meditation Chez Evelyn Underhill, taken from her book Practical Mysticism

a Cool Quote in the book:

“If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through the narrow chinks of his cavern.”

-WILLIAM BLAKE

here is is from the chapter Meditation and Recollection

Now meditation is a half-way house between thinking and contemplating: and as a discipline, it derives its chief value from this transitional character. The real mystical life, which is the truly practical life, begins at the beginning; not with supernatural acts and ecstatic apprehensions, but with the normal faculties of the normal man. “I do not require of you,” says Teresa to her pupils in meditation, “to form great and curious considerations in your understanding: I require of you no more than to _look_.”

 

 

It might be thought that such looking at the spiritual world,

simply, intensely, without cleverness–such an opening of the Eye of Eternity–was the essence of contemplation itself: and indeed one of the best definitions has described that art as a “loving sight,” a “peering into heaven with the ghostly eye.” But the self who is yet at this early stage of the pathway to Reality is not asked to look at anything new, to peer into the deeps of things: only to gaze with a new and cleansed vision on the ordinary intellectual images, the labels and the formula, the “objects” and ideas–even the external symbols–amongst which it has always dwelt. It is not yet advanced to the seeing of fresh landscapes: it is only able to re-examine the furniture of its home, and obtain from this exercise a skill, and a control of the attention, which shall afterwards be applied to greater purposes. Its task is here to consider that furniture, as the Victorines called this preliminary training: to take, that is, a more starry view of it: standing back from the whirl of the earth, and observing the process of things.

 

Take, then, an idea, an object, from amongst the common stock, and hold it before your mind. The selection is large enough: all sentient beings may find subjects of meditation to their taste, for there lies a universal behind every particular of thought, however concrete it may appear, and within the most rational propositions the meditative eye may glimpse a dream.

 

“Reason has moons, but moons not hers!

Lie mirror’d on her sea,

Confounding her astronomers

But, O delighting me.”

 

Even those objects which minister to our sense-life may well be used to nourish our spirits too. Who has not watched the intent meditations of a comfortable cat brooding upon the Absolute Mouse? You, if you have a philosophic twist, may transcend such relative views of Reality, and try to meditate on Time, Succession, even Being itself: or again on human intercourse, birth, growth, and death, on a flower, a river, the various tapestries of the sky. Even your own emotional life will provide you with the ideas of love, joy, peace, mercy, conflict, desire. You may range, with Kant, from the stars to the moral law. If your turn be to religion, the richest and most evocative of fields is open to your choice: from the plaster image to the mysteries of Faith.

 

But, the choice made, it must be held and defended during the time of meditation against all invasions from without, however insidious their encroachments, however “spiritual” their disguise.

 

It must be brooded upon, gazed at, seized again and again, as distractions seem to snatch it from your grasp. A restless boredom, a dreary conviction of your own incapacity, will presently attack you. This, too, must be resisted at sword-point.

 

The first quarter of an hour thus spent in attempted meditation will be, indeed, a time of warfare; which should at least convince you how unruly, how ill-educated is your attention, how miserably ineffective your will, how far away you are from the captaincy of your own soul. It should convince, too, the most common-sense of philosophers of the distinction between real time, the true stream of duration which is life, and the sequence of seconds so carefully measured by the clock. Never before has the stream flowed so slowly, or fifteen minutes taken so long to pass. Consciousness has been lifted to a longer, slower rhythm, and is not yet adjusted to its solemn march.

 

But, striving for this new poise, intent on the achievement of it, presently it will happen to you to find that you have indeed–though how you know not–entered upon a fresh plane of perception, altered your relation with things.

 

First, the subject of your meditation begins, as you surrender to its influence, to exhibit unsuspected meaning, beauty, power. A perpetual growth of significance keeps pace with the increase of attention which you bring to bear on it; that attention which is the one agent of all your apprehensions, physical and mental alike. It ceases to be thin and abstract. You sink as it were into the deeps of it, rest in it, “unite” with it; and learn, in this still, intent communion, something of its depth and breadth and height, as we learn by direct intercourse to know our friends.

 

Moreover, as your meditation becomes deeper it will defend you from the perpetual assaults of the outer world. You will hear the busy hum of that world as a distant exterior melody, and know yourself to be in some sort withdrawn from it. You have set a ring of silence between you and it; and behold! within that silence you are free. You will look at the coloured scene, and it will seem to you thin and papery: only one amongst countless possible images of a deeper life as yet beyond your reach. And gradually, you will come to be aware of an entity, a _You_, who can thus hold at arm’s length, be aware of, look at, an idea—a universe–other than itself. By this voluntary painful act of concentration, this first step upon the ladder which goes–as the mystics would say–from “multiplicity to unity,” you have to some extent withdrawn yourself from that union with unrealities, with notions and concepts, which has hitherto contented you; and at once all the values of existence are changed. “The road to a Yea lies through a Nay.” You, in this preliminary movement of recollection, are saying your first deliberate No to the claim

which the world of appearance makes to a total possession of your consciousness: and are thus making possible some contact between that consciousness and the World of Reality.

 

Now turn this new purified and universalised gaze back upon yourself. Observe your own being in a fresh relation with things, and surrender yourself willingly to the moods of astonishment, humility, joy–perhaps of deep shame or sudden love—which invade your heart as you look. So doing patiently, day after day  constantly recapturing the vagrant attention, ever renewing the struggle for simplicity of sight, you will at last discover that there is something within you–something behind the fractious, conflicting life of desire–which you can recollect, gather up, make effective for new life. You will, in fact, know your own soul for the first time: and learn that there is a sense in which this real _You_ is distinct from, an alien within, the world in which you find yourself, as an actor has another life when he is not on the stage. When you do not merely believe this but know it; when you have achieved this power of withdrawing yourself, of making this first crude distinction between appearance and reality, the initial stage of the contemplative life has been won. It is not much more of an achievement than that first proud effort in which the baby stands upright for a moment and then relapses to the more natural and convenient crawl: but it holds within it the same earnest of future development.

Meditation from the perspective of T Lobsang Rampa

Hello All,

I have decided to put a some more words from Dr Rampa on Meditation – enjoy

-takenfrom his book Chapters of Life

    The discipline of meditation is essential if one is to make any real progress in spiritual attainment.  Just as an armywould be useless without discipline and without drill, so the human psyche becomes as a member of a rabble without the discipline and training of meditation correctly applied.

    It is useless to try to practice meditation by reading a book which has been written by a person who cannot himself meditate.  So many occult books are just indigestible conglomerations of misunderstood Eastern parables; books which are written by people who really do not know the first thing about meditation, for it is clear that unless one can meditate oneself   one cannot tell other people how to meditate!

    It should be remembered that in many countries of the world—non-Christian  countries,  that  is—attendants  at  a temple would meditate before entering the temple, they would meditate so that their mind was clear and opened ready to receive, what one might term in Western parlance, Divine

Revelation and Instruction.  It is quite useless to pray, for example, if one is just giving a babble of instruction to one’s God.  It is useless to pray that one shall win the beauty contest, or that one shall win the Irish Sweepstake.  The process of praying should always be commenced by a period of meditation which clears the mind of the garbage of thought, and makes one ready to receive information from higher planes.  To repeat—too many people flap down on their knees and start

ordering their God to ‘deliver the goods’, then they say that prayer never works.  Well, let them try meditation first.  Meditation actually has four different parts:

 

    l.  The first part is that meditational  practice which assists in the development of the true personality of the meditator, and if one can meditate and develop one’s personality then one obtains a happier and more successful life.  One becomes happier in the personal aspects of life and one

becomes more successful in association with one’s fellows, that is, in work.  Successful meditation here also increases the mental capacity. 

    2.  The second stage of meditation is that which almost automatically follows from successful completion of the first stage.  The second stage of meditation is that which brings

the physical body in rapport with the Overself ……[...]…..  Before one can meditate to this, and higher standards, it is essentialthat one has a pure and lust-free life. 

    3.  The next stage of meditation is that which gives one all  the benefits of stage 1 and stage 2, but which enables one in addition to have full occult understanding.  That is, when one reaches the third stage of meditation one is able to comprehend and apperceive.  Apperceive, of course, is different from perceive.  Apperceive is the mind’s perception of itself (all that which enables the Overself to improve its own spiritual condition).

    4.  Lastly, there is the mystical meditation, so called because it is so far removed from earthly concepts that it is rather beyond the understanding of those who have not succeeded in reaching that stage.  ….[...]…The first two stages of meditation are the essential steps and you should concentrate on them first.

 

 

-Dave Enjoy

 

What is meditation Part 2: We all got drama the saga continues

Before I get more and more into my personal experiences of meditation is i wanted to put in a nice quote from T Lobsang Rampa. Yes I know the controversy concerning him nor do I care, when  some takes the time to point out something beautiful to you do you look at the hand pointing or do you look at whats is being shown. Can you judge and his works but only outward appearences are can you judge by intuition? At any rate Here is  an exerpt from his book Chapters of Life

    Much later in the day, as the hot Sun poured down its

waves of heat, the old Monk ended his long meditation and

partook of a frugal breakfast.  Turning to the elder of the

Assistants, he said,  ‘It is time you learned the art of medita-

tion, my son, for I have observed you well and your time of

instruction has come.’

    ‘But is it so difficult to meditate, Master?  Cannot ANYONE

do it?’ asked the younger. 

    ‘No, my son,’ replied the old man.  ‘Some people never

meditate because they are not worthy, and some, who are

worthy, do not meditate because they do not know how.  Medi-

tation is an art which must be imparted, it is an art which can

lift one’s ego to sublime heights.’  He paused in thought for a

moment, then said to the younger, ‘Today you travel alone to

seek out food.  I must instruct your senior.  In time, if you are

worthy, your opportunity will come.’

 

I really feel that if you are drawn to meditate and it is a need for you continue onwards and dont stop, no matter how poor you think your experiences are. Just my advice.

But furhter on in this Chapter Dr Rampa goes on to say andi truly beleive that

    So many people say that they are ‘going to meditate’, but of

course most of these people have not the faintest idea of what

real meditation means.  They think that it is some mystical

thing whereas, as in the case of most metaphysical matters,

meditation is simple and is just a means to an end, a method

whereby one can obtain certain results. 

From tv and bad films nad bad teacher we have as a society a warped view of what meditation is.  Also I feel that there is this prejudice still that the West has against the various forms of expression of the East. I heard when I was last at the Rubin Museum of Tibetan Art, people refer to hindus as ‘those people’. There is still misisonary work going on in India, and other parts of Asia, if you are poor you can get food from the christian mission for the price of your time and going to church look into it maybe I am wrong in saying this you tell me .

Continuing our theme. I feel that there are many difficulties in just the languages of the east in that they were well suited for dealing with abstract concepts. The only solid repeatable definition Ive gotten as to what is Nirvana has been a grunge band from seattle, I have heard that nirvana is sitting and doing nothing, or when you are at peace, what ever that means or the buddhist version of heaven.

Anyways  the mind is  a unique expression what i mean by that is that the mind is a grand schemata that organizings and arranges our experiences. At some point we gave out mind control over our lives < which is fine> however we got confortable doing this and now cannot shut it off.

When we pray the mind is constantly running, hither and thither. If you were at work and had a deadline and you had to fous you would find that after a decent amount of effort you have been able to maintain and direct your attention only  one thing and the mind  naturally processng the info and does what a mind is supposed to do.  How are we to be receptive to the dictates of our hearts in this case.  When the soul yearns for something though we may get hazy messages in dreams how do we really figure out whats happening with ourselves.?

Through meditation we “awaken the mind to higher consciousness, and permits the mind to ‘tap in’ more freely to the subconscious.” We start to  make a communication pathway between our other selve and inner self through God. That isthe beauty of it. It is said for every step we take towards God he takes a 1000 to us. 

So you must be asking yourself does all this meditation stuff work? Yes for me it does constant and regular meditation even if its just 1 day a week has made a big difference in my life. Especially as of late. What have I felt,I have felt calmness radiating  from me, I have sometimes felt a slight shift in that my ego or my self was put aside. I have felt love that is indescribably jsut this impersonal love, it may grip me for a second or two sometimes a few minutes but its wonderful.

There is a lot more to meditation various techniques. Combined the right way with yoga,prayer and service to your fellow man will make us into saints I believe, it may take lifetimes, for me I dont really care. I have been touched in my heart and am drawn to continue I can explain  it.

I think that is it !!! Those of us who find ourselves on this path are drawn to it, there is no logical explanation why. Something urges me and i continue, I would rather watch tv or go to movies than sit in dark room and have my leg fall asleep and get cramps and have my mind race.  But the two days a week when I do it, (surprised not every day? – lately i’ve been so busy onces I get home from multiple jobs i pass out, got to pay the  visa bill) it wonderful no substitute for it. Sometimes afterward i jsut want to be quiet and not say anything  jsut sit there nad hold on to the feeling.

What do you guys think, as always i have much uch  muhc ore stuff to say but i would rather you guys gave me some direction. Want references want to learn more about meditation let me know what else. I can blog all day

Leave comments, let me know

Dave-O

What is meditation Part 1: Is it evil, Do devils talk to you and play with your mind during meditation ?

Hello Everyone,

                 How are you? I am not the kind of meditation now do I own a studio where you will pay an intitiation fee and I will tell you some  foreign funny sounding word for you repeat ad nauseum. What I do have is some knwoedge from experience garnered from practicing meditation and reading a lot about it. This post is in responce to a question a friend asked.

 For me to understand meditation and please please , I am  just giving my experiences of meditation for everyone like hitting puberty, its different.  If you look at the egyptian book of the dead or the pyramind text I cant remember precisely as it is late and I havent slept yet ( night owl to the core) you will ge this idea that man is dual being. heck you can get that from anywhere, byt dual beaing I dont mean like Tod Mcfarlanes Spawn in that we are caught between heaven and hell forsaking both, but that we are an immortal spirital working within the confines of a finite vehicle or body. There is our daily life  where we have to worry about food credit card bills, refilling the prescription for the bill buy more toilet paper etc. then there is out inner life, both two different worlds.

By the wway check this quote out:

What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason!
    how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how
    express and admirable! in action how like an angel!
    in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the
    world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me,
    what is this quintessence of dust? man delights not
    me: no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling
    you seem to say so.

In our daily life we used obvious our memories anddecutinve reason to  get about usually.  My wife is angry at me and blows a gasket when i dont throw away the garbage <observation> Hypothesis: if i take it out every day then she wrong be mad. Experimentation – I take out the garbage every day  Results/conclusions: My wife is always angry taking out the garbage every day did nothing. Idea/observation maybe if I get her some jewlery she will crack a smile or stop calling me a idiot under her breath.

Deductive reasoning is perfectly fine as a tool to understand the day to day world and the activities we involve ourselves with. However, jsut as there is no universal pancea to cure idiocy, i.e a tool that works on one case wont work in all cases, we cant use deductive reasonin inthe realm of the immortal spirit. intuition is the language that the soul/ what is immortal in use directly perceives things. It needs no memory or poast experience because being immortal it is ever new and at the basis of all things <THIS IS A SIMPLIFICATION , GROSS SIMPLIFICATION, IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE LET ME KNOW BY LEAVING COMMENTS OR ASKING>.

Intuition is a direct understanding free from memory or a sense of time which mean of any noraml human limitation.  Mystics through the faculty of intuition (intuition here is cool a sense that can be strenghtened and augmented)  direct perceive god or the beloved which is the object of their intense spiritual yearing.

 So then what is meditation, meditation is a special form of concetration where the devoted person focuses solely on God. Byfocusing on God and in turn thesource of our immortal soul it better the communication between our inner self and our outself.it puts both of these in harmony and then once in harmony we can better experience God. Sounds heretic that a mere mortal can experience God, but my experience have told that God does exist, he is even cooler than Samuel Jackson, and can be experienced.

I have heard that meditation makes the mind blank and allows you to bepossessed by the devil. io am not sure that is meditation. Making your mind  blank is  different story to do that you can drink a COLT 45 like Billie Dee Williams, watch oxygen or we channels, what reruns of the golden girls every some odd night for like 20 years <Thank you for being a friend… catchy theme>.

Well if you are an athiest, I doubt devils will capture your mind and make you drink wine and tear men limb from limb as if you were a Maenads – female worshipper of Dionysius. You will just clear your mind of senseless clutter and be focused and sharp and ready to playthe game.

For me Meditation is a joyous time set aside to clear my mind and attempt to further my relationship with the creator, the divine bounty hunter, if you want to call it that. A devotee concentrating deeply on God or some is at a special place. For me I have yet to have any super crazy mystical experience during meditation. However afterwards sometimes I am on another type of cloud 9.

 

More on meditation in the next post

Dave

Thank you to You who have read my Blog and to those of you you commented especially…….

Hello Guys,

                               I had many people view my Blog thos week, and I thank all of your I have learned a lot from you and I feel I am more intouch with the rest of humanity if that makes sense. But incase it doesnt let me explain. I alsways flet that if you cannnot related to your fellow man in his up and downs or offer a bit of understand to someone who is  on some hard time then you are a waste of space. Thats just my view and the way I roll:-)   So I always seek out new friends and acquaintances, new stories, and hear back from you and knowing that I have been heard has enriched me I feel so thanks all of you from the bottom of my heart.

 I would especially lIke to thank:

1. Alexandar at  http://amzuri.wordpress.com/  I didnt know much if anythign about Bahá’u’lláh , the Bahai’i faith and it has been wonderful to learn somethign ne and interesting and connected with spirituality thank you
2. Saadiq the writer of the http://mysticsaint.blogspot.com/  for my first comment and always providing me food for themind and soul.
3. Erin at http://www.erin-go-run.com/  for being a dedicated runner and inspiring me to stop eating like a pig when I get home and get back to the gym lol
4. Katinka at http://www.allconsidering.com/ -  i really appreciated the sincerity and genuine tone of your blog and your comments.
5. To Paulo Coelho for having a bad ass and offering a book on it for free…. http://paulocoelhoblog.com/

Night Owl Radio Continues one more song

One more song   none 80’s though

 

 

Night Owl Radio – Real Life Stories – The Human League

Some times at night when I kwno i should be in bed and its about 4 hourrs left for me to sleep wake up shower and get ready to head on out to study my martial arts, yeah Dave is everywhere!!!!!!. I think about some touching stories I have heard.

For soem reason late at night 80’s music and stories come together in new and interesting ways. I decided to name these repeated night owl posts – Night owl Radio – lol .

I had heard someone outside today argue at home all the mexican are taking our jobs from us, in this country. This older person went on to demean the mexican and talk about how they are destroyng the work his Italian forefather did.  From how he was talking you would thing it was the blood and sweat of the Italians alone that made this country into a super power.  Dont get me wrong I love Italian people i jsut think there werent the only one who contributed to make this a great nation.

But anyways i realised that it is easy to demonize a group when one doesnt know them well.  I remember after a period of  isolationism, which of course was preceded by manifest destiny – the belief that the US should expand from sea to shining sea. I feel that in america this practice happens in cycles, we expanded from sea to sea and then decided to practice isolationism, meaningnotto get involved in the affairs of other country.  After WW1 AND WW2, especially post ww2 we then took to this manifests destiny but then the idea of America had changed. American wasnt jsut a nation or a geogrpahic location it was an idea, it was an series of interests. American interest overseas and investments in other countries are just as important as  if not more so than domestic issues. I mean I hear every day in the streets that we went to Iraq for jsut oil ( I dont beleive that persay but thats what I hear) American investiments are a powerful thing, and they set polciy or at least to used to set a lot fo policies internationally, which of course allowed us to get the title Policeman of the world.

But I do digress, here are two stories from the Dave files and a dosage of reality. One of this stories is true and told to me from the mouth of the person who experienced it.  Tell me which one youthink is false. If you have trouble and the false story doesnt immediately make itself available then you have to think and wonder where have we strayed as a people. Whether you are an athiest or not, i wonder how much we really value people

Story 1

A first generation mexican -american women born in this country from legalized immigrants went to A 24 hour pharmacy, to pick up some medication for her headache that wouldnt seem to go away. While there a bunch of young people hanging outside who consisted of both men and women started to hurl racial slurs at her and accused her of coming here illegally and taking american jobs. She was working her way through college the first in her family to go and this is how her fellow citizen were treating her. Nothing says encouragement more than being shoved and spit on .

Second story

A young women in the prime of her youth, meets a man and theye fall in love. She is a mexican american and he is illegal in this country, a day laborer.  One day he hear he grandfather a man he sincerely love is on his death bed and asks to see him. He goes knwoing the risk, eh tries to come back 2 times and one time is swindled out of money second time is beat up and left out in the desert, wher ehe is eventually arrested.  The gf now hasnt heard from him in over 6 months and assumes himto be dead. He callss her afte rhe gets out of jail tells her hsi order and they married in mexico.  Fast forward 1.5 years later. his son is born, and he cant see him. The wife is all lone trying to make ends meet, and due to some obscure law he has to wait  10 years before he case can be review again so he cna become a us citizen though legally married. There are talks of divorce now…in the air…..

I dont know how anyones heart cannot be touched by these stories. if I took the second story found soem ggreat cast and Morgan freeman to narrate a story I would hear oscar and everyone would go see the movie. Will anyone offer a kind thought or word to the people in the story?

Many of us first born here from parents from other cultures,me included have had a hard time beign accepted here. Sociologiclaly and psychologically there are many tetbook reason but i feel that is all crap. Coming here poor and with accents even if you were a dr back home put you at the bottom of the barrel. Ithink if we look in thehistory books and see that for isntance america took over a caribbean nation and installed  apuppet government to protect american interests and then let dictator after dictator rise and kill of people then, would itbe fair for those people to come looking to america for a better life?

I wonder how our foreign policy has affected us. we gave Sadam Hussain the money and weapons,  we created a lot of the terrorist or terrorist leaders we are now after to kill, BIn laden for example. Of course if i point to the history of it all like always I am unamerican, especially now that we are at war. Reapen what we sow can be a bitchbut thats not even my points.

During the american occupation of haiti many crimes were committed that you hear about, as a haitian american I am more than fucking proud to be born here. I am workign hard always to thanks america for lettign my parent come here and be educated, raise a family and try to chase after that american dream. I love being here, but at each time in our hsitory there is a group of people that ask the same question

DONT YOU WANT ME HERE, dONT YOU VALUE ME AAS A CITIZEN.IRREGARDLESS OF WHERE MY PARENTS ARE FROM.

Iraqi American, Columbian Americans, Haitian americans and the lranian americans, Black Americans, Iranian AmericansJapanese Americans, Homosexual americans despite soem bad things that have been said or done to use we all want to know sometimes – DONT YOU WANT ME ?

HERE IS A COOL 80′S SONG THAT COMES TO MIND

- These are just my thoughts and not my academic stances. My real beliefs and ideas are always personal withinthe realm of politics and social events Ihave on purpose never come out withwhat I really beleive I say these things to stimulate thoughts and discussion. Thats all, nothing more!!!!

More Inspiration : August 30, 2008 Obstacles that Prevent us from reaching for our Dreams

In the Introdution to the Alchemist, the version celebrating the 20th year anniversary, Paulo Coelho rights the following 4 reasons why we  dont ‘have the courage to confront to our own dreams’ . For me this is paticularly poignant as I feel that I have been in a way forced into my profession by an overbearing parent. I have been inspired by reading the alchemist again and some works by Tahir Shah, more about that soon in the posts to come…..

Here it is:

There are four obstacles. First we are told from childhood onwards that everything we want to do is impossible. We grow up wiht this idea, and as the years acumulate soo too do the layers of prejudice, fear and guilt. There comes a time when our personal calling is so deeply buried in our soul as to be invisible. But its still there.

If we have the courage to disinter dream, we are then faced byt the second obstacle: love. We know what we want to do but are afraid of hurting those around us bu abandoning everything to pursue our dream. we do not realise that loe is just further impetus, not something that will prevent us going forward. We do not realize that those who genuinely wish us well want us to be happy and are prepared to accompany us on that journey.

Once we have accepted that love is a stimulus, we come up against a third obstacle: fear of the defeats we will meet on the path. We who fight for our dream suffer far more when it doesnt work out, because we cannot fall back on the old excuse “Oh, well , I didnt really want it anyway.” We do want it and know that we have staked  everything on it and that the path of personal calling is no easier tha any other path, except that our whole heart is in this journey. The, we warriors of light must be prepared to have patience in difficult times and to know that the Universe is conspiring in our favor, even though we may not understand how.

I ask myself are defeats necessary?

Well, necessary or not,they happen. When we first begin fighting for our dreams, we have no experience and make many mistakes. The secrets of life though is to fall seven times and get up 8 times.

So why is it so important to live our personal calling if we are only going to suffer more than other people?

Because once we have overcome defeat – and we always do – we are filled by a greater sense of euphoria and confidence. Int he silence of our hearts, we know that we are proving ourselves worthy of the miracle of life. Each day, eachhour, is part of the good fight. We start to live with enthusiasm and pleasure. Intense,unexpected suffering passes more quickly than suffering that is apparently bearable; the latter goes on for years and , without our noticing, eats away at our soul, until one day, we are no longer able to free ourselves from the bitterness and it stays with us for the rest of our lives.

having disintered our dream, having used the  power of love to nurture it  and spent many years living with the scars, we suddenly notice that what we always wanted is there, waiting for us,perhaps the very next day. Then comes the fourth obstacle the fear of realizing the dream for which we fought all our lives.

Oscar Wilde said “Each man kills the thing he loves.” And it’s true. The mere possibility of getting what we want  fills the soul of the ordinary person with guilt. We look around at all those who have failed to get  what they want and feel that we do not deserve to get what we want either. We forget about all the obstacles we have overcame, all the suffering we endured, all the  things we had to give up in order to get this far. Ihave known a lot of people who when their personal calling was  within their grasp, went on to commit , a series of stupid mistakes and never reached their goal – when it was only a step away.

This is the most dangerous of the obstacles because it has kind ofa saintly aura about it: renouncing joy and conquest. But if you believe yourself worthy of the thing  you fought so hard to get then become an instrument of God, youhelp the soul of the World, and you understand why you are here.

 

Paulo Coelho

Rio de Janeiro

November 2002

translated by Margaret Jull Costa