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Stories for Parents, Children and Grandchildren Volume1Coelho, PauloPublished: 2008Type(s): Short Fiction, CollectionsAbout Coelho:The Brazilian author PAULO COELHO was born in 1947 in the city ofRio de Janeiro. Before dedicating his life completely to literature, heworked as theatre director and actor, lyricist and journalist. In 1986,PAULO COELHO did the pilgrimage to Saint James of Compostella, anexperience later to be documented in his book The Pilgrimage. In the followingyear, COELHO published The Alchemist. Slow initial sales convincedhis first publisher to drop the novel, but it went on to become oneof the best selling Brazilian books of all time. Other titles include Brida(1990), The Valkyries (1992), By the river Piedra I sat Down and Wept(1994), the collection of his best columns published in the Brazilian newspaperFolha de S?o Paulo entitle Maktub (1994), the compilation of textsPhrases (1995), The Fifth Mountain (1996), Manual of a Warrior of Light(1997), Veronika decides to die (1998), The Devil and Miss Prym (2000),the compilation of traditional tales in Stories for parents, children andgrandchildren (2001), Eleven Minutes (2003), The Zahir (2005), TheWitch of Portobello (2006) and Winner Stands Alone (2009). PauloCoelho is also a pioneer and has expanded his presence in the internetwith his daily blogs in Wordpress, Myspace & Facebook. He is equallypresent in media sharing sites such as Youtube and Flickr, offering on aregular basis not only texts but also videos and pictures to his readers.From this intensive interest and use of the Internet sprang his bold newproject: The Experimental Witch where he invites his readers to adapt tothe screen his book The Witch of Portobello. Indeed Paulo Coelho is afirm believer of Internet as a new media and is the first Best-selling authorto actively support online free distribution of his work.Also available on Feedbooks for Coelho:? The Way of the Bow (2008)? Warrior of the Light - Volume 1 (2008)? Stories for Parents, Children and Grandchildren - Volume 2 (2008)? Warrior of the Light - Volume 2 (2008)? Warrior of the Light - Volume 3 (2008)Copyright: Please read the legal notice included in this e-book and/orcheck the copyright status in your country.Note: This book is brought to you by Feedbooks.Strictly for personal use, do not use this file for commercial purposes.True SkillThe yogi Raman was a true master of the art of archery. One morning, heinvited his favorite disciple to watch a display of his skill. The disciplehad seen this more than a hundred times before, but he neverthelessobeyed his teacher.They went into the wood beside the monastery and when they reacheda magnificent oak tree, Raman took a flower which he had tucked in hiscollar and placed it on one of the branches.He then opened his bag and took out three objects: his splendid bowmade of precious wood, an arrow and a white handkerchief embroideredwith lilacs.The yogi positioned himself one hundred paces from the spot wherehe had placed the flower. Facing his target, he asked his disciple toblindfold him with the embroidered handkerchief.The disciple did as his teacher requested.'How often have you seen me practice the noble and ancient sport ofarchery?' Raman asked him.'Every day,' replied his disciple. 'And you have always managed to hitthe rose from three hundred paces away.'With his eyes covered by the handkerchief, the yogi Raman placed hisfeet firmly on the ground, drew back the bowstring with all his might aimingat the rose placed on one of the branches of the oak tree -andthen released the arrow.The arrow whistled through the air, but it did not even hit the tree,missing the target by an embarrassingly wide margin.'Did I hit it?' said Raman, removing the handkerchief from his eyes.'No, you missed completely,' replied the disciple. 'I thought you weregoing to demonstrate to me the power of thought and your ability to performmagic.''I have just taught you the most important lesson about the power ofthought,' replied Raman. 'When you want something, concentrate onlyon that: no one will ever hit a target they cannot see.'How to be rememberedIn the monastery of Sceta, Abbot Lucas gathered the brothers togetherfor a sermon.'May you all be forgotten,' he said.'But why?' one of the brothers asked. 'Does that mean that our examplecan never serve to help someone in need?''In the days when everyone was just, no one paid any attention topeople who behaved in an exemplary manner,' replied the abbot.'Everyone did their best, never thinking that by behaving thus they weredoing their duty by their brother. They loved their neighbour becausethey understood that this was part of life and they were merely obeyinga law of nature. They shared their possessions in order not to accumulatemore than they could carry, for journeys lasted a whole lifetime. Theylived together in freedom, giving and receiving, making no demands onothers and blaming no one. That is why their deeds were never spokenof and that is why they left no stories. If only we could achieve the samething now: to make goodness such an ordinary thing that there would beno need to praise those who practice it.Rebuilding the worldA father was trying to read the newspaper, but his little son kept pesteringhim. Finally, the father grew tired of this and, tearing a page from thenewspaper -one that bore a map of the world -he cut it into severalpieces and handed them to his son.'Right, now you've got something to do. I've given you a map of theworld and I want to see if you can put it back together correctly.'He resumed his reading, knowing that the task would keep the childoccupied for the rest of the day. However, a quarter of an hour later, theboy returned with the map.'Has your mother been teaching you geography?' asked his father inastonishment.'I don't even know what that is,' replied the boy. 'But there was aphoto of a man on the other side of the page, so I put the man back togetherand found I'd put the world back together too.'Thinking about deathZilu said to Confucius (a Chinese philosopher, who lived in the sixthcentury B.C.):'May I ask what you think about death?''You may ask,' replied Confucius, 'but if you still don't understand life,why do you want to know about death. Leave thinking about death forwhen life is over.'Paying the right priceNixivan had invited his friends to supper and was cooking a succulentpiece of meat for them. Suddenly, he realised that he had run out of salt.So Nixivan called to his son.'Go to the village and buy some salt, but pay a fair price for it: neithertoo much nor too little.'His son was surprised.'I can understand why I shouldn?t pay too much for it, Father, but if Ican bargain them down, why not save a bit of money?''That would be the sensible thing to do in a big city, but it could destroya small village like ours.'When Nixivan's guests, who had overheard their conversation,wanted to know why they should not buy salt more cheaply if theycould, Nixivan replied:'The only reason a man would sell salt more cheaply than usual wouldbe because he was desperate for money. And anyone who took advantageof that situation would be showing a lack of respect for the sweatand struggle of the man who laboured to produce it.''But such a small thing couldn't possibly destroy a village.''In the beginning, there was only a small amount of injustice abroad inthe world, but everyone who came afterwards added their portion, alwaysthinking that it was only very small and unimportant, and lookwhere we have ended up today.'The missing brickOnce, when I and my wife were travelling, I received a fax from mysecretary.'There's one glass brick missing for the work on the kitchen renovation,'she said. 'I'm sending you the original plan as well as the plan thebuilder has come up with to compensate for it.'On the one hand was the design my wife had made: harmonious linesof bricks with an opening for ventilation. On the other hand was the plandrawn up to resolve the problem of the missing brick: a real jigsawpuzzle in which the glass squares were arranged in a higgledy-piggledyfashion that defied aesthetics.'Just buy another brick,' wrote my wife. And so they did and thusstuck to the original design.That afternoon, I thought for a long time about what had happened;how often, for the lack of one brick, we completely distort the originalplan of our lives.Epictetus reflects on meetingsEpictetus (55 A.D.-135 A.D.) was born a slave and became one of thegreat philosophers of Rome. He was expelled from the city in 94 A.D.and it was while in exile that he came up with a way of teaching his followers.Here is an extract from his Art of Living.'Two things may happen when we meet someone: either we becomefriends or we try to convince that person to accept our beliefs. The samething happens when a hot coal meets another piece of coal: it eithershares its fire with it or is overwhelmed by the other's size and isextinguished.But, since, generally speaking, we feel insecure when we first meetsomeone, we are more likely to affect indifference, arrogance or excessivehumility. The result is that we ... [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]