The Pilgrimage

by Paulo Coelho

“The divine spark. What we call luck.”

“Present here is one of the two manifestations of agape,” he said, as he stubbed out his third cigarette. “It is not the only one, but it is the purest.

Agape is total love. It is the love that consumes the person who experiences it. Whoever knows and experiences agape learns that nothing else in the world is important—just love.

Enthusiasm is agape directed at a particular idea or a specific thing.

Because when we are involved in the good fight, nothing else is important; enthusiasm carries us toward our goal.

I was re-experiencing the enthusiasm of my childhood; I was once again a child, and nothing in the world could cause me harm.

The Blue Sphere Exercise Seat yourself comfortably, and relax. Try not to think about anything. 1.Feel how good it is to be alive. Let your heart feel free and affectionate; let it rise above and beyond the details of the problems that may be bothering you. Begin to sing softly a song from your childhood. Imagine that your heart is growing, filling the room—and later your home—with an intense, shining blue light. 2.When you reach this point, begin to sense the presence of the saints (or other beings) in which you placed your faith when you were a child. Notice that they are present, arriving from everywhere, smiling and giving you faith and confidence.

Blue sphere exercise

3.Picture the saints approaching you, placing their hands on your head and wishing you love, peace, and communion with the world—the communion of the saints. 4.When this sensation becomes strong, feel that the blue light is a current that enters you and leaves you like a shining, flowing river. This blue light begins to spread through your house, then through your neighborhood, your city, and your country; it eventually envelops the world in an immense blue sphere. This is the manifestation of the great love that goes beyond the day-to-day struggle; it reinforces and invigorates, as it provides energy and peace. 5.Keep the light spread around the world for as long as possible. Your heart is open, spreading love. This phase of the exercise should last for a minimum of five minutes. 6.Come out of your trance, bit by bit, and return to reality. The saints will remain near. The blue light will continue to spread around the world.

“Death is our constant companion, and it is death that gives each person’s life its true meaning.

The Buried Alive Exercise Lie down on the floor and relax. Cross your arms over your chest in the posture of death. • Imagine all of the details of your burial, as if it were to be carried out tomorrow, the only difference being that you are being buried alive. As the situation develops in your mind—the chapel, the procession to the cemetery, the lowering of the casket, the worms in the grave—you begin tensing all of your muscles more and more in a desperate attempt to escape. But you cannot do so. Keep trying until you cannot stand it any longer, and then, using a movement that involves your entire body, throw aside the confines of the coffin, breathe deeply, and find yourself free. This movement will have a greater effect if you scream at the same time; it should be a scream that emanates from the depths of your body.

Buried Alive exercise

He was not going to allow me to put off until tomorrow what I should be enjoying today.

You have your own way of living your life, of dealing with problems, and of winning. Teaching is only demonstrating that it is possible. Learning is making it possible for yourself.” He

Once a problem is solved, its simplicity is amazing.”

Breathing Exercise Expel all of the air from your lungs, emptying them as much as you can. Then, inhale slowly as you raise your arms as high as possible. As you inhale, concentrate on allowing love, peace, and harmony with the universe to enter into your body. • Hold the air you have taken in and keep your arms raised for as long as you can, enjoying the harmony between your inner sensations and the outer world. When you reach your limit, exhale all of the air rapidly, as you say the word, “RAM.” • Repeat this process for five minutes each time you do the exercise.

Breathing Exercise

in order for agape to flourish, I must not be afraid to change my life. If I liked what I was doing, very well. But if I did not, there was always the time for a change.

Shadows Exercise Relax completely. • For five minutes, study the shadows of all of the objects and people around you. Try to identify exactly which part of the object or person is casting a shadow. • For the next five minutes, continue to do this, but at the same time, focus on the problem you are trying to solve. Look for all of the possible wrong solutions to the problem.

Shadow exercise

Finally, spend five more minutes studying the shadows and thinking about what correct solutions remain. Eliminate them, one by one, until only the single correct solution is left.

“Everything is contained in sounds—the past, the present, and the future.

The person who does not know how to listen will never hear the advice that life offers us all the time.

And only the person who listens to the sounds of the moment is able to mak...

Listening Exercise Relax. Close your eyes. • Try for several minutes to concentrate on all of the sounds you hear in your surroundings, as if you were hearing an orchestra playing its instruments. • Little by little, try to separate each sound from the others. Concentrate on each one, as if it were the only instrument playing. Try to eliminate the other sounds from your awareness. • When you do this exercise every day, you will begin to hear voices. First, you will think that they are imaginary. Later, you will discover that they are voices of people from your past, present, and future, all of them participating with you in the remembrance of time. • This exercise should be performed only when you already know the voice of your messenger. • Do this exercise for ten minutes at a time.

Listening Exercise

“The secret is the following,” Petrus said. “You can learn only through teaching. We have been together here on the Road to Santiago, but while you were learning the practices, I learned the meaning of them. In teaching you, I truly learned. By taking on the role of guide, I was able to find my own true path.

Secret

Dance Exercise Relax. Close your eyes. • Recall the first songs you heard as a child. Begin to sing them in your thoughts. Little by little, let a certain part of your body—your feet, your stomach, your hands, your head, and so on—but only one part, begin to dance to the melody you are singing. • After five minutes, stop singing, and listen to the sounds all around you. Compose an internal melody based on them, and dance to it with your whole body. Don’t think about anything in particular, but try to memorize the images that spontaneously appear. • The dance offers an almost-perfect means of communication with the Infinite Intelligence. • This exercise should last fifteen minutes.

Dance exercise

Christian, Jewish, and Islamic. Their chapels were built with the rounded cupola of the Judaic temples of Solomon, the octagonal walls of the Arab mosques, and the naves that were typical of Christian churches.

I was my own Master, and I was learning to communicate with the universe.

power had been reborn in me, in the same way that it could be reborn in all people who devoted their lives to the good fight. A

when I think about it, I guess it is true that people always arrive at the right moment at the place where someone awaits them.

there are no chosen individuals. Everyone is chosen, if instead of asking “What am I doing here,” people would simply resolve to do anything that sparks enthusiasm in their heart.

gateway to Paradise lies in working with enthusiasm; it lies in love that transforms and the choice that leads to God.

It is the willingness to believe that life is a miracle that allows miracles to happen,

Miracle