31 Lines From Hippie by Paulo Coelho

A book about travel, self-discovery, love, and freedom, with a tinge of spirituality.

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It’s for people who love travelling in its truest sense. Someone who loves exploring places. Who enjoys the process of figuring things out. Who questions things. Who doesn’t understand why we live in buildings and work out of an office when we can live in nature. Someone who wants to live slowly.

Hippie is an autobiographical novel where young Paulo, who aspires to be a writer, sets out to travel the world in search of freedom and a deeper meaning for his life. It gives an insight into the hippie culture of the 1960s.

The book is beautifully written and makes you feel like you’re travelling with Paulo and Karla in the magic bus to Kathmandu. Sitting in Dam Square in Amsterdam, bathing in a river in Austria, dining by the Bosphorus, exploring Istanbul, and listening to the stories of the other passengers aboard the Magic Bus. Although I do wish he talked more about the places he travelled.

Hippie was my first read of 2024 and an interesting one. It had me underlining a lot. And I even copied a few lines I loved in a small notebook. Here are a few lines/ paragraphs I underlined or copied-

Image by the author from Hippie

1. May God give you … for every storm, a rainbow, for every tear, a smile, for every care, a promise, and a blessing in each trial. For every problem life sends, a faithful friend to share, for every sigh, a sweet song, and an answer for each prayer.
2. Those who wish to learn magic ought to begin by looking around them
3. Energy is to be found in the tiniest things man encounters in his path; the world is the true classroom, the love supreme knows you are alive and will teach you all you need to know.
4. The worst killing is that which kills the joy we get from life.
5. And when things happen without planning or expectation, they are that much more enjoyable and worthwhile
6. Part of the fun in life is exactly this: running risks.
7. But he’d just have to figure it out- life is all about figuring it out.
8. … And had experiences they would like to have but lack the courage to chase
9. The world was changing and that all passions, absolutely all of them, would become more intense. Hate would grow stronger and more destructive, and love’s face would shine through.
10. He was a human being, with all the fragility that entails.
11. Everyone slept beneath the stars, more time than not jittering with cold but grateful to be able to look to the sky, and know that they could speak with the silence, sleep in the company of angels they could almost see, cease to exist for a few moments- even if it were only fraction of a second- as they felt eternity and infinity all around them.
12. This is why we live as pilgrims because we belong to a world that hates standing still,
13. This chaos was beautiful, it was the font of life, it was how he imagined the universe beyond that place- and also within himself. It was a beauty that wasn’t the fruit of comparison, or prayer or desires- simply a way of living a long life in the form of rocks, of pine trees that threatened to plummet from the mountain but which must have been there for years because they knew they were welcome there, pleasing in the eyes of the rocks, and each adored the other’s company.
14. A bath was capable of curing many sorrows that refuse to budge from our mind.
15. Just one day was worth more than all the kingdoms in the world.
16. Dancing transforms everything, demands everything, and judges no one. Those who are free dance, even if they find themselves in a cave or a wheelchair, because dancing is not the mere repetition of certain movements, it’s a conversation with a Being greater and more powerful than everyone and everything. To dance is to use a language beyond selfishness and fear.
17. She arrived at the conclusion that this understanding was within herself.
18. A man in search of spirituality knows little, because he reads of it and tries to fill his intellect with what he judges wise. Trade your books for madness and wonder- then you will be a bit closer to what you seek. Books bring us opinions and studies, analysis and comparisons, while the sacred flame of madness brings us to the truth.
19. Then seek the truth. Seek always to be on its side, even when it brings you pain. There are times when the Truth goes quiet for long stretches, or when it doesn’t tell you what you want to hear.
20. Yes, they ate in silence. Gazing at the sky, the full moon, the waters of Bosphorus glowing beneath its rays, their faces illuminated by candlelight, their hearts bursting at the meeting of two strangers who suddenly enter another dimension together.
21. The more we allow the world in, the more we receive- be it love, be it hate
22. He had entered a state of complete emptiness, and this emptiness, through its inherent contradiction, filled everything.
23. Life seems simpler and at the same time richer, happier. I’m free.
24. I can see colors I’ve never seen before, the sky looks alive, the clouds are forming shapes I can’t understand yet, but I’m certain they’re scrawling messages for me, to guide me from this point on. I’m at peace with myself and I don’t view the world from outside: I am the world. I carry with me the wisdom of those who’ve come before me and left their mark in my genes. I am my dreams
25. Some unpleasant childhood experiences came back to her, and they now no longer seemed so unpleasant, merely experiences. She had given so much importance to them for so long– why?
26. Everything truly had to be faced without fear, as a mere fact of life — we don’t choose the things that happen to us, but we can choose how we react to them.
27. The outer self, that which you believe yourself to be. is nothing more than a limiting place, a stranger to the true self. This is why people have such a hard time listening to what their souls are telling them; they try to control the soul so that it does exactly as they have already decided — their wants. their hopes, their futures.
28. The only things she cared about were solitude and beauty, direct communication with God, and above all a safe distance from the world that she already knew all too well and that no longer held any interest for her.
29. The true spiritual journey is stronger than the reasons that lead us to it.
30. Everything and everybody is the same; this is the mystery and the end.
31. We cannot take the lamps that light the way and carry them with us. If we do this, we end up filling our backpacks with lanterns. In that case, even with all the light we carry, we still won’t have any company to speak of.

If you’ve read this book, I’d love to hear your thoughts. And if you have book recommendations particularly about travel and adventure or even creativity, please share them in the comments. I’ll owe you one!

Thanks for reading!