By Paulo Coelho
Life is like a great bicycle race, whose aim is to fulfill one’s Personal Legend - that which, according to the ancient alchemists, is our true mission on Earth.
At the start of the race, we’re all together - sharing the camaraderie and enthusiasm. But as the race progresses, the initial joy gives way to the real challenges: tiredness, monotony, doubts about one’s own ability. We notice that some friends have already given up, deep down in their hearts - they’re still in the race, but only because they can’t stop in the middle of the road. This group keeps growing in number, all of them pedaling away near the support car - also known as Routine - where they chat among themselves, fulfill their obligations, but forget the beauty and challenges along the road.
We eventually distance ourselves from them; and then we are forced to confront loneliness, the surprises of unknown bends in the road, and problems with the bicycle. After a time, when we have fallen off several times, without anyone nearby to help us, we end up asking ourselves whether such an effort is worthwhile.
Yes, of course it is: one must not give up: Father Alan Jones says that, in order for our soul to be able to overcome these obstacles, we need the Four Invisible Forces: love, death, power and time.
We must love, for we are loved by God.
We must be aware of death, in order to understand life.
We must fight to grow - but not be fooled by the power which comes with growth, for we know it is worthless.
Finally, we must accept that our soul - although it is eternal - is at this moment caught in the web of time, with all its opportunities and limitations; so, on our solitary bike race, we must act as if time existed, doing what we can to value each second, resting when necessary, but always continuing in the direction of the Divine light, without letting ourselves be bothered by the moments of anxiety.
These Four Forces cannot be dealt with as problems to be solved, since they are beyond our control. We must accept them, and let them teach us what it is we must learn.
We live in a Universe which is both vast enough to contain us, and small enough to hold in our hearts. In every man’s soul, dwells the soul of the world, the silence of wisdom. As we pedal on towards our goal, we must ask: “what is lovely about today?” The sun may be shining, but if it is pouring with rain, it is important to remember that this also means that the black clouds will soon disperse. Clouds come and go, but the sun remains the same, and never fails - at times of loneliness, it is important to remember this.
So, when times are tough, we must not forget that the whole world has endured such moments, regardless of race, color, social standing, belief, or culture. A beautiful prayer by the Sufi Dhu ‘l - Nun (Egyptian, died 861 AD) perfectly sums up the positive attitude necessary at such times:
“Oh Lord, when I pay attention to the voices of animals, the sounds of the trees, the bubbling of the waters, the chirping of the birds, the howling wind or the crashing thunder, I perceive in them evidence of Your unity; I sense that You are the supreme power, almighty, the supreme wisdom, supreme justice.
“Oh Lord, I recognize You in the trials I am enduring. Allow, Lord, Your satisfaction to be my satisfaction. May I be Your joy, that joy which a Father sees in his son. And may I recall You with tranquility and determination, even when it is difficult to say that I love You.”
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i just love this write-up of yours… very much inspiring…
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QUE LINDO !!!
Que linda essa oração, que parece mais uma poesia.
Obrigada pela preciosidade.
Beijos,
Mari Raphael.
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it is death which gives beauty to life. its suffering which enable us to cherish the happiness.
yes death is scary. it shatters you. but then it allows you to celebrate life.
in india even death is one of samskars a ritual of your life.
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Thanks for this,
I feel less lonely.
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Mr. Paulo Coelho, this blog post reminds me of a photo I’ve taken couple of months ago :)
http://sagravani.deviantart.com/art/Solitary-Rush-91979903
Is it just me? but sometimes I feel when I think too much about life, I feel like I’m going in circles… and for some reason routines keeps me sane, makes life a little simpler at times… and then, after that “non thinking moments” I have more questions about life more than ever…
I guess routines are okay as long as we’re not stuck with it, maybe as long as we recognize that there are more to life than what society dictates…
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Thank you Paulo Coelho for the beautiful story.
“We must be aware of Death, in order to understand Life.”
Death is the only thing we are sure it will happen, but in order to be able to live, we must forget our mortality!
LOVE,
THELMA
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“We notice that some friends have already given up,”
“We eventually distance ourselves from them; and then we are forced to confront loneliness”
” we end up asking ourselves whether such an effort is worthwhile”
there is no other way ! freinds who ‘give up’ are merely postponing what they must undertake, time is no constraint, because on universal scale of things time does not exist. everyone must confront lonliness, and sooner the better !
it’s like this
imagine a box full of butterflies, a huge box filled with cocoons. slowly the inscets emerge from most cocoons and the whole huge box is awarming with these insects. now each of these insects have a potential to develop wings, be beaytiful and enjoy the freedom ( and dangers too ) of flying in sky. humanity is like that, each one of us will have to become beautiful, will have to develop wings; but unlike butterflies where there is no free will, mther nature gives us free will, we can remain like insects of as long as we want, for as many births as we want; but we will have to raise and meet our destiny, we will have to develop the wings, and it’s a solitary process; not that lonly also, there are ‘like minded’ people at every level.
so let’s rejoice and rededicate ourselves to a life of meaning, a menaing which is not readymade, but which we have to give it.
one can postpone but one cannot prevent one’s enlightenement !! and also teh efforts required for it.
love
aditya
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thank you, Mr. Coehlo. I’ve realized a lot of things after reading this selection. I’m going through a difficult time right now and my enthusiasm to fulfill my dreams is not the same as before. but yes, we should still be thankful for all the blessings. sometimes, it’s better if “we just let things be” and try to learn as much as we can from all the challenges.
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Biking is a passion.
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I have had meditatons when I was climbing a mountain and followed the path that everyone else took.
It was slippery and a lot of mud …. I was getting frustrated and angry. But then I took off from the main road and it was easier to climb again. Even if I was not certained if I should reach the top I did and I was happy I took my own path.
I think it´s important that everyone follow their own path. Otherwise they will never find their own spirit and heart.
But it´s not ceraintly easy … but you grew and learn a lot of lessons ;-)
But that is only my opinion :-)
Love Jessica
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The Bible verse “be still, and know that I am God” rings in my ear after reading this. I thank you.
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Nicely Said Paulo, I like the idea of Alone on the Path. Especially the saying at the end.
Alone on the path. We are all alone on our own path. We choose to come on this planet from the women who is very complex organism in itself. A women can be called as earth itself. A women whose complexity can be called as simplicity. A women creates us from the very core of her inner self. She takes care as the earth and Nature does. Once we come down to the earth then we are on our own.
One thing every human should understand is “a person is always alone on the path”. It does not mean that the person is in the stage of the loneliness or being alone but he is living a life of the alone.
Those four elements for the survival are really necessary to understand why you are walking down the alone path. Love is always necessary to understand either is it the love of mother or it is the love of the true lover.
Death is necessary to know that the very existence of your own self is going to end one day. It is also necessary simply because it keeps us alive in every moment we live. Every moment should be lived as if there is no moment next coming up. Every moment should be adventorus and exciting. Live with total joy and blessing.
I do not know if in the movement of trees, chirping of the birds and black cloud over the sky are the symbols of something extraordinary creature we called as GOD but I would fairly accept the fact that these are true color of Natures itself.
We can learn from just being present in the moment but at the same time we can loose nothing except our time for the present. The time is the moment, time is being present and passing with the moment.
As it is difficult to fist understand the “love”, it is also difficult to understand the phenomenon of “life”.
We all have to one day realize and will realize that whatever we are doing or whatever we are thinking to do are not that much of essential because these are just our logical mind which needs much more attention then anything else.
We fear death but why do not we fear the love ? It is just the matter of knowing yourself better than anything else. The person who knows himself will never ask who you are ?
The person who answer who he is; actually is not what he really is. The meaning is in finding yourself and to walk or take the journey in own way. It is like writing your script and taking the path but in case you have trouble to reach to the final destination that you really meant to reach. Simply learn from others and take there experience into your account. It will take you to that long long journey very easily.
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Thank you Mr. Coelho, this is what makes a great man great and distinguishes from common people like me who think everything in a very obvious way. I’ve never been out of my country. And for the first time in my long 19 years of life I have faced a very shocking ‘discrimination’ incident on my own land, my birth land! It left me perplexed, shell-shocked. I could never imagine even in my wildest imagination, any such thing can happen in my life, from a stranger. A random passerby she was….and she addressed me “Creepy-Bengali”. But as I couldn’t be mean like her, though being in West-Bengal and she was an ‘outsider’[other state]. I protested but in my own dignified way! After this incident I have continuously been feeling slighted, and couldn’t help myself. But after reading this piece I am actually feeling more relieved. I couldn’t understand what to do, whom to narrate this horrible experience, I couldn’t just pacify myself! But thank you Mr. Coelho. I’m a very common human being with limited knowledge, but your observation made me understand the reality the truth.
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I think you bring up a lot of big issues in this passage.
I see life as a journey and each and every one of us have a path that´s our to tread. We´re here to learn. Whatever shows up in our life is there for us to learn and grow if we choose to meet it that way. I´m the one who has my particular life in front of me and it´s for me to live it. It´s no coincidence what shows up in my life. It´s interwined with what I´m here to learn about. In that sense however I experience my life is my experience and in that sense I am existentially alone.
Being alone is something entirely different than being isolated or disconnected or lonely. being alone is bottom line being responsible for my own development and unfoldment from unaware to aware, from spirituality asleep to spiritually awake. No one else can realize our own diviness for us, it´s an inner experience
that´s up for us to go for.
As for religions and spirituality - I see religions as codes of moral and spirituality as living ethics in our own hearts. It´s very much a question of whether outer authorities run our lives or we risk learning to let our inner ethics run our lives.
We´re here in this place together and we come here with very different awarenesses that we use as best we can depending on what we´ve learned and how we see life. No one else can truelly say what´s deeply true for us to be or say but our own deepest nature - which is love and love is naturally loving - when we are really, really sincere with ourselves, we do know what´s true for us to do.
I definetely think the ways we experience our live´s unfoldment is unique. I don´t see it as a general truth that everyone starts out life experiencing that we´re all together, sharing and being enthusiastic. Like the experiences of being alone or lonely or whatever is a tremendous challenge in one´s path - they do not to my experience depend on how old we are. It´s not related to physical age.
I´ve found that so much depends on with which awareness we´re present here.
If we see our selves as only physical, love, death, power and time can be unbearably hard to deal with. When we learn to experience ourselves and life from our deeper nature, our experiences of these parts of life transform. This is why the Buddists say: Sorrow can break our hearts. Or deepen them.
I´ve certainly at times in my life felt like the world´s most miserable, unhappy, lonely person, I was sure that no one had ever suffered as much as me….
Well, I´ve learned along the way that we all have our paths and our challenges - but that we´re all faced with challenges that are meant for us to grow and learn. And that we deep down carry with us exactly the ressources with which we can meet whatever we meet in our life. Life is loving and this Universes´s nature is benevolent. We´re faced with the lessons in life that we actually have the ress
ources in us to face and be able to learn from.
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Dear AnnaMarya,
I don´t know if you can use this, but here goes… your love for whom you write you lost yesterday is alive. Love lives. May you find the comfort and help which is good for you now.
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This has always been one of my favorite quotes; it was really special to me to see that you have chosen to share it today, as I suffered the loss of a loved one yesterday. Thank you.
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well i have one question how come death is a force?? may be it is one but my opinion is we cannot consider it a positive force like love or growth.
beacuse people are afraid from dying then it is something that hold us back ..while am not afraid of death at all but i see people do,
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Well said. Though I wonder how many of us actually follow it and how long it takes to realize the same. I believe that one must be doing right thing all time and not be bogged down by those them trying to get him off the track. But then who defines what is right? My right can be perceived as wrong by someone else.It is confusing for me.Though I pray daily to God for well being of all , as thats what I been brought up to believe in since childhood but when you see all crimes going around in the name of religion it gives a feeling of sadness. After all no God of any religion will ask disciples to fight or kill. People may diagree here as well. Sometimes I think all this has been framed up for bringing in discipline to the world we live in , else it would be very chaotic.
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