Manual of the warrior of light - intro

Ever since reading his book "The Alchemist", Paulo Coelho became one of the writers i enjoy reading to..

His book "Manual of the Warrior of Light" was a book i read i guess during summer of 2005; but although its not a complicated read and had almost two paragraphs per page only... but it held a lot of wisdom and meanings that puts you in a state of reading one page only just so that you'd digest the words compeletly. I always felt that a lot of his writings had a resemblence to the Prophet Mohammad's - peace be upon him - sayings... you'd read a paragraph and you'd say "yah well.. the Prophet (PBUH) did mention this to us too."

The book starts with a short story.. i wrote down.. skipped few lines here and there.. i shall be posting every now and then one of the things he mentioned in this book... enjoy the read..

"Just off the beach to the west of the village lies an island, and on it is a vast temple with many bells," said the woman.

The boy noticed that she was dressed strangely and had a veil covering her head. He had never seen her before.

"Have you ever visisted the temple?" She asked, "Go there and tell me what you think of it?"

Seduced by the woman's beauty, the boy went to the place she had indicated. He sat down on the beach and stared out at the horizon, but he saw only what he always saw: blue sky and ocean.

Disappointed, he walked to a nearby fishing village and asked if anyone there knew wabout an island and a temple.

"Oh, that was many years ago, when my great-grandparents were alive," said the fisherman. "There was an earth-quake, and the island was swallowed up by the sea. But although we can no longer see the island, we can still hear the temple bells when the ocean sets them swinging down below."

-----

The boy went down to the ocean and tried to hear the bells but he couldn't hear anything. He spent many days and months. He quit school and spent his days trying to hear the bells. Although he couldn't hear the bells, he learned about other things. "He began to realise that he had grown so used to the sound of the waves that he was no longer distracted by them. Soon after that, he became used to the cries of the seagulls, the buzzing of the bees and the wind blowing amongst the palm trees.

Six months passed and he still couldn't hear it. After almost a year he lost hope and thought: "perhaps it's just a another legend and the bells were all shattered during the earthquake and have never rung out since."

That afternoon he decided to go back home and thought of walking by the beach to say goodbye. "He looked once more at the natural world around him and because he was no longer concerned about the bells, he could again smile at the beauty of the seagulls' cries, the roar of the sea and the wind blowing in the palm trees. Far off, he hear the sounds of his friends playing and he felt glad to think that he would soon resume his childhood games.


The boy was happy and - as only a child can - he felt grateful for being alive. He was sure that he had not wasted his time, for he had learned to contemplate Nature and to respect it.


Then, because he was listening to the sea, the seagulls, the wind in the palm trees and the voices of his friends playing, he also heard the first bell.

And then another.

And another, until to his great joy, all the bells in the drowned temple were ringing. "


Years later, he became a grown man, and returend to the village and to the beach and decided to go for a walk.

And there on the beach... he saw that same woman.

"What are you doing here?" He asked

"I was waiting for you." She replied.

He noticed that, despite the passing years, the woman looked exactly the same; the veil hiding her hair had not faded with time.

She handed him a blue notebook full of blank pages.

"Write: a warrior of light values a child's eyes because they are able to look at the world without bitterness. When he wants to find out if the person beside him is worthy of his trust, he tries to see him as a child would."

"What is a warrior of light?"

"You already know that" She replied with a smile. "He is someone capable of understanding the miracle of life, of fighting to the last for something he blieves in - and of hearing the bells that the waves sets ringing on the seabed."


He had never thought of himself as a warrior of light. The woman seemed to read his thoughts. "Everyone is capable of these things. And, though no one thinks of themselves as warrior of light, we all are."

He looked at the blank pages in the notebook. The woman smiled again.

"Write about that warrior" she said.



A Lost Dot:
Dedicated to the warriors of light i know....