Paulo Coelho's Warrior of the Light - More stories of friends and strangers

In this issue
- More stories of friends and strangers

The Dutch girl in the club
In 1982, although I had a good job in a recording company and earned a lot of money from song lyrics, I was also very unhappy. Worse still: because life was good to me, I also felt guilty. So I decided to throw it all up and travel the world until I found a meaning to existence.
On these wanderings I lived for a while in Amsterdam in Holland, which was the symbol of complete and utter freedom in all senses. There I frequented the Kosmos – a sort of club where people gathered with whom I felt an affinity.
One night a Dutch girl asked me what Brazil was like.
I began to tell her about our problems: the hard repression of the military regime, the social inequality, the misery, the violence.
“But you live in the best place on Earth,” I added. “What’s it like to wake up every morning in Paradise?”
The Dutch girl was quiet for a long time before answering:
“Horrible. Everything is so right here, there is no challenge left, no emotion. I wish we had your problems – then I would feel again like a part of humanity.”

With the eyes of the soul
At the age of 80 the Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges went to visit Mexico. His editor told me that after several days of lectures, conferences and tributes, Borges asked for an afternoon off to visit the Aztec pyramids in Yucatán.
The editor explained that it was a very tiring journey that meant going by taxi, plane and jeep. Borges was not dissuaded and they ended up arranging everything so that he could go to Uxmal.
He arrived almost at nightfall, after an exhausting day. He sat down in front of a 10th century pyramid and stayed there for a half hour without saying anything. At last he rose and thanked those accompanying him: "thank you for this afternoon and this unforgettable landscape."
As we know, Borges was blind. But that did not prevent his soul from understanding what was all around him.

A chapel in the Pyrenees
Right after the launching of "The Alchemist" I had to spend some time outside Brazil. But as the book had just come out, and my editor at the time was not very enthusiastic, I was always worried about what was happening in my country.
One fine day, in a hermitage in the Pyrenees, I came upon a text engraved on a wall. Sure that that message had been left there for me, I copied it in my travel notebook and began to repeat those sentences every morning. Little by little, peace of mind returned and I was finally able to enjoy the journey.
Here is what was written in the little chapel:
"If you were really a child, a true child, instead of worrying about what you can’t do, you would contemplate Creation in silence. And you would become used to looking calmly at the world, nature, history and the sky.
"If you really were a child, at this moment you would be singing Hallelujah for the things before you. Then – free from tensions, fears and useless questions – you would use this time to wait with curiosity and patience for the things in which you invested so much love to bear fruit." (Carlos Caretto, Italian hermit).

At a market in Rio
A priest from Copacabana Church was waiting patiently for his turn to buy meat in the supermarket when a woman tried to skip the line.
Then there began a festival of verbal attacks from the other customers, which the woman answered with the same vehemence.
When the atmosphere grew unbearable, someone cried out:
"Hey, missus, God loves you."
"It was impressive," said the priest. "At a moment when everyone was thinking of hate, someone spoke of love. There and then the agitation vanished as if by magic. The woman walked back to her proper place in line and the customers apologized for reacting so aggressively."

It’s never too late
Joyce is an Australian photographer specialized in wild life.
"When I turned 60 I felt that life was over for me," she says. My children were grown up and my grandchildren no longer paid much attention to me. One day I decided to accompany my son to the central desert in Australia. We camped, and since there was nothing to do and no-one nearby, I decided to get drunk for the first time in my life. After the second glass I grabbed a video camera and began to film. I filmed the sky, the tent, everything I felt like filming. But I was so drunk that I fell on the ground with the camera. I lay there for a few instants and noticed a line of ants walking beside me. It was as if I could hear their steps, as if that was part of a world that I had never noticed. I filmed the ants walking, and I discovered my vocation."
When we had this chat some years ago, Joyce was 71 years old.

Copyright @ 2006 by Paulo Coelho
Warrior of Light Online, published by www.paulocoelho.com.br

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Selected Warrior of the Light issues are available as PDF downloads from the Smink Works Books site

Paulo Coelho's Warrior of the Light - Accepting paradoxes

In this issue
- Accepting paradoxes

"It’s odd," the warrior muses to himself. "I have met so many people who, at the first chance they get, try to show the worst of themselves. They hide their interior strength through aggressiveness and disguise the fear of solitude with an air of independence. They don’t believe in their own capacity but are always extolling their virtues to the four winds.”
The warrior reads these messages in many men and women he knows. He is never fooled by appearances and insists on remaining silent when others try to impress him. But he uses the opportunity to correct his flaws – since people are always a good mirror.
A warrior puts to good use every opportunity to teach himself and to admit his own contradictions.

Patience and Speed
A Warrior of Light needs patience and speed at the same time. The two biggest mistakes of a strategy are to act prematurely and to let the opportunity pass by. To avoid making these mistakes, the warrior copes with each situation as if it were unique, and applies no formulas, prescriptions or the opinions of others.
Caliph Moauiyat asked Omar Ben Al-Aas what was the secret of his great political skill: “I have never gotten involved in any matter without first studying the way out; on the other hand, I have never become involved and wanted to get out right away,” was his answer.

Pardoning x Accepting
A Warrior of Light always keeps his heart clean of the sentiment of hate. To do so, he needs to pardon.
When he walks to a fight, he never forgets Christ’s words: "love your enemies."
And the warrior obeys, but always remembers that Christ did not say: “like your enemies.”
The act of pardoning does not oblige him to accept everything. A warrior must not lower his head, otherwise he loses sight of the horizon of his dreams.

Resting x Acting
In the interval of the combat, the warrior rests.
He often spends days on end doing nothing, because his heart needs that.
But his intuition remains alert. He does not commit the capital sin of Sloth, because he knows where that can lead to: the tepid feeling of Sunday afternoons, when time passes – and nothing else.
The warrior calls this "cemetery peace." He recalls an extract from the Apocalypse: I curse you because you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot! But since you’re tepid, I shall vomit you from my mouth.
A warrior rests and laughs. But he is always attentive and ready to act.

Angel x Devil
A warrior knows that an angel and a devil dispute the hand that holds the sword.
The devil says: "you are going to fail. You are going to miss the right moment. You are afraid."
The angel says: "you are going to fail. You are going to miss the right moment. You are afraid."
The warrior is surprised. Both of them say the same thing.
Then the devil continues: "let me help you."
And the angel says: "I’ll help you."
That is when the warrior notices the difference. The words are the same, but the allies are different.
So he dedicates his victory to God. And with the confidence of the brave he chooses the hand of his angel.

Believing in signs
The Warrior of Light knows the importance of his intuition.
In the midst of battle he has no time to think about the enemy’s blows – so he uses his instinct and obeys his angel. In times of peace he deciphers the signs that God sends him.
People say: "he’s crazy."
Or else: "he lives in a world of fantasy."
Or even: "how can he trust things that have no logic?"
But the warrior knows that intuition is the alphabet of God, and continues listening to the wind and talking to the stars.

Believing in love
For the warrior, there is no such thing as impossible love. He does not let himself be intimidated by silence, indifference or rejection. He knows that behind the mask of ice that people wear there exists a heart of fire.
That is why the warrior risks more than others. He seeks tirelessly for someone’s love - even if this means often hearing the word "no", returning home defeated and feeling rejected in both body and soul.
A warrior does not let himself become scared when he seeks what he needs. Without love he is nothing.

Believing in negotiation
A Warrior of Light cannot always choose his battle field. Sometimes he is caught by surprise in the midst of combats he did not desire, but there is no use in fleeing, because these combats will follow him.
So at the moment when the conflict is almost inevitable, the warrior talks with his adversary. Without showing fear or cowardice, he tries to find out why the other wants the fight, what reasons made him leave his village and seek him out for a duel. Without unsheathing his sword, the warrior convinces him that that combat is not his.
A Warrior of Light listens to what his adversary has to say. And only fights if it is necessary. But if there is no alternative he thinks neither of victory or defeat: he takes the combat all the way to the end.

Believing in perseverance
The Warrior of Light never forgets the old advice about accepting trials and criticism humbly.
Injustice happens. He also suddenly finds himself involved in situations that he did not deserve, at moments that he has no means to defend himself.
At such times the warrior remains silent. He does not waste energy on words, because they can do nothing; it is better to use his strength to resist, be patient and know that Someone is watching. Someone who saw unjust suffering and cannot accept that.
This Someone gives the warrior what he needs most: time. Sooner or later everything will once again work in his favor.
A Warrior of Light is wise; he does not comment on his defeats.

Believing the Personal Legend
A Warrior of Light assumes his Personal legend entirely – his reason for living. His companions remark: "his faith is admirable!"
The warrior is proud for a few minutes and then ashamed of what he hears, because he does not possess the faith that he displays.
At this moment his angel whispers to him: "you are only an instrument of the light. There is no reason to feel proud of yourself or to feel guilty; there is only reason to fulfill your destiny."
And the Warrior of Light, aware that he is an instrument, feels calmer and more secure.

Copyright @ 2006 by Paulo Coelho
Warrior of Light Online, published by www.paulocoelho.com.br

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Selected Warrior of the Light issues are available as PDF downloads from the Smink Works Books site