Today the day started slow and early. Drinking coffee, looking across the horizon at the Olympic Mountains which hide Vancouver, B.C. to the North, I opened the Dalai Lama's book, Ethics for the New Millennium, which had been ingratiating itself, into my life, paragraph by paragraph, this past week. For some reason, to read it from beginning to end has not materialized, yet, and instead I find myself just opening to any page and beginning there. Usually when a question about my Self arises.
It is a book that every few paragraphs, stopping and contemplating the words and ideas, leads to realizations about my life which are hampering me from moving forward. It also brings realizations about the past and shows me where my actions are blocking me from fulfilling the life I see in my dreams. The life that is mine. A quote from the book which started today's blog:
If you can try not to think of yourself as better than the humblest beggar.You will look the same in your grave.
That simple statement envelopes his actions, daily. It helped me to break through a part of the book I am writing which has given me unnatural fear about completing the book. After I read that comment, the equanimity of my interactions with others on this planet was recalled and jump started me into a new chapter.
As mornings go, I traveled across the internet to my Twitter account and read some Tweets from Paulo Coelho and found the card above. I truly love him, for the writer and human, he has become, and for sharing his wisdom with the world. His new Declaration of Principles can be found here: http://bit.ly/brxAcf
Paulo Coelho, Declaration of Principles
1] All human beings are different. And should do everything possible to continue to be so.
2] Each human being has been granted two courses of action: that of deed and that of contemplation. Both lead to the same place.
3] Each human being has been granted two qualities: power and gift. Power drives a person to meet his/her destiny, his gift obliges that person to share with others which is good in him/her. A human being must know when to use power, and when to use compassion.
4] Each human being has been granted a virtue: the capacity to choose. For he/she who does not use this virtue, it becomes a curse – and others will always choose for him/her.
5] Each human being has the right to two blessings, which are: the blessing to do right, and the blessing to err. In the latter case, there is always a path of learning leading to the right way.
6] Each human being has his own sexual profile, and should exercise it without guilt – provided he does not oblige others to exercise it with him/her.
7] Each human being has his own Personal Legend to be fulfilled, and this is the reason he is in the world. The Personal Legend is manifest in his enthusiasm for what she/he does.
– the Personal Legend may be abandoned for a certain time, provided one does not forget it and returns as soon as possible.
8] Each man has a feminine side, and each woman has a masculine side. It is necessary to use discipline with intuition, and to use intuition objectively.
9] Each human being must know two languages: the language of society and the language of the omens. The first serves for communication with others. The second serves to interpret messages from God.
10] Each human being has the right to seek out joy, joy being understood as something which makes one content – not necessarily that which makes others content.
11] Each human being must keep alight within him the sacred flame of madness. And must behave like a normal person.
12] The only faults considered grave are the following: not respecting the rights of one’s neighbor, letting oneself be paralyzed by fear, feeling guilty, thinking one does not deserve the good and bad which occurs in life, and being a coward.
– we shall love our adversaries, but not make alliances with them. They are placed in our way to test our sword, and deserve the respect of our fight.
– we shall choose our adversaries, not the other way around.
12A] We hereby declare the end to the wall dividing the sacred from the profane: from now on, all is sacred.
14] Everything which is done in the present, affects the future by consequence, and the past by redemption.
15] The impossible is possible --Paulo Coelho
There are many things both these men write about which not only inspires others: it also reveals their souls, their fears and their pasts. That is what writing is about really, for me. A singular act of courage since words, songs, art reveal not only the soul, it also allows others the power to criticize, demean, praise, honor. Any of these actions can imbalance the creator, you and me. It takes courage and compassionate understanding of others to continue sharing one's gifts with the world. Share yours today.
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