Here we are, almost in the middle of the year. I’ve never believed in coincidences, but feel that having written the series about cardinal sins without thinking about the calendar, and noting that sloth ends up being published when many of our decisions on January 1 are already underway or abandoned, should be a sign for all of us.
Dictionary definition: feminine noun, from the Latin Prigritia. Aversion to work, negligence, indolence.
For the Catholic Church: all live beings that move should earn their daily bread with the sweat of their face, and not be always thinking about safe and immediate results. Sloth is lack of physical or spiritual effort, which degenerates the soul and leads to sadness and depression.
An old fable passed on orally: As soon as he died, Juan found himself in a very beautiful place, surrounded by the comfort and beauty that he had dreamt of. A person dressed in white came up: ‘you have the right to whatever you want: any food, pleasure, fun”, he said.
Delighted, Juan did everything he had dreamt of during life. After many years of pleasures, he looked for the person in white:
“I’ve already done everything I wanted to”, he said. “Now I need some work, to feel useful”.
“I’m very sorry”, said the person in white, “but this is the only thing that I cannot get for you. Here there is no work”.
“To spend eternity dying of tedium? I would prefer a thousand times to be in hell!”
The person in white came up, and said in a low voice:
“Where do you think you are?”
According to Winnie Albert: How can a society survive if it is increasingly more focused on frozen foods, instant photographs, mashed potatoes, speed reading and electronic calculators?
Sociology of sloth: Both he who overworks, and those that refuse to work, are reacting in the same way – trying to get away from the natural problems of any human being, avoiding thinking about the close reality and about the responsibilities inherent to a normal life (Source: The compulsive worker, Oxford, 2001)
According to Buddhism: Traditionally, sloth is one of the principal obstacles to awakening the soul. It is manifested in three ways: the sloth of comfort, which makes us stay always in the same place. Sloth of the heart, when we feel discouraged and unstimulated. Finally, the sloth of bitterness, when nothing matters more to us, and we are already not part of this world (Source: Pema Shodron in Shambala Sun, November 1998)
Comment from the Tao Te King: A man on the path adapts to the Path. An upright man adapts to Virtue. A man who loses something resigns himself to the Loss. He who adapts to the Path is happily accepted by it. He that is upright is accepted by Virtue. He that resigns himself to the loss is accepted by the Loss.
Therefore, already almost in mid-2007: We are accustomed to asking ourselves: Where does inspiration come from? Where is the joy of living? Is all this effort worth while, because during all the year gone by I tried to go beyond my limits, I sustained my family, I behaved as well as possible, and even so I did not arrive where I wanted to?
A warrior of the light understands that awakening is a long process, and that it is necessary to balance contemplation and work to get where one wants. It is not reflecting on what one did not get that he will change; quite the contrary, in these questions is the germ of inaction, of lack of incentive. Yes, perhaps we have done everything right and the results are not visible, but I am certain: there are results. They will surely be revealed as we go along– if we do not give up now.
Happy work to everyone.
Hi there, what made you want to write on n°143: Seventh deadly sin – Sloth at Warrior Of Light? I was wondering, because I have been thinking about this since last Saturday.
Awesome!!!
Hi BenRaq,
lucky that u have ‘free time’. u too work for the company where u’r boss works, u too have brains, I have nothing against you asking your boss for more work, but can u not find somethings to do which will be beneficial to the company, on your own also. Of course when Boss gives u work that is first priority, but surely u can also look around and see what all needs to be done.
Best of all why cannot u remain with yourself peacefully, even when u have no work & no enetrtainment either. It’s great to have company of others, can we not enjoy our own company also. just kidding !
aditya
Alas…As I read this post, All my colleagues at work are busy working. No project has been assigned to me for two days now and this inactivity have some sort tired me more. I have wrestled with it alot, whether it is of the heart or comfort.
Can being timid be equated with being a sloth?
Maybe its time I ask my superior for work. Again.
It’s great to see Paulo is off on his travells again!!
I just bought the Witch of… will have to read it over the next few days..
Just going thru the inputs from all of u here, suddenly a thought strikes me, i write on the nearest available means, so here it is
SAMADHI – IT’S CONSCIOUSNESS REFLECTING BACK UPON ITSELF !
my feeling / experience is that as one tries to become more & more religious one gets further & further away from sins. Religious as in religion of Christ not church.
.
josephine
lovely.i like the last part specially.We all are surely bottles filled with stars ..we all are the universe…there is a connection the rays from distant stars emitted long ago reach us only now..
Fire and Ice
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in Ice.
From what I ‘ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Robert Frost
Ya’ll are probably wondering what this has to do with sloth. I have found that people who are full of hate, are usually envious and desire things that other people have, which they do not. To compound the issue they are to lazy to get up (excuse the french) of their ass and do something to change their lives. I have a tremendous amount of compassion for children. A child cannot help where they are born or who they are born to. Hence, equality technically does not exist. An adult has the power and the choice to make soemthing of themselves. Create the equality for themselves. Now I know that it is very hard to break cycles. Especially if the enviroment you are born into is a tough one. But it can be done. People can change their stars. They are either to slovenly (lazy) to do it. It is always easier to covet then to go and make it happen for yourself. Or they can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. I know this is harsh to an extent. But if a human wants change it takes action. Hope, I did not offend anyone.
Rion
There is a strong power in desire
maybe connected to survival instinct,
very animalic…
the human is the only(?) animal reflecting
upon it’s on actions, and surely also the only
one who needs to do it!
(though it has not brought as much change
as one could hope…)
To find the balance,
to be in the flow…
You can not catch life
and keep it in a little bottle.
Your body is the “bottle”,
your thoughts are twinkling stars,
the past is connected with the present,
my soul is full of music.
*little smile*
Josephine
Hi Tom ! friends !
My own expenreince is that all of us have all the ‘personalities’ in diffrent degrees. It is not as if one will be only envious & not greedy. The whole lot ( the eight cardinal sins )seems like one package deal, although proportions may be varying. Secondly we may be slothful ( if there is such a word ) at some times and then maybe glutonous at some other time, & so on.
Sloth does not emanet from lack of desires but on the contarary it originates from too much desire for comfort. Root cause for all sins remain excessevie ( lustful if u please ) desires !
wols ( Paulo included )- would u like to share what u distilled over these wonderful ‘discussions’ on cardinal sins. Thanks for the oppertunity Paulo, wol no. 1.
cheers !
aditya
i treat sins as people because i know a personality that describes each one. sloth is the person who always thinks there will be a tommorow coming up with the excuse “ill do it some other time”. sloth wont let people with differant opinions in , and therefore never has any fresh ideas. it just sits there and does nothing and so when its last day comes it looks back and complains , as the saying goes “we are born crying , live complaining and die unfulfilled”
Dear Paulo, and everyone who is reading this!
Just to say I poasted a few pictures on my webpage of a small grotto in the south of Ireland..
It took me a few years to mack my way back..
Anyhow, I can close a page of my book and turn to the new story.
plans for spring cleaning
I’m on my front porch dreaming
dust will have to wait
This is my delema. As a full time worker and a big house to take care of I feel like sloth when I want to dream. What I really want is a small space but my husband wants a house. The kids are gone and I feel our things own us. So the house gets dusty. It is not sloth to enjoy the beautiful day dreaming, but I still feel guilty.
Hi Mr coelho, thanks for your books. All I can say is that a smile goes a long way and listening intently to anyone, be it a loved one or a stranger is so healing. Also I make it my daily practice to look into the eyes of anyone I am talking to because the eyes are the windows of the soul. Pay attention to everything around you and yes at the age of 53 it took me this long!!! Why didn’t someone tell me earlier? Is this a big joke or am I just dumb? I really do not believe I am dumb, but maybe Shakespeare was right – The World is but a stage – and we play our parts – I can’t remember the rest. No I am not a university student, that’s why I can’t remember the rest.
Anyway thank you most sincerely for your wisdom, I have read every philosopher’s guidance,but Marcus Aurelius and Kahlil Gibran and Rumi are my favourite mentors of wisdom including yourself.
Yours sincerely
Dot O’Brien
Hi Paul
I am a great fan of your works. I sent an email last night and it didn’t get to you but I hope this one does.
I have read many of your books and they make me want to reflect on every aspect of my day.
I am a sales person in a health food store which sells herbs and vitamins and alternative medicine. I have used this avenue to help many people. Every customer is a chance to use my attention. I make it a daily rule to listen and pay attention to every person that I have contact with. Even if it is eye contact. And you know what? People that work in the shopping centre that I work in have gradually become very frequent in my store. But all it is, is a caring smile, time to listen and people can see it in your eyes that you really care. The eyes are the window to the soul, as the saying goes, and I really believe in that. Thank you Mr Coelho for your books, I am just beginning to get the wisdom. It took me 53 years to get here, but I wont stop now. To my future!!!!
thanks,
all the best ,and magic !!!
omer Bar
Hey, I finally got around to opening your email on slot, took some time to get off the couch. And then I read that the end of March is almost mid 2007, it took a bit for this old man to get his head around that one.
So a little over two weeks ago I was in India on a 3 week journey, each day living in the moment, fully alive in that most wonderful of places, life is there everyday to be experience, lived and seen. Now I am home in the rain forest of Western Canada with the eternal grey skies and rain, rain, rain. I have been spending some time on the couch asking why not? why not so many things.
And then I read about slot, what a delightful word, I travelled to the other side of the planet to live in the moment and I brought home a bunch of photos. I think I missed something?
That is what happens when one is warm and comfortable and his basic needs are cared for, yuk!
So here is the spirtual challenge, how to stay totally alive in this moment right now?
Opps, got to go now, the couch is calling and that important TV program that I just can’t miss.
SLOT you say?
In choosing light: I choose good works. And when I do it…I always love it. I dreaded my work yesterday…then I did it, I got up on that stage…and I was right were I needed to be. I’m learning not to listen to that voice, the voice that offers reasons for why not, all I need is to just do, and it will all turn out for the best.
Thank you so kindly for your manuals, they help me to stay in the right conversation.
One day I remember…walking down the street in the late fall, on Prince St. I felt eyes on me, and when I turned around I saw you. It did not seem appropriate to disturb you. But I did see you smile. I smiled only to myself because aside from being a little shy, I know that birds of a feather, flock together. I just had finished “The Zahir” by a day or two. It was a reminder to me to stay focused…the keep listening to my heart. And gave me yet another reason to thank you for following your dream…you have given so many of us the manuals we so need at this time. And that’s manuals, plural.
Yours in light.
Debbie,
That was awsome.
thanks for your book (warrior of the light), it was the best book i ever read, it taught me a lot about the experiences of life, it made me learn how to accept failure because i was inspired by this book, i decided to translate it into arabic.
yours faithfully
Athra
from SYRIA.
[quote comment="2821"]And a butterfly in a simple motion somewhere sets off a typhoon on the other end of the world: String Theory. Not too accurate, but will do for the current level of information displayed here.
What is sloth? What is sight? And what is comprehension?[/quote]
can’t help but write something in response to infinity.
Thanks for correcting. So it’s string theory and not chaos theory, hmmm. for dummies like me both sound almost equally alien. Do u have in mind any book like “string theory for dummies”, i once read a similar book on chaos theory, follwed it till it remain non mathematical, once it stareted getting into maths, something which scares the hell out of me, I ababdoned it. So just to know if their is any book which can explain the string theory to a layman.
Of your three questions above, pl do let me ( us ) know whatever u learn in the next 10 days and share with us, if u please. please.
A thought comes to my mind about sight – what sight do u mean, as in physical eyesight, as in seeing, right ! sight exists becasue we see, how to put it. OK. for a moment forget that u have sight, imagine the world, and ’see’ / visualise things at subatomic level, now ’see’ what this light is, a em radiation within a particular rage of properties, how it inateracts eith the objets, falls on the eye and gets noticed by …..what, u. The last part, oberver, u are as much a part of sight, without that (instrument / soul / self whatever ) which comprehends, no sight exists. That is why diffrent people ’see’ or rather note diffrent things, even when they may be seeing the same thing ( a famous test was designed in which they show u a photograph and ask u to write stories about the photograph )
Hope the above makes some sence.
aditya
thank you paulo..that’s the push i need…i’ve been dreading my upcoming work, i feel uninspired and not so willing to sweat it out…this sloth entry is very timely, i feel that it’s God ’s way of sending messages to me that i should not be afraid. Thank you
a story about sloth : a young man sat at his grand fathers bed , and his grand father said “why are you not out with your friends ?” and the young man replied ” i can just go out with them tommorow” and so the grand father sat up and said “that was my excuse” the old man continued “all of my friends are dead now , when you use that excuse , your only friends are unfulfillment and sloth” with that the young man went with his friends. the next day , the young man sat with his friends and so did the grand father…..
Once again your words have spoken to me about something that has been weighing on my soul. I work very hard and often wonder if it is all worth it~ but I agree with you that there are results, even if they are not always apparenrt, it is worth it and to not give up. It is important to be active in the pursuit of our dreams, not just mentally but physically as well. Thank you, God Bless. I am becoming happier in my work
And a butterfly in a simple motion somewhere sets off a typhoon on the other end of the world: String Theory. Not too accurate, but will do for the current level of information displayed here.
What is sloth? What is sight? And what is comprehension?
THANK YOU! That’s all that’s on my heart. Thank you Paulo. Gracias.
Yesterday I took a book from the library on the subject of anxiety to fail. So, now I can maybe begin with building a bridge over what to me is a ravine. Without the books of Paulo, the support and the mirrors of my fellow-humans, I would never have come this far.
So I would like to thank you all, for your discussions, feelings and mirrors. And the kick behind my but.
And I would like to apologize, for maybe an insult or moaning.
Thank you for listening to my pieces of the puzzle, my contradictions, my sun and moon.
Thank you for sharing your experiences, your sun and moon.
Thanxxx dear Paulo and warriors.
Indeed: love, light, life.
Mirjam
You get what you need at the time you are ready for it. Reading on this sin I came to the realization that I want to stop. I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired. But the cronic committting of this sin for me took root because I was un-inspired and bored and i got lazier by the day.Now I have Had to force myself to appreciate the everyday things that are a part of my life. U know fall in love with life, with myself. And we all know relationship maintenance is hard work. Considering the spiritual bigger picture. i should consider it a priveledge to costantly be ‘working’ on myself. One Love.
Working with all areas of life seems to be the main challange.
To press ahead and not to get stuck in any place for too long.
To lay a solid foundation instead of seeking instant reward.
It is true that this will require what many people would regard as sacrifice. But it is really not more of a sacrifice than burning the fuel of an engine, or the calories of your body, to get you where you will to go.
The final sin and time out requested by A.V.C. I have really enjoyed our discussions – thank you all. Time to get back to work.
Love, Light, Life!
The timing on this was just right and just what i needed to be reminded of.
Thank you.
I was going to make a comment, but it’s too much work.
this was like a slap in the face to me. I am depressed, very depressed. I have lost a lot in the last year, a lover, a sister to a car accident, my father got in a car accident and had severe head damage, which has left him unable to work, and depressed himself. I left my full time job, but in the midts of all this, I still feel that I am trying to fight through this. I feel like a sloth, I am currently unemployed, however I am going to school full time. So perhaps I am not a sloth, but at some times I feel so very un-productive. I feel your newest blog is just amazing, and hopefully this slap in the face will wake me up and help me to work even harder at getting out of this slump. Im looking forward to the release of your next book, thank you once again man, sometimes I wouldnt know what to do without your writings.
Hay Paulo,
I am at work now working till one am! I am rewading your books everynight whan I get home. “Like a River Flowing” and “The Pilgramage.” In this way I find the balance to my days, because of work I am living over a hundred miles from home for a few weeks. As I have said I am pretty close to Mellary.
I visited the famopus Grotto two days ago. I was struck when I entered the grotto. It was amazing. I did not remember much o0f it from my childhood, but now it is embedded in my mind and heart. I will go back very soon and pray for a few hours if I can.
Pray for myself and my loved ones, my freinds and for you Paulo. So if you hear a little voice over the next week calling you here to Ireloand, it will be me in the Grotto, on my own praying with Mary for a miricle.
You have giving me the strenght to follow my faith.
On another note, I have been very ill with a stomach bug from the water supply in my home town Galway, look it up!!
For over a week I was very ill. When I did go to the fgrotto I drank from the water flowing there. I am now very well two days later.
P.S. I have given up milk for the moment from your words in Like a River Flowing! I bought soya today.. I need to loose a few pounds anyway..
Kealan
Thanks Paulo !
Thanks for taking the pains for me , us and thanks for bearing with me, us. Thanks for reminding ( middle of the year ! already, never earlier did i see march like that), thanks for encouraging ( I was in two minds about pursuing further my pet project of creating a device which helps people “enjoy the world while at the same time not forgetting the drops of oil on the spoon” as Your wise man said in ‘The Alchemist’). It sometiems becomes too frustrating to carryon, when people refuse to accept simple truths which is not comming thru any ‘authority’.
Thanks for being the symbol of faith that u have become. U r the real alchemist, who could convert all the hurt / injustice done to him into so much love.
Aditya
First I would like to say Thank You for the seven deadly sins post. It is been great reading what others had to say on each. It has also given me the chance to look eternal, a do some self check maintenance, not saying I’ve got it down packed. What I’ve realized though through my studying and analyzing and asking the Divine for answers is that. I will always sin, for I am human, but that doesn’t give me the go ahead to act a like a donkey. I will always try to live my best not because of fear, but because of LOVE!
Well, once again Warrior Thank you,
Marie AKA (bright light warrior Nika)
Oh yeah I loved an old fable passed on orally
I’m sitting at my desk Laughing out Loud!
TO:dear paulo
CC:everyone.
keeping in tune with the problem sloth,how come people always feel the urge not to work and be inert? to work for the bread would be replaced by to work for a cake,then maybe something more,so we come to a question which has ling pondered me and has made me try a little say gauche things:
‘TO BE OR NOT TO BE- THAT IS THE QUESTION’
(from hamlet).
how can a person decide what is good and bad-you in one of your books had mentioned the difference between the way the angle offers to help and how the devil does.It still needs us to discover which one is who,because i still find that i am the actor in all respects.The world is made of one power,it is like it is in front of mirrors which reflect it.Everything is active on its own,yet it is the same.So then how can we classify a particular act as sin?i am able to understand that they are simple guidelines for the society-but why use the name God?why call every man a sinner?and make him feel guilty when for all the universe is a messenger.Taking that the life on earth is for gaining experience for something else-a journey which the light from the source has to reach the mirror,why should people think what they do is wrong and regret?life seems full of things we amalgamise everything into one in the end,we stop at a point and think,then we start again,as you have told ‘LIFE GIVES US A SECOND CHANCE”(INFACT I THANK YOU,I REALISED THAT IT DOES AND TOOK NOTICE OF THINGS WHICH APPEAR A SECOND TIME,NOW I FEAR NOTHING.),so again we start with the same old thing and try a different path,yet we reach the same place but a little stronger then the previous night.So what is all this about living?what if there is nothing? and everything suddenly disappears? as a hindu i know the power of mantras,i don’t believe that god is only in the statue,if he is then he is there in every inch,since the materials for that came from the soil.I also understood the basic ideas of hinduism(buddhism).There is one within,it is that i worship, it is that which will lead me,i love it as love everything,let it be the devil,it is my friend too.
with love
vishesh