The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho Read Free Book Online Page B

put my knapsack on the
     ground.
    Look around you, and choose some point to fixate on, he said.
    I chose the cross on a church that I could see in the distance.
    Keep your eyes fixed on that point, and try to con- centrate only on what I am going to
     tell you. Even if you feel something different, dont become distracted. Do as I am telling
     you.
    I stood there, relaxed, with my eyes fixed on the cross, as Petrus took a position behind
     me and pressed a finger into the base of my neck.
    The Road you are traveling is the Road of power, and only the exercises having to do with
     power will be taught to you. The journey, which prior to this was torture because all you
     wanted to do was get there, is now begin- ning to become a pleasure. It is the pleasure of
     searching and the pleasure of an adventure. You are nourishing something thats very
     important your dreams.
    We must never stop dreaming. Dreams provide nourishment for the soul, just as a meal does
     for the body. Many times in our lives we see our dreams shat- tered and our desires
     frustrated, but we have to continue dreaming. If we dont, our soul dies, and agape cannot
     reach it. A lot of blood has been shed in those fields out there; some of the cruelest
     battles of Spains war to expel the Moors were fought on them. Who was in the right or who
     knew the truth does not matter; whats important is knowing that both sides were fighting
     the good fight.
    The good fight is the one we fight because our heart asks it of us. In the heroic ages at
     the time of the
    knights in armor this was easy. There were lands to conquer and much to do. Today,
     though, the world has changed a lot, and the good fight has shifted from the battlefields
     to the fields within ourselves.
    The good fight is the one thats fought in the name of our dreams. When were young and our
     dreams first explode inside us with all of their force, we are very courageous, but we
     havent yet learned how to fight. With great effort, we learn how to fight, but by then we
     no longer have the courage to go into combat. So we turn against ourselves and do battle
     within. We become our own worst enemy. We say that our dreams were childish, or too
     difficult to realize, or the result of our not having known enough about life. We kill our
     dreams because we are afraid to fight the good fight.
    The pressure of Petruss finger on my neck became stronger. I perceived that the cross on
     the church had been transformed; now its outline seemed to be that of a winged being, an
     angel. I blinked my eyes, and the cross became a cross again.
    The first symptom of the process of our killing our dreams is the lack of time, Petrus
     continued. The busiest people I have known in my life always have time enough to do
     everything. Those who do nothing are always tired and pay no attention to the little
     amount of work they are required to do. They complain constantly that the day is too
     short. The truth is, they are afraid to fight the good fight.
    The second symptom of the death of our dreams lies in our certainties. Because we dont
     want to see life as a grand adventure, we begin to think of ourselves as wise and fair and
     correct in asking so little of life. We look beyond the walls of our day-to-day existence,
     and we hear the sound of lances breaking, we smell the dust and the sweat, and we see the
     great defeats and the fire in the eyes of the warriors. But we never see the delight, the
     immense delight in the hearts of those who are engaged in the battle. For them, neither
     victory nor defeat is important; whats important is only that they are fighting the good
     fight.
    And, finally, the third symptom of the passing of our dreams is peace. Life becomes a
     Sunday afternoon; we ask for nothing grand, and we cease to demand any- thing more than we
     are willing to give. In that state, we think of ourselves as being mature; we put aside
     the fan- tasies of our