Sunday, December 28th, 2008
5. Don’t compare. Don’t compare anything – prices, standards of hygiene, quality of life, means of transport, nothing! You are not travelling in order to prove that you have a better life than other people. Your aim is to find out how other people live, what they can teach you, how they deal with reality and with the extraordinary.
—— Paulo Coelho 《Like the Flowing River: Travelling Differently》
人生本来就是一种旅程，而与不同的人交涉就像拜访不同的地方。人比人，气死人，在我生命中出现的每个人我都当他们是我的老师，不论是我的敌人，朋友还是萍水相逢的人，我都能够从他们学到一些东西。我觉得因为一时的赌气而不做你不喜欢人做对的事，那是愚蠢的。
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Friday, December 26th, 2008
虽然知道这样做是不对的，我还是想把Paulo Coelho在《Like The Flowing River》中的《These Are My Friends》完完整整地抄出来。
These Are My Friends by Paulo Coelho
‘The reason the king is so powerful is because he’s made a pact with the Devil,’ a very devout woman in the street told the boy, and he was intrigued.
Some time later, when he was travelling to another town, the boy heard a man beside him remark:
‘All this land belongs to the same man. I’d say the Devil had a hand in that.’
Late one summer afternoon, a beautiful woman walked past the boy.
‘That woman is in the service of Satan!’ cried a preacher angrily.
From then on, the boy decided to seek the Devil out, and when he found him, he said:
‘They say you can make people powerful, rich, and beautiful.’
‘Not really,’ replied the Devil. ‘You’ve just been listening to the views of those who are trying to promote me.’
看不懂英文的人：这篇大意是说人们都在说恶魔有多厉害，那些很厉害的人都是出卖灵魂给恶魔换来的，但事实上恶魔并没有这么厉害，只是这些人言过其实，而这些不断为恶魔宣传的人事实上是恶魔的好朋友。
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Wednesday, December 24th, 2008
The angel goes on: ‘Would you be capable of taking at least fifteen minutes of your day to stop and look at the world, and at yourself, and simply do nothing?’ Manuel says that he would love to do that, but he doesn’t have time. ‘You’re lying to me,’ says the angel. ‘Everyone has time to do that. It’s just that they don’t have the courage. Work is a blessing when it helps us to think about what we’re doing; but it becomes a curse when its sole use is to stop us thinking about the meaning of our life.’
—— Paulo Coelho 《Like the Flowing River: Manuel is an Important and Necessary Man》
我喜欢时不时独自一人关在房里，什么事都不做，也不开任何音乐，一个人躺在床上想想过去现在和未来，偶尔也会想‘如果’。
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Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008
However unique you may think you are, there is alwyas someone who has had the same dream before, and who will have left signs behind that will make the climb less arduous: the best place to attach a rope, trodden paths, branches broken off to make it easier to pass. It is your climb and it is your responsibility too, but never forget that other people’s experiences are always helpful.
—— Paulo Coelho 《Like the Flowing River: How to Climb Moutains》
Like the Flowing River书中有一篇是讲说Paulo Coelho的邻居在园艺方面很不成功，从来没有成功让花开花结果。这位邻居却很喜欢教导Paulo怎么种花，并分享自己的心得。Paulo并没有遵照邻居的指示去做，因为如果他那么做的话，他只会像邻居一样种不出花来。
虚心问人是对的事，但重要的是要问对的人。
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Monday, December 22nd, 2008
Don’t be influenced by what other people say: ‘that one’s prettier’ or ‘that one looks easier’. You are going to put a lot of energy and enthusiasm into achieving your objective, and you are the only person responsible for your choice, so be quite sure about what you are doing.
—— Paulo Coelho 《Like the Flowing River: How to Climb Moutains》
很多人对于未来没有一个蓝图，常常都是追随大众的脚步或照着别人讲的去做。向人打听询问不同的事并非不可以，但你必须要有个目标，然后透过从别人口中的资料规划着怎么达到你的目标。
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Sunday, December 21st, 2008
在机场买了Paulo Coelho的《Like the Flowing River》，这本作品和我读过的Paulo Coelho作品不一样，不是小说，而只是他的随想和短篇故事。很喜欢其中的《The Story of the Pencil》。
“The Story of the Pencil” by Paulo Coelho
A boy was watching his grandmother write a letter. At one point, he asked:
“Are you writing a story about what we’ve done? Is it a story about me?”
His grandmother stopped writing her letter and said to her grandson:
“I am writing about you, actually, but more important than the words is the pencil I’m using. I hope you will be like this pencil when you grow up.”
Intrigued, the boy looked at the pencil. It didn’t seem very special.
“But it’s just like any other pencil I’ve ever seen!”
“That depends on how you look at things. It has five qualities which, if you manage to hang on to them, will make you a person who is alwyas at peace with the world.”
“First quality: You are capable of great things, but you must never forget that there is a hand guiding your steps. We call that hand God, and He always guides us according to His will.”
“Second quality: now and then, I have to stop writing and use a sharpener. That makes the pencil suffer a little, but afterwards, he’s much sharper. So you, too, must learn to bear certain pains and sorrows, because they will make you a better person.”
“Third quality: the pencil always allows us to use an eraser to rub out any mistakes. This means that correcting something we did is not necessarily a bad thing; it helps to keep us on the road to justice.”
“Fourth quality: what really matters in a pencil is not its wooden exterior, but the graphite inside. So always pay attention to what is happening inside you.”
“Finally, the pencil’s fifth quality: it always leaves a mark. In just the same way, you should know that everything you do in life will leave a mark, so try to be conscious of that in your every action.”
如果一个人能记得一支铅笔的五种特质，那他不只是度过他的生命，至少他活过。如果你对生命感到迷茫，不妨买一本Paulo Coelho的书读读，会让你得到很多启示的。
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Tuesday, January 29th, 2008
写过《The Alchemist》以及不少脍炙人口的书的作家——Paulo Coelho原来也有自己的blog。
个人也写过一些关于Paulo Coelho的作品以及自己的想法。读Paulo Coelho的书有很大的启发，特别是对生命的看法。
Link:
Paulo Coelho’s Blog [via]
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Monday, November 19th, 2007
读了Paulo Coelho的Veronika Decides to Die，觉得是一本很有意思的书。以下就quote书中的某些段落，还有很多好料，各位可以去买来读读。
Madness is the inability to communicate your ideas. It’s as you were in a foreign country, able to see and understand everything that’s going on around you, but incapable of explaining what you need to know or of being helped, because you don’t understand the language they speak there.
这书的主要主题就是”Mad”。如果一个人和周围的人有着不同想法做法时，那人是异类。就如我在《神或兽》quote Aristotle讲过的话一样，这异类有两种结果，他不是被万人敬仰的话，就是被众人唾弃。
The Indians believe the murderer to be guilty, not society, not his parents, not his ancestors. Do the Japanese commit suicide because a son of theirs decides to take drugs and go out and shoot people? The reply is the same: no! And, as we all know, the Japanese will commit suicide at the drop of a hat. The other day, I read that a young Japanese man killed himslef because he had failed his university entrance exams.
什么是文化？文化就是一个社群里的某些行为、信仰、思维。文化不是一天两天就有的。在英文里，文化叫做‘Culture’。而Culture的另外一个意思就是培育/耕种。文化是慢慢养成的，如果用英文来解释的话，我会说文化是‘man among men’。
Everyone had their own theory about everything, and they believed that their truth was the only one that mattered. They spent days, nights, weeks and years talking, never accepting the fact that, good or bad, an idea only exists when someone tried to put it into practice.
没有自己想法一味跟着众人去做，我觉得可怜。有自己的想法可是什么都不做，我觉得可悲。有自己的想法而且也会去做，我觉得敬佩，就算理念不同。有自己的想法，做了后很成功，我欣赏你。
在这里看到一个印尼人写的文章。
When Malaysia air their famous tourism promotion on TV all over this earth and boldly illustrate a strong statement as the “Truly Asia”, I just stood in awe and even half-admiring the beautiful beach of Langkawi while thinking, “How I wish Indonesia’s Tourism Board has enough money to create such a inviting ad”. However I was a bit displease with “Truly Asia” tagline. So the other country is not really Asia? It seemed Malaysia challenge the rest of South East Asia to stand up.
—— sapimalas: Malaysia: Is it “Truly Asia”?
知不知道马来人其实也不是马来西亚的原住民呢？马来人的定义是什么呢？建议读者篇：《谁才是马来人》。
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Tuesday, August 7th, 2007
这本《Evelen Minutes》（十一分钟）是Paulo Coelho的另一本作品。这里面包含了一个妓女对性的探讨。
Paulo Coelho在他的作品里并不常写关于性爱的东西，他觉得这话题虽然很有趣，可是写起来并不简单。书名Eleven Minutes是讲述一个妓女与顾客那做爱的十一分钟。
书里说，每个人都会做出自己的选择，朝着自己的梦想出发，可是有时候无可奈何的你选择的和你想要的并不同，然后自己选择堕落下去。每个人心里都有些渴望的东西，永远都不会满足。
书里有句话觉得满有意思的：“people talk as if they knew everything, but if you dare to ask a question, they don’t know anything.”
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