Questions I asked myself after reading The Alchemist
Dreams, fate, destiny, luck, omens, karma - these are some of the universal forces that decide the path you take in life and the destination you reach. These are forces that work with each other, along with hard work, willpower, focus, hope, and the choices we make.
What is our mission in life - where are we headed? Is there a purpose for everyone? Do we create our own purpose? Do we follow signs and omens? Do we see signs when we have already decided our own fate? Do we have actual choices or is it just an illusion? What does it mean to dream and actually follow it?
Paulo Coelho’s “Alchemist” explores some of these concepts through Santiago, a shepherd who has a dream and the courage to follow through with it.
After “reading the signs” of his dream, this young boy decides to go on a journey of exploration and self-discovery to find the treasure hidden in the pyramids of Egypt. He meets several people like the old king, the crystal merchant, and the alchemist who help him through his journey and path to his destiny.
The author introduces the concept of “Personal Legend” through Melchizedek, the old king of Salem. Santiago, upon meeting him realizes his goal and the old king helps him interpret his dreams. A person is supposed to follow their “personal legend” or their destiny or purpose in life by listening to the nudges, signs, and omens from the universe. The old king helps Santiago realize that he should follow his dreams before it's too late, before he loses himself, and before beginner’s luck runs out. He also gives Santiago two magical stones, Urim and Thummim, which represent “yes” and “no” respectively, to help guide him on his journey.
Everyone, when they are young, knows what their Personal Legend is. At that point in their lives, everything is clear and everything is possible. They are not afraid to dream, and to yearn for everything they would like to see happen to them in their lives.
Paulo Coelho met a stranger in Amsterdam cafe who told him to make the traditional Roman Catholic pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Northern Spain. He did so and had an epiphany that made him realise that his “personal legend” is to become an author which resulted in him writing “The Alchemist”.
In our lives, we probably will never have a mysterious man appearing in front of us to tell us what to do or the old king who will help us interpret our dreams. We will probably have to go through multiple paths, try different things, and be our own old king. We may even need to invent our dreams and create a path by ourselves. In order to do great work, we may even need to find what we’re interested in to make significant contributions to that field. In the book, dreams are taken literally as in the shepherd actually has a dream of finding treasure. In our lives, it's more metaphorical as to what we want in our lives.
Another interesting character that Santiago meets is the crystal merchant. He works for the merchant who has beautiful crystals in his shop on the mountain but not many customers. He claims that he is satisfied where he’s at and there is no reason or room for improvement. The shepherd helps him clean all the crystals, make them beautiful, and attract customers by serving tea in these crystals. He helps the merchant to reach his potential. We should all ask ourselves “Do I want to be a shepherd and achieve my dreams or am I content with just dreaming like the crystal merchant?”
This reminds me of another story that speaks of greed as its theme. There was once a fisherman who caught 10 fish every day and sold them which was enough to feed his family for the day. A rich salesman meets this fisherman and he is sitting idle and not working. The fisherman replies that he has earned enough for the day and would like to spend the rest of his time being happy talking to his friends and joyfully spending his time. He then asks the salesman what he does after work. The rich man realizes he has lots of money but hasn’t spent time with his family for months now.
I think there are two lessons we learned from this story. If it weren’t fiction, the fisherman would probably need some more money to put away for his future. He would need to pay for health insurance, take account of taxes, college for his kids, save up to buy property, etc. Even if we don’t go so far, he could do more with his potential and maybe sell 20 fish every day. On the other end of the spectrum is the rich salesman who spends all his time making money and has no time to reap the rewards and spend time with his family. It should always be a balance between reaching your potential and being greedy. We can see major differences in lifestyle between Santiago and the crystal merchant. One, barely reaching his potential, and the other, giving up his livelihood, his sheep to follow a bigger dream. Maybe calculating the risk per reward is easy when it's fiction.
When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it
Santiago meets an alchemist (a chemist, if you will) who is attempting to turn lead into gold. The whole point of this book, if you look at it through a non-magical lens, the alchemist can be taken as a metaphor where you have a regular life and you “transform” it into something worthwhile or gold. It explores the transformative power of following our dreams.
When we are on a path to something, how do we know that we are on the right one? How do we know if we are going fast enough or if we need to slow down? How do I know if the deeds I do today impact other people in a good or a bad way? Once I realize my personal legend, should I stop at nothing and no one until I achieve it? How do sacrifices to my family and friends factor here?
In the book, the shepherd relies on omens to help guide him. He learns that he has to observe the sky and the earth and follow the message they send.
Maktub - it is written.
He understands that everything is written and we perceive things as the situation demands. In one instance he uses the Urim and Thummin to ask if he’s actually going to find his treasure. This happens after he is robbed and has nothing left. When he asks this question, both the stones fall down. This makes him realize that this is an omen as well and he is the only one that can make the decision of going forward or going back to where he was.
In our world, what does it mean to read an omen? Maybe we just need to open our minds, explore, read a lot, travel, listen to people working in different fields, learn about topics that are never useful or you don’t care about, watch other people making mistakes and learn from them, make mistakes ourselves, listen to your heart, learn, learn and learn.
Another question I ask myself is, what exactly is my personal legend? What am I doing here? I’m not sure yet. Is there only one “personal legend” for me? When you say purpose of one’s life, is it one big purpose or is it small goals that make me “me”?
As a person blessed with opportunities and supportive people around me, it is my duty to find my “personal legend”