The Tyranny of My Second Mind

Looking at my feet, I walked, and did not notice the rain,
Till the gentle droplets reached my brows and fall like tears,
With clouded thoughts, I stride the deserted street,
The jeepneys were gone, and men also few.

Annoyed being ignored, the rain got furious,
I heard its million drops hit the battered asphalt,
Forming a king’s crown as its journey ends,
And in my hands I saw my dreams, abandoned like a child.



Yet blamed my other mind that fractured my resolve,
Than I reviled my existence and myself,
For subjecting my sacred vow,
Upon the tyranny of my second mind. ***

- random poem by Yodz -

[Reflections on losing discipline, indecision and losing focus. 

Written during during the typhoon "Karen"] 

20 August 2008, Mandaluyong City. 

Notes:__________________________

***Paulo Coelho, the famous author of “The Alchemist” said that we have two minds, first is the one we use in decision making and is used for logical thinking, the other one is the random thoughts and most of the time, uncontrolled. If you wake up with a song that just keeps playing in your mind, humming a melody without lyrics like a “ta-de-dum…la la la” thing, well that is your second mind doing its trick. In my case, I consider my second mind as my evil mind. Maybe that’s why Paulo Coelho strongly suggests controlling or in some instances, killing your second mind. [Notes from my post: Tomorrow I Will Kill My Second Thought]

The Legend of Sex

I was amazed by this legend about sex from the book Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho, also the author of the famous book "The Alchemist" [I am a fan of this author by the way], and thought of sharing it here on my blog. I also made some notes about that book around January this year and posted it in my book review blog. I'm not a fan of romance-love-story novels but I never thought sex, as presented throughout the book, could be that philosophical and poetic.

Here's the story:   

According to Plato, at the beginning of creation, men and women were not as they are now; there was just one being, who was rather short, with a body and a neck, but his head had two faces, looking in different directions. It was as if two creatures had been glued back to back, with two sets of sex organs, four legs and four arms.

The Greeks gods, however, were jealous, because this creature with four arms could work harder; with its two faces, it is always vigilant and could not be taken by surprise; and its four legs meant that it could stand or walk for long periods at a time without tiring. Even more dangerous was the fact that the creature had two different sets of sex organs and so needed no one else in order to continue reproducing.

Zeus, the supreme lord of Olympus, said “I have a plan to make these mortals lose some of their strength.”

And he cut the creature in two with a lightning bolt, thus creating the man and women. This greatly increased the population of the world, and, at the same time, disoriented and weakened its inhabitants, because now, they had to search for their lost half and embrace it and, in that embrace, regain their former strength, their ability to avoid betrayal and their stamina to walk for long periods of time and to withstand hard work.

That embrace in which the two bodies re-fuse to become one again is what we call SEX.”

So, what do you think, have you already found your other half?

Have a nice week!
yodz
____________________

Source: (story lifted from the book) Coelho, Paulo. 2004. Eleven Minutes,.New York ,New York:HarperCollins Publisher Inc. ISBN : 0-06-072675-X
Photo Credit : Yuroz "The Touch" Serigraph on Canvas

Book Notes: Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho

I borrowed this book from Tonet who also loves Paulo Coelho books. It is a novel about a Brazilian girl named Maria. At a very young age, she was convinced that love is a terrible thing that will make you suffer. With dreams of finding fame and fortune, a club recruiter deceived her and ends up working as a prostitute. Drifting farther and farther away from love, she develops a fascination with sex.
She fall in-love with a young painter who showed her “inner light” and later realized the possibility of a “sacred “ sex in the context of love.

The main theme of this book is about sex, prostitution, and falling in love. I do not normally read novels with this subject but Paulo Coelho, being a gifted writer, never fails to inspire me. He doesn’t just write to entertain but to inspire. I also learned a great deal of information about clitorology. Ha ha. Cool stuff.
Some passages from the book:

“Sometimes life is very mean: a person can spend days, weeks, months and years without feeling anything new. Then when a door opens – as happened with Maria when she met Ralf Hart – a positive avalanche pours in. One moment, you have nothing, the next, you have more than you can cope with.” - From page 141

“When a boss humiliates an employee, or a man humiliates his wife, he is merely being cowardly or taking his revenge on life, they are the people who never dared to look into the depths of their soul, never attempted to know the origin of that desire to unleash the wild beast or to understand that sex, pain and love are all extreme experiences. Only those who know those frontiers know life; everything else is just passing time, repeating the same tasks, growing old and dying without ever having discovered what we are doing here.
Work, marriage, children, television, bitterness, old age, the sense of having lost many things, frustrations, illness, disability, dependence on others, loneliness, death.”

From Maria’s Diary : “I am two women; one wants to have all the joy, passion, and adventure that life can give me. The other wants to be slave to routine, to family life, to the things that can planned and achieved. I’m a housewife and a prostitute, both of us living in the same body and doing battle with each other.” - Page 149-151

“I’ve confronted my demons, and my dark side. I plunged into the depths of my soul and know that I still want good things, many good things from this life.” – Ralf Hart - From page 192;

____________________
Coelho, Paulo. 2004. Eleven Minutes,.New York ,New York:HarperCollins Publisher Inc. ISBN : 0-06-072675-X

Book Notes: Warrior of the Light by Paulo Coelho

When I finished reading the “The Alchemist”, I immediately bought this book as an inspirational companion. It contains short passages, which invites every reader to live out their dreams, to embrace uncertainty in life and to rise to their own unique destiny.

This book really inspires me; hence, I named my personal blog “Struggles of the Warrior of the Light.” Paulo Coelho really helps me in bringing out the Warrior within me and showed me how to embark upon the way of the Warrior: appreciating the miracle of being alive, accepting failure and being the person I want to be.

For all the seekers out there, you must have this book.

Here are some passages from the book: (from page 84)

“You can recognize a Warrior of the Light by the look in his eye. Warriors of the Light are in the world, they form part of the world, and they were sent to the world without saddlebags or sandals. They are often cowardly. They do not always act correctly.

Warriors of the Light are wounded by the most foolish things, they worry about trivialities, they believe themselves incapable of growing, Warrior of the Light sometimes believe themselves unworthy of any blessing or miracle.

Warriors of the Light often ask themselves what they are doing here. Often they find their lives meaningless.

That is what they are Warriors of the Light. Because they fail. Because they ask questions. Because they keep looking for a meaning. And, in the end, they will find it.”

__________________________

Coelho, Paulo. 2003.Warrior of the Light, A Manual.New York: HarperCollins Publisher Inc.