I asked this week to friends to stare a blank wall – what do you see?

In my case, I’m used to stare to a blank wall or a candle – but I don’t try to empty my mind because this is impossible. I rather try to follow my train of thought on what happens inside of me and I’m not entirely conscious.

When I wrote the post on staring at the blank wall, I remember I was trying to think about songs, then about the name of the artist, at the same time I was thinking about of the plumber that had to show up in order to fix something in the house. Then I started to thinking about useless things and then I felt like having a coffee – but I still had two minutes to go. So these two minutes took an eternity and then I tried to make time run faster. This is when I get distracted and think about nothing. Then, all of the sudden, you realize that three minutes of your life have passed.

Having said that - meditation is quite interesting. If you do that every day, for only three minutes, if you relax and try to calm yourself by starring at a blank wall or candle, or even closing your eyes and say to yourself “I can spend 10 minutes of my life in silence” – then you will see how things will improve. Because you unconscious mind goes to your conscious mind and somehow you start having intuitions that once were buried and now you can see.

So: stare to a blank wall and share here what you see.

Paulo Coelho
www.paulocoelhoblog.com

Tags: forum, paulo coelho, paulo coelho blog

Animal promiscuity

Recently I read an interesting polemic article in the American newspaper New York Times (25/03/2008). Written by Natalie Angier, the text is based on the research of prominent biologists and psychologists concerning monogamy. The conclusion that they reach is impressive: conjugal infidelity is present throughout the animal kingdom.

And that’s not all: studies have shown that certain species “pay” for sex, while others reward their “lovers” with presents and affection. To complete the picture, jealousy and machismo are also to be found there: females are violently attacked if they copulate with another partner.

Of course we are not animals, but the similarities mentioned above are very revealing. Some of the more interesting parts of the article are worth transcribing.

1] Many species are raised from a very tender age to marry someone chosen by the family. They fly and play together, they sing and dance together. In other words, they are raised to impress the community with proof that they were born for one another.

More on: www.warriorofthelight.com

Paulo Coelho
www.paulocoelhoblog.com

Tags: newsletter, paulo coelho, paulo coelho blog, warrior of light

Now you can see who is behind the camera it is Paula.

I would like to know who is behind your camera? Who gives you strength and support to carry you? Because everybody in this world has someone behind the camera Paula is not the only one I have many people who support me in my work and enable me to keep on doing what I do.

So share here who are the people that support you in your path?

Paulo Coelho
www.paulocoelhoblog.com

Tags: forum, paulo coelho, paulo coelho blog

Paulo Coelho's polish publisher, Basia Stepien, decided to ask the readers to write a screenplay to show a "trailler" of the book "The Winner Stands Alone" in Polish cinemas. Great idea, great result!



www.paulocoelhoblog.com

Tags: cinema, coelho, paulo coelho, paulo coelho blog, polish, short film, the winner stands alone, trailer

Throughout the month of June, Paulo Coelho will be conducting a workshop around his new title: The Winner Stands Alone

Visit Paulo's blog!
www.paulocoelhoblog.com

Tags: paulo coelho, paulo coelho blog, the winner stands alone, workshop

Sometimes we are afraid to say that we like some art… In my case, earlier on in my life, I loved ABBA - but it was politically incorrect to say that in public since it was considered a too sweet and low…

I also love writers such as Henry Miller and bestsellers such as Stephen King. It would probably be more politically correct to say that I love Baudelaire – which is not the case.

So, what are your secret, hidden artists that you like but believe others don’t?

Paulo Coelho
www.paulocoelhoblog.com

Tags: forum, paulo coelho, paulo coelho blog, video

How the city was pacified

An old legend tells of how a certain city in the Pyrenees mountains used to be a stronghold for drug-traffickers, smugglers and exiles. The worst of them all, an Arab called Ahab, was converted by a local monk, Savin, and decided that things could not continue like that.

As he was feared by all, but did not want to use his fame as a thug to make his point, at no moment did he try to convince anyone. Knowing the nature of men as well as he did, they would only take honesty for weakness and soon his power would be put in doubt.

So what he did was call some carpenters from a neighboring town, hand them a drawing and tell them to build something on the spot where now stands the cross that dominates the town. Day and night for ten days, the inhabitants of the town heard the noise of hammers and watched men sawing bits of wood, making joints and hammering in nails.

At the end of ten days the gigantic puzzle was erected in the middle of the square, covered with a cloth. Ahab called all the inhabitants together to attend the inauguration of the monument.

Solemnly, and without making any speech, he removed the cloth.

Paulo Coelho
more on: www.warriorofthelight.com
www.paulocoelhoblog.com

Tags: newsletter, paulo coelho, paulo coelho blog, warrior of light

Tags: paulo coelho, paulo coelho blog, ufo

The circle is the most used geometrical symbol and its shape reminds the shape of the Sun and the Moon.

For ancient philosophers, such as Plato, the circle represents the perfect shape. It is said that the Temple of Apollo in the land of Hyperborean had a circular shape – which reminds the shape of Stonehenge in South England as well as Plato’s description of the island of Atlantis.

Mystical systems represent God as a circle that has a center everywhere and the circumference is nowhere – proof that God’s perfection is unattainable to man.

The Egyptian symbol of eternity was a string closed by a buckle, in other cultures infinity would be depicted as a serpent biting its own tail (Ouroboros).

Now you take the floor: what do you associate with the circle?

Paulo Coelho

www.paulocoelhoblog.com

Tags: association, circle, paulo coelho, paulo coelho blog

The triangle is one of the most elementary symbolic figures due to its geometric aspect: it’s basically the simplest way of linking three points in space with straight lines.

Yet not all triangles have the same meaning. In excavations made near to Lepenski Vir in the Danube, there was found many blocs of stones shaped like triangles and inscriptions in bones also with triangular shapes. These vestiges date from the Stone Age and are mainly composed of inverted triangles which most probably refer to the feminine sex.

In more recent times, including in Alchemic texts, the inverted triangle would symbolize water (reproducing in a geometric fashion the shape of a drop) whilst the triangle with its point up would refer to the masculine element of fire.

In the system drawn from Pythagoras (Born between 580 and 572 BC, died between 500 and 490 BC), the delta letter symbolized the cosmic birth, whilst for Hindus the same letter would represent the goddess Durga – source of life and incarnation of femininity.

In the Christian era, the triangle was increasingly used as a symbol of the Trinity and later on, during the Baroque period, God’s eye was incrusted at its center. Such a vision can also be found in the Zohar: “God’s eyes and foreheads form in the sky a triangle and they reflect mutually in water in the shape of a triangle.”

Now you take the floor: what do you associate with the triangle?

Paulo Coelho,
www.paulocoelhoblog.com

Tags: association, paulo coelho, paulo coelho blog