Manual of the Warrior of Light

by Paulo Coelho

  Often, when the Warrior is pondering grave matters, the devil whispers in his ear: “Don’t worry about that, it’s not important.”

  At others, when he is faced by banalities, the devil says to him: “You should pour all your energies into resolving this situation.”

  The Warrior does not listen to what the devil is telling him; he is the master of his sword.

  A Warrior of the Light is always vigilant.

  He does not ask anyone else for permission to wield his sword; he simply takes it in his hands. Nor does he waste time explaining his actions; faithful to God’s decisions, he gives his answer in what he does.

  He looks to either side of him and identifies his friends. He looks behind him and identifies his opponents. He is implacable with treachery, but he does not seek revenge; he merely drives away the enemies of his life, never fighting with them any longer than is necessary.

  A Warrior does not try to appear one way or the other, he simply is.

  A Warrior does not keep company with those who wish to harm him. Nor is he seen in the company of those who want to “console” him.

  He avoids anyone who is only by his side in the event of a defeat: these false friends want to prove that weakness is rewarded. They always bring him bad news. They always try to destroy the Warrior’s confidence, all under the cloak of “solidarity.”

  When they see him wounded, they dissolve in tears, but, in their heart, they are happy because the Warrior has lost a battle. They do not understand that this is part of the fight.

  The true companions of a Warrior are beside him always, during the difficult times and the easy times.

  At the beginning of his struggle, the Warrior of the Light stated: “I have dreams.”

  After some years, he realizes that it is actually possible to reach his goal; he knows that he will be rewarded.

  At that moment, he feels sad. He knows about other people’s unhappiness, about the loneliness and frustration experienced by so much of humanity, and he does not believe that he deserves what he is about to receive.

  His angel whispers: “Give it all up.” The Warrior kneels down and offers God his conquests.

  That act of surrender forces the Warrior to stop asking foolish questions and helps him to overcome his feelings of guilt.

  The Warrior of the Light has the sword in his hands.

  He is the one who decides what he will do and what he will never do.

  There are moments when life leads him into a crisis and he is separated from things he has always loved; it is then that the Warrior reflects. He checks if he is fulfilling God’s will or if he is merely acting selfishly. If this separation is really part of his path, then he accepts it without complaint.

  If, however, such a separation was provoked by someone else’s perverse actions, then he is implacable in his response.

  The Warrior possesses both force and forgiveness. He can use both with equal skill.

  The Warrior of the Light never falls into the trap of that word “freedom.”

  When his people are oppressed, freedom is a very clear concept. At such times, using sword and shield, he fights as long as he has breath and life. When contrasted with oppression, freedom is easy to understand.

  But sometimes the Warrior hears older people saying: “When I stop working, I will be free.” A year later, those same people are complaining: “Life is all boring routine.” In this case, freedom is difficult to understand.

  A Warrior of the Light is always committed. He is the slave of his dream and free to act.

  A Warrior of the Light is not constantly repeating the same struggle, especially when there are neither advances nor retreats.

  If a battle is not progressing, he knows that he must sit down with the enemy and negotiate a truce; they have both practiced the art of the sword, now they need to understand each other.

  This is a dignified gesture, not a cowardly one. It is a balance of forces and a change of strategy.

  Once the peace plans have been drawn up, the Warriors return to their houses. They do not need to prove anything to anyone; they fought the Good Fight and kept the faith. Each one gave a little, thus learning the art of negotiation.

  The friends of the Warrior of the Light ask him where he draws his energy from. He says: “From the hidden enemy.”

  His friends ask who that is.

  The Warrior responds: “Someone we can no longer hurt.”

  It might be a boy who beat him in a childhood fight, the girlfriend who left him when he was eleven, or the teacher who said he was stupid. When he is tired, the Warrior reminds himself that these enemies have still not seen his courage.

  He does not consider revenge, because the hidden enemy is no longer part of his story. He thinks only of improving his skills so that his deeds will be known throughout the world and reach the ears of those who have hurt him in the past.

  Yesterday’s pain is the Warrior of the Light’s strength.

  A Warrior of the Light always has a second chance in life.

  Like all other men and woman, he was not born knowing how to use a sword; he made many mistakes before he discovered his Personal Legend.

  No Warrior can sit down by the fire and tell the others: “I always did the right thing.” Anyone who says this is lying and has not yet learned to know himself. The true Warrior of the Light has committed injustices in the past.

  But as he proceeds on his journey, he realizes that the people to whom he did not behave correctly always cross his path again.

  It is his chance to right the wrong he did them, and he always, unhesitatingly, seizes that chance.

  A Warrior is as wise as a serpent and as innocent as a dove.

  When people gather to talk, he does not judge the behavior of others; he knows that evil uses an invisible net to spread its darkness. This net catches any snippet of information floating in the air and transforms it into the intrigue and envy that infest the human soul.

  Thus, everything that is said about someone reaches the ears of the enemies of that person, augmented by the dark weight of poison and malice.

  For this reason, when the Warrior speaks of his brother’s opinions, he imagines that his brother is there present, listening to what he is saying.

  The Breviary of Medieval Knights says:

  “The spiritual energy of the Path uses justice and patience to prepare your spirit.

  “This is the Path of the Knight: A path that is at once easy and difficult, because it forces one to set aside trivial things and chance friendships. That is why, at first, many hesitate to follow it.

  “This is the first teaching of the Knights: You will erase everything you had written in the book of your life up until now: restlessness, uncertainty, lies. And in the place of all this you will write the word courage. By beginning the journey with that word and continuing with faith in God, you will arrive wherever you need to arrive.”

  When the moment for combat approaches, the Warrior of the Light is prepared for all eventualities.

  He analyses every strategy and asks: “What would I do if I had to fight myself?” He thus discovers his weak points.

  At that moment, his opponent approaches; he comes with a bag full of promises, treaties, and negotiations. He has tempting proposals and easy alternatives.

  The Warrior analyses each of the proposals; he also seeks agreement, but without ever losing his dignity. If he avoids combat, it will not be because he was seduced, but because he judged it to be the best strategy.

  A Warrior of the Light does not accept gifts from his enemy.

  I repeat:

  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 into 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. Warriors
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 why 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.

  The Warrior of the Light is now waking from his dream.

  He thinks: “I do not know how to deal with this light that is making me grow.” The light, however, does not disappear.

  The Warrior thinks: “Changes must be made that I do not feel like making.”

  The light remains, because “feel” is a word full of traps.

  Then the eyes and heart of the Warrior begin to grow accustomed to the light. It no longer frightens him and he finally accepts his own Legend, even if this means running risks.

  The Warrior has been asleep for a long time. It is only natural that he should wake up very gradually.

  The experienced fighter puts up with insults; he knows the strength of his fist and the skill of his blows. Confronted by an unprepared opponent, he looks deep into his eyes and conquers him without ever having to resort to a physical fight.

  As the Warrior learns from his spiritual master, the light of faith shines in his eyes and he does not need to prove anything to anyone. He is not bothered by his opponent’s aggressive arguments which say that God is a superstition, that miracles are just tricks, that believing in angels is running away from reality.

  Like the fighter, the Warrior of the Light is aware of his own immense strength; he never fights with anyone who does not deserve the honor of combat.

  The Warrior of the Light must always remember the five rules of combat, set down by Chuan Tzu three thousand years ago:

  Faith Before going into battle, you must believe in the reasons for the fight.

  Companions Choose your allies and learn to fight in company, for no one ever won a war singlehandedly.

  Time A battle in winter is different from a battle in summer; a good Warrior is careful to select the right moment to begin a fight.

  Space One does not fight in the same way in a mountain pass as one would on a plain. Think about your surroundings and how best to move around in them.

  Strategy The best Warrior is the one who plans his fight.

  The Warrior rarely knows the result of a battle when the battle is over.

  The activity of fighting will have generated an enormous amount of energy around him and there is always a moment when victory and defeat are equally possible. Time will tell who won and who lost, but he knows that, from that moment on, he can do nothing more: The fate of that battle lies in God’s hands.

  At such moments, the Warrior of the Light is not concerned with results. He examines his heart and asks: “Did I fight the Good Fight?” If the answer is “yes,” he can rest. If the answer is “no,” he takes up his sword and begins training all over again.

  Each Warrior of the Light contains within him the spark of God.

  His destiny is to be with other Warriors, but sometimes he will need to practice the art of the sword alone; this is why, when he is apart from his companions, he behaves like a star.

  He lights up his allotted part of the Universe and tries to point out galaxies and worlds to all those who gaze up at the sky.

  The Warrior’s persistence will soon be rewarded. Gradually, other Warriors approach, and they join together to form constellations, each with their own symbols and mysteries.

  Sometimes the Warrior feels as if he were living two lives at once.

  In one of them he is obliged to do all the things he does not want to do and to fight for ideas in which he does not believe. But there is another life, and he discovers it in his dreams, in his reading, and in his encounters with people who share his ideas.

  The Warrior allows his two lives to draw near. “There is a bridge that links what I do with what I would like to do,” he thinks. Slowly, his dreams take over his everyday life, and then he realizes that he is ready for the thing he always wanted.

  Then all that is needed is a little daring, and his two lives become one.

  Write down again what I told you:

  The Warrior of the Light needs time to himself. And he uses that time for rest, contemplation, and contact with the Soul of the World. Even in the midst of a battle, he manages to meditate.

  Occasionally, the Warrior sits down, relaxes, and lets everything that is happening around him continue to happen. He looks at the world as a spectator, he does not try to add to it or take away from it, he merely surrenders unresistingly to the movement of life.

  Little by little, everything that seemed complicated begins to become simple. And the Warrior is glad.

  The Warrior of the Light is wary of people who think they know the path.

  They are always so confident of their own ability to make decisions that they do not notice the irony with which destiny writes each life, and they always complain when the inevitable knocks at the door.

  The Warrior of the Light has dreams. His dreams carry him forward. But he never makes the mistakes of thinking that the way is broad and the gate wide. He knows that the Universe functions in the same way as alchemy. Solve et coagula said the masters—“Concentrate and disperse your energies according to the situation.”

  There are moments when one should act and moments when one should accept. The Warrior knows how to distinguish between these moments.

  Once he has learned how to use a sword, the Warrior of the Light discovers that his equipment is still incomplete—he needs armor.

  He sets off in search of this armor and he listens to the advice of various salesmen.

  “Use the breastplate of solitude,” says one.

  “Use the shield of cynicism,” says another.

  “The best armor is not to get involved in anything,” says a third.

  The Warrior, however, ignores them. He calmly goes to his sacred place and puts on the indestructible cloak of faith.

  Faith parries all blows. Faith transforms poison into crystal clear water.

  I always believe everything anyone tells me and I’m always disappointed,” his companion says.

  A Warrior of the Light is not afraid of disappointments because he knows the power of his sword and the strength of his love. It is important to trust people.

  However, he imposes certain limits: It is one thing to accept God’s signs and to know that the angels use the mouths of other people to give us advice. It is quite another to be incapable of making decisions and to be always looking for ways of letting others tell us what we should do.

  A Warrior trusts other people because, first and foremost, he trusts himself.

  The Warrior of the Light views life with tenderness and determination.

  He stands before a mystery, whose solution he will one day find. Every so often, he says to himself: “This life is absolutely insane.”

  He is right. In surrendering to the miracle of the everyday, he notices that he cannot always foresee the consequences of his actions. Sometimes he acts without even knowing that he is doing so, he saves someone without even knowing he is saving them, he suffers without even knowing why he is sad.

  Yes, life is insane. But the great wisdom of the Warrior lies in choosing his insanity wisely.

  The Warrior of the Light studies the two columns on either side of the door he is trying to open.

  One is called Fear and the other is called Desire. The Warrior looks at the column of Fear and on it is written: “You are entering a dangerous, unfamiliar world where everything you have learned up until now will prove useless.”

  The Warrior looks at the column of Desire and on it is written: “You are about to leave a familiar world wherein are stored all the things you ever wanted and for which you struggled long and hard.”

  The Warrior smiles because nothing frightens him and nothing holds him. With the confidence of one who knows what he w
ants, he opens the door.

  A Warrior of the Light practices a powerful exercise for inner growth: He pays attention to the things he does automatically, such as breathing, blinking, or noticing the things around him.

  He does this when he feels confused, and in this way he frees himself from tensions and allows his intuition to work more freely, without interference from his fears and desires. Certain problems that appeared to be insoluble are resolved, certain sorrows from which he thought he would never recover vanish naturally.

  He uses this technique whenever he is faced with a difficult situation.

  The Warrior of the Light hears comments like: “There are certain things I’d rather not talk about because people are so envious.”

  When he hears this, the Warrior laughs. Envy cannot harm you, if you don’t let it. Envy is part of life and everyone should learn to deal with it.

  However, he rarely discusses his plans. And sometimes people believe this is because he is afraid of envy.

  But he knows that whenever he talks about a dream, he uses a little bit of the energy from that dream in order to do so. And by talking, he runs the risk of spending all the energy he needs to put the dream into action.

  A Warrior of the Light knows the power of words.

  The Warrior of the Light knows the value of persistence and of courage. Often, during combat, he receives blows that he was not expecting. And he realizes that, during war, his enemy is bound to win some of the battles. When this happens, he weeps bitter tears and rests in order to recover his energy a little. But he immediately resumes his battle for his dreams.