauty that exists within
and know that only we may tarnish this beauty

realize and become the joy

this morning he dances with angels
light like the morning skies
borne upon wisp clouds and silent rains.
the stars effuse a life transcending night
to dwell within him this moment
whilst his illumined heart
guides his footsteps upon the earth.
he steps from the dance
to walk sandy shores and glittering oceans
and smiles bright like the sunrise -
light-rays falling to touch him where he stands.
he looses his clothing and dives
into the oncoming waves plashing all around him.
he swims deep within the silent waters seeking naught
but the silence of his wishes.
he opens his eyes to sprinkled light-fall
and once more in the ocean of love
he dances the dance of angels -
singing songs of this his soul vision.
he rises from the waters cleansed of all illusion -
a soul-saint of reality.

‘it’s hard to be a saint in the city,
when you’re just a boy out on the street…’
(bruce springsteen)

there’s white blossom blooming
waving to me through the window

wishing you the best of all things
John[/quote]

In the beauty of that poetry, what is six, John?

“Sitting upon the steps of the church, a more rag-tag boy visited the sad and lonely boy worried about his cathartic experience inside the church! The more rag-tag boy was the baby christ!”
Does one wonder about if it really is as simple as distinguishing between the donor and the recipient by means as simplistic as economics, for making examples of the temporal?
For the question is why did the more rag-tag boy visit the one sitting on the steps and not the priest whose management of the environment inside the church was responsible for that cathartic experience in the first place?
One wonders at the gluttony inherent in the need to feed such simplistic views, apart from the most rudimentary messages that school children are taught in some grammar school in a banana republic! But paulo Coelho? Perhaps there may be a meaning in all this…
Perhaps, the stories talk about poor people with very simplistic views and little education or capacities for thinking and reflecting upon issues and themselves! But when bread is an issue, education is secondary. And yet one has Abraham Lincoln in US history, amongst many more in human history, whether recorded or not!

So what would be gluttony? For food? For recognition? For success? For money? And after one decides about what would be the meaning of every desire one has, one may talk of gluttony perhaps in respect to what one desires. It is not so when they come as the natural corollories to succesful enterprises that are the celebration of undying spirits ever soaring in their quest that may appear as visible in their material corollories.

For who decides where is the line drawn between the material and the temporal and the spiritual, except the individuals in question? Maybe a baby christ may have such eyes to see and celebrate the spirit… Where would matter be to such eyes?

For what would be gluttony? Ramakrishna Paramhansa…? For, the singing Sufi and the swaying dervish swayed to the ever intoxicant divine rhythm flowing from within…

Maybe it is all about the pattering steps of a little boy learning to walk that needs supports…and the running man on thick strings has to avoid a six…and the free human sways drunk in the divine rhythm…and that what is silence…inexplainable and indescribable…and yet beyond any of these, but perhaps known to the free human as a possibility that makes him or her so drunk over it…

But one is sure that it has nothing to do with politics or ideology…

(or does it have to do something in the fine print…the seven deadly sins one is reading about…?)