WARRIOR OF THE LIGHT

Those used to the Brazilian author Paulo Coelho's esoteric novels will find this slim book rather different. Each page of Manual of the Warrior of Light is a new passage, an inspirational thought, a message of wisdom and guidance and encouragement.

Who is the Warrior of Light? Any of us, reaching out to be the fullest person we can be, not afraid to have doubts and fears and to make mistakes and to learn from them. "That is why he is a warrior of light, because he has been through all this and yet has never lost hope of being better than he is." It is a path of tolerance: "In order to have faith in his own path, he does not need to prove that someone else's path is wrong." It is a path of intuition: "the warrior knows that intuition is God's alphabet and he continues listening to the wind and talking to the stars." If we are met with the same problems and situations over and over again, instead of becoming depressed we should learn: "Yes, you have been through all this before," replies his heart. "But you have never been beyond it." Then the warrior realises that these repeated experiences have but one aim: to teach him what he does not want to learn.

Collected from Coelho's newspaper columns in the mid-90s, these short passages are not always easy or comfortable; but maybe that's because life isn't either. This is a book for dipping into for spiritual refreshment and sustenance. --David V Barrett