Obviously, if you belong to a certain religion, you will have to respect established rules - Jews and Muslims, for example, do not eat pork, and, in their case, this practice forms part of their faith. However, the world is being flooded with a wave of 'purification through food'. Radical vegetarians look at people who eat meat as if they had murdered the animal themselves; but, then, aren't plants living things too? Nature is a constant cycle of life and death and, one day, we will be the ones going back into the earth to feed it. So if you don't belong to a religion that forbids certain foods, eat whatever your organism needs. I would like to tell a story about the Russian magus Gurdjieff. When he was young, he went to visit a great teacher and, in order to impress him, he ate only vegetables. One night, the teacher asked him why he kept to such a strict diet. Gurdjieff replied: 'In order to keep my body clean.' The teacher laughed and advised him to stop this practice at once. If he continued, he would end up like a hothouse flower - very pure, but incapable of withstanding the challenges of travelling and of life. As Jesus said: 'It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth.'
Myth 3: God is sacrifice
Many people seek the path of sacrifice and self-immolation, stating that we must suffer in this world in order to find happiness in the next. Now, if this world is a blessing from God, why not try to enjoy to the full the delights that life offers us? We are very accustomed to the image of Christ nailed to the Cross; but we forget that his Passion lasted only three days. The rest of the time he spent travelling, meeting people, eating, drinking, and preaching his message of tolerance, so much so that his first miracle was, in a sense, 'politically incorrect', for when the wine ran out at the Cana wedding, he turned the water into wine. He did this, I believe, to demonstrate to us all that there is nothing wrong with being happy, enjoying yourself, joining in with the party, because God is much closer to us when we are with others. Mohammed said: 'If we are unhappy, we bring unhappiness upon our friends also.' Buddha, after a long period of trial and renunciation, was so weak that he almost drowned; when he was rescued by a shepherd, he understood that isolation and sacrifice distance us from the miracle of life.
Myth 4: There is only one path to God
This is the most dangerous of all the myths, for from it spring all the many explanations of the Great Mystery, as well as religious strife and our tendency to judge our fellow men and women. We can choose a religion (I, for example, am Catholic), but we must understand that if our brother chooses a different religion, he will eventually reach the same point of light that we are seeking in our spiritual practices. Finally, it is worth remembering that we cannot shift responsibility for our decisions onto priest, rabbi, or imam. We are the ones who build the road to paradise with each and every one of our actions.
My Father-in-law, Christiano Oiticica
Shortly before he died, my father-in-law summoned his family.
'I know that death is only a journey, and I want to make that voyage without sadness. So that you won't worry, I will send you a sign that it really is worthwhile helping others in this life.'
He asked to be cremated and for his ashes to be scattered over Arpoador Beach while a tape recorder played his favourite music.
He died two days later. A friend arranged the cremation in Sao Paulo and, once back in Rio, we went straight to the beach armed with a tape recorder, tapes, and the package containing the cremation urn. When we reached the sea, we discovered that the lid of the urn was firmly screwed down. We tried in vain to open it.
The only other person around was a beggar, and he came over to us and asked: 'What's the problem?'
My brother-in-law said: 'We need a screwdriver so that we can get at my father's ashes inside this urn.'
'Well, he must have been a very good man, because I've just found this,' said the beggar.
And he held out a screwdriver.
Thank You, President Bush*
Thank you, great leader George W. Bush.
Thank you for showing everyone what a danger Saddam Hussein represents. Many of us might otherwise have forgotten that he had used chemical weapons against his own people, against the Kurds, and against the Iranians. Hussein is a bloodthirsty dictator, and one of the clearest expressions of evil in today's world.
But this is not my only reason for thanking you. During the first two months of 2003, you have shown the world a great many other important things and, therefore, deserve my gratitude.
So, remembering a poem I learned as a child, I want to say thank you.
Thank you for showing everyone that the Turkish people and their parliament are not for sale, not even for 26 billion dollars.
Thank you for revealing to the world the gulf that exists between the decisions made by those in power and the wishes of the people. Thank you for making it clear that neither Jose Maria Aznar nor Tony Blair give the slightest weight to, or show the slightest respect for, the votes they received. Aznar is perfectly capable of ignoring the fact that 90 per cent of Spaniards are against the war, and Blair is unmoved by the largest public demonstration to take place in Britain in the last thirty years.
Thank you for making it necessary for Tony Blair to go to the British Parliament with a fabricated dossier written by a student ten years ago and present this as 'damning evidence collected by the British Secret Service'.
Thank you for sending Colin Powell to the UN Security Council with proof and photographs, thus allowing for these to be publicly refuted one week later by Hans Blix, the Inspector responsible for disarming Iraq.
Thank you for adopting your current position, thus ensuring that, at the plenary session, the anti-war speech of the French Foreign Minister, Dominique de Villepin, was greeted with applause - something, as far as I know, that has only happened once before in the history of the UN, on the occasion of a speech by Nelson Mandela.
Thank you, too, because, after all your efforts to promote war, the normally divided Arab nations, at their meeting in Cairo during the last week in February, were, for the first time, unanimous in their condemnation of any invasion.
Thank you for your rhetoric stating that 'the UN now has a chance to demonstrate its relevance', a statement that made even the most reluctant countries take up a position opposing any attack on Iraq.
Thank you for your foreign policy, which provoked the British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, into declaring that, in the twenty-first century, 'a war can have a moral justification', thus causing him to lose all credibility.
Thank you for trying to divide a Europe that is currently struggling for unification. This was a warning that will not go unheeded.
Thank you for having achieved something that very few have so far managed to do in this century: the bringing together of millions of people on all continents to fight for the same idea, even though that idea is opposed to yours.
Thank you for making us feel once more that, though our words may not be heard, they are at least spoken. This will make us stronger in the future.