The hidden enemy

Paulo Coelho

The friends of the warrior of the light wonder where his energy comes from. He answers: “from the hidden enemy.”

His friends ask him who that is.

The warrior answers: “someone we cannot hurt.”

It may be a boy who beat him in a fight when they were youngsters, the girlfriend who left him at the age of eleven, the teacher who called him stupid.

The hidden enemy becomes a stimulus. When the warrior is tired, he remembers that he has yet to show his courage.

He does not think about vengeance, because the hidden enemy is no longer part of his history. He thinks only of improving his skills so that his feats can be known to all and reach the ears of those who have hurt him in the past.

Yesterday’s pain has become today’s strength.

Welcome to Share with Friends – Free Texts for a Free Internet

25 Responses to “The hidden enemy”


  • Marie-Christine

    J’ai rencontre l’ennemi cache. Hou Hou Hou je l’aime a la folie. C’est bibi.

  • I, too, have entered into the blame game…it is because of them that I have not done this or that…because of them I am hurting and in pain….it is a very subtle game, and we are not often aware we are playing it…but one day, I woke up and realized I am my own worst enemy! They have not limited me, I have limited myself…with my own limited thinking…
    Taking responsibility for my own life, releases me to create something beautiful in my life…blaming others and seeing them as my enemies drains me of life-giving energy…offering forgiveness to myself and to others is the way of freedom and joyful creativity…

  • I think that it is possible to use your previous hurts as a point of inspiration to move on to bigger and better things.

    While I agree that working from hurt and hatred is usually bad, if it is a springboard from which we recognise our correct and true paths and get the motivation to move on, then the good comes from the bad.

    I’d hate to say it, but sometimes the old saying “Success is the best revenge” really comes true, but if we also work along side this to forgive the stimulus that causes us pain, then we also have the ability to turn “revenge” into something positive.

    The example i offer in all this is that last year I fell in love with someone who really abused the love and friendship, and wounded me emotionally. While I grieved, it also gave me cause to re-evaulate myself, and I realised the “holes” I had in myself, so I started investing in my own health and personal growth, and now move in bigger and better circles and thought proceses, allowing me to do bigger and better things, the motivation being that if I ever met this person again, they would see someone most amazing. If they feel regret, well thats their journey and their personal pain and stimulus to springboard themselves perhaps. But I love and care for that person that I would certainly never want to knowingly cause them pain, but that is inevitable because that is something I cannot control.

    Thank you Paulo, your stories continue to always inspire me to move on towards my own personal legend :-)

  • Dear Paul thank you for your comment :-)

    We all need to forgive ourself for what we have done wrong (often because of fear to protect ourself).
    And sometimes also to forgive ourself for what we think we did wrong (even though it wasn´t wrong but the other person thought so).

    And also forgive them for their real or not real “wrongs”.
    Because I think that people don´t want to hurt each ohter on purpose, but they protect themself they think (even if the reality is the opposite).

    And sometimes we can “hurt” people by believeing in different things, and may need to go seperate ways because the path has come to an end.

    Is that to hurt someone else, or is that just a natural cause when we have diffrent life purposes and we need to go seperate ways?

    It is also very true, we have to love ourself first.
    How else can we show another human love?
    What goes around comes around just like a boomerang ;-)

    And also thanks to you Thelma, you have so much insight and wisdom to share :-)

    Love Jessica

  • My dear Leaf and Jessica and Hildegarde and Candie, we all know that when there is Love there is no space left for hatred and revenge…
    We do not want to forget or be forgotten by our ..Reason for living!!LOVE,
    Thelma

  • “Forgiveness is the key!” yes dear Jessica… especially when you need it… and whatever you do… don’t ever forget to love… yourself ;)

    Love, Paul

  • Como sempre, ótimo estar aqui. Você tem o divino DOM de acrescentar algo a mim, todas as vezes.
    grande beijo.

  • I agree with you Thelma :-)

    Love Jessica

  • Dear Paulo,
    I just can´t stop thinking that it sounds like acting from bitterness.
    What thew warrior have forgot is that he himself may have hurt someone sometime, and that he has to forgive himself for his own actions.
    As he should forgive the actions from the hidden enemy.
    Because the hidden enemy may have acted from fear to save themself from being hurt.

    The warrior should seek joy and follow his own dreams and not think about what other people have done or not done in the past.

    And if the hidden enemy from the past shows up again he should listen what they want to say, don´t judge them.
    They probably want to say I´m sorry.
    And maybe they can become friens again ?

    We live in the moment, we cannot change the past, and the future isn´t here yet.
    We have to turn ourselves into the light and joy, and withdraw from the drama of other peoples life.
    Become balanced and centred within our selves.
    Forgivness is the key and to give people a secon chance :-)

    Love Jessica

  • Hi All
    I was having a heart to heart with myself this morning and the theme hidden enemies came up in conversation;
    I must look that up in the manual wol, I thought, but never did and carried on throughout the day.
    Now I come here
    and Thelma
    were you there with me?
    you seem to know
    what we warriors are like/feeling
    my best wishes and love to you
    love
    xxxx

  • I love this blog…:) thank you Paul and all…
    litlle wonder, litlle wonder you.

    Love
    Hildegarde
    x

  • It is something you have to realize ever again – we ourselves are the ones, who give the hidden enemies the strength to paralyse us with fear for the rest of our lifes or deprive them of their power forever.

  • Thank you Candie. I love you.
    LOVE,
    Thelma

  • By the way, it’s odd, but today I really needed to hear these words again. To know, that whatever has happened in our lives – we may overcome it, if we choose to do so.

    Thank You!

  • Dear Hildegarde,
    The “Hidden Enemies” are the scars that we bear from previous encounters… the very fact that we can see and feel the pain of our past… means that we have survived… are fortunate enough to enter once again into battle… this time with the knowledge of how to succeed…
    Love, Paul

  • Sometimes it will take time for those past “enemies” to lose the hold they had on us and to let us make our own will be a bigger part of our life, leading it to any direction we’d want it to go. We are the creationists of our own lives! We must take responsibility for that. And if we do, everything will change, just like You wanted it to. Maybe not at the second, but changes take time. And if You discover that, it will enhance Your life for as long as You will remember that.

    Love from Estonia

  • Thank you Candie.
    Love
    Hildegarde
    x

  • Yes,I am completely agree with you.But still its entirely depends
    upon the person,who gone through that pain and also on his own perception on the that situation.

    with best wishes
    Sona

  • Hatred and love are coming from the same root,don’t you think so?

    Wish someone could hear your words Thelma.

  • We cannot hurt the hidden enemy…

    This morning I had a conversation with a friend. He started talking about the passion of Christ and the brutality that were used in that time. When he talked about this I started to see the brutality that’s going on now. Unjustice is still in the world and the way you see things is what is given from your eyes.

    There is a difference, this unjustice doesn’t hurt me anymore and when it does most of the time it is related to a past experience in my life.
    We cannot hurt the hidden enemy (what is the enemy anway?) or ourselves when we are the hope and courage that comes from love, within,… when we release our past and accept now.

    Even when there is unjustice… when you are the heart you are the colors of nature and the world is love.

    Love
    Hildegarde
    x

  • very nice.is good .as the good stress,stimulus.but too many enemies,as too much stress,is harmful.Sometimes as a reaction of a fight,I fix things in short time,things I postponed for long.Challenges sometimes are as an resort.

  • The ‘Hidden enemy’ or ‘lover’ will … always be in our heart ..

    As much as we want our feats and success reach the ears of those who have hurt us, so much we want to reach those we have … secretly loved.;]

    The hope/knowledge of ..eternity gives us the ..bravery to continue on our Path and our .. meeting them again on ..better or different terms.
    LOVE,
    Thelma

  • True.
    I wonder if the fight really worth it at the end;
    I think Sido is right,past should stay past,but it’s easier to say than to do,at least for me.

  • … and you of all should know, dear Paulo… may your/our successes be heard by all those who have avenged you/us… actions speak louder than words… may the virus of love… become pandemic…

    Love, Paul

  • We cannot base his(her) strength on the pain of past, because then the strength cannot exceed the past which always remains mixed with the present.

    The past has to stay in past, so that the present moment transcends the Strength
    ( Forgiveness / humility / wisdom ./the Amur)

    on ne peut baser sa force sur la douleur d’un passé , car alors la force ne peut dépasser le passé qui reste toujours mêlé au présent .

    Le passé doit rester dans le passé , afin que l’instant présent transcende la Force

    ( pardon / humilité / sagesse ./ Amour )

Leave a Reply