So we are here at Checkpoint Charlie (Berlin). Twenty years ago there was a wall here. Unfortunately there’s still another type of wall separating people. So my question this week is: how can we tear down this wall called “the clash of civilizations”?
How to tear down walls?
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All the above commentators seem to agree that walls are necessarily evil things. I do not agree with that point of view. Look at what is happening today in the world. Globalization tends to destroy all walls which were built in hundreds and thousands of years, and in the process it destroys beautiful ancient cultures. A world without walls is a world without differences. Lets not turn intro some New Age utopians…
Thank You for Your books!They support in a cruel world and make my mind to think!
Unfortunately, my English is not good to express all the feeling i have while reading THE BOOKS, but they are so fantastic that any words are needn’t)
Marie-Christine,
Thank you for your concern. I am awake today.
World need to awake too… We need to realize our potentials and do the things that are close to our hearts. Listen to what others has to say and respect different voices from around the corner or globe.
Have a good day ! :)
Good food is essential for us to grow into healthy and efficient members of the community.
A food chain that is recognised around the world as one of the leading ones in terms of humanitarian aids, respect of animal, safety commitment on textiles and clothing for babies,works to prevent the obesity amongst young children(a “phone-coaching is available for families with obese children”) is the Carrefour Group from France.
It is the second largest leading Food Chain group in the world, the biggest in Europe. It is established in 30 countries, Europe, Asia and South America. The Carrefour Group uses local suppliers on 90 to 95% of their products, recruits and train its staff to one of the highest standards with regard to safety, hygiene, quality regular audits in stores and warehouses,has a team of scientific experts that monitors and test products for”carcinogems, allergies, toxicology, antibiotics, food hygiene, microbiology.”
These high standards have been adopted by a huge number of countries.
The customer is always right. Complaints are immediately followed. There is a 24/7 phone line and products can be withdrawn within a 2 hours period.
Carrefour is very supportive of people in need. Food is distributed every day to welfare stores and charities. More than 34,ooo,ooo million meals are distributed around the world (Poland, Spain, Belgium, Italy, Columbia, Argentina, Brazil) refrigerated vehicles are used to carry the food and donations of blankets, water, logistics and equipments).
Sponsorship programs are in place for health and sports.
Good nutritional products that are rich in Omega 3, low in sugar and cholesterol, fibres and vitamins are displayed on the shelves with labelling that are easy to understand.
‘Suppliers sites are audited by Carrefour , its service providers or certification agencies on a regular basis and the rules are very stringent.”
Carrefour values are :
Freedom
Responsability
Sharing
Respect
Integrity
Solidarity
Progress
If you want to find out more about Carrefour, just type “Carrefour Group”.
Carrefour means “Crossroads” in French.
Thanks Charlie.
Love
You are, or were in Berlin and I didn’t know that? We could have met;) I passed Check-Point Charlie so many times…In Berlin it might no be that obvious anymore but when one drives through Germany from West to East or East to West there is still a distinction, physically and in teh minds of the people.
I remember that I drove with two other students one time from my University (former East Germany) to a city called Nordhorn (in former West Germany) and I remember that one of them said:”Wow, one can still see the difference!”
But it is not just seeing it, it is also the way of feeling it. The question of how one can overcome the differences is a fundamental question in a social and political sense in Germany. We are fighting for years and it seems there will be always something that hollowering over us that says we are different. But does it have to be negative? Cultures, societies, religions are different from one another and ther is or at least should be a certain respect and understanding, but when it comes to differences within a social group things become more difficult because we as humans like to make it difficult.
In how we grow up, what our parents have been teaching us certainly influences our perspective on things. We are growing up in a box filled with attitudes, perspectives and judgements made up by our surrounding environment of parents, siblings, teachers, and friends. We need to break out of this box and learn to dicover things on our own, creating our own judgement and opinion to become free in our own thinking.
But it requires discipline and most of us don’t have it. Let’s be honest we are influenced every single day by someone elses opinion.
We have to learn a lot more to actually be able to tore down those invisible/visible walls.
Since I was born in Germany (west) and did grow up with the shade of this wall in many aspects of my life, I also experienced the knocking down of the real wall as an extraordinary emotionally event, I was extremely moved and soaked with tears of joy often that time. Within a few days, the ecstatic high had not completely ebbed away yet, the resentments slightly appeared.
One side did not want to share brotherly … the other side did need exorbitantly. We from the west part were also facing the knocking down of our wall of values (freedom, unity, equal rights …) we’re singing of in our anthem before … erased by our need, greed, envy and hatred. We got ashamed. It is shame which kills heroes.
My view for a solution may be seemingly a paradox: Stop striving for being loved! – Hence as long you do, you do need, you do want and so on … this always leads us to the low energy fields (some may call it sins) and disconnects us with the real source of energy. Makes us seeing separate.
My suggestion is a fundamental way: Just be (love).
Ignoramus, you are not so ignorant why call yourself that.
You are right, about children and violence, that’s where it starts.
I have a picture where I’ve extended my arm and my hand is in the shape of a gun, pointing to the viewer. My 4 year old niece looked at the picture and said, that’s you, I said yes honey, and she said, but you’re bad over there, and I said, yes honey you are right. I think she is too young for me to explain to her that it’s the good fight I’m fighting. I’m wearing white, with a black glove.
But one day she will know.
So now for some Good news. Thankfully. Again, I heard it from my mother since I don’t watch TV.
A man heard footsteps inside his house which he didn’t recognize, so he slowly looked and saw a man in the process of stealing his television. He looked outside and saw a van, he sneaked out the house, got into the van, drove off and called the police, saying that he stole a car, but the car owner is stealing his tv inside his house. This made the operator laugh. What a smart thing to do!
So the thief when noticed his car is gone, lol… he left the tv and scrammed at once.
Ha Ha, we need more heroes like him! Thank God for Goodness!
“”"”"Between a high, solid wall and an egg that breaks against it, I will always stand on the side of the egg.”
Yes, no matter how right the wall may be and how wrong the egg, I will stand with the egg. Someone else will have to decide what is right and what is wrong; perhaps time or history will decide. If there were a novelist who, for whatever reason, wrote works standing with the wall, of what value would such works be?
In some cases, the metaphor is all too simple and clear. Bombers and tanks and rockets and white phosphorus shells are that high, solid wall. The eggs are the unarmed civilians who are crushed and burned and shot by them.”"”
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1064909.html
Walls are torn down when each human is admired for his or her potential for light. Cultures are studied and respected in order to connect at each person’s beginning. Then, at that place, regardless of how much hell the personal, familial, cultural or governmental routine has brought, gently we use what is their known to open eyes to the eternal realm of possibility.
Hi Paulo and Everyone,
Was it really twenty years ago that I sat in the hotel in Laredo watching the news and my friend was in the bathroom getting ready? I said to him “Simon, look they are pulling down the wall in Berlin!!” He didn’t believe me, but they were. We then took our passports and crossed into Mexico to Nuevo Laredo for a quite a lot of beer and some food. Walking back over the bridge, not entirely in a straight line, all we had to do was show our passports and get teased for our “proper” English accents. We were both struck by the thought that in a few hours time the bridge would be packed with people coming North to work and that they would not pass so easily. We awoke knowing that in some way despite all the fashion atrocities of the eighties something was beginning to change.
And as they say beginnings are the most interesting of times.
Tearing down physical walls is in a sense a ritual act, an act of initiation, a beginning of the long process of the healing that is to follow. I am pretty sure that in every country the world over gross acts of man’s inhumanity to man have occurred. We British for example are the proud inventors of the concentration camp (during the Boer war). Yet there can be and is, healing. Wherever there is a sectarian divide it takes time and I am not convinced that things ever entirely heal in a generation. Yet, we now have President Obama which was unthinkable 40 or 20 or maybe even 10 years ago.
Change does happen.
From my hero, Martin Luther King; I have a dream.
“I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest — quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” “
These physical walls run like deeply etched scars between communities. Goodwill and time are perhaps the surest of medicines. Sometimes the very act of division is what stimulates a back lash to join. The pain of separation can be great. Man may just have to see its own inhumanity in all its stark horror before the willingness to change is seeded.
Esoterically the planet has been under the sixth ray of Idealism and Devotion for many years and this is perhaps what has enhanced the polarisation. My ideals are “righter” than your ideals, hence we must fight and kill each other. The incoming ray is Ceremonial Order or Synthesis. The influence of this is to synthesise something new, if you like PLANETARY alchemy at work.
So the tearing down of walls is hugely symbolic, allowing a massive release of pent up emotion to express and then in the calm thereafter to begin again to build.
The clash of civilisations is because humans love to notice all the differences between things first and not the similarities. Rather than sitting down and seeing what is pretty much the same in every culture, people tend to accentuate the difference. This breeds mistrust rather than will-to-good. At the basis of all faith systems the core is pretty much the same, the day to day practise varies. The clash is emphasised, the synergy is not as yet celebrated. And there always IS synergy. We only have to have the good will to look.
I like the idea of bridges.
Where can we meet? How are you and I alike? What do we share? Let’s take a little time to get to know each other.
That time at the beginning is well spent.
Simon and I had great fun that night in Mexico, we went off the beaten track where it was “dangerous” to go. We wanted to get away from all those young Americans taking advantage of the drinking laws South of the border. We sat down in some fairly rough places and soon found ourselves having lively conversations with some quite interesting characters. An ex US marine and American Indian sat with us and soon we were invited to a private party. When we realised that one of the women there was trying to marry her daughter off to Simon, we left politely.
Even though there is a “wall” between these countries there is still a “bridge”.
And all it took was a bit of open body language and a willingness to listen and to share. We were exited and celebrating the fall of the wall in Berlin and it must have shown in how we behaved. Some of that joy from a night of celebration many thousands of miles away was there in our hearts that night; that rite of passage rung out and loud across the world.
And we have the Mandela’s of this world too. Neither Luther King nor Mandela nor Gandhi (the Mahatma) would have gotten very far were it not for the acts of bravery and persistence of their fellow men. So we can all make a difference. And as was so beautifully put start by not building anymore walls (internal or external) and charity does begin at home.
I am no better than the tree in my garden. We are made of pretty much the same stuff in any case. And that tree is life itself of which we are all a part. There is only One life. It is just the folly of the human condition that “insists” we are separate. This is the madness of the dream.
So let’s make like water and erode every single “wall” on the planet and water is the dreaming symbol for love. And now is the Age of Aquarius the water carrier. For in the face of a love that persists, eventually all things yield.
I am your brother and you are mine.
So I will sit here tonight with a glass of Gruener Veltliner and beam out as much love and compassion as I can muster.
I sign myself in the name of freedom.
Namaste!!
Charlie
Beautiful scenery on this page, of people that are no longer bricks in the wall, is giving the good example of how by learning to use solid bricks from walls for building the solid bridges – walls become transparent…
One voice to resonate in the heart of everyone can eliminate any wall of division. I recently read, “Remove time and space and how many people would there be?” The answer is “One.” Where One is no walls can separate.
we hope you can reply.
dear paolo,
we saw you on chessdom. we were wondering whether you play chess too………………..
“Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.” Voltaire
We need to look at each-other from our hearts. Go deeper inside than our thoughts and emotions into who we are behind what we feel or think.
And see that we might have different cultures and different ways of expressing ourselves culturally – and behind that we are all human beings. Instead of using our differences against each-other and maybe even attack each-other, we need to shift focus from fear and separation to common ground: How can we use our differences for the benefit of all, how can we meet on common ground?
It´s a shift from “me” and “my” and “the others” whom we might even call “the enemy” to “us”, and the deeper reality of us being inter-connected. We are all in this together, so how can we share and maybe even benefit each-other? Walls come down when the divisions inside ourselves transform and get whole. The world follows our inner world, healing the world starts with healing inside ourselves.
We don´t need to tear down the walls, fighting is a destructive use of our energy and comes out of fear – so it will still generate fear. Walls come down by themselves when forgiveness and understanding comes in and gives us a broader, more inclusive picture of whatever the situation is. When we start with ourselves and create wholeness in our own life, we carry the possibility of wholeness into the circles we touch in our life. This way, we embody a pathway for consciousness and for being. Consciousness and being does not use walls and exclude – it finds the common ground and therefore naturally includes.
There is a Tibetan Lama here in Denmark who´s name is Lakha Lama. He put´s it so simply: To be or not to be, that´s our choice
Santosh Kalwar -
I hope you are still with us to morrow, God knows we need your participation.
I agree entirely with what you are saying.
The example must come from the TOP though.
We cannot sustain such corruptions coming from our governments.
We cannot sit and do nothing about :
- our governments,
- the health system,
- the education,
- the media,
- the lawyers,
- the religions,
all those institutions that are here to oppress us instead of pulling us up.
We have to start voicing our opinions and work together for a better to-morrow.
Thank you and God bless you all,
last evening in tamale – following post election fever, fires and fighting were taking place in the centre of town. a curfew was set in place and this morning police set up a barrier to stop cars at a check point –
they were searching for firearms…
but who would be carrying their firearms around by car we asked… and so sometimes it seems like a pointless exercise, which wastes time and energy, money etc…
as walls and barriers go up in needless places and affect the normal citizen going about their day –
usually it’s tax collectors at the check point taking ‘money’ from trade lorries. Today, it’s a police firearm check….
Dear Readers,
With curosity and passion of reading your ideas and opinion, I, one among you all would like also to give some words to this question, “How to tear down walls?”.
May be, My explanation will not give any insights or great ideas- Please excuse me for this.
Let us get started then-
Tearing down a wall or breaking wall or breaking boundaries are simple stuffs to do. These are physical entity created by us and could easily be destroyed by us.
Many of us around here are discussing on the issue related to tearing down the walls within your self such as greed, race, religion, sex and so on.
How can we even think this could be sucessful? Well, those elements which are inside us are never going to change and those which are outside us are already broken.
We live by opinion and ideas, with our own philoshopy of life. All those elements such as love, race, religion, life and culture etc. These are all part of every individual. These elements are different and we have our own personal “definitions” based on our personal “experiences”.
When we try to listen other people’s opinion and their definitions about these factors we tend to disagree and to some we agree.
Those who can lie can gain popularity easily. I do not know if there is something which called “believe”. As said by Oscar Wilde, “Experience are mistakes”, are we really gaining experience of are we just committing the mistakes?
A civilized society is formed when every individual in that society are bound to obey the rules and regulation which is for the benefit of their own society.
How much civilized society we have in this world? And, why do we think we are civilized? We might think that we are civilized society since we have power of intellectuls, full of resources and big fat rules which strictly has to be followed.
I feel pity for such society. The best rule in the world is No rule.
Once you start to follow the rules and regulation of your society you are bound to have “differences”. When you have self differences within yourself, how can you have civilized society?
There are many examples and theories which are piled up in the dust of some libraries around the world. Those theories and books are food for rats and insects. Atleast some form of animals can sustain their lives with those rotten theories.
We are living by Scriptures, opinions and demoralizing elements which are root cause of our own self destruction. When will our tiny brain realize that, “We are all equal”.
Difference is religion and culture has become mirror illusion. There is nothing popping up without the knowledge of others around us.
How can you break the barrier of relationships? We still are fighting for it, don’t we? My first wife, second wife and so on…
Self differences inside us creates self destruction. We are destroying our destiny by creating the difference all around us. WE have walls of communism, race, relationships, religion and many those factors where our understanding is very limited.
Wake up people, please wake up….
Live the way you want to live but try to listen what others have to say too. You can always disagree but try to find what is the alternative of disagreement.
A week ago, I was watching a movie based on Jesus Christ and his life. I do not know how many times he has said, “I tell you the truth…”
When a person says, “I tell you the truth…” Is he really telling the truth?
Well, that is another point of discussion and let me not open it here. But, let me go back to the same question of how to tear down the walls?
Physically, Very simple-
1. Hire some machines which can be operated by human.
2. Use the machine to tear down walls.
3. Remove the walls
4. Now, you are sucessful. Good luck.
Mentally, Very Very Simple-
1. Accept everything which comes in your life.
2. Be truthful not to others but to yourself.
3. Life a life full of simplicity, the beauty will blossom along the way.
4. Respect, Obey, Follow, Give, Share, Encourage, Motivate and Smile to yourself and those around you.
5. Be like a child.
6. No human should claim he is God or (he is son of God as done by Jesus), or I am God itself. (Allah, Krishna, Buddha …) Let us call them “Pure humans”. A human with no self motives.
7. Live oneday and die the same day. (How?) Do not care about yesterday and do not over think on tommorrow because you are not living in past or future, you are living now. (As I am writing this comment, I have started my day. After the sunsets and darkness prevails, I am going to end my day. I am going to die, Please do not worry because hopefully, I will be awake again tomorrow But again, hope is not with me it is for your satisfaction. I only hope to live only one day.)
Let me put it in a loop now.
Could any one of us follow 1-7 steps?
Yes
No
If your answer is Yes, then you are in Human civilization group.
If your answer is No, then ask yourself why not?
The Human civilization group is the world of “no difference”. A world of complete peace and no walls. Where there is people and all those live are god. A pure humans existence.
(I am sorry, I have to wake up from this dream)
Alright now, I have to stop typing because I think these seven point steps will clarify what the writer ones to say.
Sorry I am still working on those seven points. Therefore, Let me put my greed attribute here-
-Author of the self published book “Nature God” and “Human behavior on the Internet”
I think fear is what keeps up those walls… There is so much negativity in the media that everyone is fearful of things. When I step outside I’m afraid of being criticized or robbed or taken advantage of. I think trust is needed for everyone to break down those walls. Humanity needs to be able to trust one another. Nations need to trust one another and cooperate. Cooperation through the bond of trust infused with love will bring down all the walls humanity has… I find it hard to trust. But if I do not then I can not love. Because when I love I’m forming a bond and a bond can only be made with trust…
Dear Noel,
I really, really like what you say. Thank you for bringing that to light.
It is the same as watching the sunset and the moonlight isn’t it?
Just an illusion.
The way to rebuild the walls are in our mind and the way to go about is to follow our intuition as you say. Intuition will get you there, all the time.
I am closing my eyes , listening to “Beautiful Boy” by John Lennon.
Love to all
Estimado Don Paulo;
Los muros y las paredes son imaginarias…por lo tanto si usamos la cabeza quedamos afuera…de Todo.
Pero… si en cambio, utilizaramos El Corazon en cada momento de nuestro recorrido, y en cada accion que emprendamos…
“Nos Encontrariamos”con que Todos, Todo y Todas las Cosas, somos Uno…con formas distintas, como un gran puzzle, pero que cada pieza tiene y ocupa su respectivo lugar, armoniosamente y maravillosamente creando un Universo “multicolor”…
Por lo tanto, queridos amigos, no usemos tanto la cabeza…
y usemos siempre el Corazon!
Atentamente Mauro
Fabrício, vibrações positivas para que Renata Raminelli se recupere plenamente!
On a world wide scale, The media could do a lot to break down walls
but are they guilty of building them?
on a small scale, all that’s needed is a smile to your neighbour.
xxxx
How to tear down walls?. . .Refuse to erect them. . .
There are no walls; they are an illusion.
We are all one; there is no conflict.
How can this be?
If you ask someone in the North where ‘The Midlands’ lie they will say South truthfully. Likewise someone in the South will say North. Both are true although they say the opposite. Each is only a perspective; an individual viewpoint – but neither is reality. Reality is God’s viewpoint… the ability to see all things in both time & space SIMULTANIOUSLY and know them for what they truely are. There is no North; there is no South: they are concepts made possible only by the existence of each other. There is no conflict.
We forget that man is made in the image of God, not God in the image of man. We are SPIRITUAL beings who can take any form we chose. Our bodies, physical reality etc are all an illusion – a metaphore to play out our hopes & fears… Close your ‘eyes’ and see with your inner eye. Be quiet & listen to the quiet voice within. Trust your feelings not ‘the world’s logic’ – forget your ‘body’ (your PERCEIVED limitations) for a moment – are you any ‘older’ or ‘younger’ than you have ever been? Can you die? Do you have limitations?
What is the difference between ‘dreams’ and ‘reality’?… only belief. The sceptic says “I’ll believe it when I see it”; but this is not how things are. In truth we see it when we believe it.
Sight?, sound?, touch?; an ILLUSION …We do not have multiple senses but one common sense: INTUITION. We share the same common vision.
There are no walls
There is no conflict
ENJOY GOD’S PEACE
Patience, understanding the other’s point of view and mutual concessions in the standpoints. Like bargaining on the market: i give a bit, you give a bit, i give a bit again, you give a bit again, and eventually we meet at halfway. I don’t know if this is enough to tear down walls but perhaps it’s enough to prevent from the building of new ones.
The answer I guess is by tearing down our own personal walls then we’ll discover all that what we share…
Rumi said once:Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.
Hola Paulo,
para mi solo hay una forma….
Abrir el propio corazon y seguir abierto siempre…
Un abrazo,
Mirjam
Hola Paulo, me llama la atención lo que une las culturas. La música por ejemplo puede hacer que las diferencias se hagan a un lado. Escuché decir a uno de mis músicos favoritos que un astronauta se asombró al ver que las divisiones que existen en los mapas no se ven desde el espacio. Por tanto debemos enfocarnos en todo aquello que nos une no en lo que nos divide.
I’m following Paulo Cohelo’s invitation to use his blog to bring awareness of news and events going on right now in the world and for which people have a chance to help and make a difference. A big group of people are coming together on the internet to help a father return his abducted son to the USA. Please read and do what you can to help. “www.bringseanhome.org”
ON JUNE 16, 2004 DAVID GOLDMAN SAID GOODBYE to his son, Sean, at Newark Airport. He didn’t know it at the time but his wife, Bruna, and her parents Silvana Bianchi Ribeiro and Raimundo Ribeiro were in the process of abducting Sean and taking him to Brazil with no intention of ever returning. According to the Hague Convention, to which both the United States and Brazil are signatories, this was a clear case of international child abduction, otherwise known as parental kidnapping to win back custody of Sean and bring him home to their house in Tinton Falls, New Jersey.
David is fighting the battle of his life and has run up against two very powerful and influential families, the Ribeiro’s and Lins e Silva’s, that have done all they can to prevent him from being reunited with Sean. He has exhausted virtually every legal option available to him in both the US and Brazil at great cost emotionally and financially. After Bruna’s sudden and tragic passing on August 22nd, we all assumed David would finally be able to see Sean and bring him home. Unfortunately, he is now in the midst of another custody battle, this time with Bruna’s new husband, João Paulo Lins e Silva. It has been four long and painful years for David Goldman. David was and is by all accounts a caring and loving father; he does not deserve this treatment. It is cruel and unjust, an affront to human decency. Enough is enough: we need your help in making sure the Brazilian judicial system does the right thing and sends Sean home to his father. BringSeanHome.org was formed by David’s friends; our assistance and effort are solely focused on the goal of bringing Sean home. We hope that you will join
us in this cause by writing, e-mailing or calling one or more of the people listed on the How to Help page. We invite you to read an open letter from David detailing the abduction, the parties involved, and continuing denial of his parental rights by the Brazilian judicial system. David’s Story, was forwarded to us from Brazil on September 20th. Since that date David has gone back to Brazil and although he had a Brazilian Federal Court Order to meet his son for the first time in four years he was again denied any contact with Sean. “www.bringseanhome.org”
Hegel one of the German philosophers and one of the creators of German idealism once said- reality is reason/ sense and sense is the absolute real. With this reasonable fact we should never give up our path and struggle for what we think is sense.
Because I live in a city in Sweden which is connected with another country Denmark by a bridge, I have started to believe in bridges…tear up the walls and build bridges instead..that´s the only reasonable thing to build. Find connection and not disconnection with people. Do I get myself “connected” or does it make sense to you Paulo?
Love Tina
Paulo, desculpe lhe escrever novamente, porém o meu amor, Renata Raminelli é o seu nome, sofreu essa noite um Aneurisma, e esta em coma no momento que eu lhe escrevo.
Gostaria de lhe pedir, e se possível para as pessoas que frequentam esse Blog, uma corrente de vibração positiva, pois ela esta correndo risco de vida.
Desculpe a intromissão, mas é um caso muito sério.
Paz e luz para voce e todos.
The Alchemist
Santiago was right all along. There was a treasure inside the pyramid. The treasure was love, god, light, hope…
He didn’t find it because it was all along, in the back yard of his soul mate.
He never gave up, he searched and searched. As did she!
He knocked on so many doors that he created an echo, and the butterfly took his love and went in search of the other half of his heart. And since she was walking the road too, she heard him.
Santiago has finally found his Faith.
He is now out of the darkness and into the light.
Santiago was right, at the end of his road, there is a pyramid, (think outside the box)
Inside the pyramid, there are numbers, and in those numbers is the formula he was looking for, the formula to finding your love, soul mate.
That pyramid is located in my back yard!
The best idea:Paulo Coelho makes a nice speach against discrimination,if possible on BBC.
Only a few days ago, Alison des Forges, died in a plane crash.
Alison des Forges was a Human rights Activist who had done intense work on the Rwanda. She also testified on trials for genocide.
This reminds me of the work done by various groups around the world where conflicts are occuring. One of the group “Medecins sans frontieres” or “Doctors without Borders’.
This group was created in the early 70s by 13 French people (12 of them Doctor) as a non=governmental agency who spend their times in war torn countries.
They are working in 70 countries most of them based in third world countries such as in Africa in very difficult conditions. They deal with problems such as malaria. Malaria affects 400 millions people or more every year, of which 1/2 millions die each year.
The Aeflorditine is the only drug that can treat malaria. Only one distributor, the Centre M.S.F. in Bordeaux France for this drug around the world.
Obstacles in these parts of the world are multiple. Not only do these specialists have to provide shelters, good sanitary conditions, vaccinations, they also have to deal with the “laws” imposed by the rulers of these countries.
Malnutrition and psychological problems are affecting a great number of children in places like Palestine, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, North Korea, Darfour, Ethiopia, etc.
Not much is being shown about that side of the human suffering.
Hi,
I wish to express concerns over the free Internet.
The telecommunication networks and others are lobbying the US Congress to make the Internet a “private network”
The first I have heard of it was on your blog Paulo, the media seems to be very quiet about it.
This could have serious implications on a big scale – our freedom to communicate with each other – all around the globe.
Have they been any new development in that area?
Can anyone help?
Thank you,
Love
Dear all,
I believe that we are not able or even morally “allowed” to change other people, instead we ourselves should change and show real love. The consequence of this will be that the people around us will grow this same love in their hearts, each following their own rhythm. In my opinion it is always easy to talk about religion or nationality as the central issue concerning this topic, but how about the people around us? Do we accept who they are if their decisions in life or their behavior is not fitting our values? I think this is the point where to start. Each of us should question their behavior and attitudes towards the people in their community, workplace, and even family. When we get on this level that we truly show love for these people (not only in our mind but in our heart and soul) then we can start to think slowly about the big issues like religion and culture. If we all have the love prejudices, war and terror will not have the soil to grow. On the other hand, if we falsely believe that we can change people, without really changing ourselves, we demand a false superiority for ourselves and nurture that phenomenon that we claim to fight against. So, let us open our hearts and change first us and thus the world – every individual counts.
Sunshine to all your hearts.
I agree
Dear Paulo Coelho
This is such a good question. I have been reading the previous replies and it’s amazing to see how many people there are out there who, though they come from many countries and have different cultures, all want and feel exactly the same way.
It seems that the more we accumulate wealth the more separated we become from ourselves and each other. This consumerist society, fed by the media, governments etc are always telling us what to think, what to buy or what we need and the craziest thing is, we do exactly as they say.
I think to break down the walls we have to start thinking for ourselves again. Start interacting with people from different cultures, see them as they really are and not what our prejudices tell us they are like and then only will we begin to understand them and this understanding will break down walls.
We have to tear down the wall inside of us first.
Meditation is the solution to all our problems.
Know down to your bones and into your cells that there is no wall.
Dear Mr Coelho,
Starting to tear down the walls, I h ave a beautiful picture coming to my mind. Why don’t we, as parents, stop our children playing with those violent games? Why don’t we tell those manufacturers we don’t want your “funny games” anymore. A good way to stop this as well, if parents don’t get the message is to have this enforced at school. Then the children can go back home and say :Mum and Dad I don’t want you to buy me those games any longer.They incite violence .
Philantropic games are big business. I am not well versed into that sort of things. I believe most of it is tax deductible.The idea is brilliant, I can’t help thinking that wouldn’t this huge amount of money that is being spread into the third world be better spent first at home ( you know they say charity begins at home) spending it on a very good universal health care for all the good citizens of our country I believe is reasonable, once this is put in place, then let’s go and do something about the third world countries.
The education system must be free, not concentrated for the elite once again. Why is it that it costs for a four year degree in Harvard the enormous amount of $200,000?. Universities must continue to be under the control of our government, not privatised. Who benefits from this? Certainly not your average citizen. It is true that the people graduating from Harvard are issued from a diverse community.The cynicism in me tells me that perhaps there is a different agenda than the one portrayed. Uncle Sam will ensure that when you go back to your country, you’ll look after us.
Why all American colleges and Universities have assets close to 1 trillion dollars?
Is not it time, we ,the citizens of these countries start demanding to participate in the affairs of our governments?
Mr Coelho, what a shining star you are.
Love
While this is a very complex problem..I think as individuals we can only offer our hand in friendship and kindness in hope that “LOVE” will follow in time.. Actions always speak louder than words which can be misinterpreted.
Peace and Love to all…
bjewal
The major point that create the conflect inthe clash of civilizations is that each one cliams that:
“Its the ONLY WAY To Heaven.”
By this mentality they can’t find a purpose to unite them.
Therefore we should work in ourselves on a personal level by start changing our view to others and accept them as they are and believe in that differences are normal. Since, although nature is built on disparity but it shows a wonderful harmony among its species.
So we have to learn from our nature and modify our ideology about existence and start thinking that we are not the best in everthing, we are good in certain things while others are better in other aspects.
We have to think in humanitarian way before going to any negotiation sessions about the clash of civilizations instead of going to defense our awn believes that only justify our perused of power and materialism.
Finally we should know the holly truth that are obliged to don’t think in it from our family, society, and politicians The Truth which is no sacred culture, we just have to live our life in virtues that create positive thinking about the world and others…
by letting Love, Justice, Prudency, & Charity the primal values that motivate our action.
Agape Love!!!!
We can tear down walls purely through acceptance.
The realisation that ultimately we are all human, made of water, flesh and blood.
para mim um sorrizo ,abraso um jesto de jentileza respeita ou tentar entender o modo de vida que todos nos escolhemos para viver coisas simpres queu aprindi no decorrer da minha vida.nao ter vergonha de ser vc mesmo.um sorizo ultrapassa a barreira do idioma como se vc conseguise falar tudo aquilo que vc pensa.esperiencia propria sao 10 anos morando aqui no japao sai do brasil nem sabendo como falar obrigado. aqui ezisti um muro tambem emtre nihonji e gaikokujim .par a min um jesto vale mais doque uma fala . hoje consegui derrubar esse murro e vivo em paz com ninha alma .PESSO DESCULPA PARA TODO MUNDO QUE TENTAR LER. NAO CONSIGO ESCREVER CCORRETO.
Well, there’s always the pick-axe! I like hand tools. Power tools scare me. More than scare me – they make my nerves all jagged. Hand tools, on the contrary, are meditative by nature. They take longer, but in that process on using them, we are given time to think…or not to think at all – just be. Be one with the tool and its aims. Its flaws as well. Every hand tool has its shortcomings: how to splice kindling into fine slivers with a hatchet, without cutting off a thumb in the process; how to hammer a long nail into a piece of hard wood, without bending it; how to tear down a tall wall with a pick-axe, without sending the upper regions of it tumbling down upon your head…?
I have a wall in my house that I’ve been thinking if taking out, or at least considering knocking a large hole, large enough to fit a door in it. In the floor plans, which I have examined extensively, oddly enough, there is a door there! A door in the very spot – between the spare bedroom and the spare bath – where it seems to me there obviously needs to be one. (Otherwise, the person sleeping in that room has to come out into the den and go through the laundry room just to use the restroom or take a shower. Sheer silliness!) But somehow the builders overlooked it. Maybe somebody has misplaced the blueprint that day. Or maybe they were nearing completion, or quitting time, or the weekend, and simply decided to overlook it. Whatever the case, there needs to be a door there, and the only way make a place for it is by knocking or otherwise cutting into that solid wall.
I’m not a carpenter, and I wouldn’t manage to install a door with all the instruction manuals in the world. Still yet, when any major construction – or in this case, destruction preliminary to construction – takes place in my home, I like to be a part of it. Again, it comes back to that belief in a link between the manifest, physical realm, and the spiritual dimension it mirrors. In the barn I have a sledge hammer, generally used for driving metal posts into the ground when we build fence. The thought has occurred to me to go out there, get this massive hammer and give that wall at least one good blow….or maybe two – however many it takes to break through to daylight on the other side. the rest I would leave to the construction workers hired to install the door. I just want to make the hole. The wall is sheet-rock, over a two-by-four wood frame, so it wouldn’t be hard to break it down, to effect a hole tall and wide enough to walk through.
So what’s stopping me? The electrical wiring. I know it’s in there somewhere – the wiring from the main to the electrical plug on the wall near where I want to make the door – but I cannot discern from the blueprint, exactly where it lies. And even if I could, would I trust that the builders – these same builders who omitted a whole door – actually ran the wiring according to how it was planned out? I think not!
So, the other option is to start with a small hole – maybe with the regular hammer, the one I use to drive nails – take a peek inside the wall in search of the wiring and then proceed, with caution, until I manage to rip the sheet-rock across, from one two-by-four brace to another, and up and down, from the proper height down to the floor. I also have a small hand saw – a hack-saw, as it is called, with a fine-toothed blade – that will enable be to smooth off the rough edges and arrive at some semblance of a proper rectangular passage from one room (from one culture, or civilization, or society) to another.
The bedroom in question is painted red (the “Red Room” I made mention of in my other posts), and lit with several large Chinese lanterns, made of paper and colored of red and orange and gold. This is a room of fire – of passion! And the bathroom: well, it’s blue. Shower, sink, toilet in white. This is a room of water – emotions. So how do you break through from a relationship of carnal passions, or gold-gilt mirrors reflecting reflecting prints of wild animals in pairs two-by-two, to one of crisp white cisterns filled with the limpid blue waters, drawn from a private deep-water well of clear pure love? Is this even feasible? Or is it that the door, planned by the architect, was left un-installed by the builders, because it proved itself somehow structurally impossible?
Well, that door from the one world to the other might actually be impossible – a door that swings, set in a frame, complete with door-knob, lock and key – but a hole, one big enough to pass through…? I am so sure that with a little effort and a bit of determination, a little care as well, I can create that much. In the end, if I have to frame it out and hang a curtain over it and call that a “door”, then so be it!
Sometimes we just have to act on faith – take up our hammer and be brave enough to make that first blow – because sometimes all the blueprints in the world will not help us tear down the walls that we know MUST, at whatever expense, FALL.
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