Petrus reminds me of a friend I met during my brother’s wedding (they were both friends and the friend was traveling through Mexico when my brother met him) when I was 17 years old. He was a wonderful friend and I would have loved for him to be my teacher but he dissapeared with the wind and never heard from him again. I remember meeting his family in Mexico City and he told his sister “I found someone else like us and she is coming back” but that was the last time I heard from them. I think my brother still keeps in touch with him as he was invited to his wedding. I feel I was not ready yet and this is why he moved away from me.
I “feel” I will see him again soon and then I will be ready.
I feel Petrus was Paulos communion with his higher self. He may have been real, imagined or simply a literary device to open up the conversation of the heart, to illuminate the Pilgrimage.
But also – Is it coincidence that Peter and Paul go hand in hand down the road of Jacob?
That the practical Peter baptises the theoretician Paul in a higher reality?
That it is these three that lead to the Lamb?
Petrus is the guide I would like to have.
Not telling me what I want to hear, but what I need to hear.
Ordinary enough to be able to get drunk, explode in anger or justify himself, but extraordinary enough to teach me about the simplicity of life , LOVE , death, and service.
my feelings exactly. i felt so sad when petrus had to leave and the sadness in his eyes when he last conversed with paulo. i tend to cling to ‘petrus’ in my life and i’d be tormented if i ever saw that sad look and couldn’t figure out the lesson to be learnt. I rest on the grace that the universe will conspire to help me achieve what i aspire.
I love the fact that Petrus is not the stereotypical “wise man” or spiritual guide. He has his vices, like cigarettes, and his faults, like exploding in anger, and then even trying to justify it afterward. He is ultimately very “human” – just like anyone else on the common road. And, like all human beings, he is full of contradictions. He is possessed of great wisdom and patience, love and understanding, and yet, just as he can be an angel, so too can he become a demon at a moments notice. He is both the kind and loving guide, and the heartless taskmaster. As my daughter says, “There is no such thing as ‘good’ people and ‘bad’ people – everyone has both good and bad in them.”
If Petrus had more good in him – if he were “all good” – I don’t think I would like him nearly as much. Perhaps not at all. I have this issue (it is my personal issue, but an issue nonetheless) with what I call “perfect people” – people who strive to be “perfect” (whatever that is), who deem themselves as “perfect” (or at least near perfection), who seek to keep company only with “perfect people,” and who expect others to either be perfect or at least want to be perfect. This perfectionism is sometimes associated with a religion, sometimes with some other system of thought or practice. Regardless of what it is associated with, it drives me crazy.
This is why I like Petrus so much. Often he speaks of the “common road” – the road that is open to all and can be trodden by anyone. He doesn’t claim that you have to be perfect to set out on this road; he doesn’t even suggest that you’ll be perfect by the time you reach the end. His message is just: walk! If I remember correctly, he also cites several passages from the Bible which I love, the passages that illustrate how Jesus himself was a man of the common people. He hung out with sinners – vagabonds and gamblers, prostitutes and drinkers – not with the Pharisees, those who considered themselves perfect and expected everyone else to be.
For this, I adore the character of Petrus: so wise, so overflowing with agape, and yet so human – so very real.
I have always heard that, wherever true wisdom is to be found, you can also expect to find an equal share of brutality – one hand is the hand that caresses, the other is the hand that slaps you across the face when you need it. The two are integral, like black and white, yin and yang, masculine and feminine. if the Master him/herself does not have a nasty side, then there will be someone sitting in the chair next to him/her who will fulfill this role. The one fills you with wisdom and lifts you up; the other beats you over the head and boxes your ears, bringing you to realize your shortcomings and deal with them.
This is a hard concept to swallow, at least it was for me at a certain time in my life. I thought if someone was truly wise (a real Master), they should be all good. But then I started to realize: there is no Devil (at least not as a separate and wholly independent entity) – everything is God, nothing is outside of God. Yin/Yang, Black/White… sometimes even being boxed in the ears is an expression of the highest love, Divine Love, and precisely the thing we need at that moment in time. Every enemy that comes, every challenging or harsh experience, arrives with the blessing and the promise of a lesson we need to learn or a challenge we need to overcome in order to grow and evolve. Inside of the hardest shell to break is the sweetest nut.
In consideration of that, I would not expect Petrus to be anything other than precisely what he is.
Mr. Coelho
I did not know where to put that subject, “the demon”. So, I put it here. Last night, as I was reading, I found it difficult to accept to see a demon as a Messenger, a “relation to develop”, that that entity would be the one to guide on a human level. Maybe I do not understand quite well as for now the meaning of that “dark angel”. I know that you explain it in your book, but is it possible to like explain it to me in a different way. Is it not the Source of Light that should guide us, even on the human basis pertaining to work, success, etc … As a soul, can I be “friend” with a “demon”? And after reading all the precautions that are required to not be driven in a wrong way, well, is it a risk that is worth it? And holding the sword all the time, is it not for that purpose, to fight the energy of those entities, be it demons? I thank you in advance if you share your point of view on that subject. Sincerely, Jojo.
Mr. Coelho
I am adding this. Just after asking you to help me comprehend that lesson of Petrus, I was doing other things and then this came to my mind. The demon that is referred to, is that what we call our Ego, the force of our Ego, of our personality. Like for certain matters, having to “deal” with “human levels”, I should, with care, utilize my “dark side”, or what I consider like my demon side, who knows how to manipulate, to be business mind? Because it is true that in business, for example, the opposite is well invaded in power trip most of the time, in wanting money, success, etc, on a “human” level, and I realize, in dealing recently with someone, well, that I will be a loser in many ways, getting poorer, etc … But at the same time, should we not accept to stay in the Source Light and be confident that even if I do not gain He will give back twice, like Job? As you see, I am searching, knocking and trying to comprehend that lesson of Petrus, and your experiences pertaining to that. Cordially, Jojo
Dear Bartolomeo,
Sometimes people speak of seeing God, of meeting God in a vision or incarnate, but seldom do you ever hear anyone speak of seeing the Devil. I am here to tell you that I HAVE seen the Devil face-to-face, and when I saw him – when he loomed up in front of me, as if from out of nowhere and all of a sudden, there was no doubt in my mind that what I was looking at was the Devil. The form he took was a drug, a drug which I instantly realized had the potential power to utterly engulf and destroy me.
Now please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not preaching about drugs or even saying that drugs in themselves are “evil.” I’m just suggesting that perhaps everyone has their own personal Devil, and this one was mine. I have never encountered anything in my life that had that much power (destructive power), and it pounced upon me in an instant, just as the dog that attacked Paulo in the book. One minute it wasn’t there at all – I hadn’t even seen it coming – and within seconds it was all over me, and I HAD TO GET IT OFF.
The really weird thing was that, only the night before, I had performed a ritual with the express intent of exorcising a demon. I probably shouldn’t have done this, because I really didn’t know what I was doing. I wasn’t prepared. It never occurred to me that I was going to have to do hand-to-hand combat with this demon – that it was going to enter into and exit through my own body. This is precisely what happened and it was no party – it was truly a life or death situation. In the end, I won, I threw it off and “cast it out,” but this was not easy.
The thing was – and this is what makes me say it was the Devil incarnate – this beast was BEAUTIFUL, the most spectacularly alluring creature that I have ever encountered. Nothing could be more sweetly seductive. And this is what made it so hard to fight. I knew what it was, but I didn’t want to fight. Once it was upon me, I wanted to give myself into it, wholly and completely… forever.
But I DID FIGHT…and I won. And you can too. You are never a loser until the battle is over. Just the fact that you posted these words sends the message that the battle isn’t over yet. You have not lost. Fight!
The most significant thing, I feel, about Petrus is that he could be anyone; a man on a train sitting beside you, a woman in a perfume shop, a person on the beach.
I believe that when we look for love courageously, it reveals itself, and we attract even more love. If one person really wants us, everyone does. But if we’re alone, we become even more alone. Life is strange…
Petrus reminds me of a friend I met during my brother’s wedding (they were both friends and the friend was traveling through Mexico when my brother met him) when I was 17 years old. He was a wonderful friend and I would have loved for him to be my teacher but he dissapeared with the wind and never heard from him again. I remember meeting his family in Mexico City and he told his sister “I found someone else like us and she is coming back” but that was the last time I heard from them. I think my brother still keeps in touch with him as he was invited to his wedding. I feel I was not ready yet and this is why he moved away from me.
I “feel” I will see him again soon and then I will be ready.
I feel Petrus was Paulos communion with his higher self. He may have been real, imagined or simply a literary device to open up the conversation of the heart, to illuminate the Pilgrimage.
But also – Is it coincidence that Peter and Paul go hand in hand down the road of Jacob?
That the practical Peter baptises the theoretician Paul in a higher reality?
That it is these three that lead to the Lamb?
Petrus is the guide I would like to have.
Not telling me what I want to hear, but what I need to hear.
Ordinary enough to be able to get drunk, explode in anger or justify himself, but extraordinary enough to teach me about the simplicity of life , LOVE , death, and service.
my feelings exactly. i felt so sad when petrus had to leave and the sadness in his eyes when he last conversed with paulo. i tend to cling to ‘petrus’ in my life and i’d be tormented if i ever saw that sad look and couldn’t figure out the lesson to be learnt. I rest on the grace that the universe will conspire to help me achieve what i aspire.
I love the fact that Petrus is not the stereotypical “wise man” or spiritual guide. He has his vices, like cigarettes, and his faults, like exploding in anger, and then even trying to justify it afterward. He is ultimately very “human” – just like anyone else on the common road. And, like all human beings, he is full of contradictions. He is possessed of great wisdom and patience, love and understanding, and yet, just as he can be an angel, so too can he become a demon at a moments notice. He is both the kind and loving guide, and the heartless taskmaster. As my daughter says, “There is no such thing as ‘good’ people and ‘bad’ people – everyone has both good and bad in them.”
If Petrus had more good in him – if he were “all good” – I don’t think I would like him nearly as much. Perhaps not at all. I have this issue (it is my personal issue, but an issue nonetheless) with what I call “perfect people” – people who strive to be “perfect” (whatever that is), who deem themselves as “perfect” (or at least near perfection), who seek to keep company only with “perfect people,” and who expect others to either be perfect or at least want to be perfect. This perfectionism is sometimes associated with a religion, sometimes with some other system of thought or practice. Regardless of what it is associated with, it drives me crazy.
This is why I like Petrus so much. Often he speaks of the “common road” – the road that is open to all and can be trodden by anyone. He doesn’t claim that you have to be perfect to set out on this road; he doesn’t even suggest that you’ll be perfect by the time you reach the end. His message is just: walk! If I remember correctly, he also cites several passages from the Bible which I love, the passages that illustrate how Jesus himself was a man of the common people. He hung out with sinners – vagabonds and gamblers, prostitutes and drinkers – not with the Pharisees, those who considered themselves perfect and expected everyone else to be.
For this, I adore the character of Petrus: so wise, so overflowing with agape, and yet so human – so very real.
I have always heard that, wherever true wisdom is to be found, you can also expect to find an equal share of brutality – one hand is the hand that caresses, the other is the hand that slaps you across the face when you need it. The two are integral, like black and white, yin and yang, masculine and feminine. if the Master him/herself does not have a nasty side, then there will be someone sitting in the chair next to him/her who will fulfill this role. The one fills you with wisdom and lifts you up; the other beats you over the head and boxes your ears, bringing you to realize your shortcomings and deal with them.
This is a hard concept to swallow, at least it was for me at a certain time in my life. I thought if someone was truly wise (a real Master), they should be all good. But then I started to realize: there is no Devil (at least not as a separate and wholly independent entity) – everything is God, nothing is outside of God. Yin/Yang, Black/White… sometimes even being boxed in the ears is an expression of the highest love, Divine Love, and precisely the thing we need at that moment in time. Every enemy that comes, every challenging or harsh experience, arrives with the blessing and the promise of a lesson we need to learn or a challenge we need to overcome in order to grow and evolve. Inside of the hardest shell to break is the sweetest nut.
In consideration of that, I would not expect Petrus to be anything other than precisely what he is.
A Sufi master once said to his disciple, I beat you not from anger but from love, as one beats a carpet, to beat the dust out of it, to make it shine.
ITS A VERY NICE QUOTE.
Mr. Coelho
I did not know where to put that subject, “the demon”. So, I put it here. Last night, as I was reading, I found it difficult to accept to see a demon as a Messenger, a “relation to develop”, that that entity would be the one to guide on a human level. Maybe I do not understand quite well as for now the meaning of that “dark angel”. I know that you explain it in your book, but is it possible to like explain it to me in a different way. Is it not the Source of Light that should guide us, even on the human basis pertaining to work, success, etc … As a soul, can I be “friend” with a “demon”? And after reading all the precautions that are required to not be driven in a wrong way, well, is it a risk that is worth it? And holding the sword all the time, is it not for that purpose, to fight the energy of those entities, be it demons? I thank you in advance if you share your point of view on that subject. Sincerely, Jojo.
Mr. Coelho
I am adding this. Just after asking you to help me comprehend that lesson of Petrus, I was doing other things and then this came to my mind. The demon that is referred to, is that what we call our Ego, the force of our Ego, of our personality. Like for certain matters, having to “deal” with “human levels”, I should, with care, utilize my “dark side”, or what I consider like my demon side, who knows how to manipulate, to be business mind? Because it is true that in business, for example, the opposite is well invaded in power trip most of the time, in wanting money, success, etc, on a “human” level, and I realize, in dealing recently with someone, well, that I will be a loser in many ways, getting poorer, etc … But at the same time, should we not accept to stay in the Source Light and be confident that even if I do not gain He will give back twice, like Job? As you see, I am searching, knocking and trying to comprehend that lesson of Petrus, and your experiences pertaining to that. Cordially, Jojo
lol the demon i live with everyday, heroin and the wicked witch
the loser
Dear Bartolomeo,
Sometimes people speak of seeing God, of meeting God in a vision or incarnate, but seldom do you ever hear anyone speak of seeing the Devil. I am here to tell you that I HAVE seen the Devil face-to-face, and when I saw him – when he loomed up in front of me, as if from out of nowhere and all of a sudden, there was no doubt in my mind that what I was looking at was the Devil. The form he took was a drug, a drug which I instantly realized had the potential power to utterly engulf and destroy me.
Now please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not preaching about drugs or even saying that drugs in themselves are “evil.” I’m just suggesting that perhaps everyone has their own personal Devil, and this one was mine. I have never encountered anything in my life that had that much power (destructive power), and it pounced upon me in an instant, just as the dog that attacked Paulo in the book. One minute it wasn’t there at all – I hadn’t even seen it coming – and within seconds it was all over me, and I HAD TO GET IT OFF.
The really weird thing was that, only the night before, I had performed a ritual with the express intent of exorcising a demon. I probably shouldn’t have done this, because I really didn’t know what I was doing. I wasn’t prepared. It never occurred to me that I was going to have to do hand-to-hand combat with this demon – that it was going to enter into and exit through my own body. This is precisely what happened and it was no party – it was truly a life or death situation. In the end, I won, I threw it off and “cast it out,” but this was not easy.
The thing was – and this is what makes me say it was the Devil incarnate – this beast was BEAUTIFUL, the most spectacularly alluring creature that I have ever encountered. Nothing could be more sweetly seductive. And this is what made it so hard to fight. I knew what it was, but I didn’t want to fight. Once it was upon me, I wanted to give myself into it, wholly and completely… forever.
But I DID FIGHT…and I won. And you can too. You are never a loser until the battle is over. Just the fact that you posted these words sends the message that the battle isn’t over yet. You have not lost. Fight!
Savita, you thoughts are fascinating…
Love
Monica
The most significant thing, I feel, about Petrus is that he could be anyone; a man on a train sitting beside you, a woman in a perfume shop, a person on the beach.
I loved the character, and feel that I need to meet ” my Petrus”, my spiritual guide.
E. Mari