Character of the week: Rumi

Published on September 2, 2010 in News. 169 Comments Print Print

If in thirst you drink water from a cup, you see God in it. Those who are not in love with God will see only their own faces in it

All day I think about it, then at night I say it. Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing? I have no idea. My soul is from elsewhere, I’m sure of that, and I intend to end up there.

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.

Silence is an ocean. Speech is a river. Silence is the language of God, all else is poor translation.

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there.

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you; Don’t go back to sleep. You must ask for what you really want; Don’t go back to sleep. People are going back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch. The door is round and open. Don’t go back to sleep.

“When I am with you, we stay up all night.
When you’re not here, I can’t go to sleep.
Praise God for those two insomnias!
And the difference between them.”

Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Balkh, or Rumi (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273), was a 13th-century Persian muslim poet, jurist, theologian, and Sufi mystic.

By the river Piedra I sat down and wept

Published on September 1, 2010 in News. 63 Comments Print Print

One doesn’t love in order to do what is good or to help or to protect someone. If we act that way, we are perceiving the other as a simple object, and we seeing ourselves as wise and generous persons. This has nothing to do with love. To love is to be in communion with the other and to discover in that other the spark of God.

You have to take risks. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.

Every day, God gives us the sun – and also one moment in which we have the ability to change everything that makes us unhappy. Every day, we try to pretend that we haven’t perceived the moment, that it doesn’t exist – that today is the same as yesterday and will be the same as tomorrow. But if people really pay attention in their everyday lives, they will discover that magic moment. It may arrive in the instant when we are doing something mundane, like putting our front-door key in the lock; it may lie hidden in the quiet that follows the lunch hour or in the thousand and one things that all seems the same to us. But that moment exists – a moment when all the power of the stars becomes a part of us and enables us to perform miracles.

Joy is sometimes a blessing, but it is often a conquest. Our magic moment help us to change and sends us off in search of our dreams. Yes, we are going to suffer, we will have difficult times, and we will experience many disappointments – but all of this is transitory it leaves no permanent mark. And one day we will look back with pride and faith at the journey we have taken.

I could have. What does this phrase mean? At any given moment in our lives, there are certain things that could have happened but didn’t. The magic moments go unrecognized, and then suddenly, the hand of destiny changes everything.
But love is much like a dam: if you allow a tiny crack to form through which only a trickle of water can pass, that trickle will quickly bring down the whole structure, and soon no one will be able to control the force of the current.
Love is a trap. When it appears, we see only its light, not its shadows.

I’m going to fight for your love. There are some things in life that are worth fighting for to the end. You are worth it.

quotes from “By the river Piedra I sat down and wept”

CNN: Proud of being Brazilians

Published on August 31, 2010 in News. 28 Comments Print Print

Part of CNN’s Connect the World, this week we’ve picked two giants on their respective continents: Brazil and Nigeria. Here we ask novelist Paulo Coelho what he loves about Brazil.

(CNN) — One of the most widely read authors of recent times, Brazilian-born novelist Paulo Coelho talks exclusively to CNN about what Brazil means to him.

Born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, the best-selling author of “The Alchemist” dreamt of becoming a writer from an early age, but was stifled by his parents, who insisted he follow his father’s footsteps and become an engineer.

But only a year into his studies the adventurous young Brazilian had dropped out, and by the 1970s had made a name for himself in Brazil’s politically infused artistic movement, becoming a successful songwriter and co-creator of the controversial comic strip “Kring-ha.”

However, his messages were viewed as left-wing and dangerous: Coelho was branded a “subversive” by Brazil’s then-ruling military government and was arrested and tortured.

TO READ MY INTERVIEW TO CNN CLICK HERE

Why we love men/Por qué amamos a los hombres

Published on August 27, 2010 in News and Stories. 269 Comments Print Print

___________________

AQUI EM PORTUGUES:>>> Porque amamos os homens

AQUI EN ESPANOL: >>> Por qué amamos a los hombres
___________________

A Facebook friend sent me an email with some of the lines below. I did some research with other friends and compiled a full list. Please feel free to add more items.

We love men because they can never fake orgasms, even if they wanted to.

Because they write poems, songs, and books in our honor.

Because they never understand us, but they never give up.

Because they can see beauty in women when women have long ceased to see any beauty in themselves.

Because they come from little boys.

Because they can churn out long, intricate, Machiavellian, or incredibly complex mathematics and physics equations, but they can be comparably clueless when it comes to women.

Because they are incredible lovers and never rest until we’re happy.

Because they elevate sports to religion.

Because they’re never afraid of the dark.

Because they don’t care how they look or if they age.

Because they persevere in making and repairing things beyond their abilities, with the naïve self-assurance of the teenage boy who knew everything.

Because they never wear or dream of wearing high heels.

Because they’re always ready for sex.

Because they’re like pomegranates: lots of inedible parts, but the juicy seeds are incredibly tasty and succulent and usually exceed your expectations.

Because they’re afraid to go bald.

Because you always know what they think and they always mean what they say.

Because they love machines, tools, and implements with the same ferocity women love jewelry.

Because they go to great lengths to hide, unsuccessfully, that they are frail and human.

Because they either speak too much or not at all to that end.

Because they always finish the food on their plate.

Because they are brave in front of insects and mice.

Because a well-spoken four-year old girl can reduce them to silence, and a beautiful 25-year old can reduce them to slobbering idiots.

Because they want to be either omnivorous or ascetic, warriors or lovers, artists or generals, but nothing in-between.

Because for them there’s no such thing as too much adrenaline.

Because when all is said and done, they can’t live without us, no matter how hard they try.

Because they’re truly as simple as they claim to be.

Because they love extremes and when they go to extremes, we’re there to catch them.

Because they are tender they when they cry, and how seldom they do it.

Because what they lack in talk, they tend to make up for in action.

Because they make excellent companions when driving through rough neighborhoods or walking past dark alleys.

Because they really love their moms, and they remind us of our dads.

Because they never care what their horoscope, their mother-in-law, nor the neighbors say.

Because they don’t lie about their age, their weight, or their clothing size.

Because they have an uncanny ability to look deeply into our eyes and connect with our heart, even when we don’t want them to.

Because when we say “I love you” they ask for an explanation.

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10 SEC READ: challenging the master (ENG, PORT, ESPA)

Published on August 27, 2010 in News. 38 Comments Print Print

Is the bird alive?

The young man was at the end of his training, soon he would go on to be a teacher. Like all good pupils, he needed to challenge his teacher and to develop his own way of thinking. He caught a bird, placed it in one hand and went to see his teacher.
‘Teacher, is this bird alive or dead?’

His plan was the following: if his teacher said ‘dead’, he would open his hand and the bird would fly away. If the answer was ‘alive’, he would crush the bird between his fingers; that way the teacher would be wrong whichever answer he gave.
‘Teacher, is the bird alive or dead?’ he asked again.

‘My dear student, that depends on you,’ was the teacher’s reply

O pássaro está vivo?

O jovem estava no final de seu treinamento, em breve passaria a ensinar.Como todo bom aluno, precisava desafiar seu professor, e desenvolver sua própria maneira de pensar. Capturou um pássaro, colocou-o numa das mãos, e vai até ele:
- Mestre este pássaro está vivo ou morto?

Seu plano era o seguinte: se o mestre dissesse “morto” ele abriria a mão e o pássaro voaria. Se a resposta fosse “vivo”, ele esmagaria a ave entre os dedos; assim, o mestre sempre estaria errado.
- Mestre, o pássaro está vivo ou morto? – insiste.

- Meu caro aluno, isto vai depender de você – é o comentário do mestre.

¿El pájaro está vivo?

El joven estaba concluyendo su periodo de preparación, y muy pronto pasaría a enseñar. Como todo buen alumno, necesitaba desafiar a su profesor, y desarrollar su propia manera de pensar. Así que capturó un pájaro, lo agarró con una mano, y lo llevó hasta él:
-Maestro: ¿este pájaro está vivo o muerto?

Su plan era el siguiente: si el maestro dijera “muerto”, él abriría la mano y el pájaro se echaría a volar. Si la respuesta fuese “vivo”, él lo aplastaría entre los dedos. De esa manera, el maestro siempre estaría equivocado.
-Maestro, ¿el pájaro está vivo o muerto? – insiste.

-Mi querido alumno, esto va a depender de ti – es el comentario del maestro.