What is treason?
Walking down the street, the prophet asked: “aren’t we all children of the same Eternal Father?”
The multitude agreed. And the prophet went on: “and if that is so, why do we betray our brother?”
A boy who was watching asked his father: “what does betray mean?”
“It means to trick your companion in order to gain a certain advantage.”
“And why do we betray our companion?” insisted the boy.
“Because in the past somebody began all that. Ever since then, nobody knows how to stop the wheel. We are always betraying or being betrayed.”
“Then I won’t betray anyone,” said the boy.
And so he did. He grew up and suffered a lot during his life, but kept his promise.
His children suffered less and endured fewer hardships.
His grandchildren did not suffer at all.
On jealousy
When she was eleven years old, Anita went to her mother to complain. “I can’t manage to have friends. They all stay away from me because I’m so jealous.”
Her mother was taking care of newly-born chickens, and Anita held up one of them, which immediately tried to escape. The more the girl squeezed it in her hands, the more the chicken struggled.
Her mother said: “try holding it gently.”
Anita obeyed her. She opened her hands and the chicken stopped struggling. She began to stroke it and the chicken cuddled up between her fingers.
“Human beings are like that too,” said her mother. “If you want to hold onto them by any means, they escape. But if you are kind to them, they will remain for ever by your side.”
The three things
Chen Ziqin asked Confucius’s son: “does your father teach you something that we don’t know?”
The other answered: “No. Once, when I was alone, he asked if I read poetry. I said no, and he told me to read some, because poetry opens the soul to the path of divine inspiration.
“On another occasion he asked whether I practiced the rituals of adoration of God. I said no, and he told me to do so, because the act of adoring would make me understand myself. But he never kept an eye on me to see if I was obeying him.”
When Chen Ziqin left, he said to himself:
“I asked one question and was given three answers. I learned something about poetry. I learned something about the rituals of adoration. And I learned that an honest man never spies on the honesty of others.”
In search of rain
After four years of drought in the little village, the parish priest gathered everybody to make a pilgrimage to the mountain; there they would join in communal prayer to ask for rain.
In the middle of the group the priest noticed a boy all wrapped up in warm clothes and covered by a raincoat.
“Are you crazy?” he asked. “It hasn’t rained in this region for five years and you’ll die of the heat climbing the mountain!”
“I’ve got a cold, father. If we are going to pray to God for rain, can you imagine the climb back down? The downpour is going to be so heavy that it’s better to be prepared.”
At that very moment a loud roar was heard in the sky and the first drops began to fall. The faith of a boy was enough to work a miracle that thousands of men were praying for.
tags technorati : Technorati Paulo Coelho Paulo Coehlo Warrior of Light Warrior of the Light Newsletter
In a child’s mind, the imagination is alive and there are no limits. I love watching them play (their work) and learn and feel their feelings. Truthful, raw, curious little explorers, full of hope, unafraid to dream. Thank you for these beautiful stories Paulo : )
aditya,
i think that the power struggle between man and his tools is an ever going battle for control. look at time. we think we can measure it, with minutes and hours, but IT is controlling us. time is measureless and therefore truly measuring it is impossible. and so therefore, the very concept, we created, time, has used itself against us, so time is timeless.
i think if we stop controlling possesions then they shall stop trying to control us. this is one of the beliefs of buddhism, with material possesion.
Hi jay !
“dare I consider myself a warrior of the light?” well everyone is a warrior of light, some are not aware that they r, some are not doing anything about it, kind of sleeping, but that does not make them anything else, at the most a sleeping warrior of light. sooner or later everyone will have to become an active warrior too, that is the only way, irrespective of whatever religion / dogma / sect may be our road map.
faith and patience are the two banks that support our existance as wol.
aditya
dare I consider myself a warrior of the light? It would be absurd for me to say so, but perhaps it is true. a cold and a broken halleluja. The good lord blesses us all continuously. he has answered my prayers and bids me to find him. doubts persist, but my faith returns to me, and I am transformed by its power.
tom, friends !
to me it appears that somehow this site is not so easily ‘available’ as the other daily blog, maybe that is why the responses have come down.
On this journey of the warrior of light there may be periods of action and periods of rest, but one factor remains common, remaining aware to the fact that one is a wol.
Tom, thank u.
if u see the kind of ‘programming’ that is done by the media, the information overload to which people are subjected to, hindus beleive that the world we perceive is virtual anyway again in that virual world we have so many further virual realities like internet that one remains busy from morning till one sleeps, yet one knows hardly where all the time went by. it’s only when one becomes aware of all this that one can do something about being able to use all the ‘tools’ available to us and not end up being used by those tools.
regards
aditya
I really liked your story: What is treason?
I just don’t know what to say.. It’s wonderful.. It summarizes a very simple yet complicated fact in a very amazing writing style.
I would translate it into Arabic for my friends..
Thank you..
so i printed this out and passed it around at work knowing that each person here would get something from each conversation.
i just loved the reaction from each individual.
thank you Warrior Paulo for sharing and having this site.
brightlightwarriornika
aditya, thats exactly what i was trying to get across. thankyou for simplifying the phrase. i believe that in a society full of so much advertisement, capitalism and extortion, it takes a “pure” mind to judge circummstances.
it sure has gotten quiet around here hasnt it, i wanted to read at least three comments but i was slightly disappointed. come warriors, paulo, the busy man that he is, has taken time to give us something to read.
So true ! children have minds which are uncorrupted by opinions.
I have had some of my most precious insights while walking / talking with small children.
aditya
children are often purer than adults, they say simple things that make so much sense and yet they are not listened to as much as adults. i very much liked the first and last of the stories. one of faith and one of treason. they are both linked. treason is having a lack of faith in what you are committing the treason against.
i realised so many things by reading one post