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{ 31 comments… read them below or add one }
Dear Kealan, I still like Nasrudin. Exactly because he is not an average person. But we might have different taste, we all unique. as the Latin says, De gustibus…
Jessica
Why do you have to tell all THOSE people about your vision?
Why is it so important for U to show THEM your authentic you?
We all play different roles in our everydaylife – and speaking for my self; It`s impossible to be “the authentic me” to everyone all the time. Simply because many are different from me – and concerning my spiritual life…I only speak about my faith and what I experience, with those who REALLY listen – openhearted.
Sometimes it`s better – not to speak – only smile :-)`
I find it important to protect “my treasure” inside – and maybe that`s right for U too?
May God send some gardian angels to you – Jessica
All the best*
…….SPIRITUAL DISCOVERY and SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY………….
does anyone remember archimedes, the scientist who have run naked through the streets shouting, “Eureka!” after discovering about bouyancy…..well i have often wondered why we as students after studying his theory are not running around shouting eureka….. for the matter of fact the theory seems boring to study and within few hours we can master it( for which archimedes took a long time to discover)…so folks tell me whats the difference between scientific discovery and spiritual discovery or enlightenment……happy easter
Happy Easter everybody! Spring and Easter is a good time to start something new. Inspired by first lady Michelle Obama, we decided to try to grow a vegetable garden in the desert. You may follow the progress here.
http://ourdesertgarden.blogspot.com/
In order to be kidnapped, you go on a boat in the waters near Somalia.Is fashionable nowadays to take ships and people as hostage…God help us.That was for Jessica.Take care,dear
~~I wrote this below…. it’s about living in the moment…. and cherishing each second by distorting reality….becoming aware…..so that everyday is magical! Thank~you. xo~~
“They were swimming under the overhang of an enormous
strangler fig tree. It could have been five hundred years old with
its large bumpy roots growing outside of itself emerging up from the soil. Its roots overlapping each other, twined and squeezed and eventually smothering the old roots in its place. Fatima lay her hand on the new roots and never before had she been so acutely aware of the feeling and texture of a tree’s roots and the breathing life within itself past and future. She felt joyfulness in the touch of those roots. It was her in that tree, the happiness of that tree being alive.”
We are all connected.
I love you all!
xoxo
I have no idea who Nasrudin is so I will take time to research this.
Sorry for the long reply everyone.
Okay (ten minuets of research! I speed read!) I know who he is now. From what I can analyse we have a character/poet/philosopher/wise man/wise fool who is popular in south east Europe and the Arab States; who’s life teachings have been diluted over the past 800 years by hundreds of added stories and tales (much like the three stories of Christ in the New Testament). Although the central theme is apparent; that Nasrudin’s stories have a philosophical element and when you heard one of his stories you were sure to learn something from it, or left scratching your head. We are left with no clear idea about Nasrudin’s true life and even the spelling of his name or if he ever really existed. Many people find his stories enriching and deeply spiritual (as now he has entered the archives of the human unconsciousness).
His stories reflect his character as a person who will fool you, leave you confused or sorry for talking to him. It ultimately draws me to the conclusion that once a person is named village fool, it sticks, and people will avoid him. However Nasrudin is seen as a wise man also so people are drawn to him; but he is thought of as the wise fool adding paradox. Someone who is wise but you should really stay away from him!
I do not know much on the subject of Nasrudin.
But back to tricking people out of money and how much I hate it!
I was looking into the subject of visions for some reason or another and was let onto looking into mediums and psychics (this was a revisiting of research for me into this area). I analised popular videos of TV Mediums on Youtube. I then began to research on the web. So did you know you can learn to become a Psychic Medium, it is not a problem; you just have to buy the book for €30, buy the video for €60, attend a workshop in you area for €500, get a personal reading for €85 etc. These people have locked themselves away from the public and the only way to get information is to pay. The most shocking thing in this area is the subscription service to the webpage for €25-€35 a month that’s €300-€420 per year; so you can have the opportunity to talk to one of these guys, during a window of one hour a month along with all of the other subscribers of course! It seems that a new breed of trickster is still alive and kicking.
How do we avoid this? Stay vigilant at all times dear Lilac!
Dear Alexandra, I would never down your Nasrudin. When we look at the Alchemist we see how Santiago was fooled out of his money many times either by being mugged or asked to present it for guidance/analysis etc; yet it put it on the path towards his destiny.
concering the thoughts about being on the path and receiving appropriate teachin, especially what savita wrote about the yoga teacher training courses. i feel the same way that unfortunately its been corrupted a lot. it seems to be all a matter of 1000s of Dollars if you are able to spend you will be the proud owner of a fancy certificate, and this for a wisdom which has been traditional in india for thousand of years. these organisations dont seem to care whether someone is ready for the responsibility to teach others. one has to be even the more careful from whom and from where to study and learn.
Sincerely reading books as paulo’s “the alchemist” or all his others (look forward to the new one) prepares one better in understanding many many truths than attending those workshops and courses.
PEOPLE’S GEOGRAPHY- Reclaiming space
http://peoplegeography.com/
You are welcome,dear Sofie.Have a wonderful time,take care.
Alexandra
Thank U for the beautiful song*
How do you paint happiness?
I can no longer remember the name of the Turkish poet who first asked this question, but I absolutely believe it is a question worth asking and difficult to ignore.
Consider the work of the painter. There are infinite ways of creating form out of lines and colour upon a canvas, but in the end the artist’s quest is surely always the same: to look beyond what is immediately apparent to the eye and portray a vision of life at some ‘more central region’.
And perhaps this is the key. True happiness, as with a painting, is but a ‘snapshot’ of existence. It exists only in the fleeting moment and yet, insofar as it gathers up in its wake so many unrealised hopes and forgotten dreams, it fills our lives with universal significance.
What is the future that I want to paint for myself and those I love? What would it take for me, for them, for us to be truly and wonderfully happy?
What’s on tv tonight?
Back in the hospital, My Love is enduring 3 weeks of enforced bed rest.
Little ones, look how much your mother is doing for you even now. You are so wanted. But it is still not your time. Wait a while longer!
Sitting next to her, I am conscious that I have become unusually fascinated by the regular menu of television medical dramas and documentaries on the tv, designed to entertain, inform and satisfy our innate love of gore and tragedy.
What is that about? Why don’t I simply put my head outside the door or walk along the corridor to get a front row seat on life in High Definition?
Tonight’s viewing, though, was more than simple relief from the boredom of our situation.
Set in an emergency neonatal unit in Glasgow, I sit transfixed by the stories of tiny, fragile lives and the efforts of modern medicine to prolong their existence. I listen to ordinary mums and dads desperately struggling to make sense of everything that was going on around them. I watch silently, unable to hold back the tears, as doctors prepare a beautiful, tiny boy to say goodbye to his parents for the last time. One last hug, a final kiss and then he is gone.
I will never know the name of the little boy who slipped away in front of my eyes tonight. But still I wonder how his parents are doing right now. I want them to know that their story of courage amidst terrible loss has moved more deeply than I could ever express. Of course, there are no words of consolation that I could give and I doubt that time will ever truly heal the scars of their affliction. But as I leave the hospital, with these images still so fresh in my mind, I find myself going over and over the same words in my mind: Little child, your life was too short, but the love you gave in your thirty one days will never be forgotten.
And as I slip into sleep, my final thought is that these parents are life’s heroes. But I pray to God that I never receive the same dreadful calling.
Are you ready yet?
My experience as a parent is one of never being entirely ready. You can buy the accessories, paint the bedroom, assemble the cot, simulate sleep deprivation and even borrow a baby for a day (or night!) to practice these newly-acquired skills. But, in the end, this is easy part. No amount of reading, list-making or Feng Shui reorientation of your bedroom alters the fact that this tiny and utterly dependent human life will effortlessly strip you of your outwardly impenetrable, sophisticated adult lives and stir up a well of long-forgotten fears, emotional vulnerabilities and primitive human responses.
So how does anyone survive? The funny thing about being a parent is that when you are in the midst of this existential storm you rarely notice what is happening to you. Children may throw your live into unprecedented disarray, but a single smile contains enough magic to transform this emotional battleground into a small corner of heaven itself.
Learning to paint
Back in the hospital, I begin to daydream and paint my future: the day our angels are born, their first day at school, family celebrations. There is one image, however, that keeps coming back. I imagine one of my little angels running in from the garden, tears rolling her face and a scratch on her delicate little knee. She has fallen over and looks to me for comfort and reassurance. As I hold her in my arms, I whisper to her gently, I can’t take the pain away, but I can kiss it better. This, more than any other moment, seems to capture the person I want to be for those I begin to love so deeply. Only by being present for my children in this way will I be truly happy.
For what it is, this is my painting.
I share this with my story with a trusted fried. We talk about the life and joy our children bring to us. Three day later she finds out her son has cancer and she can’t find her painting any more.
Alan’s watch
I had the chance to meet Alan on the streets of San Francisco recently. He was selling his own paintings of happiness to passers by.
I am certainly no art critic, but to my amateurish eye, I was immediately struck by the almost chaotic energy, colour and passion in his cityscapes. I am stepped forward to take a closer look and noticed that each painting contained grains of sand, string – even pieces of an old watch.
I talked to Alan for a while and listened to his story. He told me how, following the death of his father, he had decided to insert fragments of his dad’s watch into his paintings. It was his expression of appreciation for the way his father had inspired him and brought happiness into his life.
One of Alan’s paintings now hangs on a wall in our home. Every time I look at it, I am reminder of Alan and his father.
Their shared happiness somehow helping me paint my own scene.
hi paulo!
i picked up my first paulo book “the alchemist” about 5 years ago when i started to understand things and my spirituality stated to bloom.
i couldn’t get enough of the words. every sentence was like a passage from the wisdom of the ages. sometimes i feel that the wisdom has been laid to rest but suddenly it found its way back into your book.
then i read “brida” and i couldn’t put it down. i told my friends all about it and we had a discussion about you. i felt a recognition….. i don’t know if you will understand what i mean by that. i hope you do because i feel like i am awakening to this knowledge and sometimes it scares me and it drives me crazy and others as well. i think you know what i mean
http://misanthropist-gurl.blogspot.com/
My life on the displayed in words for the world to see on my blog.. Thanks Coelho for providing us with the opportunity to share
Love and peace to all,
Beeba
I love Nasrudin.So sorry Kealan.I read about his adventures in my childhood,and he was mt companion on those not easy years.I enjoyed so much reading about his wise actions.
I have been on this blog for a while now and it occurs to me that I don’t know much about your country Paulo.
So,I took a trip down Wikepedia a while ago and came out with some interesting statistics
Brazil is the 5th largest country in the world
Sao Paulo the 19th richest city in the world
It is the financial center and is located on the Tropic of Capricorn
It has more than 11,105,ooo millions inhabitants
49.7% of the population is white
41.6% pando
6.9% brown
0.5% asian
0.3% amerindian
more than 6 millions Italians live in Sao Paulo
3 millions Portuguese
3 millions Africans
1 million Arabs
400,000 Germans
326,000 Japanese – Liberdade is home of the largest population outside of Japan.
120,000 Chinese
60,000 Jews
50,000 Greeks
50,000 Koreans
It has more than 1,500 bank branches,
12,000 restaurants
40 different world cuisines
70 museums
200 cinemas
50 theaters art galleries and cultural centres
Sao Paulo has one of the liveliest night-lives in the world.
Quite a multicultural society indeed.
I let you explore more onto that site I found the other day about Rio and the Brazilians people.
http://www.transitionsabroad.com/information/media/volker_poelzl_bio.shtml
На мой взгляд сегодня, как никогда ранее встает вопрос о любви. Точнее об ее отсутствии. Здесь я имею ввиду не любовь человека к человеку (хотя и это крайне редко редко встречается), а любовь истинную, всепоглащающую, которая необходима всему живому. Посмотрите вокруг, что вы видите? Грустные, унылые, злые лица измученных людей. Измученных погоней за средствами к существованию, измученных тем, что проживают чужие жизни, а не свои. Под видом любви можно увидеть все, что угодно: страсть, желание обладать, быть собственником, все, что угодно, но только не любовь. На Земле еще остались те немногие, кто знает, что это такое, но их совсем немного, и к ним приходят учиться со всего света те, чьи Души еще живы, те, кто пытается возродиться сам и вернуть к жизни тех, кто рядом.
Я знаю, что Любовь – а это Бог живет в сердце каждого человека. Только почему-то в погоне за материальными благами люди разучились слушать свои сердца, они лючше посмотрят телевизор, послушают обещания лжецов-политиков, кого угодно готовы слушать – а от себя бегут со всех ног. Поэтому болеют, страдают. Но стоит только сделать попытку вернуться назад, к себе, и постепенно все начинает вставать на свои места. Поверьте.
HAPPY EASTER PAULO AND FRIENDS!
Since I am an Orthodox, we are going to celebrate Easter next week. But I live in a Catholic country so it is as if I am celebrating Easter twice.
Here is a video containing a song which is sung during the Easter prayers in Romania. It also contains pictures of our tradition of painting the Easter eggs.
Hope you will enjoy it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHOJzikS0Rg
Here a wonderful song,I dedicate to everybody.
http://video.tagged.com/?v=Ih3aAx-S5xg
Hello everybody. Wish you a Very Happy Easter ! God bless you all,Love
Alexandra
Kealan -
re:comment
“I think that it is disgusting the way people put a price on everything. Once people leave for free, now we work our life to buy a house.Once people ate, drank and made clothes for free, now we pay for everything.Once knowledge was for free, now we pay thousands for the simplest of answers. The thing that disgusts me most are people who tricks others out of money while one is walking the path, like Nasrudin”
Thanks for your comments on that.
Just out of interest,
You might want to expand a little more on it and explain perhaps how you will deal with that situation?
Thank you. Looking forward to your reply.
Happy Easter to you!
:)
Hi Paul,
Your writings are awesome.
Am a big fan of your “Alchemist”!!
Thanks,
Nilaraseegan.
http://www.nilaraseeganonline.com
In response to kealan’s post:
I do agree with you in many respects, and I can think of one particular example that rather bothers me: Yoga has been taught in India for thousands of years, via the transmission from guru to disciple. In other words, if someone wanted to learn Yoga, they went to a practitioner of Yoga and studied under that person, sometimes for many years. If the student did not have money to pay for their instruction, they did karma-yoga (volunteer work) in service to their guru. When the teacher felt that the student was ready pass that knowledge on to others, he would give his blessings and the student would become an instructor. In this way, the tradition and practice of yoga was passed down via an unbroken lineage, teacher to student, and from that student-teacher to others.
In recent years, however, Yoga has become popular worldwide, especially in the U.S. It is a big business. In response to this business and in response to the growing demand for Yoga instructors, Yoga teacher training programs have popped up all over the country, indeed, all over the globe. This in itself is a lucrative undertaking, in that many Yoga teacher training programs charge fees up to several thousand dollars. These are not often payable in exchange for service work alone. But this is not really what bothers me. What troubles me even more is that these organizations (which I will not name) have also sprung up in the US and abroad, as self-appointed “certifying bodies” who, also for a fee, offer licensure for Yoga instructors. This means that one no longer need study under an actual guru, who makes sure that the student possess the spiritual wisdom as well as the physical training necessary to become a good teacher. The determination as to whether or not one is “prepared to teach” has been taken away from the tradition itself, taken away from the masters who have studied and passed on this art for centuries. Now one can simply decide for oneself: “I’m going to be a Yoga teacher,” enroll in a teacher training course, with or without any prior knowledge of the tradition, pay the fees, and presto! They are a “certified instructor”of Yoga. This can be done in a matter of a few short months, sometimes even in weeks. These “certifying bodies” do require that the training programs include the spiritual elements of Yoga, but all of the study in these areas is done by rote memorization. It is wholly academic. Spiritual wisdom cannot simply be “studied” and “learned” like some subject in a university – it must be absorbed, slowly, in conjunction with the daily lessons that life places before us. So, we have all of these “certified” yoga instructors out there now, but are they all truly qualified to teach the tradition, or even to do it justice?
I will stop ranting now and rest my case. Thank you, kealan, for bringing up the subject. Thank you, Paulo, for providing the space.
Sincerely,
Savita
Когда ни о чем не думаешь, время останавливается.
В панике, человек думает постоянно, часто о бессмысленном, просто чтобы занять пространство и не потерять ощущения времени. А ведь это должно быть так прекрасно, и по-настоящему: пребывание в безвременьи, ведь это и есть бессмертие: без границ, без опоры, без начала, без старта для движения и суетливого существования, наполненного толпой разношерстных и, как правило, пустых мыслей.
Страшно перестать думать. Есть риск попасть в безвременье. В котором не от чего оттолкнуться для возврата в обычное, заполненное суетой и решением мелочных проблем состояние. Страшно потому, что это неизвестность, которая пугает, и потому, что это именно то настоящее, напоминающее порог, с которого начинают идти в пустоту, и где остаются навсегда, ибо там нет понятий о начале, конце или продолжении, об осязаемости пространства и практически материальном ощущении секунд, последовательных и вносящих ритм и продолжение. Сладкая, зовущая, заманчивая пустота, лишенная горьких мыслей и переживаний, избавляющая от любви и, потому, от боли, словно глубина пропасти – опасная, и, между тем, невероятно притягательная, если улечься животом на жесткую низкорослую траву, растущую на самом краю, положить голову подбородком на сложенные руки и смотреть на нее сверху вниз.
Есть риск остаться там навсегда, есть страх забыть подумать о возвращении.
Это и есть смерть, но это не есть конец потоку мыслей.
Segundo Día de Felicidad
“Hoy escuché hablar mi corazón
mientras los latidos se apaciguaban.
La tarde, serena, llenó un resplandor
y por un momento
pense que había dejado de existir.
Morir despacio, en silencio,
dejando atras todo lo viejo.
Este corazón no se movía
mientras hablaba, cantaba,
sonreía.
Y luego el sueño me tomó,
sueños dulces, inenarrables,
llenos de colores diferentes,
de dichas diferentes,
que el vacío fisico solo puede ofrecer.
Silencio, vacio
lleno de luz, de aire, de agua, de tierra,
Amor que se engrandecerá
durante cuarenta días;
cuarenta ladrones
lo intentaron robar
AMOR DIVINO:
Solo TU PERMANECES”
http://maryam-blog.blogspot.com/2008/09/segundo-da-de-felicidad.html
Just a little on Marie-Christine’s comment. I think that it is disgusting the way people but a price on everything. Once people lived for free, now we work our whole lives to buy a house. Once people ate, drank and made clothes for free, now we pay for everything. Once knowledge was for free, now people pay thousands for the simplest of answers. The thing that disgusts me most are people who trick others out of money while one is walking the path, much like Nasrudin!
Rest and relaxation is vital to our physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. It is our time to be refreshed and rejuvenated. It is necessary for our well being.
Because of the fast paced cultures we live in, we forget how to slow down long enough to enjoy the life we are living. We are often in such a hurry to get somewhere that we have forgotten where we are going and why…
Many of us are having to learn how to slow down and enjoy the beauty of creation…to appreciate all that we have been given…one of the most important reasons for learning to quiet outselves and be still is for contemplation…for the well-being of our spirits…
in the stillness and in the silence we can learn to know who we really are…and the Source from which we came…
Being still…being quiet…listening to the voice within…this is the joy of living…
Diamonds are created under pressures of the earth. They are produced more or less a hundred miles below the ground where pressures are five times higher than on the surface, and where temperature is hot enough to dissolve iron. With carbon exposed to such conditions, the circumstances are perfect to transform carbon into a diamond.
In the same way as the diamonds are formed, true leaders also emerge under pressure. Situations force true leader to the surface. Similar to the diamonds, they erupt when situations require strong leadership. Carbon is everywhere, charcoal and graphite abound; but diamonds are few, just like true leaders are rare.
Pardon me for saying this, but in life, shit really happens. Harsh words could be spoken to you, criticism could be whispered, and conflicts could happen; but how you face and handle these pressures will measure your ability to make a difference… to be a leader.
“Circumstances play a vital role in the development of an individual; the more severe the circumstances, the higher the chances of an ordinary person to become an extraordinary leader.” – Branimir Schubert
http://sulokkk.blogspot.com
Laugh with mulla
“A man who had two very urgent questions handed over his money saying:”A hundred silver coins is very expensive for two questions?”
“Yes” said Nasrudin and “the next question please?”
More on
http://www.laughwithmulla.blogspot.com/
Well, you asked whether I feel guilty when doing nothing. Yes, I almost always do. Unless you give me a book, but that, in fact, is also doing something.
But I am very well aware that doing nothing, is doing something very necessary. Doing nothing is emptying your head, creating space for new experiences and thoughts, searchig for balance in your life. I need it, we all need it. But although I am aware of this, I often feel quilty, there is so much to be done in this world, in the household, at work, in your relations with others etc.
But give me a book. I read ten sentences and I start dreaming and…. learning. It is not the story, it is all about the behaviour and feelings of the characters in the book. And than I search for recognition: who am I? That’s why I love your books and website so much.
In a few weeks I will spend a few days in the mountains in Switzerland. To do nothing. Lucky me! One day before we will depart, your new book will be published in the Netherlands. This promisses me a lot of doing nothing. Which means doing quite a lot.
that’s a poem of boey kim cheing and it’s called “report to wordswhorth”, we just read it in class and i think it’s quite impressive, made me actually think about the difference how nature used to be and how it is now, it might open some readers eyes about the destruction of nature in our world.
“Report To Wordsworth
You should be here, Nature has need of You.
She has been laid waiste. Smothered by the smog,
the flowers are mute, and the birds are few
in a sky slowing like a dying clock.
All hopes of Proteus rising from the sea
have sunk; he is entombed by the waste
we dump. Triton’s notes struggle to be free,
his famous horns are chocked, his eyes are dazed,
and Neptune lies helpless as a beached whale,
while insatiate man moves in for the kill.
Poetry and piety have begun to fail,
as Nature’s mighty heart is lying still.
O see the wound widening in the sky,
God is labouring to utter his last cry.”