Go and re-conquer your kingdom, which has grown corrupted by routine.
J says these lines to the narrator when the latter confided in J that he can no longer feel closer to God, that he has begun to feel sceptic of his purpose on life. J feels that the narrator has been living a life that has been set in a routine and that routine is corrupting his senses and lighting out his creativity which in turn is making him feel restless and without any purpose. He feels that to live his life to fullest and being happy with it, he would have to travel to let go of the routine and experience a new way of living.
The light falls only on the Stranger
Samil explains the meaning of the Tunisian proverb that a foreigner is always fawned over more than the locals. He says that even though he writes in the local language, but he finds it difficult to make big in his own country while Coelho who originally writes in Portuguese is a celebrated writer in Tunisia. Coelho adds that it is similar to a Portuguese proverb which translates as a foreigner prophet is always more celebrated.
If you spend too much time trying to find out what is good or bad about someone else, you’ll forget your own soul and end up exhausted and defeated by the energy you have wasted in judging others.
Yao says the above lines as an explanation to Aikido. While Aikido is looked as a martial art form, it is more about calming the opponent. He says that the same sentiment can be used in normal life where instead of using one’s energy to point out other’s faults and then judging that person based on those faults will be waste of one’s energy as that energy can be used in a productive task.
If you want to see a rainbow you have to learn to like the rainbow.
Yao writes the above line on a piece of paper to ease the tension in the carriage as everyone is tired of the long train journey and lack of sleep, in addition to Hilal’s intrusion. Yao tries to pacify everyone by writing a thought on a piece of paper. What he means is that if one wants happiness one has to go through certain stages of discomfort. This is in context of the tension in the carriage as he believes that everyone can end on good terms if they could bear the discomfort then.
But death is just a door into another dimension
The narrator summarizes his feelings as he and Yao have just finished trying to conjure the spirit of Tao’s wife through a Russian shaman. Yao is still grieving over the death of his wife while everyone keeps telling him that his wife is at a peaceful place and is not unhappy but is disturbed due to his inability to move on with his life.
Our life is a constant journey, from birth to death. The landscape changes, the people change, our needs change, but the train keeps moving. Life is the train, not the station.
The quote is a response to the narrator's complaints and exhaustion from constant traveling by J. The latter explains the unpredictable nature of one's life journey. We never know where we are headed and only change is constant. Our friends, neighbors, and people we know will change as we go on with our lives and make choices.
