By Paulo Coelho
The devil was talking to his friends when they noticed a man walking along a road. They watched him pass and saw that he bent down to pick something up.
- What did he find? - asked one of the friends.
- A piece of Truth - answered the devil.
The friends were very concerned. After all, a piece of Truth might save that man’s soul - one less in Hell. But the devil remained unmoved, gazing at the view.
- Aren’t you worried? - said one of his companions.
- He found a piece of Truth!
- I’m not worried - answered the devil.
- Do you know what he’ll do with the piece?
As usual, he’ll create a new religion. And he’ll succeed in distancing even more people from the whole Truth.
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yes,you are so right.I think also like this.I remember a short story in the Bocaccios 'The Decameron”,the story with the merchant,who was answering a difficult question.If I think it was in 14 C,really daring story.I think many religions instigate people to hate their simmilars,only by claiming that they know the whole truth,while no one is able to really know it,as humman being.I think God is one for all ,no matter colour or relligion,only is called by different names.I remember your words in “The Fifth Mountain”.
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Truly amazing, you laid a very important fact in a simple way. I guess the thing with religions is that they comfort people, for they give an easy truth and make sure that people DON’T ASK QUESTIONS. It is much easier not having to seek answers and confront different things. When there is one book that says it all, then why not just stick with it. Unfortunately they don’t realize that life is much more than that. They are missing a lot!! I believe there is no such thing as The Absolute Truth, we will never know whose truth is true !!
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yes, a piece of the truth.
Religion always seem to cause a lot of troubles…
I can not forget the catholic priest who more or
less for himself said - when I told him I did not
want to take part of any communion (it was during
a wedding) - “ah these ?? who want to stay free”
much later I understood partly what he ment…
What is really “freedom” in these circumstances?
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How can there be a “piece of truth”. If its not the truth then it is a lie.
I don’t believe religion is separate from spirituality. The spirit is in the religion, in its words and meaning and in the outcome of your actions if you follow it.
Kathleen xx
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Dear Aditya, the Devil is neither poor or silly… on the contrary… and so long as we possess a conscience… he / she keeps us honest…
Love & Balance, Paul
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bueno…hola! no se! si es el sitio de comentarios….el tema es que hace rato me vengo preguntando varias cosas con respecto a dios,religiones,el diablo..es muy probable que no site a ningun autor…ni trate el tema con ningun tipo de metafora…es un pensamiento muy humilde…mi intencion no es ofender a nadie ni mucho menos creo que asta ahora nos enfocamos en creer todas las posibilidades con lo que respecta a dios…y sus diferentes religiones y nos referimos a dios como todo lo bueno y puro y con lo que respecta al diablo como todo lo malo y lo impuro…pregunta??? que ser de este mundo puede dar verasidad…de que es todo asi?? y si esto es parte de una sociedad…seriamos capaz de aceptar al diablo?? y si se dividieron los propocitos para con este mundo?? y si la historia del cielo y el infierno dependio de un amor mal consumado? por que? dar credito o partido por uno solo? por que? si el ser humano atavez de los tiempos gesto un dios todo poderoso,bueno y puro…y habrimos nuestro corazon para con el con todo nuestro ser… por que se dice que somos parte de dios que estamos echos a su imagen y semejanza….pues si es asi todos sabemos que cada ser humano tiene una parte buena y otra mala..que estamos llenos de defectos mas que virtudes…que somos capaces de hacer cosas que no estan dentro de los parametros de lo bueno… y asi y todo hasta el mas malo en algun momento de su vida tubo un acto de bondad aun que mas no sea una simple sonrisa…entonces me pregunto…??por que no darle credito al diablo…quizas nos dejaria de dar verguenza ese costado feo que cada ser humano tiene ..nadie discute algunos mas otros menos..pero un costado malo al fin…reconosernos como seres con un costado de bondad y otro de maldad…por que de repente!! el diablo nos odia tanto por que no somos capaces de reconoser que tambien somos parte de el!y si le damos la oportunidad y lo persuadimos….con nuestro costado bueno y dejamos de condenarlo…quizas descubrimos que a la maldad tiene algo de bondad…bien entendida..porsupuesto….y si la maldad se enamora de nuestro costado bueno y lo debilitamos con mucho amor y se entrega??..lo llenamos de extasis..pero del bueno….tal vez descubrimos que verdaderamente podemos mucho mas que una simple porcion de verdad
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Truth has many faces, in some situations what may seem as a truth to one might not be truth to other. If life would be blck and white then things could be categorised true and untrue. But many times there are many grey shades in life.
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why does not someone may be paulo or god speak to this devil fella ! ain’t the chap just wasting away his ‘life’, what will he gain by putting people in hell !! silly poor devil.
and it’s about time god was taken to task, why can he not ‘reform’ devil, eliminate the root cause of teh problem. unless of course they, that is devil and god are hand in glove, which i very much suspect is the case, in fact it is not even hand in glove, or hand in hand, it’s two faces of the same god !
love
aditya
talking about pieces of truth and devil’s views on it, devil is a fool, there is no piece of truth, truth is one, may be the act of picking it up makes it fragmented.
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Religion and Sprituality - One is ritualistic and formal, the other mercurial and instinctive. Religions around the world are like the languages of this world - say a sentence in any language, translated meaningfully, it means the same thing, so I would like to beleive that our spiritual health is the translation of the language of religion. The truth? This we may never know officially, but how we conduct our lives in amongst the tens, hundreds, thousands and millions around us is the manisfestation of our individual truth about our beleives and understandings. Being truthful to oneself must be the most difficult thing to do as one should not be able to hide from oneself as one does with others. Religion is only the Police department, policing the behavior of the individual - the truth is within the individuals.
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There are so many truths out there to be found and picked up. Many of us have found and picked up a Truth and carry it with us without realizing it is not our truth. Other times we discover a truth that has our initials on it but we don’t pick it up, maybe because we are too embarrassed to own our own truth or it is more comfortable to carry someone else’s truth in our pocket than our own.
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Aqui no Brasil o capeta espalhou um monte de pedaços da Verdade…É igreja atrás de igreja que brota, tem uma que até comprou uma emissora de tv…
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There is the piece of Truth and there is the whole Truth..How easier it is for man to be overcome by a piece of truth and for others to follow, just knowing fractions of that piece- while sacrificing the Whole Truth.
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We will all learn the truth… one day…
until then… let’s live…
Love, Paul
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I will stand to the fact that this man bent down to take this piece of Truth..Many of us are not open hearted, neither we accept new things.. So that man whether he creates a new religion or not, he is one searching…and he who always searches for something, he finds it in the end..I believe this is somewhere told by Coelho..
Love and Graditude
Annie
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I aqree with you Thelma :-)
We have to see a piece of the truth as just that ..
a piece of the whole puzzle.
I think that´s why its important to listen to each other, to share our view of the world, so we can put the pieces toghether :-)
Love Jessica
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This story makes me think that I find truth (what I think is truth) is just a piece, is not a whole. It’s funny how the feeling of holding to that piece of truth is exhilarating, and it feels as if you’re holding the whole. It’s also funny how I started seeing everything trough it alone and how I judged people trough it alone. How can something like that be avoided, can it be avoided? Choosing to see the world trough a piece alone means stopping to communicate with the world in both ways, so I guess preventing that would be allowing others to show you their truth. From total power to complete vulnerability: what if they’ll shatter mine to pieces? What if their truth is better and bigger than mine? What if I discover there was no truth anywhere? Would I hold to the illusion of truth or would I be willing to smash it just to see what’s behind it? And should I be disappointed of what’s there, would I regret it? What if I discover both truths are true, but not the same, would it be any easier to comprehend? And than again, can it be comprehended?
I watched a debate recently on the existence of God, and it was utterly going nowhere. Same old arguments back and forth, same counterarguments, both being right in their own little worlds and yet not even scratching their opponents armor. I thought at that time, this kind of talks are obsolete, you want a debate relevant to today’s society, bring JP Seligman and RD Hare in a room and please, please tell me Seligman has a chance! (names are from psychology, Seligman is the father of “Optimism can be learned”, and a big supporter on how expectations shape reality / Pygmalion effect; Hare studies the newest type of sociopaths, which he calls them “without conscience”, and presents tools to identify basically “irreparable” people and how to protect yourself from them, which is another brush on our paranoid society’s tendencies) This story makes me think beyond these debates, in which each is holding his piece of truth, grasping onto it and trying to dismantle whatever piece the other one has. In the end, it might be JUST one piece.
Maybe if I keep myself open enough, I might be able to see more than one piece in my lifetime. I just hope I won’t lose them as I go along.
But then again, I want to live it, not just hold onto it, and losing is part of the risk entailed.
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Dear Heart, thank you for your ‘posts’ here and the other day, with the ‘girls on the balconies’. Indeed it was very funny and exciting. We were looking at the.. boys, stars, from away and we could not imagine that they were only …soil.[joking!!]
I feel lucky to be here with you and Paulo Coelho and to be honest, I go back often to read if there is any message.. unanswered. You see, being a lawyer’s wife, I know that if you do not answer to something in a certain time, it means that you accept it.. Silence has so many meanings..
LOVE,
THELMA
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Hi all,
I feel the atmosphere of understanding in the religions.
People are more looking for the spirituality in the life - not just consume. This is good.
I think that decades ago it would be much easier to reach “the fight” among people with found piece of truth.
Now are people more opened.
thanks,
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If only we could put back the pieces of the puzzle, of the Truth, together, we would have been able to see the whole image, GOD.
LOVE,
THELMA
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“- What did he find? - asked one of the friends.
- A piece of Truth - answered the devil.”
I really like that moment. It’s a wonderful say. Picking a piece of truth.
Maybe you know Jean-Michel Folon. I don’t know why I’m thinking about him. It’s definitely not the subject. But your universe, though alied to oriental atmospheres, often brought me to that man and Magritte.
As for the matter here, I guess you’re true. We must care about.
Gratefully.
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Yes again, …
What would the world do when we all would live in the whole Truth where shall we hide all our secrets?
Maybe that’s the reason that society has a material mind so that there can be done what has to be done by the ego and not by a true face that listens to and is divine love.
Love
Hildegarde
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Dear Thelma,
I want to thank you for your kind words yesterday, and let you know I always enjoy what you share with us. Please understand this is a blog and not a chat, so it is hard to have a dialogue. Sunday I answered your lovely story about being a girl at Cyprus and how your dad let you leave for piano lessons, but with the time zones, so on, I don’t believe you ever was able to read them. So, just know, my dear Thelma, you too are so very special to us, and I’m so excited to see yours and all the other responses here. We are so lucky we found this! Should we create a blog-religion? *kidding*
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It is funny how we want to convince others of what we ourselves believe in. Often we act like fanatics and have our hobby horses, issues we try to push onto others. Now, I’m not as critical to religion as the devil here seems to be. Religion has helped me closer towards the Truth, and I am so very grateful for being part of a faith built in generations by so many great souls. I was born a Lutheran and converted to Catholicism 21 years old. My brother is married to a Buddhist and my sister to a Muslim, me to a Presbyterian (who doesn’t believe, as he says, in a biblical God). A good friend is an atheist. Nothing wrong with believing in a system of one support, as long as we are tolerant and humble to others.
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yes,you are so right.I think also like this.I remember a short story in the Bocaccios ‘The Decameron”,the story with the merchant,who was answering a difficult question.If I think it was in 14 C,really daring story.I think many religions instigate people to hate their simmilars,only by claiming that they know the whole truth,while no one is able to really know it,as humman being.I think God is one for all ,no matter colour or relligion,only is called by different names.I remember your words in “The Fifth Mountain”.
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