In life, each person can take one of two attitudes: to build or to plant.

The builders might take years over their tasks, but one day,

they finish what they’re doing.

Then they find they’re hemmed in by their own walls.

Life loses its meaning when the building stops.


Then there are those who plant.

They endure storms and all the many vicissitudes of the seasons,

and they rarely rest.

But, unlike a building, a garden never stops growing.

And while it requires the gardener’s constant attention,

it also allows life for the gardener to be a great adventure.


Gardeners always recognize each other, because they know that

in the history of each plant lies the growth of the whole World.





The Tradition of the Sun,

which teaches the secrets through spaces and the world that surrounds us,

and the tradition of the Moon,

which teaches through time and the things

that are imprisoned in time’s memory.


Brida had understood. The Tradition of the Sun was the night, the trees,

the cold gripping her body, the stars in the sky.

And the Tradition of the Moon was that man before her now,

with the wisdom of the ancestor shining in his eyes.





The night was just a part of the day.

Therefore she could feel as safe in the dark as she did in the light.

It was the dark that made her invoke the protective presence.

She must trust it.

And that trust was called Faith.

No one could ever understand Faith,

but Faith was what she was experiencing now,

an inexplicable immersion in blackest night.

It only existed because she believed in it.

Miracles couldn’t be explained either,

but they existed for those who believed in them.





We form part of what the alchemists call the Anima mundi,

the Soul of the world.

The truth is that if the Anima mundi were merely to keep dividing,

it would keep growing, but it would also become gradually weaker.
 
That is why, as well as dividing into two, we also find ourselves.

And the process of finding ourselves is called Love.



‘But how will I know who my Soulmate is?’ Brida felt that this

was one of the most important questions she had ever asked in her life.

‘By taking risks,’ she said to Brida.

By risking failure, disappointment, disillusion,

 but never ceasing in your search for Love.

 As long as you keep looking, you will triumph in the end
.






‘But is it possible that the atoms

that made up the body of someone who died

could be in my body and in someone else’s body?’



He said nothing for a moment, then said:

‘Yes, it is.’

 

And Brida hoped against hope that this young man

who knew so much about the light from the stars

contained a little of the person she had once been.





‘I’m always starting things and then giving up,’ she thought rather sourly.

Perhaps life would soon realize this

and stop presenting her with the same opportunities over and over.

And perhaps, by always giving up when she had only just started,

she had exhausted all possible paths without even taking a single step.



But that was how she was,

and she felt herself growing gradually weaker

and less and less able to change.

A few years before, she would felt depressed by her own behavior,

but she would, at least, still have been capable

of the occasional heroic gesture;

now, though, she was starting to adapt to her own mistakes.

She knew other people who did the same –

they, too, got used to their mistakes

and it wasn’t long before they began to see them as virtues.

And by then it was too late.





‘Right, from now on,

 whenever you want to find out about something, plunge straight in.’



She wasn’t afraid of difficulties;

what frightened her was being forcing to choose one particular path.


Choosing a path meant having to miss out on others.

She had a whole life to live and she was always thinking that,

in future, she might regret the choices she made now.



‘I’m afraid of committing myself,’ she thought to herself.

She wanted to follow all possible paths and so ended up following none.




You had to take risks, follow some paths and abandon others.

She remembered Wicca telling her about people

who followed certain paths only to prove that they weren’t the right ones,

but that wasn’t as bad as choosing a path

and then spending the rest of your life wondering

if you’d made the right choice.

No one could make a choice without feeling afraid.


That was the law of life. That was the Dark Night,

and no one could escape the Dark Night,

even if they never made a decision,

even if they lacked the courage to change anything,

because that in itself was a decision, a change,

except without the benefit of the treasures hidden in the Dark Night.





It meant, too, from the moment you became able to see the point of light,

there would be no Dark Night of Love.

Brida thought of the many times she had suffered for love,

the nights she had lain awake waiting for a phone call that never came,

the romantic weekends that didn’t survive the following week,

the parties spent glancing anxiously around to see who was there,

the joy of making a conquest simply to prove that you could,

the sadness and loneliness when you were sure

that your best friend’s boyfriend was the only man

who could possibly make you happy.

That was part of her world, and the world of everyone else she knew.

That was love, and that was how people had searched for their Soulmate

since time began,

by looking into another’s eyes in search of that special light, desire.

She had never given much value to such things;

on the contrary, she had always thought it pointless to suffer

because of someone else,

or to feel scared stiff

because you couldn’t find anyone with whom to share your life.

Now, however, that she had the chance

to free herself from such fears, for ever, she wasn’t sure she wanted to.





What is outside is harder to change than what is inside.

 



Both men and women are extremely vulnerable to the force of sex,

because, during sex, pleasure and fear are present in equal measure



‘Why do pleasure and fear do together?’



‘Because anyone who comes into contact with sex knows that

 they’re dealing with something which only happens in all its intensity

 when they lost control.

 When we are in bed with someone,

 we’re giving permission to that person not only to commune with our body,
 
 but with our whole being.

 The pure forces of life are in communication with each other,
 
 independent of us, and then we cannot hide who we are.’


‘It doesn’t matter what image we have of ourselves.

 It doesn’t matter what disguises we put on,

 what smart answers or honourable excuses we give.

 During sex, it’s very difficult to deceive the other person,

 because that is when each person shows who they really are.’





True love allowed each person to follow their own path,

knowing that they would never lose touch with their Soulmate
.





Never stop having doubts.

If you ever do, it will be because you’ve stopped moving forward,


and at that point, God will step in and pull the rug from under your feet,

because that is His way of controlling His chosen ones,

by making sure they always follow their appointed path to the end.

If, for any reason, we stop, whether out of complacency, laziness,

or out of mistaken belief that we know enough,

He forces us on.


On the other hand, you must be careful never to allow doubt to paralyse you.

Always take the decisions you need to take,

even if you’re not sure you’re doing the right thing.

You’ll never go wrong

if, when you make a decision, you keep in mind an old German proverb

that the Tradition of the Moon has adopted:

“The Devil is in the detail”.

Remember that proverb and you’ll always be able

to turn a wrong decision into a right one.





‘Right now, while we’re here eating,

 ninety-nine per cent of the people on this planet

 are, in their own way, struggling with the very question.

 Why are we here?

 Many think they’ve found the answer in religion or in materialism.

 Others despair and spend their lives and their money

 trying to grasp the meaning of it all.

 A few let the question go unanswered and live for the moment,

 regardless of the results or the consequences.


‘Only the brave

 and those who understand the Tradition of the Sun and the Moon

 are aware that the only possible answer to the question is

 I DON’T KNOW.


‘This might, at first, seem frightening,

 leaving us terribly vulnerable in our dealings with the world,

 with the things of the world and with our own sense of our existence.

 Once we’ve got over that initial fear, however,

 we gradually become accustomed to the only possible solution:

 to follow our dreams.

 Having the courage to take the steps we always wanted to take

 is the only way of showing that we trust in God.


‘As soon as we accept this, life takes on a sacred meaning,

 and we experience the same emotion the Virgin must have felt

 when, one afternoon in her otherwise very ordinary existence,

 a stranger appeared to her and made her an offer.

 “Be it unto me according to thy word,” said the Virgin.

 Because she had understood that the greatest thing a human being can do

 is to accept the Mystery.’



‘So what’s the point of looking for an answer then?’


‘We don’t look for an answer, we accept,

 and then life becomes much more intense, much more brilliant,

 because we understand that each minute, each step that we take,

 has a meaning that goes far beyond us as individuals.

 We realise that somewhere in time and space this question does have an answer.

 We realise that there is a reason for us being here, that is enough.


‘We plunge into the Dark Night with Faith,

 we fulfil what the ancient alchemists used to call our Personal Legend

 and we surrender ourselves fully to each moment,

 knowing that there is always a hand to guide us,

 and whether we accept it or not is entirely up to us.’





‘Lord, we’re all in the world to run risks of that Dark Night.

 I’m afraid of death, but even more afraid of wasting my life.

 I’m afraid of love,

 because it involves things that are beyond our understanding;

 it sheds such a brilliant light, but the shadow it casts frightens me.’





That was how things were in the Tradition of the Sun;

each person was obliged to learn what he needed to learn

and not merely what he wanted to learn.





Anyone not already following their own path

would begin to feel unsatisfied with themselves

and be forced to make a choice:

they would either have to accept

an existence beset with disappointment and pain

or else come to realize that everyone was born to be happy.





‘No one can possess a sunset like the one we saw that evening,’ he went on.

‘Just as no one can possess an afternoon of rain beating against the window,

 or the serenity of a sleeping child,

 or the magical moment when the waves break on the rocks.

 No one can possess the beautiful things of this earth,

 but we can know them and love them.

 It is through such moments that God reveals himself to mankind.


‘We are not the masters of the sun or of the afternoon or of the waves

 or even the vision of God, because we cannot possess ourselves.’



The Magus held out his hand to Brida and gave her a flower.


‘When we first met – although it seems to me that I’ve always known you,

 because I can’t remember the world before that –

 I showed you the Dark Night.

 I wanted to see how you would face up to your own limitations.

 I knew that you were my Soulmate,

 and that you would teach me everything I needed to learn –

 that is why God divided man and woman.’



Brida touched the flower.

It seemed to her that it was the first flower she had seen in months.

Spring had arrived.


‘People give flowers as presents because flowers contain the true meaning

 of Love. Anyone who tries to possess a flower

 will have to watch its beauty fading.

 But if you simply look at a flower in a field, you will keep it forever,

 because the flower is part of the evening and the sunset

 and the smell of damp earth and the clouds on the horizon.’



Brida’s eyes filled with tears. She was proud of her Soulmate.


‘That is what the forest taught me.

 That you will never be mine, and that is why I will never lose you.

 You were my hope during my days of loneliness,

 my anxiety during moments of doubt,

 my certainty during moments of faith.


Knowing that my Soulmate would come one day,

 I devoted myself to learning the Tradition of the Sun.

 Knowing that you existed

 was my one reason for continuing to live.



Brida could no longer conceal her tears.


‘Then you came, and I understood all of this.

 You came to free me from the slavery I myself had created,
 
 to tell me that I was free to return to the world and to the things of the world.

 I understood everything I needed to know,

 and I love you more than all the women I have ever known,

 more than I loved the woman who, quite unwittingly, exiled me to the forest.
 
 I will always remember now that love is liberty.

 That was the lesson it took me so many years to learn.

 That is the lesson that sent me into exile and now sets me free again.’



‘I will always remember you, and you will remember me,

 just as we will remember the evening, the rain on the windows,

 and all the things

 we’ll always have because we cannot possess them
.’

                                        

                                                       -- Paulo Coelho 《Brida》

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