Father Alan Jones says that building our soul requires Four Invisible Forces, namely love, death, power and time. It is necessary to love because we are loved by God. It is necessary to be conscious of death in order to understand life better. One has to fight in order to grow – but without falling into the trap of the power that we obtain in doing so, because we know that such power is worth nothing. And lastly, it is necessary to accept that our soul – although eternal – is at this moment caught in the web of time, with all its opportunities and limitations.
First Force: Love
Rabbi Iaakov’s wife was always looking for an excuse to argue with her husband. Iaakov never answered her provocations.
Until one night when, during a dinner with some friends, the rabbi had a ferocious argument with his wife to the surprise of all at table.
“What happened?” they asked. “Why did you break your habit of never answering?”
“Because I realized that what bothered my wife most was the fact that I remained silent. Acting in this way, I remained far from her emotions. My reaction was an act of love, and I managed to make her understand that I heard her words.”
Second Force: Death
As soon as he died, Juan found himself in a very beautiful place, surrounded by all the comfort and beauty that he had dreamed of.
A figure dressed in white came up to him and said, “You are entitled to anything you want.”
Enchanted, Juan did everything he had dreamed of during life. After many years of pleasure, he sought out the figure in white. He said that he had experienced everything and that now he needed a little work to make him feel useful.
“That’s the only thing I cannot get for you,” said the figure in white.
“But I’ll spend eternity dying of boredom! I’d much rather be in hell!”
“And where do you think you are?”
Third Force: Power
“I’ve spent a good part of the day thinking about things that I should not think about, desiring things that I should not desire, planning to do things that I should not do.”
The master pointed to a plant and asked the disciple if he knew what it was.
“It’s a belladonna. It can kill you if you eat the leaves. But it can’t kill you just by looking at it. Likewise, negative desires can cause no harm – if you don’t let yourself be seduced by them.”
Fourth Force: Time
A carpenter and his apprentices were traveling through the province of Qi in search of building materials. They saw a giant tree; five men holding hands could not encompass its girth, and its crown reached almost to the clouds.
“Let’s not waste our time with this tree,” said the master carpenter. “It would take us forever to cut it down. If we wanted to make a ship out of that heavy trunk, the ship would sink. If we tried to use it to build a roof, the walls would have to be specially reinforced.”
The group continued on its way. One of the apprentices remarked, “Such a big tree and no use to anyone!”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” said the master carpenter. “The tree was true to its own destiny. If it had been like all the others, we would have cut it down. But because it had the courage to be different, it will remain alive and strong for a long time.”
I fell into all the traps you mentioned above because I was ill-tempered
I do repent to the full but how do I get bliss again?
Dear Paulo,
God took my Godliness away – I should have been his bride. What do I do?
Love
Maryon
Dear Paulo,
can you explain what exactly is discipline? I urgently need to balance myself out.
Love
Maryon
Is it possible to send me the four forces and J. Christ?
Love
Maryon
Reading the four forces gives me the power back to believe in myself.
u can rilly mk ones mind go round n round…
hw amazingly hv u described love, death n power…:) makes me think deeper into ol these aspects o lyf…evrytym u motivate me in hving a stronger reason o being alive
Dude!! You rock .. you really do :D
oh,el amor,solo son chispazos que se dan en en el instante ,ni un antes ,ni un despues,solo es estar atentos para percibirlos y sentirnos,bella emocion que enciende al alma y nos mueve a actuar y ser…
uy,,de la muerte,ella se desvanece y te muestra quien realmente eres,algo bello y luminoso y de sus andrajos con que nos vistimos para encarar nuestra historia,desaparecen y nos muestra quien realmente somos,uau soy el reflejo de la amante eterna que se desdibuja en mi y me seduce incondicionalmente a ser quien soy en lo efimero del viaje,,,me dejo seducir por ella,que su rustica llama esta encendida siempre y es eternizante dentro de mi,es su manifestar,,,
poder,,bella donna,mas te miro y me dejo seducir por ti ,mas no atrapsr de lo ilusorio que me muestras,tomo el riezgo y tu poder de seducion lo hago mio,porque no me quede con tus ropajes ,,me quede contigo,bella donna,,,
el tiempo..bien lo dijo el maestro carpintero,el arbol fue fiel a su propio destino,,,
I love trees! :-)
Is there a relation to the four angelical forces which govern our dimension?
Paulo,
I read this issue with great interest as it speaks to the forces that move us all. I am glad that you told about “Love” as you did. So often we forget that love is not always best presented, shown, and/or expressed in the sugar coated way that is usual in writing, song, and other forms of art. Sometimes it is best shown as you have expressed it here.
I wondered in reading about “Death” if it might be subtitled Purpose because without it, we live a kind of death even as we are alive in this world. I have been floundering in that sea lately and maybe that is why it struck me so, but I am inspired by reading to keep seeking to re-spark my somewhat mislaid purpose.
I also was a little confused for a time by the paragraph on “Power” and how it was wrtitten out, but then I saw that the teacher did what all great teachers do … and that is to point the way and let the disciple (student) find the way and in the end teach themselves the lesson that needed to be learned.
Finally, I was reminded in the paragraph on “Time” that we often must be willing to stand out from the mundane and well trodden path if we want to make a difference in our life here on earth. I was also reminded that by doing so, we must be as willing to lead a lonely life that is often full of solitude and being seen as apart from the mass of ourt fellows.
Thank you again for your continuing lessons and forcing me to think about ideas and why we are here for this brief moment in time.
Jack
True !
love – gives menaing to exiatnce, our existance, so without love, it’s all lifeless.
death & time – unless we accept them as our own realities, it becomes pefect excuse for postponement, for complacency, leading to sloth leading to despair.
power – the only power worth developing is power to control one’s mind and one’s thoughts.
working on it, getting there !!
love
aditya
I wrote a book entitled, “The Four Corners” recently- Although my four forces in the book were Light, Love, Truth and Wisdom. It’s so funny that I just saw this post today.
Great post. :)
-C
these forces define the word -man, a complete human being able to love, give, be brave and who has a heart on the right place…a wonderful oomfort to read these lines- it brings some colour into this so faded world nowdays where everything is tasteless, colourless and in my opinion stuck in some sort of vacuum… I think if we would turn ourselves to nature, maybe we would discover our-selves with all our true beauty..
with much love and looking forward to such words, yours Marlene
I just finished ‘Veronika Decides To Die’ and read your WOL for the 1st time. I loved how the Four Forces where in the book.
The candle,which is burning from 4 sides has its purpose as the one,which isn’t burning at all.
Quel coquin!
Querido Pablo…
Entiendo bien lo que has escrito sobre el amor, el poder y del tiempo, pero para ser muy sincera estoy un poco confundida de lo que has escrito sobre la muerte. Me gustaria muchisimo entender la leccion que has presentado. Es que no debemos de hacer todo lo que deseamos? O es que queires decir que mientras que disfrutamos de nuestros placeres, debemos de trabajar tambien?
Todo mi cariño y mil gracias!
Many times I work at being alone, but what I feel then is very different from feeling loneliness.
Loneliness, to me, is a calling; a yearning to be reunited with the timeless in all of us. It is painful when I know we truly are one but I can’t reach another.
We are usually so caught up with the daily occurrences in our lives, doing things we Have to do irrespective of whether we enjoy doing them or not… Thank you for your article, it emphasises on all the basic things that make up Life which are more often than not conveniently left at the back of the mind… Your illustration of Time strongly reinforces the fact that we are all called to fulfill our destiny which is forgotten in our pursuit of worldly happiness rather so called Happines..Thank you..
Thank you for the stories. I agree with each thought that they prezent.
Love
Alexandra
I remember my boy friend related the first story… He did same.Now I make him read it…he he
No, I wish we never fight, but sometimes only talking and arguing we can get the meaning.
When I read first force, so funny. Boresom was not her intention.
That was a great WOL.. one of the best ;)
love-why do I call it by another name?
death-it is not what I take from life but what I give
power-only a fool mistakes a thought for an action
time-a holy hermit one day, surrounded by people the next
Four Forces:
Love
Death
Power Time
;o)
I would add that the one true thing for all of us is to cultivate the habit of the love of living; even in death we must love for it is in loving all things and fearing nothing that we are truly free.
Lovely! Thanks,dearest Paulo.
sheela
You distilled the essence of the 4 forces beautifully.
Are you a Writer? Poet?
“En retournant a la nature,on devient sain” Lao Tseu
so do I!
Creo que se refiere a que: si hacemos todo lo que deseamos en la vida, sin luchar por ello, sin los problemas que tiene la vida misma, o si todo se nos diera de un modo tan simple; entonces eventualmente nada tendria sentido (moririamos de aburrimiento)
espero que leas esto, o quiza ya tengas la repuesta, porque preguntaste hace mucho :)
o-o