Paulo Coelho

“How did you start your spiritual life?” asked one of the Sufi master Shams Tabrizi’s disciples.

“My mother used to say that I was neither crazy enough to check in into a mad house nor saintly enough to enter a monastery,” Tabrizi answered.

“So I decided to devote myself to Sufism, where we learn through free meditation.”

“And how did you explain it to your mother?”

“With the following fable: someone entrusted a little cat to take care of a duck. The duck followed his adoptive mother everywhere until the day both of them reached a lake. Immediately, the duck plunged into the water while the cat yelled at the border: ‘get out of there! You’ll drown!’”

“And the little duck answered: ‘no, mommy, I discovered what is good for me and I can tell I am in my environment. I will stay here even if you don’t know what a lake means.’”