I have just finished a very interesting piece of literature – making me feel a bit sad and a bit stupid that I had taken so long to get round to acquiring firstly and to reading it. But I am happy to say that it took me all of four days to read and digest given that I had to take breaks for work and housework but I know its going to keep me thought provoked for a life time. The Alchemist is a brilliant book and must be read and as I write this I am off to make some more fulfilling purchases of the rest of his collection. I had to write about this book as I wanted to share my new found light and hope that this book reaches to more.
The funny thing about me is that when it comes to my reading, and very much anything in my life, I do not follow the latest fad. I don’t read a book because it’s the current rage or because it’s the “in” thing. I have a random sense of picking up books along my travels, and stashing them away in my bookshelf and when I am in a certain frame, I find that through some mystical power, the most appropriate book comes to my attention. Reading a piece of literature is very personal to me. Awhile back, my mind and soul was at a loss for reason and logic, and whilst grazing my book shelf, a book that I had picked up in a local bookstore in Colombo some months prior, almost jumped out at me and when I began to read it, it almost felt as though it was meant to be. The Secret came to me when I had thought I had overturned every stone and nothing else remained.
Whilst reading this epic piece of work, I began to reflect on myself, as one does, and realised that although I had achieved much in my time, I had not lived. There were things inside me that had been locked away, dreams that I had forgotten and signs that I had not heeded. Love that I had not felt and not allowed myself to feel, love that I was afraid of letting in because of the fear of hurt and rejection.
I had become so consumed in my own pain and tragedy that I had forgotten that not all things are within my power or control and that everything is written. The more we try to manipulate the hand of fate and capture time, we waste energy as both are like air, we cannot see it nor can it be captured or trapped. It will still flow through and carry on regardless whether we have lived our lives and made the most of the time we do get or just existed.
It is also a fact that we get comfortable with the daily routine, and the security and stability it brings. We know tomorrow what we are doing at what time and with whom. We plan to live within the confines of our own restrictions or the restrictions of others and blame life for how stifled and how disorientated we feel about the life around us and those around us. We make do and settle as that is all we believe that is enough for us. But is it? We don’t allow ourselves to break free and explore even though we cry for freedom and ask for the chance to realise our hearts desires.
I asked myself – is my life an ornament that is stacked on shelf and just take out to polish every now and again or will I allow myself to get to my hearts desire and face the pain.
The book held so many thought provoking verses that when I closed my eyes and thought about the message I realised that to really appreciate the fruit we have to be prepared to grow with the seed. We cannot just pick it up and admire its beauty and delight in its taste when we have no idea where it came from or the story it had to tell.
We all have a story to tell. Whether be it dark or light but what we have to remind ourselves is that we cannot hold on to the past and we have to let go of what we have left behind. We can consume ourselves in regret hate and anger and we can surround ourselves in the abundance of pure guilt. We forget that we did not have a choice in the place or time or conditions that we are born into and for this we cannot be held to ransom for the things that we may lack or have too much exposure too. Where our experiences differ then we should share our stories and have appreciation for the person telling it. When they share to you their past and their history they are opening apart of them that they are leaving behind but also in order to move forward the need to know where we come from is important in order to fully understand why we are the way we are and why we think and behave the way we do. We can forever confine ourselves to the chambers of our past and never want to change in order to change our future. We can change our present in order to make the future better but do we have the will and drive to make this happen? When a person is willing to share their ghosts with you, will you run or follow? If they react the way you react, will you respect them and still love them without judgment?
We can also reserve ourselves to the blame culture that surrounds us and gravitate easily to the thing or person that seems less like hardwork as we feel that we do not have the time or the patience to deal with the issues that have nothing to do with us. But one thing that we forget is that we all have issues and we have to treat others the way that we want to be treated. If a man is not willing to change or is not ready to change then woman, let him go. If the love is true then be confident in the fact that he will return. Trying to hang on to someone and forcing them to love you will only result in heartache and false love.
Men, if your woman is trying to keep her identity and her independence then encourage her and support her, let her follow her dreams cause if you keep her from discovering her full potential, then she will resent you and become needy.
Dreams and love are all intertwined. Our goals, and desires and our destinies all there in front of us to go and achieve. Loving someone can be painful, but we have to evaluate the amount of love we spend on those that don’t love us back and be confident that true love is possible even at the lowest of points, the rarest of places or with the unlikeliest person. Just don’t cut yourself off from that thought and live in a world of delusional fantasy. As much as loneliness can lack lustre, the idea of constantly breaking your heart seems more of a crime.
When going for that job, or taking that exam, or even travelling away, keep an open mind. Always show humility and be confident in a dignified way. Arrogance and self pompousness is not an attractive quality. Never look at the negatives even when the storm is breaking down.
Its amazing how many people I know and hear do nothing but complain all day. Nothing is ever good enough, and everything is criticised. I sometimes wonder what makes them so special that they feel that they have to dissect everything. If you live to live in complication you will never be happy, live simply and even the smallest things will give you more pleasure that every imagined. When you complain about your shoes, remember the man with no feet. Be humble.
I am a simple person. I smile at the most simplest of kind hearted gestures. I appreciate the simplest of actions as I know that those that have all the riches in the world are never happy. Women that go around breaking up homes, will never truly be happy inside. Men that go around cursing, living with no morals dignity beating their women and forever inflicting pain on others will never truly be happy – why? That is an answer that they will only know – as we have different ways of learning things, no two answers for self satisfaction or self loathing is the same.
The great thing for me about The Alchemist was the message and secrets that lay within the writings and the feeling I was left with when I realised I had come to the end. It was like being shown a secret vault in the wall that just never ends. In a nutshell the book reads about our destinies and our quest to follow our dreams. It talks about how we are scared to follow our dreams due to fear, fear of disappointment heartache and pain. We don’t follow our true paths as we are sometimes too consumed by the words of others and have no faith in ourselves to be able to deal with the unknown. All that I know is in a quantified way is that we can be as happy or as miserable as we want to be, but what is written is written and we have to realise our destinies and not stop others from realising theirs…..just wish them happiness and love and what will be will be…..xxxx
Between heaven and hell
The place for sinners
Rabbi Wolf happened to walk into a bar one day; some people were drinking, others were playing cards, and the whole atmosphere seemed to be a bit heavy.
The rabbi left without saying a word; a young man followed him out.
“I know you didn’t like what you saw,” said the young man. “Only sinners live in there.”
“I liked what I saw,” said Wolf. “Those are men learning to lose everything. When they have nothing material left in this world, all that will remain for them to turn to is God. And from then on, what excellent servants they will be!”
Buddha and the devil
The devil said to Buddha:
“It isn’t easy being the devil. When I talk, I have to use enigmas so that people don’t perceive the temptation. I always need to appear smart and intelligent, so that people can admire me. I spend a great deal of energy convincing a few disciples that hell is more interesting. Now I am old, I would like to send you some of my pupils.”
Buddha knew that this was a trap: if he accepted the deal, he would become the devil, and the devil would become Buddha.
“You think it’s fun to be Buddha,” he answered. “Besides having to do the same things that you do, I also have to stand what my pupils do to me! They put in my mouth words that I never said, hold me to my teachings, and insist that I be wise the whole time! You would never stand a life like mine!”
The devil was convinced that changing roles was really a bad idea, and Buddha avoided the temptation.
Heaven and hell
A violent samurai who was known for picking fights for no reason at all arrived at the door of a Zen monastery and asked to speak to the master.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Ryokan came out to meet him.
“They say that intelligence is more powerful than strength,” said the samurai. “I wonder if you could explain to me the meaning of heaven and hell.”
Riokan remained silent.
“You see?” roared the samurai. “I could explain that very easily: to show what hell is, all I need to do is beat someone up. To show what heaven is, just let a person go free after menacing him a lot.”
“I don’t argue with stupid people like you,” said the Zen master.
This made the samurai’s blood boil. His mind was filled with hatred.
“Now, that is hell,” said Ryokan, smiling. “Letting yourself be angered by silly things.”
The monk’s courage disconcerted the warrior, and he relaxed.
“And that is heaven,” added Ryokan, inviting him in. “Not reacting to silly provocations.”
Another story about crosses
In a certain village in Umbria (Italy), there lived a man who was always bewailing his lot. He was a Christian, and found the weight of his cross too heavy to bear.
One night, before going to sleep, he begged God to let him change his burden.
That night he had a dream; the Lord led him to a warehouse. "Go ahead and change it," he said. The man saw crosses of all sizes and shapes, with the names of their owners. He picked an average size cross – but when he saw the name of an old friend written on it, he left it aside.
Finally, as God had permitted, he chose the smallest cross he could find.
To his surprise, he saw his own name written on it.
The guru from Mesure
A famous guru lived in Mesure, in India. He managed to gather a good number of followers, and spread his wisdom generously.
When he reached middle age, he contracted malaria, but religiously continued to fulfill his ritual: bathing in the morning, giving classes at mid-day, and praying in the temple during the afternoon.
When fever and the tremors prevented him from concentrating, he took off the upper part of his garments and tossed them in a corner. His power was such that the clothes continued to tremble – while he, free from any contractions, was able to say his prayers in peace.
When he finished, he put on his clothes again, and the symptoms returned.
"Why don’t you give up those clothes once and for all, and get rid of the sickness?", asked a journalist who saw the miracle.
"It is already a blessing to be able to do calmly what I have to do," answered the man. "The rest is part of life; it would be cowardly not to accept it."
From the website of Paulo Coelho.
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