Words to contemplate and stir the imagination
1..Quote from a passage from John Bunyan;
“Although I have been through all that I have, I do not regret the many hardships I met, because it was they who brought me to the place I wished to reach… I carry with me the marks and scars of battle—they are the witnesses of what I suffered and the rewards of what I conquered.
2.An introduction to The Alchemist ( Paulo Coelho )
So, why is it so important to live some personal calling if we are only going to suffer more than other people? Because once we have overcome the defeats - and we always do – we are filled with a greater sense of euphoria and confidence. In the silence of our hearts we know that we are proving ourselves worthy of the miracle of life. Each day, each hour is part of the good fight. We start to live with enthusiasm and pleasure … for if you once believe yourself worthy of the thing you fought so hard to get, then you become an Instrument of God, you help the Soul of the World, and you understand why you are here.
3.EXTRACT FROM THE WARRIOR OF THE LIGHT by Paul Coelho
Every Warrior of the Light has felt afraid of going into battle.
Every Warrior of the Light has, at some time in the past, lied or betrayed someone.
Every Warrior of the Light has trodden a path that was not his.
Every Warrior of the Light has suffered for the most trivial of reasons.
Every Warrior of the Light has, at least once, believed that he was not a Warrior of the Light.
Every Warrior of the Light has failed in his spiritual duties.
Every Warrior of the Light has said “yes” when he wanted to say “no”.
Every Warrior of the Light has hurt someone he loved.
That is why he is a Warrior of the Light, because he has been through all this and yet he has never lost hope of being better than he is.
Extracts from the Alchemist—( Paulo Coelho ) 11 May, 2009
4.The legend of Narcissus:
Narcissus was a youth who knelt daily beside a lake to contemplate his own beauty. He was so fascinated by himself that, one morning, he fell into the lake and drowned. At the spot where he fell, a flower was born, which was called the narcissus.
But this was not how the author of the book ended the story.
He said that when Narcissus died, the goddess of the forest appeared and found the lake , which had been fresh water, transformed into a lake of salty tears.
“ Why do you weep?” the goddesses asked.
“ I weep for Narcissus” the lake replied.
“ Ah, it is no surprise that you weep for Narcissus,” they said, “ for though we always pursued him in the forest, you alone could contemplate his beauty close at hand.”
“ But … was Narcissus beautiful?” the lake asked.
“ Who better than you to know that?” the goddesses said in wonder. “ After all, it was by your banks that he knelt each day to contemplate himself!”
The lake was silent for some time. Finally, it said:
“ I weep for Narcissus, but I never noticed that Narcissus was beautiful. I weep because, each time he knelt beside my banks, I could see, in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty reflected.”
5. The world was huge and inexhaustible; he had only to allow his sheep to set the route for a while, and he would discover other interesting things. The problem is they don’t even realize that they’re walking a new road everyday. They don’t even see that the fields are new and the seasons change. All they think about is food and water.
Maybe we’re all that way, the boy mused.
6. It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.
7. Dreams are the language of God. When he speaks in our language, I can interpret what he has said. But if he speaks in the language of the soul, it is only you who can understand.
8. It’s the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary; only wise men are able to understand them. And since I am not wise, I have had to learn other arts, such as the reading of palms.
9. I only interpret dreams. I don’t know how to turn them into reality. That’s why I have to live off what my daughters provide me with.
10. That was what made travelling appeal to him – he always made new friends, and he didn’t need to spend all of his time with them. When someone sees the same people every day, as had happened with him at the seminary, they wind up becoming a part of that person’s life. And then they want the person to change. If someone isn’t what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.
11. This is an important book, but it’s really irritating…. It’s a book that says the same thing almost all the other books in the world say… It describes people’s inability to choose their own destinies. And it ends up saying that everyone believes the world’s greatest lie.
What is the world’s greatest lie?
It’s this; that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what’s happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That is the world’s greatest lie.
12.“Where are you from?” the boy asked
“ From many places.”
“ No one can be from many places, “ the boy said. “ I’m a shepherd and I have been to many places, but I come from only one place – from a city near an ancient castle. That’s where I was born.
13. People say strange things , the boy thought. Sometimes its better to be with the sheep, who don’t say anything. And better still to be alone with one’s books . They tell their incredible stories at the time when you want to hear them. But when you’re talking to people they say things that are so strange that you don’t know how to continue the conversation.
14. Why would a king be talking to a shepherd?
For several reasons. But let’s say that the most important is that you have succeeded in discovering your destiny.
Destiny is what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone, when they are young, knows what their destiny is.
At that point in their lives, everything is clear and everything is possible. They are not afraid to dream and to yearn for everything they would like to see happen in their lives. But, as time passes, a mysterious force begins to convince them that it will be impossible for them to realize their destiny.
It’s a force that appears to be negative, but actually shows you how to realize your destiny. It prepares your spirit and your will, because there is one great truth on this planet, whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, it’s because that desire originated in the soul of the universe. It’s your mission on earth.
The Soul of the World is nourished by people’s happiness. And also by unhappiness, envy, and jealousy. To realize one’s destiny is a person’s only real obligation. All things are one.
And when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.
15. People are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.
16. In the long run, what people think about shepherds and bakers becomes more important for them than their own destinies.
17. “You are trying to realize your destiny. And you are at the point when you’re about to give it all up”.
“And that’s when you always appear on the scene”.
“I always appear in one form or another. Sometimes I appear in the form of a solution or a good idea. At other times, at a crucial moment, I make it easier for things to happen. There are other things I do, too, but most of the time people don’t realize I’ve done them.
18. People learn, early in their lives, what is their reason for being. Maybe that’s why they give up on it so early, too. But that’s the way it is.
19. Everything in life has its price.
20. He had to choose between something he had become accustomed to and something he wanted to have.
21. When each day is the same as the next, it’s because people fail to recognize the good things that happen in their lives every day that the sun rises.
22. The principle of favorability or beginner’s luck – Is a force that wants you to realize your destiny; it whets your appetite with a taste of success.
23. God has prepared a path for everyone to follow. You just have to read the omens that he left for you.
24. Don’t forget that everything you deal with is one thing and nothing else. And don’t forget the language of omens. And, above all, don’t forget to follow your destiny through to its conclusion.
25. The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon.
26. I’m like everyone else – I see the world in terms of what I would like to see happen, not what actually does.
27. There are certain things one shouldn’t ask about, so as not to flee from one’s destiny.
28. He realized that he had to choose between thinking of himself as the poor victim of a thief and as an adventurer in quest of his treasure.
“I’m an adventurer , looking for treasure”, he said to himself.
29. He had not a cent in his pocket, but he had faith.
30. “This candy merchant isn’t making candy so that he can travel or marry a shopkeeper’s daughter. He’s doing it because it’s what he wants to do”, thought the boy. He realized that he could do the same thing the old man had done – sense whether a person was near to or far from his destiny. Just by looking at them. It’s easy, but I’ve never done it before, he thought.
31. There must be a language that doesn’t depend on words, the boy thought. I’ve already had that experience with my sheep, and now it’s happening with people.
32. He was learning a lot of new things. Some of them were things that he had already experienced, and weren’t really new, but that he had never perceived before. And he hadn’t perceived them because he had become accustomed to them. He realized: If I can learn to understand this language without words, I can learn to understand the world.
33. “Why did you let me clean the crystal?” the boy asked.
“ Because the crystal was dirty. And both you and I needed to cleanse our minds of negative thoughts”.
34. It was as if the world had fallen silent, because the boy’s soul had.
35. When I took my sheep through the fields some of them might have died if we had come upon a snake. But that’s the way life is with sheep and with shepherds.
36. We have to take advantage when luck is on our side, and do as much to help it as it’s doing to help us. It’s called the principle of favorability or beginner’s luck.
37. I’m afraid is my dream is realized, I’ll have no reason to go on living. … I’m afraid that it would all be a disappointment, so I prefer to just dream about it. ( Not everyone can see his dreams come true in the same way.)
38. You must always know what it is that you want.
39. I have been told that beauty is the great seducer of men.
40. I don’t want to change anything, because I don’t know how to deal with change. I’m used to the way I am.
41. I understand something I didn’t see before: every blessing ignored becomes a curse.
42. I know the things I should be able to accomplish, and I don’t want to do so.
43. There are probably other things in the world that the sheep can’t teach me, thought the boy as he regarded the old merchant. All they ever do, really, is look for food and water. And maybe it wasn’t that they were teaching me, but that I was learning from them.
44. Sometimes, there’s just no way to hold back the river.
45. Never stop dreaming. Follow the omens.
46. There was a language in the world that everyone understood….. It was the language of enthusiasm, of things accomplished with love and purpose, and as part of a search for something believed in, and desired.
47. He had worked for an entire year to make a dream come true, and that dream, minute by minute, was becoming less important. Maybe because that wasn’t really his dream.
48. I know why I want to get back to my flock, he thought. I understand sheep; they’re no longer a problem, and they can be good friends. On the other hand, I don’t know if the desert can be a friend, and it’s in the desert that I have to search for my treasure. If I don’t find it, I can always go home. I finally have enough money, and all the time I need. Why not?
49. Making a decision was only the beginning of things. When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision.
50. If I could, I’d write a huge encyclopedia just about the words luck and coincidence. It’s with those words that the universal language is written.
51. Coincidence : The mysterious chain that links one thing to another.
52. The closer one gets to realizing his destiny, the more that destiny becomes his true reason for being, thought the boy.
53. The desert is so huge and the horizons so distant , that they make a person feel small, and as if he should remain silent.
54. I’ve learned things from the sheep, and I’ve learned things from crystal, he thought. I can learn something from the desert, too. It seems old and wise.
55. Intuition: Intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life, where the histories of all people are connected, and we are able to know everything, because it’s all written there.
56. No matter how many detours and adjustments it made, the caravan moved towards the same compass point. Once obstacles were overcome, it returned to its course, sighting on a star that indicated the location of the oasis. When the people saw that star shining in the sky, they knew they were on the right course toward water, palm trees , shelter and other people.
57. Disaster made one understand the word of Allah : people need not fear the unknown if they are capable of achieving what they need and want.
58. We are afraid of losing what we have, whether it’s our life or our possessions and property. But this fear evaporates when we understand that our life stories and the history of the world were written by the same hand.
59. Once you get into the desert, there’s no going back. And, when you can’t go back, you have to worry only about the best way of moving forward. The rest is up to Allah, including the danger.
60. You should pay more attention to the caravan. We make a lot of detours, but we’re always heading for the same destination.
61. When you want something with all your heart, that’s when you are closest to the Soul of the World. It’s always a positive force.
62. Everything on earth is being continuously transformed, because the earth is alive … it has a soul. We are part of that soul, so we rarely recognize that it is working for us. But in the crystal shop you probably realized that even the glasses were collaborating in your success.
63. The caravan and the desert speak the same language, and it’s for that reason that the desert allows the crossing. It’s going to test the caravan’s every step to see if it’s in time, and, if it is, we will make it to the oasis.
If either of us had joined this caravan based only on personal courage, but without understanding that language, this journey would have been much more difficult.
64. Alchemists believed that if a metal were heated for many years, it would free itself of all its individual properties, and what was left would be the Soul of the World. This Soul of the World allowed them to understand anything on the face of the earth., because it was the language with which all things communicated.
“Can’t you just observe men and omens in order to understand the language?” the boy asked.
65 The alchemists spent so much time close to the fire that gradually they gave up the vanities of the world. They discovered that purification of the metals had led to a purification of themselves.
66.The boy was becoming more and more convinced that alchemy could be learned in one’s daily life.
67. The lives of the various people who succeeded in transforming everything into gold were fascinating stories : each of them had lived out his destiny to the end.
68. “Did you learn anything?” the Englishman asked the boy.
“I learned that the world has a soul, and that whoever understands that soul can also understand the language of things.
“I learned that many alchemists realized their destinies, and wound up discovering the Soul of the World, the Philosopher’s Stone, and the Elixir of Life.
“But, above all, I learned that these things are all so simple that they could be written on the surface of an emerald”.
40. Everyone has his or her own way of learning things, the boy said to himself. His way isn’t the same as mine, nor mine as his. But we’re both in search of our destinies, and I respect him for that.
41. I don’t live in either my past or my future. I’m interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you’ll be a happy man… Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we are living right now.
42. Maybe God created the desert so that man could appreciate the date trees, he thought.
43. I don’t know why these things ( secrets of the alchemists ) have to be transmitted by word of mouth. It wasn’t exactly that they were secrets; God revealed his secrets easily to all his creatures.
He had only one explanation for this fact: things have to be transmitted this way because they were made up from the pure life, and this kind of life cannot be captured in pictures or words. Because people become fascinated with pictures and words, and wind up forgetting the Language of the World.
69. The boy thought about his treasure. The closer he got to the realization of his dream, the more difficult things became. It seemed as if what the old king had called ‘beginner’s luck’ were no longer functioning. In his pursuit of the dream, he was being constantly subjected to tests of his persistence and courage. So he could not be hasty, nor impatient. If he pushed forward impulsively, he would fail to see the signs and omens left by God along his path.
70. Omens : A language used by God to indicate what he should do.
71.. When you understand the universal language, it’s easy to understand that someone in the world awaits you, whether it’s in the middle of the desert or in some great city. And when two such people encounter each other, and their eyes meet, the past and the future become unimportant. There is only that moment, and the incredible certainty that everything under the sun has been written by one hand only. It is the hand that evokes love, and creates a twin soul for every person in the world. Without such love, one’s dreams would have no meaning.
72. I’m a desert woman, and I’m proud of that. I want my husband to wander as free as the wind that shapes the dunes. And, if I have to, I will accept the fact that he has become a part of the clouds, and the animals, and the water of the desert.
73. This is the first phase of the job. To do that successfully, I must have no fear of failure. It was my fear of failure that first kept me from attempting the Master Work.
74. Sometimes it was just that people, looking at what was occurring around them, could find a means of penetration to the Soul of the World.
75. Maybe I just want to know the future so I can prepare myself for what’s coming.
If good things are coming, they will be a pleasant surprise. If bad things are, and you know in advance, you will suffer greatly before they even occur.
76. The secret is here in the present. If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it. And, if you improve on the present, what comes later will also be better. Forget about the future, and live each day according to the teachings, confident that God loves his children. Each day in itself brings with it an eternity.
77. God only rarely reveals the future. When he does so, it is for only one reason: it’s a future that was written so as to be altered.
78. “Why would the desert reveal such things to a stranger, when it knows that we have been here for generations?” said one of the chieftains.
“Because my eyes are not yet accustomed to the desert,” the boy said, “I can see things that eyes habituated to the desert might not see”.
And also because I know about the Soul of the World, he thought to himself.
79. Everyday was there to be lived or to mark one’s departure from this world.
80. He had lived every one of his days intensely since he had left home so long ago. If he died tomorrow, he would already have seen more than other shepherds, and he was proud of that.
81. There was no need to be concerned about dying – the Soul of the World awaited him, and he would also soon be a part of it. And, tomorrow, his enemy would also be a part of that Soul.
82. Be careful with your prognostications. When something is written, there is no way to change it.
All I saw was an army. I didn’t see the outcome of the battle.
83. Courage is the quality most essential to understanding the Language of the World.
84. It’s not what enters men’s mouths that’s evil. It’s what comes out of their mouths that is.
85. Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure. You’ve got to find the treasure, so that everything you have learned along the way can make sense.
86. “I know that there is life here, but I don’t know where to look”.
“Life attracts life”, the alchemist answered.
87. Fatima is a woman of the desert. She knows that men have to go away in order to return. And she already has her treasure: it’s you. Now she expects that you will find what it is you’re looking for.
88. You must understand that love never keeps a man from pursuing his destiny. If he abandons that pursuit, it’s because it wasn’t true love… the love that speaks the Language of the World.
89. One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.
90. Don’t think about what you’ve left behind. Everything is written in the Soul of the World, and there it will stay forever.
91. If what one finds is made of pure matter, it will never spoil. And one can always come back. If what you had found was only a moment of light, like the explosion of a star, you would find nothing on your return.
92. There is only one way to learn. It’s through action. Everything you need to know, you have learned through your journey. You need to learn only one thing more.
93. The Emerald tablet is a direct passage to the Soul of the World. The wise men understood that this natural world is only an image and a copy of paradise. The existence of this world is simply a guarantee that there exists a world that is prefect. God created the world so that, through its visible objects, men could understand his spiritual teachings and the marvels of his wisdom. That’s what I mean by action.
94. The desert will give you an understanding of the world; in fact, anything on the face of the earth will do that. You don’t even have to understand the desert: all you have to do is contemplate a single grain of sand, and you will see in it all the marvels of creation.
How do I immerse myself in the desert?
Listen to your heart. It knows all things, because it came from the Soul of the World, and it will one day return there.
95. “Why do we have to listen to our hearts?” the boy asked.
“Because, wherever your heart is, that is where you’ll find your treasure”.
“But my heart is agitated. It has its dreams, it gets emotional, and it’s become passionate over a woman of the desert. It asks things of me, and it keeps me from sleeping many nights, when I’m thinking about her.
“Well, that’s good. Your heart is alive. Keep listening to what it has to say.
96. My heart is a traitor. It doesn’t want me to go on.
That makes sense. Naturally it’s afraid that, in pursuing your dream, you might lose everything you’ve won.
Well, then, why should I listen to my heart?
Because you will never again be able to keep it quiet. Even if you pretend not to have heard what it tells you, it will always be there inside you, repeating to you what you’re thinking about life and about the world.
You mean I should listen, even if it’s treasonous?
Treason is a blow that comes unexpectedly. If you know your heart well, it will never be able to do that to you. Because you’ll know its dreams and wishes, and will know how to deal with them. You will never be able to escape from your heart. So it’s better to listen to what it has to say. That way, you’ll never have to fear an unanticipated blow.
97. My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer.
Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second’s encounter with God and with eternity.
98.” Every second of the search is an encounter with God”, the boy told his heart. “When I have been truly searching for my treasure, every day has been luminous, because I’ve known that every hour was a part of the dream that I would find it. When I have been truly searching for my treasure, I’ve discovered things along the way that I never would have seen had I not had the courage to try things that seemed impossible for a shepherd to achieve”.
99. That night the boy’s heart began to tell him things that came from the Soul of the World.
1. All people who are happy have God within them.
2. Happiness could be found in a grain of sand from the desert. Because a grain of sand is a moment of creation, and the universe has taken million of years to create it.
3. Everyone on earth has a treasure that awaits him. We, people’s hearts, seldom say much about those treasures, because people no longer want to go in search of them. … Unfortunately, very few people follow the path laid out for them --- the path to their destinies, and to happiness.
4. Most people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do, the world turns out, indeed, to be a threatening place.
5. We, people’s hearts, never stop speaking out, but we begin to hope that our words won’t be heard: we don’t want people to suffer because they don’t follow their hearts.
100.” Why don’t people’s hearts tell them to continue to follow their dreams?” the boy asked the alchemist.
“ Because that’s what makes a heart suffer most, and hearts don’t like to suffer”.
101. Before a dream is realized, the Soul of the World tests everything that was learned along the way. It does this not because it is evil, but so that we can, in addition to realizing our dreams, master the lessons we’ve learned as we’ve moved toward that dream. That’s the point at which most people give up their dreams.
102. Every search begins with beginner’s luck. And every search ends with the victor’s being severely tested.
The boy remembered an old proverb from his country. It said that the darkest hour of the night came just before the dawn.
103. One of life’s simple lessons : When you possess great treasures within you, and try to tell others of them, seldom are you believed.
104. Does a man’s heart always help him?
Mostly just the hearts of those who are trying to visualize their destinies. But they do help children, drunkards and the elderly too.
105. No one fails to suffer the consequences of everything under the sun.
106. Your eyes show the strength of your soul.
107. Alchemy is about penetrating to the Soul of the World, and discovering the treasure that has been reserved for you.
108. Everything in the universe evolved. And, for wise men, gold is the metal that evolved the furthest.
109. Spiritual evolution:
1. True alchemists: They locked themselves in their laboratories, and tried to evolve, as gold had. And they found the Philosopher’s Stone, because they understood that when something evolves, everything around that thing evolves as well.
2. Others stumbled upon the stone by accident. They already had the gift, and their souls were readier for such things than the souls of others. But they don’t count. They’re quite rare.
3. And then there were the others, who were interested only in gold. They never found the secret. They forgot that lead, copper, and iron have their own destinies to fulfill. And anyone who interferes with the destiny of another thing will never discover his own.
110. Don’t give in to your fears. If you do, you won’t be able to talk to your heart.
111. If a person is living out his destiny, he knows everything he need to know. There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.
112. Usually, the threat of death makes people more aware of their lives.
113. The world is only the visible aspect of God. What alchemy does is to bring spiritual perfection into contact with the material plane.
114. Love is what makes the game become the falcon, the falcon become man, and man, in his turn, the desert. It’s what turns lead into gold, a. nd makes the gold return to the earth.
115. “You can’t be the wind”, the wind said.” We’re two very different things”
“That’s not true”, the boy said. “I learned the alchemist’s secrets in my travels. I have inside me the winds, the deserts, the oceans, the stars, and everything created in the universe. We were all made by the same hand, and we have the same soul. I want to be like you, able to reach every corner of the world, cross the seas, blow away the sands that cover my treasure, and carry the voice of the woman I love”.
116. When you are loved, you can do anything in creation. When you are loved, there’s no need at all to understand what’s happening, because everything happens within you, and even men can turn themselves into the wind. As long as the wind helps, of course.
117.” From where I am”, the sun said, “ I can see the Soul of the World. It communicates with my soul, and together we cause the plants to grow and the sheep to seek out shade. From where I am – and I’m a long way from the earth – I learned how to love. I know that if I came even a little bit closer to the earth, everything there would die, and the Soul of the World would no longer exist. So we contemplate each other, and we want each other, and I give it life and warmth, and it gives me reason for living.
118. It’s true that everything has its destiny, but one day that destiny will be realized. So each thing has to transform itself into something better, and to acquire a new destiny, until, someday, the Soul of the World becomes one thing only.
119. That is why alchemy exists. So that everyone will search for his treasure, find it and then want to be better than he was in his former life. Lead will play its role until the world has no further need for lead; and then lead will have to turn itself into gold.
That’s what alchemists do. They show that, when we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too.
120. It’s not love to be static like the desert, nor is it love to roam the world like the wind. And it’s not love to see everything from a distance, like the sun. Love is the force that transforms and improves the Soul of the World. … It is we who nourish the Soul of the World, and the world we live will be either better or worse, depending on whether we become better or worse. And that’s where the power of love comes in. Because when we love, we always strive to become better than we are.
121. A current of love rushed from his heart, and the boy began to pray. It was a prayer that he had never said before, because it was a prayer without words or pleas… The boy reached through to the Soul of the World, and saw that it was a part of the Soul of God. And he saw that the Soul of God was his own soul. And that, he, a boy could perform miracles.
122. “Thank you”, said the boy. “You taught me the Language of the World.
“ I only invoked what you already knew”.
123. No matter what he does, every person on earth plays a central role in the history of the world. And normally he doesn’t know it.
124. Be aware of the place where you are brought to tears. That’s where I (your heart) is, and that’s where your treasure is.
125. No project is completed until its objective has been achieved.
126. Life is really generous to those who pursue their destiny.
Believe In Yourself
There may be days when you get up in the morning
And things aren’t the way you hoped they would be
That’s when you have to tell yourself
That things will get better.
There are times when people disappoint you and let you down,
But these are the times when you must remind yourself
To trust your own judgments and opinions, to keep your
Life focused on believing in yourself
And all that you are capable of.
There will be challenges to face and
Changes to make in your life,
And it is up to you to accept them.
Constantly keep yourself headed in the right direction for you.
It may not be easy at times
But in these times of struggle
You will find a stronger sense of who you are,
So when the days are filled with
Frustration and unexpected responsibilities,
Remember to believe in yourself and all you want your life to be,
Because the challenges and changes will only help you to
Find the goals that you know are meant to come true for you.
31. Jalal – ud – din Rumi
Move within, but don’t move the way fear makes you move.
32. Osho
You are standing in between two universes, one outside you and the other which is inside you. The outside universe consists of things, and the universe within consists of consciousness, of bliss, of joy
33. “And that,” put in the Director sententiously, “that is the secret of happiness and virtue–--liking what you’ve got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their inescapable social destiny.” ( Aldous Huxley – Brave New World)
34. Jorge Luis Borges
Writings of light assault the darkness, more prodigious than meteors.
The tall unknowable city takes over the countryside.
Sure of my life and my death, I observe the ambitious and would like to understand them.
Their day is greedy as a lariat in the air.
Their night is a rest from the rage within steel, quick to attack.
They speak of humanity.
My humanity is in feeling we are all voices of the same poverty.
They speak of homeland.
My homeland is the rhythm of a guitar, a few portraits, an old sword,
the willow grove’s visible prayer as evening falls.
Time is living me.
More silent than my shadow, I pass through the loftily covetous multitude.
They are indispensable, singular, worthy of tomorrow.
My name is someone and anyone.
I walk slowly, like one who comes from so far away he doesn’t expect to arrive.
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
35. Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education: they grow there, firm as weeds among stones. (Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte)
36. I could never rest in communication with strong, discreet, and refined minds, whether male or female, till I had passed the out- works of conventional reserve, and crossed the threshold of confidence, and won a place by their heart’s very hearth- stone.
37. Natural affection, only, of all the sentiments, has permanent power over me. Reason, and not feeling, is my guide : my ambition is unlimited, my desire to rise higher, to do more than others, insatiable. I honor endurance, perseverance, industry, talent; because these are the means by which men achieve great ends and mount to lofty eminence. I watch your career with interest, because I consider you a specimen of a diligent, orderly, energetic woman: not because I deeply compassionate what you have gone through, or what you still suffer.
38. You are no ruin, sir – no lightning-struck tree: you are green and vigorous. Plants will grow about your roots, whether you ask them or not, because they take delight in your bountiful shadow; and as they grow they will lean towards you, and wind round you, because your strength offers them so safe a prop.
Dr. Zhivago - Boris Pasternak
39. Oh, how one wishes sometimes to escape from the meaningless dullness of human eloquence, from all those sublime phrases, to take refuge in nature, apparently so inarticulate, or in the wordlessness of long, grinding labor, of sound sleep, of true music, or of a human understanding rendered speechless by emotion!
40. Why the hell can’t a grown-up man talk to a grown-up woman without at once being suspected of some ulterior motive? Damn all motives – ulterior ones and others.
41. Three years of changes, moves, uncertainties, upheavals; the war, the revolution; scenes of destruction, scenes of death, shelling, blown-up bridges, fires, ruins – all this turned suddenly into a huge, empty, meaningless space. The first real event since the long interruption was this trip in the fast-moving train, the fact that he was approaching his home, which was intact, which still existed, and in which every stone was dear to him. This was real life, meaningful experience, the actual goal of all quests; this was what art aimed at - homecoming, return to one’s family, to one’s self, to true existence.
42. Theirs was a meeting of two artists, and although they were close relatives, and the past arose and lived again between them and memories surged up and they informed each other of all that had happened during their separation, the moment they began to speak of the things that really matter to creative minds, all other ties between them vanished, their kinship and difference of age were forgotten, all that was left was the confrontation of elemental forces, of energies and principles.
43. It’s petty to explore causes of titanic events. They haven’t any. It’s only in a family quarrel that you look for beginnings --- after people have pulled each other’s hair and smashed the dishes they rack their brains trying to figure out who started it. What is truly great is without beginning, like the universe. It confronts us suddenly as if it had always been there or had dropped out of the blue….. Only real greatness can be so unconcerned with timing and opportunity.
44. Winter came, just the kind of winter that had been foretold. It was not as terrifying as the two winters that followed it, but it was already of the same sort, dark, hungry, cold, entirely given to the breaking up of the familiar and the reconstruction of all the old foundations of existence, and to inhuman efforts to cling to life as it slipped out of your grasp.
… The old life and the new order had not yet come into contact. They were not yet openly hostile to each other, as when the civil war broke out a year later, but there was no connection between the two. They stood apart, confronting each other, incompatible.
45. We are talking at cross purposes, and even if we argued for a hundred years we’d never see eye to eye. I used to be very revolutionary, but now I think that nothing can be gained by brute force. People must be drawn to good by goodness.
46. Lara to Zhivago:
You and I are the last remembrance of all that immeasurable greatness which has been created in the world in all the thousands of years between them and us, and it is in the memory of all those vanished marvels that we live and love and weep and cling to one another.
Tonia to Zhivago:
The whole trouble is that I love you and that you don’t love me. I keep trying to discover the meaning of this judgment on me, to interpret it, to justify it. I look into myself, I go over our whole life together and everything I know about myself, and I can’t find the beginning, and I don’t remember what it is I did or how I brought this misfortune on myself. I have a feeling that you misjudge me, that you take an unkind view of me, that you see me as a distorting mirror.
As for me, I love you. If you only knew how much I love you! I love all that is unusual in you, the good with the bad, and all the ordinary traits of your character, whose extraordinary combination is so dear to me, your face ennobled by your thoughts, which otherwise might not seem handsome, your great gifts and intelligence, which, as it were, have taken the place of the will that is lacking. All this is dear to me, and I know no man who is better than you.
But listen, do you know what? Even if you were not so dear to me, even if I did not like you so much, even then the distressing truth of my coldness would not have been disclosed to me, even then I would have believed that I love you. Out of sheer terror before the humiliating, destructive punishment which failure to love is, I would unconsciously have shunned the realization that I do not love you. Neither I nor you would ever have learned it. My own heart would have concealed it from me, for failure to love is almost like a murder and I would have been incapable of inflicting such a blow on anyone.
Oh , Yura, Yura, my dear, my darling, my husband, the father of my children, what is happening to us? Do you realize that we’ll never, never see each other again? Now I’ve written it down, do you realize what it means? Do you understand, do you understand? They are hurrying me, and it’s as if they had come to take me to my death. Yura! Yura!
Paulo Coelho:
1. Let’s distinguish religion from spirituality. I am Catholic, so religion for me is a way of having discipline and collective worship with persons who share the same mystery. But in the end all religions point to the same light. In between the light and us, sometimes there are too many rules. The light is here and there are no rules to follow this light.
2. Once someone asked me, “What do you want to be your epitaph?” So I said,” Paulo Coelho died while he was alive”. The person said, “Why this epitaph? Everybody dies when he or she is alive”. I said, “No, that is not true”. The same pattern repeating and over again, you are not alive anymore.
To die alive is to take risks. To pay your price. To do something that sometimes scares you but you should do because you may like or you may not like.
3. Omens:
Omens are the individual language in which God talks to you. My omens are not your omens.
They are this strange and individual language that guides you towards your own destiny. They are not logical. They talk to your heart directly.
It is the silent voice of God that leads me to the places where I should be.
4. A book is a film that takes place in the mind of the reader.
Happy days.com
1.“The beat of my heart has grown deeper, more active, and yet more peaceful, and it is as if I were all the time storing up inner riches…My [life] is one long sequence of inner miracles.” The young Dutchwoman Etty Hillesum wrote that in a Nazi transit camp in 1943, on her way to her death at Auschwitz two months later.
2. Happiness, comes most freely when it isn’t pursued.
3. In the corporate world, I always knew there was some higher position I could attain, which meant that, like Zeno’s arrow, I was guaranteed never to arrive and always to remain dissatisfied.
The Great Gatsby: F. Scott Fitzgerald
He smiled understandingly – much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced – or seemed to face – the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely that impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey.
Instead of rambling, this party had preserved a dignified homogeneity, and assumed to itself the function of representing the staid nobility of the countryside – East Egg condescending to West Egg and carefully on guard against its spectroscopic gaiety.
They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…
Pearl S. Buck There is an alchemy in sorrow. It can be transmuted into wisdom, which, if it does not bring joy, can yet bring happiness.
Pearl Buck –
- A good marriage is one which allows for change and growth in the individuals and in the way they express their love
Pearl Buck –
- Teaching is as sacred as priesthood. If one has not the concern for humanity, the love of living creatures, the vision of the priest and artist, he must not teach.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery –
- Love has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction
Antoine de Saint-Exupery - The Little Prince
- You are beautiful, but you are empty. One could not die for you. To be sure, an ordinary passerby would think that my rose looked just like you--the rose that belongs to me. But in herself alone she is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses: because it is she that I have watered.
Me Gustas Tu – Spanish song translation
I like airplanes, I like youI like to fly, I like you.I like the morning, I like youI like the wind, I like you.I like dreaming, I like you.I like the sea, I like you.What am I going to doI don’t knowWhat am I going to doI don’t know anymoreWhat am I going to doI am lostWhat times these are, my heart.I like motorcycles, I like youI like to run, I like you I like the rain, I like you.I like coming back, I like you.I like marijuana, I like you.I like Colombian, I like you.I like the mountains, I like you.I like the night, I like you.What am I going to doI don’t knowWhat am I going to doI don’t know anymoreWhat am I going to doI am lostWhat times these are, my heart.I like supper, I like you.I like the neighbor, I like you.I like your cooking, I like you.I like to flirt, I like you.I like guitar, I like you.I like regaee, I like you.What am I going to doI don’t knowWhat am I going to doI don’t know anymoreWhat am I going to doI am lostWhat times these are, my heart.I like cinnamon, I like you.I like fire, I like you.I like to swing, I like you.I like la Coruña, I like you.I like Malasaña, I like you.I like la Castaña, I like you.I like Guatemala, I like you.What am I going to doI don’t knowWhat am I going to doI don’t know anymoreWhat am I going to doI am lostWhat times these are, my heart
To Sir With Love E.R. Braithwaite ( 1959)“Mr. Braithwaite, my associates and I are completely satisfied with your replies and feel sure that in terms of qualification, ability and experience, you are abundantly suited to the post we have in mind. But we are faced with a certain difficulty. Employing you would mean placing you in a position of authority over a number of our English employees, many of whom have been with us a very long time, and we feel that such an appointment would adversely affect the balance of good relationship which has always obtained in this firm…. So I’m afraid we would not be able to use you”.
"I had just been brought face to face with something I had either forgotten or completely ignored for more than six exciting years --- my black skin. It had not mattered when I volunteered for aircraft service in 1940, it had not mattered during the period of flying training or when I received my wings and was posted to a squadron; it had not mattered in the hectic uncertainties of operational flying, of living and loving from day to day, brothered to men who like myself had no tomorrow and could not afford to fritter away today on the absurdities of prejudice; it had not mattered when, uniformed and winged, I visited theatres and dance- halls, pubs and private houses”.
“I had believed in freedom, in the freedom to live in the kind of dwelling I wanted, providing I was able and willing to pay the price, and in the freedom to work at the kind of profession for which I was qualified, without reference to my racial or religious origins. All the big talk of Democracy and Human Rights seemed as spurious as the glib guarantees with which some manufacturers underwrite their products in the confident hopes that they will never be challenged. The Briton at home takes no responsibility for the protestations and promises made in his name by British officials overseas”.
“The rest of the world in general and Britain in particular are prone to point an angrily critical finger at American intolerance, forgetting that in its short history as a nation it has granted to its Negro citizens more opportunities for advancement and betterment, per capita, than any other nation with an indigent Negro population. Each violent episode, though greatly to be deplored, has invariably preceded some change, some improvement in the American Negro’s position. The things they have wanted were important enough for them to fight and die for, and those who died did not give their lives in vain. Further, American Negroes have been generally established in communities in which their abilities as laborer, artisan, doctor, lawyer, scientist, educator, and entertainer have been directly or indirectly of benefit to that community; in terms of social and religious intercourse they have been largely independent of white people”.
“In Britain I found things to be very different. I have yet to meet a single English person who has actually admitted to anti- Negro prejudice; it is even generally believed that no such thing exists here…. The betrayal I now felt was greater because it had been perpetrated with the greatest of charm and courtesy”.
“Big cities are dreadfully lonely places and London is no exception… It’s no one’s fault, really. A big city cannot afford to have its attention distracted from the important job of being a big city by such a tiny, unimportant item as your happiness or mine”.
“Those tall buildings are more than monuments to the industry, thought and effort which have made this a great city; they also occasionally serve as springboards to eternity for misfits who cannot cope with the city and their own loneliness in it… A great city is a battlefield. You need to be a fighter to live in it, not exist, mark you, live. Anybody can exist, dragging his soul around behind him like a worn-out coat; but living is different. It can be hard, but it can also be fun; there’s so much going on all the time that’s new and exciting”.
“If you can talk with someone you’re not lonely any more, don’t you think?’
“Don’t ever underrate the people of the East End; form those very slums and alleyways are emerging many of the new breed of professional and scientific men and quite a few of our politicians. Be careful lest you be a worse snob than the rest of us. Was this the kind of spirit in which you sought the other jobs?”
Teaching is like having a bank account. You can happily draw on it while it is well supplied with new funds; otherwise you're in difficulties.
Every teacher should have a fund of ready information on which to draw; he should keep that fund supplied regularly by new experiences, new thoughts and discoveries, by reading and moving around among people from whom he can acquire such things.
I sought to relate each lesson to themselves, showing them that the whole purpose of their education was the development of their own thinking and reasoning.
I suddenly became aware of an important change in my own relationship to them. I was experiencing more than a mere satsifaction in receiving their attention, obedience and respect with their acceptance of my position as their teacher. I found myself liking them, really liking them, collectively and singly. At first I had approached each school day a little worried, a little frightened, but mostly determined to make good for the job's sake; now there had occured in me a new attitude, a concern to teach them for their own sakes, and a deep pleasure at every sign that I had succeeded. It was a delight to be with them, and more and more I had occasion to wonder at their generally adult viewpoint. I was learning a little more of them each day. Some of them would remain in the classroom during recess and we'd talk about many thin
As long as you learn, it doesn't matter who teaches, does it?
They now accepted the things I said completely, unquestioningly, because they accepted me, and no one seemed disposed to query the authenticity of anything which bore the seal 'Sir said'.
Who could tell what was going on in the minds of youngsters on the threshold of adulthood; where did childhood end and adulthood begin when you are at school today, and tomorrow at work as junior assistant breadwinner to an overlarge family? If they were old enough to earn, why should they not consider themselves old enough to learn and do other things which adults do? And what would happen if they were encouraged to try ways and means of acquiring much more money, quicker and with less effort?
History and Geography, Arithmetic and Religious Education, were they enough? .... Was I somehow failing them, contenting myself with their apparent 'niceness' and favorable reaction and conduct to myself?
Here are a few more recommendations in no particular order
v The White Tiger - Arvind Adiga…. A great take on the reality of life in India.
v A case of Exploding Mangoes ..Haneef Mohammed (Editor of BBC urdu service).. A very well written book - but strangely, not well acknowledged…the author, if he can sustain it, is a very gifted raconteur..almost Rushdie-esque in this book. About the events surrounding the assassination of General Zia.
v Sea of Poppies – Amitav Ghosh – Labour of Love..Great tale of the life surrounding the opium factories in Bihar during the british rule..the reconstruction of the sailor language has to be an effort worth of some prize). I am told it’s the first one of a trilogy so waiting for the other two.
v BaulSphere by Mimlu Sen – Bauls are a singing nomadic people in the plains of Bengal and Bihar and this is a true story of a magnificent, free spirited, independent woman and her love for one of the singers and the Baul way of life
v The Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad – Have you seen apocalypse now..this is the book the movie was based on. They changed the setting from Congo to Vietnam in the movie.
v Love Story – By Erich Segal – about a 100 pages. Some might call it fluffy and it might be true as well. But it is a favorite from my younger years. Apparently the inspiration came from the romance between Al and Tipper Gore (which I refuse to believe).
v The India trilogy by VS Naipaul – I have read two of the three and they are great.
v And a lot of the books by Rushdie and Marquez.
