Paulo Coelho

Face à l’archer d’exception venu se mesurer à lui, le maître Tetsuya donne bien plus qu’une leçon de tir à l’arc et fait une formidable démonstration des pouvoirs insoupçonnés de son art. Un jeune garçon du village, témoin de ce coup d’éclat, insiste pour qu’il lui transmette son savoir.

Le maître l’avertit : il veut bien lui apprendre les règles nécessaires, mais à lui ensuite de les faire siennes et de s’en servir pour devenir un homme meilleur. C’est ainsi que Tetsuya commence à enseigner à son nouveau disciple la mystérieuse ” voie de l’archer “, le parcours de toute une vie.

Dans la droite ligne de L’Alchimiste, Paulo Coelho nous offre un nouveau conte poétique et lumineux qui invite à réfléchir sur nous-mêmes et à chercher notre propre voie.

Chacun peut en tirer les préceptes susceptibles d’éclairer ses choix et sa vie au quotidien : s’adapter aux changements, rester concentré sur ses objectifs ou encore trouver le courage de prendre des décisions délicates.

dans toutes les librairies de France

Jean was walking with his grandfather through a public square in Paris.
At a certain point, he saw a shoemaker being mistreated by a client, whose footwear showed a flaw. The shoemaker listened calmly to the complaint and apologized, promising to correct the error.

Jean and his grandfather stopped to have coffee at a bistro.
At the table next to them, the waiter asked a man to move his chair a little in order to make space. That man burst into a torrent of complaints and refused to move.

“Never forget what you have seen today,” Jean’s grandfather said, “the shoemaker accepted the complaint, while this man next to us didn’t want to move.

“Useful men, who do useful things, don’t mind being treated as useless.

“But the useless always judge themselves as being important and hide all their incompetence behind authority.”

 

Taken from “Like a flowing river”

Posted by P. Charitha

By Liz Sawyer Star Tribune

 

Shawn Benson rested his hands beside the novel in a classroom with bars outside its window.

Nine inmates sat in a circle, taking turns dissecting “The Alchemist” — a story about discovering one’s destiny.

“The book really spoke to me,” said Benson, who’d remained silent for nearly 90 minutes as others drew parallels between the plot and the twists and turns of their own lives.

“You’re gonna figure out who you are and who you really want to be,” he recalled someone telling him about prison. “The journey he’s on is the journey I’m on right now.”

There was no wine to sip on that night. No cheese to spread. For this was no ordinary book club. It marked one of the first inside a Minnesota penitentiary, and a rare chance for offenders to convene with community members as equals over literature.

Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell organized the inaugural event at Stillwater prison in Bayport this month, inviting a handful of friends and neighbors for a wide-ranging discussion with the incarcerated men, most of whom are serving life sentences for murder.

“You would never in a million years guess that they have taken someone’s life,” said Schnell, who hand-picked the book in hopes of triggering some self-reflection about each individual’s chosen path.

“It gives perspective to people that all of us are more than one single story.”

“The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho chronicles the adventures of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy whose quest to find buried treasure helps uncover his true “Personal Legend.”

In a room peppered with posters advocating loyalty, respect and perseverance, the men allowed themselves to be vulnerable in front of perfect strangers about their own journeys — each of which has included unexpected detours.

Michael Medin, who started penning novels while imprisoned, pointed to omens in the book that helped guide the protagonist. Real life offers fortuitous warnings, too, he said, but not everyone chooses to take notice.

“I believe God put a lot of people in my path that I didn’t listen to,” Medin said. “I listened to the wrong people. My heart was set on the wrong treasure.”

Amid their spirited critiques, prisoners spent time analyzing one of the book’s most recognizable passages: “When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream.”

David Brom took that line to heart. He found comfort in the idea that some greater power might be aiding him in achieving his goals.

“When I look back, there have been some dark and difficult moments,” said Brom, who’s been locked up for 30 years. “But I’ve encountered the right person at the right time — an opportunity came up that I didn’t think would ever exist and transformed who I was.”

By Ozzy Etomi

One of the stunning books that changed my life is “Manuscript Found In Accra” by Paul Coehlo. It was recommended to me by an awesome friend, and every now and again, I read my highlighted excerpts to refresh my mind on these amazing life lessons. I, like many others, fell in love with ‘The Alchemist’ many moons ago, but it was this book that truly took my breath away. It felt like I was having a conversation with my soul.

I decided to take a breather today and share them with you:

“Seek friends and allies among people who believe in what they are doing and in who they are. Because friendship is one of the many faces of love and love is not swayed by opinions; Love accepts its companion unconditionally and allows each to grow in their own way.”

“People who seek only success rarely find it: for it is not an end, but a consequence. It is the fruit of a seed you have lovingly planted.”

“Avoid those who believe they are stronger than you, because they are actually concealing their own fragility.”

“Avoid those who seek friends in order to maintain a certain social status or to open doors they would not otherwise be able to approach. Stay close to those who are interested in opening only one important door: the door to your heart. They will never invade your soul without your consent or shoot a deadly arrow through that open door.”

“Avoid those who talk a great deal before acting, those who never take a step without being quite sure what it will bring them.”

“Stay close to those who, when you make a mistake, never said : “I would have done it differently”. They did not make that particular mistake, and are in no position to judge”

“Stay close to those who are not afraid to be vulnerable, because they have confidence in themselves and know that, at some point in our lives, we all stumble; they do not interpret this as a sign of weakness, but of humanity.”

“Blessed are those who do not fear solitude, who are not afraid of their own company, who are not always desperately looking for something to do, something to amuse themselves with, something to judge.

If you are never alone, you cannot know yourself.
And if you do not know yourself, you will begin to fear the void.”

“We are used to thinking that what we give is the same as what we receive, but people who love, expecting to be loved in return, are wasting their time.
Love is an act of faith, not an exchange.”

“We forget everything we are taught about love, because each new encounter brings its own agonies and its own ecstasies”

“In a desperate attempt to give meaning to life, many turn to religion, because a struggle in the name of faith is always a justification for some grand action that could transform the world. “We are doing God’s work”, they tell themselves. And they become devout followers, then evangelists, then finally fanatics. But they don’t understand that religion was created in order to share the mystery and to worship, not to oppress or convert others”

“Don’t allow your wounds transform you into someone you’re not”

I hope these words leave you feeling inspired, encouraged & reassured.

 

I am convinced that most of you also feel hurt when someone criticizes your work. Don’t take critics too seriously. They don’t have the power to make (or to avoid) someone buying a book, a CD, or to go to an exhibition. Don’t give them the importance they don’t have. They are trying to make a living, and that’s all.

Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how it’s done, they’ve seen it done every day, but they’re unable to do it themselves.

If I did not manage to convince you, please read the comments below:

Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you’ll be criticized anyway. ~ Anna Eleanor Roosevelt

A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him or her. ~ David Brinkley

A painting in a museum probably hears more foolish remarks than anything else in the world. ~ Edmond and Jules De Goncourt

To escape criticism — do nothing, say nothing, be nothing. ~ Elbert Hubbard

It isn’t what they say about you, it’s what they whisper. ~ Errol Flynn

If criticism had any power to harm, the skunk would be extinct by now. ~ Fred Allen

Don’t be afraid of opposition. Remember, a kite rises against, not with, the wind. ~ Hamilton Mabie

Before you criticize people, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you’re a mile away. And you have their shoes. ~ JK Lambert

A negative judgment gives you more satisfaction than praise, provided it smacks of jealousy. ~ Jean Baudrillard

Sticks and stones are hard on bones, aimed with angry art,
Words can sting like anything but silence breaks the heart.
~ Phyllis McGinley

A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still. ~ Samuel Johnson

 

 

Our Lady of Aparecida (Portuguese: Nossa Senhora Aparecida or Nossa Senhora da Conceií§í£o Aparecida) is a celebrated 18th-century clay statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the traditional form of the Immaculate Conception. The image is widely venerated by Brazilian Roman Catholics, who consider her as the principal patroness of Brazil.[1] Pious accounts claim that the statue was originally found by fishermen, who miraculously caught many fishes after invoking the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The dark statue is currently housed in the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida, Aparecida, Sí£o Paulo. The Roman Catholic Church in Brazil celebrates her feast day every October 12. Since the basilica’s consecration 1980 by Pope John Paul II, it has also been a public holiday in Brazil. The Basilica is the fourth most popular Marian shrine in the world,[3] being able to hold up to 45,000 worshippers.[2]

The image has merited the Papal sanction of Pope Pius XI in 1929 by declaring her shrine as a minor Basilica, and by Blessed Pope John Paul II in 1980, who reiterated the patronage of Brazil under the title of the Immaculate Conception.

The statue has also merited worldwide controversy in May 1978, when a Protestant intruder stole the clay statue from its shrine and broke it into pieces, and another in 1995, when a Protestant minister slandered and vandalized a copy of the statue in national Brazilian television.

To read the full story, please CLICK HERE

When I was young, my parents sent me to a mental institution three times ( 1966, 1967, 1968). The reasons in my medical files are banal. It was said that I was isolated, hostile and miserable at school. I was not crazy but I was rather just a 17-year-old who really wanted to become a writer. Because no one understood this, I was locked up for months and fed with tranquilizers. The therapy merely consisted of giving me electroshocks. I promised to myself that one day I would write about this experience, so young people will understand that we have to fight for our own dreams from a very early stage of our lives.

When I released “Veronika decides to die”, a book that was a metaphor of my experience in a lunatic asylum, the press started asking me if I forgave my parents. In fact, I did not need to forgive them, because I never blamed them for what happened. From their own point-of-view, they were trying to help me to get the discipline necessary to accomplish my deeds as an adult, and to forget the “dreams of a teenager” .

Khalil Gibran has an excellent text about parents and children:

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let our bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

 

by Piyush Sharma

 

Everybody makes mistakes, as it is only human. But there are a very few among us who actually learn from our mistakes. The first step is to accept your mistake and make peace with it, and only then can you expect yourself to make a change.

This is what celebrated author Paulo Coelho has to say on repeating your mistakes,  “When you repeat a mistake, it is not a mistake anymore: it is a decision.”

Here are few mistakes that smart people never make twice, something that the rest of us can learn from:

1. Repeating The Same Mistake Again & Again And Expecting Different Results

© The Quote

As the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos has said, “If you double the number of experiments you do per year, you are going to double your inventiveness.”

You cannot get a different result if you put the same constants in the same equation. If you know smoking or drinking is making your health worse, then you need to quit it and not keep dreaming about quitting someday. If you want to change the end result, you need to change the input as well.

2. Spending Over The Budget

© AZ Quote`

Your friends might be planning a trip, but if you join them even though it is out of your budget, then you are in trouble. You might be having a serious problem of always being in debt. In simple words, you need to learn how to live under your means. Smart people never make that mistake twice. If they know skipping a latte can help them save Rs. 6,000 a year, then they will save it and will take the advantage of an opportunity of investing when it knocks on their door.

3. Losing Sight Of The Ultimate Goal

It is easy to lose sight of the big picture when you get busy in the daily schedule of your work life. You may skip working hard once in a while, come late to office or take a leave without informing on time. These could be some of the factors that may be taken into account at the time of your appraisals. Now, maybe getting a 50 percent raise this year was your particular goal but you lost the motivation to chase down the dream somewhere in between.

4. Playing The Victim

© Thinkstock

Take this particular relationship for instance. A partner in a relationship always acts as a victim and another one acts as the one who is given the responsibility to solve his partners’ problem. Do you think this relationship can thrive? Can someone solve your problems for you? No. The person who is trying to solve the problem in such situations often fails, as he is doing it for the sake of being acceptable or liked in favor of solving that problem.

After learning a lesson the hard way, smart people do not indulge in such a relationship or consider using such metrics to measure their happiness.

5. Trying To Be Someone Else Or Being A People Pleaser

Everyone knows that it is practically impossible to make everyone happy, also that it is a toxic practice. However, smart people know the importance of authenticity and very rarely change their behavior for the sake of pleasing the ones before them. The more authentic your behavior is, you’ll find yourself in a better circle of people who respect you.

For example, in Russia, people often speak out what they have in mind and not what they are expected to say, as per the culture followed in western countries. They prefer keeping it straight and honest, even if it sounds rude at first. They believe in speaking their mind and not what others want to hear. Now, you might be thinking how does that help them? Shouldn’t one be always polite? Well, such a level of honesty helps them in developing trust. They don’t tend to fake it just to be liked.

6. Trying To Change Someone Else

Smart people are fully aware that no one can change them besides themselves, nor do they possess the ability to bring about a major change in someone else.