Concepts to remember:
- the Chinese bamboo
- Hilal
- the Trans-Siberian railway
- the Aleph
- the Path of Peace
- the Ring of Fire
- Korkmaz git
- Solve et coagula
- of children and grown-ups
- learning the beauty of simple things in Japan
- the shaman and the Baikal River
1. A certain nobleman went into a far country, to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. - Luke 19:12
2. It's doubt that drives a man onward.
3. Time doesn't teach; it merely brings us a sense of weariness and of growing older.
4. You can change your future by bringing the past into the present.
5. It's what you do in the present that will redeem the past and thereby change the future.
6. You've got to leave in order to return to the present.
7. The great lessons I learned had been precisely those that my journeys had taught me.
8. Travel is never a matter of money but of courage.
9. Life is the train, not the station.
10. Understand what is going on inside you and you will understand what is going on inside everyone else.
11. When a sense of dissatisfaction persists, that means it was placed there by God for one reason only: you need to change everything and move forward.
12. We always try to interpret things in accordance with what we want and not as they are.
13. That is what marks out the warrior: the knowledge that willpower and courage are not the same thing. Courage can attract fear and adulation, but willpower requires patience and commitment.
14. I was beginning to believe that nothing I had learned had put down any roots.
15. If I believe I will win, then victory will believe in me.
16. No life is complete without a touch of madness.
17. A life without cause is a life without effect.
18. Words are tears that have been written down. Tears are words that need to be shed.
19. No one is a prophet in his own land. We always tend to value what comes from afar, never recognizing the beauty around us.
20. Leave your comfortable life and go in search of your kingdom.
21. Those who set off in search of their kingdom know that they are going to find, instead, only challenges, long periods of waiting, unexpected changes, or, even worse, nothing.
22. What hurts us is what heals us.
23. To live is to experience things, not sit around pondering the meaning of life.
24. I am a born pilgrim.
25. I will never reach my goal by staying in the same place all the time.
26. Don't think about what you'll tell people afterward. The time is here and now. Make the most of it.
27. All we achieve by exacting revenge is to make ourselves the equals of our enemies, whereas by forgiving we show wisdom and intelligence.
28. If you spend too much time trying to find out what is good or bad about someone else, you'll forget your own soul and end up exhausted and defeated by the energy you have wasted in judging others.
29. I am in the Aleph, the point at which everything is in the same place at the same time.
30. Expend your energies and you will remain young.
31. Don't be intimidated by other people's opinions. Only mediocrity is sure of itself, so take risks and do what you really want to do. Seek out people who aren't afraid of making mistakes and who, therefore, do make mistakes. Because of that, their work often isn't recognized, but they are precisely the kind of people who change the world and, after many mistakes, do something that will transform their own community completely.
32. Suddenly, though, something seems to have happened, and she can't make any more progress.
33. The small Aleph always appears by chance... you know that you are understanding something that you can't even explain to yourself.
34. Most of them occur because of things that have remained unresolved, and we need a new incarnation in order to finish something that was left incomplete.
35. Dreamers can never be tamed.
36. Love is the only thing that will save us, independent of any mistakes we may make. Love is always stronger.
37. Anyone who knows God cannot describe Him. Anyone who can describe God does not know Him.
38. We are always in touch with the Divine Energy; it's only routine that prevents us from feeling it.
39. We learn in the past, but we are not the result of that.
40. We are not the person other people wish we were. We are who we decide to be.
41. Love always triumphs over what we call death. That's why there's no need to grieve for our loved ones, because they continue to be loved and remain by our side.
42. She was never mine and never will be; that is how it is.
43. Being alone may make me more vulnerable, but it makes me more open, too.
44. I have hundreds of wounds that I carry around with me, and yet I'm obliged to behave as if I were the happiest person in the world.
45. Our hearts, which are regulated by time but which never stop forever.
46. Train your heart. That is the discipline every warrior needs. If you can control your heart, then you will defeat your opponent.
47. If you conquer yourself, then you will conquer the world.
48. I am fighting with myself, and I need to win this fight at all costs, even if that involves falling and getting up over and over.
49. Controlling your aggression in order not to harm the other is the Path of Peace.
50. First develop a strategy that utilizes everything around you. The best way to prepare for a challenge is to cultivate the ability to call on an infinite variety of responses.
51. Sometimes fear is necessary in order for the soul to find its path again.
52. We can become imprisoned by our memories, and that makes our lives wretched even when we have everything we need in order to be happy.
53. Korkmaz git: "He goes and is not afraid." (Turkish)
54. To invoke the Aleph, something very powerful has to happen: a huge orgasm, a terrible loss, the climax of a great conflict, a moment of ecstasy when confronted by something of rare beauty.
55. The world is divided into those who understand me and those who don't. In the case of the latter, I simply leave them to torment themselves trying to gain my sympathy.
56. As we travel on, we are constantly destroying and rebuilding ourselves and who we are.
57. Words kill, and only through direct experience will you understand everything.
58. Conflict was essential to revolution.
59. May these marks remain forever on my body, so that I may never forget who I was today.
60. The trouble with words is that they give us the illusory sense that we are making ourselves understood as well as understanding what others are saying. However, when we turn around and come face-to-face with our destiny, we discover that words are not enough.
61. A warrior in search of his dream must take his inspiration from what he actually does and not from what he imagines himself doing.
62. When I noticed that my life was no longer flowing like a river down to the sea, I decided to go off traveling.
63. We should always be prepared for attacks by the enemy and be capable of looking into the eyes of death so that death may light our path.
64. Not everything in life is a long train with tickets available to all.
65. Spiritual growth doesn't always arrive hand in hand with wisdom.
66. The most sophisticated things in the world are precisely those within the reach of everyone.
67. Love is made up of choices.
68. I will never be yours, and you will never be mine.
69. Yes, pure selfishness. People like him would like time to stop or go backward, and by doing so, they prevent the souls of their loved ones from moving on.
70. I cannot cure despair when people find comfort in it.
71. Be blessed. And just as you are transforming your own life, may you transform the lives of those around you.
72. Is it possible to deviate from the path God has made? Yes, but it's always a mistake.
Is it possible to avoid pain? Yes, but you'll never learn anything.
Is it possible to know something without ever having experienced it? Yes, but it will never truly be a part of you.
73. No, nothing has changed. But we - who went off in search of our kingdom and discovered lands we had never seen before - know we are different.
74. Sometimes, you have to travel a long way to find what is near.
75. The magical and the extraordinary are with me and with everyone in the Universe all the time, but sometimes we forget and need to be reminded.
76. We return laden with treasures that might end up getting buried again, and then we will have to set off once more in search of them.
77. That's what makes life interesting - believing in treasures and in miracles.
78. Let God use your hands. You will be happy, even if right now you feel only despair.
79. You're part of me, the most important part, and it's being left behind. I will never be the person I was.
80. You're a prisoner of your past, and so am I.
81. Celebrate the fact that you were brave enough to risk your career and set off in search of adventure, and find it, too.
82. Only two things can reveal life's great secrets: suffering and love.
83. Life decided to separate us.
84. Any return to the past with no knowledge of the process can have dramatic and disastrous consequences.
Photo Credits:
http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2011/09/30/seven-questions-about-aleph/
