Daily Archive for July 25th, 2007

The duck and the cat

Published
by
Paulo Coelho
on July 25, 2007
in Stories
. 6 Comments

By Paulo Coelho

‘How did you enter the spiritual life?’ asked a disciple of the Sufi master Shams Tabrizi.

‘My mother said that I wasn’t mad enough for the madhouse or holy enough for the monastery,’ replied Tabrizi. ‘So I decided to devote myself to Sufism, in which we learn through free meditation.’

‘And how did you explain that to your mother?’

‘By telling her the following fable: someone placed a duckling in the care of a female cat. He followed his adoptive mother everywhere; then, one day, they came to the edge of a lake. The duck immediately plunged into the water, while the cat called out from the shore:

‘Come out of there at once, you’ll drown!’

And the duckling replied:

‘No, I won’t, Mama, I’ve discovered what is good for me and I know that I’m in my element. And I’m going to stay here even though you don’t understand what a lake is for.’

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Paulo Coelho on “God’s Signs” by Aaminah

Published
by
Paulo Coelho
on July 25, 2007
in News
. 1 Comment

Isabelita told me the following story.

An old illiterate Arab used to pray with such fervour each night that the wealthy owner of the great caravan decided to summon him so as to talk to him.

“Why do you pray with such devotion? How do you know God exists when you don’t even know how to read?”

“I do know, sir. I can read everything that the Great Celestial Father writes.”

“But how?”

The humble servant explained:

“When you receive a letter from someone far away, how do you recognise the writer?”

“By the handwriting.”

“When you receive a jewel, how do you know who made it?”

“By the goldsmith’s mark.”

“When you hear animals moving about near the tent, how do you know if it was a sheep or a horse or an ox?”

“By its footprints,” replied the owner, surprised at all these questions.

The old man invited him to come outside with him and showed him the sky.

“Neither the things written up there nor the desert down below could have been made or written by the hand of man.”

Please visit Aaminah’s blog : Writeous Sister Speaks @ wordpress.com to read more from her and talk with her.

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