Virtue that offends
Abbot Pastor was out walking with a monk from Sceta when they were invited to a meal. The owner of the house, honoured by the monks’ presence, ordered that only the very best of everything should be served.
However, the monk was in the middle of a period of fasting, and when the food arrived, he took a single pea and chewed it very slowly. He ate only that one pea during the whole of supper.
As they were leaving, the Abbot said to him:
‘Brother, when you go to visit someone, do not make of your sanctity an insult. The next time you are fasting simply decline any invitations to supper.’
The monk understood what the Abbot meant. From then on, whenever he was with other people, he did as they did.
Monthly Archive for July, 2007
The Alchemist is a wonderfully simple story of a young shepherd who follows his dreams of treasure and encounters many experiences and people, learning wisdom and life lessons along the way. Paulo Coelho has skillfully woven many bits of truth and wisdom about life into this masterpiece, and it is a true delight to read. Just like it teaches, it is not the destination, but the journey with this book, that counts.
It doesn’t matter if you’re searching for buried treasure, or for love, or for the secret of turning lead into gold. It doesn’t matter if you die trying, never reaching your goal. It doesn’t matter if you don’t find what you’re looking for, once you get there. What matters is what you’ve brought with you on the way, and what you’ve learned along the way. The people you meet, the hardships and heartaches you go through, the lessons your experiences has taught you.
The Alchemist tells you how to turn lead into gold. It tells you of the wonder and the uncertainty of change and evolution, the secret of enjoying the beauty of life without becoming hardened by the harshness of reality, the art of living in the moment without worrying about the past or the future, and most importantly, the ultimate secret of the universe, that we are all interconnected. We are all one.
It has been compared to Saint-Exupery’s The Little Prince and Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha. I have read both, and while they both have their own beauty and teach their own wisdom, The Alchemist touches people in its own quiet way.
What I like about the book is that …
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Pharès Zoghbi, born in the southeastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, moved to the Arab country at the age of 12, to live with his uncle. A passion and mania of reading and keeping books made Zoghbi establish one of the largest libraries in the country, with over 65,000 books, including some Brazilian works.
São Paulo – At the age of 12, Pharès Zoghbi left his native Minas Gerais, in southeastern Brazil, to live with his uncle in Kornet Chehwan, in the Mount Lebanon region, in Lebanon. Not speaking Arabic and with just a primary school certificate in hands, the boy had to fight to adapt. Today, aged 81, Zoghbi is the founder of one of the largest libraries in the Arab country, Pharès Zoghbi Cultural Foundation, with over 65,000 books.
Most of them are legal, as Zoghbi graduated in law, but the library also has literature, art, science, politics, sociology, religion and philosophy books, as well as biographies and rare collections of magazines, like “Espirit”, a French magazine that has been published since 1932. “With his humanistic spirit, he always visited bookstores while travelling to Beirut, Iran, Iraq, Europe and Brazil. A true biographer,” stated Roberto Khatlab, a writer and friend of Zoghbi’s, who was also born in Brazil and lives in Lebanon.
According to him, the library has books in several languages, mostly French, but also in Arabic and English. The library also includes Portuguese books, over 100 about law, sociology, religion, art, geography, politics, language, anthropology, immigration and literature. Among the works are books by authors like Jorge Amado, Zélia Gattai, Gilberto Freyre, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Luis Fernando Veríssimo, Paulo Coelho, Celso Furtado, Darcy Ribeiro, Mansour Chalita, Jalusa Abaide and Khatlab himself.
According to him, apart from the books written in Portuguese about Brazil, the library also includes works about the country in French, English, Spanish and Arabic. “Through literature, the Lebanese learn about Brazil in its several aspects. I love receiving Brazilians in the library due to the nostalgia for my homeland,” stated Zoghbi.
The library is located in Zoghbi’s house itself. “It is an ancient house, very large and has three storeys,” stated Khatlab. From the beginning, Zoghbi lent his books to friends, and little by little the inhabitants of Kornet Chehwan started visiting his house to consult his books.
In the 1990s, the library also received some of his private books, and donations, further increasing the volume of works and becoming a reference in humanities and social sciences. In 2002, Zoghbi decided to donate his books to the Law and Political Science College at Saint-Joseph University, of French origin, one of the largest in Lebanon, where he graduated. The university’s headquarters are in Beirut, but one of the campuses is in the Monte Lebanon region.
According to Khatlab, who has also made donations to the library, it would be interesting for Brazilian authors to donate some of their works to further enrich the library, which is a reference of Brazil in Lebanon. Contacts may be made through the university: www.fondationzoghbi.usj.edu.lb
Awards
In 2004, Zoghbi was granted the Choucri Cardahi Award by the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences of the French Institute due to his importance as a lawyer and intellectual. In the following year, he was also awarded the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour) by the president of France.
Publications
Due to reading so many books, Zoghbi also started publishing his own works. In 1998, he published his autobiography: “Livres Ouverts – Une Vie de Souvenirs” (Open Books – A Life of Memoirs) and “Liban: Lê Salut par la Culture” (Lebanon: Salvation through Culture). Zoghbi also published a series of articles in the French language Beirut newspaper L’Orient-Le Jour, between 1982 and 1987.
*Translated by Mark Ament
This article is written by Marina Sarruf @ ANBA : Brazil-Arab News Agency.
