arrive at Santiago de Compostela, this time by car, to celebrate my pilgrimage twenty years ago. When I was in Puente La Reina, I had the idea of holding afternoon book-signings without any elaborate preparations: just calling the next town where we were going to spend the night, ask them to put up a notice in the local bookstore, and be there at the appointed time.
It worked wonderfully in the small villages, but it did take a bit more organizing in big towns, like Santiago de Compostela itself. I enjoyed these unscheduled meetings; I found that labors of love are best performed in the spirit of improvisation.
Santiago is now in front of me, with the Atlantic Ocean a few dozen kilometers beyond. Nevertheless, I am determined to go ahead with my improvised book-signing afternoons, since my plan is to spend ninety days away from home.
And since I have no intention of crossing the ocean right now, should I take a right (Santander, the Basque Country) or a left (Guimarães, Portugal)?
Better let destiny make the choice: my wife and I enter a bar and ask a man who is drinking his coffee: right or left? He says with some conviction that we should go left – perhaps thinking we were referring to political parties.
I telephone my Portuguese editor. He does not ask me if I have gone crazy, does not complain about being informed at the last moment. Two hours later he calls me back to say that he has contacted the local radio stations in Guimarães and Fatima and that in 24 hours I can meet my readers in those cities.
Everything works out fine.
And in Fatima, like a sign, I receive a present from one of the people present at the book-signing – the writings of a Buddhist monk called Thich Nhat Hanh, with the title “The long road to joy”. From that moment on, before I continue on this 90-day journey across the world, every morning I read the wise words of Nhat Hanh, which I summarize below:
1] You have already arrived. So, feel pleasure at each step and do not worry about things that you still have to face. We have nothing before us, just a road to be traveled at each moment with joy. When we practice pilgrim meditation, we are always arriving, our home is the present moment, and nothing more.
2] For that reason, always smile while you walk, Even if you have to force it a bit and feel ridiculous. Get used to smiling and you will end up happy. Do not be afraid of displaying your contentment.
3] If you think that peace and joy always lie ahead, you will never manage to achieve them. Try to understand that they are both your traveling companions.
4] When you walk, you are massaging and honoring the earth. In the same way, the earth is trying to help you to balance your organism and mind. Understand this relationship and try to respect it – may your steps have the firmness of a lion, the elegance of a tiger and the dignity of an emperor.
5] Pay attention to what is going on around you. And concentrate on your breathing – this will help you to get rid of the problems and worries that try to accompany you on your journey.
6] When you walk, it is not just you that is moving, but all past and future generations. In the so-called “real” world, time is a measure, but in the true world nothing exists beyond the present moment. Be fully aware that everything that has happened and everything that will happen is in each step you take.
7] Enjoy yourself. Make pilgrim meditation a constant meeting with yourself, never a penance in search of reward. May flowers and fruit always grow in the places touched by your feet.
I have a kind of a small book where I write things that I see and can help me when I feel down. I remember what you have written today in this issue because I read long ago in another part. In that moment, without hesitation, I wrote it down in my small book because maybe I could need to read it some day if I would feel sad and tired. Thank you for remember me these words.
This morning, I was realising (again) that I have lost the joy necessary to live. I cannot stop crying all the time and I feel a deep sadness in the bottom of my heart. I hope this could finish some day.
Beautifully written!! Great thoughts..
Words to live by. =) Thanks for this.
Thank you Paul for those beautiful insights from Thich Nhat Hanh. I read him often and how true are his words for the Camino.
I found it so easy to use his wisdom on the Camino…..a little harder in every day life! A wonderful goal to aim for though!
people forget bad things easily….god has made us like that, we should only keep longing for good, that’s what he wants; as soon as something worst happens we keep asking for good to come.
however, we are sent to die here, and it’s such a nonsense that we want to make a mark on the erath full of mortals like us; still we want to be successful, rich blah blah blah….irony isn’t it.
i stand out of myself and see myself doing acts with people, family, society…and let it happen…
Hi ! Paulo.
Sound advice there, but i just wonder ehy do we remain ignorant even when we are subjeced to so much ‘wisdom’ from so many corners. Is is because we don’t really ( gosh ! me too ) want to come out of our ignorance. Anyway I don’t really understand when u or that chap says “Be fully aware that everything that has happened and everything that will happen is in each step you take “, i don’t understand this, how ???? and then is it only related to action or even the thoughts that we think, or even more bassic level the feelings that we entertain.
there are several other ‘questions’ in mind but nop need to burden the gang with all of them ? answers will come if I am really looking for them, so they say, now what is this ‘really’ looking for something?
regards
aditya
If you are in Santiago and you take a left, you can find ASTURIAS before Santander and Basque Country, is really nice people and it is worth to take it into account. In Spain, Asturias is known as the natural paradise.
thankyou paulo and to Nhat Hanh for these wise words. these words have a lot to do with fate and having the past and the future already written in the “sands of time” in the present. history is written by the winners unless it is not written at all. thankyou you once again paulo
Paulo,
You always touch my heart. I climbed a mountain today thinking of what you wrote here. Need to put that smile back in my face, seems I have lost it somewhere…:)
Love,
Clover
Paolo,
This is just what I needed, I feel there’re always steps to take in my journey. As many will agree the communication between our feet and the surface of earth is a place that I ‘ll call home, wherever I am. The subtsances of the earth them self brought to me revelances of what the importance of being here and now. I am still yearning of more pilgrimage, I probably won’t stop travelling. As I call my self only a visitor of this earth, a traveller of life.
I am home…
Dear Paulo
Have a great journey!
Please if possible leave some photos at the blog. I would love to see people and world through you eyes. (I am a photographer…)
Any photo advice? No need for e-mail me: just fallow your visual insights…
Yours
Roberto
[quote comment="4747"]Dear Paulo
Have a great journey!
Please if possible leave some photos at the blog. I would love to see people and world through you eyes. (I am a photographer…)
Any photo advice? No need for e-mail me: just fallow your visual insights…
Yours
Roberto[/quote]
hello Roberto,
Paulo has a photoblog!!!
check it out:
http://paulocoelhoblog.com/photo
Um abraço
Paulinha
so true can a word be that it fails all logic and thoughts,and thus has this done.
crazyness(yes with a ‘y’) and insanity are the heart of man kind,if you aren’t crazy,then why are you living?
here’s a poem,which i wrote recently hope you like paulo.
like the crimson west
and the evening shadows,
which flout all imagination
and perceptions and logic;
like the humble bees,who’s
devout service justifies a
flower and their noble queen;
like the high waves,who
sway to the whims of far
away heavens;like the sun
who keeps all the dials at
the set hour;like the wind
which never ceases to the
blood of the living;like the
clouds which cling to the blue
sky;like the labourous ants,
who save for a better future;
like the street stray,who
fuels life in optimism;like the
far of stars that flicker to
the distant eye;like a fire,
who burns unbiased to all;
like the earth on which we
stand -on it, that gives its gift
to us the noble race.Like all
in a moment ,the product of
evolution which stokes all the
worlds-the media of the divine
spirit,which abodes in all that
breaths and moves is all the
matter in the vast sphere,on
the ground which is flatter
to the ghosts of time and
tide,on which where rules lay
the concrete jungles.For
virtue can never so define life,
and thus it does destroy life,
on which we sit the nobler
humans.So hard is the metal,
so warm is the air that the
suffocation was long past
defined in the ancient books
so known yet unreached in life.
What future holds is not a
mere vision,its course is unmoved
by good or bad,or any such barrier
draw between by the vitrued man.
To hit hard,to stir the blood is
the magic,to reach peace is
what is to reach heaven for both
like the distant star only are seen
in imagination.the seer of life,
so moves us thus,in its own
conceit need it wriggles and
turns in the torture houses.
Scrupulous moves are self
defined,and thus are the worlds’
action.never is there a heaven
which rejects avarice for if
not it will be poorer than
the burning abyss ,in which
all the thoughts are shunned.
In the sojourn too,called life,
never is a good without power,
who’s need is to suck to inoculate
them against the rest.If pardon
weren’t a tool then the hellish
glow on man kind would be thus
that the proclaimed god would too
jump in as there would be no world
to rule and no angle to entertain.
For a god damn culture which is
as stubborn as a rock,who finally
gets beaten out,the faith lies in
the fanatics who fail to see reason
but rather live in the stupidity.
For the culture which is as pure as
the rain drop,the power lies in its
heart,the power of love.For never
is a God more than love,the heart
of everything.For the rich life to
survive in the earth who’s cobwebs
and dust are painted over by mankind
there needs to be a messiah,who less
proclaims the right but merely tames
the snakes to a new song.Like the
red blood which flows and is the cause
of life,should be the spirit,and thus
to manage the vagabonds we need
a solution,and thus to save
the crimson sky from the concrete
and metal,we need to do no more
than think.For all cannot be a leader,
so cannot all be a subject.For all
the waters that flowed under the bridge
there was a single spirit,who took
it as its right to thread the unchallenged
minds.What lays ahead is what lays,
to be prudent is to be wise,for our
vise shall blow a inferno- one self
destructive blow,that rids of all
the filth.And thus to be hygienic,
and a true creature let us join to
stitch the worn blanket called a
oneness,the oneness of all the
creatures together,for they to
shall rule,we are the master
spirits of the age alone,none but
the present,what is hit young
shall grow with it,and thus shall
the thoughts,what we feed is what we
feel,let the star shine bright,let us be
humans,fear is not a vise and for
man and all it is that which creates
and moves and kills, for if not a
mixture is seen,then the shall
haunt like a distant memory
on the ultimate floor,called dream.
stitch in time saves nine.
and pl. if you have any views on them do share it with me.
[quote comment="4748"][quote comment="4747"]Dear Paulo
Have a great journey!
Please if possible leave some photos at the blog. I would love to see people and world through you eyes. (I am a photographer…)
Any photo advice? No need for e-mail me: just fallow your visual insights…
Yours
Roberto[/quote]
hello Roberto,
Paulo has a photoblog!!!
check it out:
http://paulocoelhoblog.com/photo
Um abraço
Paulinha[/quote]
Thank you Paulinha
Beautifull images there!!
[quote comment="4748"][quote comment="4747"]Dear Paulo
Have a great journey!
Please if possible leave some photos at the blog. I would love to see people and world through you eyes. (I am a photographer…)
Any photo advice? No need for e-mail me: just fallow your visual insights…
Yours
Roberto[/quote]
hello Roberto,
Paulo has a photoblog!!!
check it out:
http://paulocoelhoblog.com/photo
Um abraço
Paulinha[/quote]
So maybe it’s a good time to bring us with more pictures!
A (((BIIIG HUG))) to you Paulinha! 
You work with this blog is wonderful! And another (((BIIIG HUG))) to you, dearest Paulo!
Please!
More pictures for us, when it’s possible! 
Love & Light to all! Namaste!
Marta
Thanks Paulo for a profound and thought provoking way to start the day. I have become so much more aware lately of the ‘now’ moment and seeking to live in the present as much as possible. Doing so has increased my awareness of the present so much more and my awareness of how often I find myself living in a state of preparing for something in the future or considering what happened in the past. While these are important I now realise they are can rob me of all the joy and splendour of the present moment that needs to be experienced and realised. I walk to work each morning, hold my head up and drink in my surroundings - try to look at things in different ways, from different perspectives and appreciate the beauty of all I see. It is winter where I live and whilst not too cold the remaining autumn leaves remind me to let go of the old, appreciate the moment, knowing that growth is imminent. Mark
Dear Paulo
Thank you for sharing the wonderful Walk meditation with us.
You continue to inspire many of us… to live fully, to enjoy the present moment and appreciate its uniqueness.
Looking forward to hearing about your spiritual discoveries, your stories about us, the people you meet, and through these make us dare to become, believe and feel enlightened.
Best wishes
Mariana
[quote comment="4671"]I have a kind of a small book where I write things that I see and can help me when I feel down. I remember what you have written today in this issue because I read long ago in another part. In that moment, without hesitation, I wrote it down in my small book because maybe I could need to read it some day if I would feel sad and tired. Thank you for remember me these words.
This morning, I was realising (again) that I have lost the joy necessary to live. I cannot stop crying all the time and I feel a deep sadness in the bottom of my heart. I hope this could finish some day.[/quote]
Galway, I share your feelings about “joy necessary to live”. In my own difficulties I found comfort from the words of Farah Diba, the former empress of Iran, who said in an interview: “There are always very painful moments. In order to survive, I tell myself that Life is an eternal struggle, not only for me but for every human being on earth.”
Believe me, there will be bright days for the both of us!