By Grace Hui for Incentre
I first read this book when I was in law school 20 years ago. At that time, I enjoyed the lyrical style of Paulo Coelho. As each sentence flowed into the next, it read like a romantic and timeless song. The idea of a quest and a mission, as embarked upon by the tale’s protagonist, a shepherd boy, fired in me the idea of a life of purpose and adventure while the free spirit in me engaged with the idea of destiny.
The boy shepherd was never named - he was quite simply referred to as “the boy” or “the shepherd”. This anonymity gave me the promise that this mission was available and applicable to all. The idea of the “unknown” was tantalising to me.
However, beyond the physical excitement of a potential crusade into the unknown to pursue one’s destiny, I did not understand any further. The idea of destiny and free will also seemed to be contradictory concepts that evaded any deeper understanding on my part. While the book engaged me as I was reading it, its deeper meaning escaped me then. At the end of the book, I put it down as a book well written and never read it again for another two decades.
I finished law school and began the rat race, any trace of there being something more, forcibly buried to embark on the corporate career that I thought was expected of me. Some way, somehow, the expectations of society became confused for my own and I subconsciously deluded myself into thinking that this was what I wanted.
Deep down however, if I ever allowed myself the luxury to really look within, I knew I wanted more. I desired spiritual expansion, a greater connection with something yet unknown. Plain and simply put, I had not discovered my soul’s purpose.
I began a journey that had many twists and turns, and indeed, a path that I am still walking, discovering and exploring. While there are still mysteries still to be uncovered, I have a far greater sense of empowerment and who I really am.
It is at this juncture that Paulo Coelho’s “The Alchemist” found its way into my life again. It is on the reading list of the Modern Mystery School (MMS), a school that I study in and whose classes have truly reconnected me to who I really am. I decided that it was time to reread this piece of prose that many from all walks of life have crowned a masterpiece.
This time, every single word of the book resonated with me. I began to realise that while every soul has a purpose, every individual also has free will to engage with his or her own destiny. One’s destiny is not immutable. We are co creators. Just as the shepherd boy realised that his destiny was to go to the Pyramids, he also had a choice whether or not he would sell his sheep and take a risk to pursue what his heart was telling him. He was a successful shepherd and could have gone on having a perfectly nice life without ever going to the pyramids. Would he have been bitterly unhappy? Probably not. Would he have felt something was missing? Perhaps…. The point however is that one’s destiny remains a dream unless one decides to engage with it. There is no right or wrong. It is simply an act of choice.
In his case, he took a punt. He sold his sheep and began his journey. He did this not knowing how he would get there or what he would find there. He trusted his heart through the guidance of a mystery king he meets and begins walking his path.
Yet, it is clear that following your destiny does not mean an easy path. In all things, there is a price. The boy had to sell his sheep to signal his intent - to himself, to his guides and to the universe.
This was his initiation.
Along the way, the boy learns many lessons. He learned that “when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it”. But this begs the question, what do you really want?
Most of us do not really know what we want. To follow the path of self discovery necessitates us to really get to know ourselves. As the MMS class says - Know Thyself.
To know thyself however, one has to be rid of attachments. That is the only way we can see things for what they are and not through the lenses of our matrix driven expectations or our negative egos. To do this, we need to be empowered.
The book illustrates this lesson fairly early on when the boy trusts the wrong man and loses all his money. Then, he had an epiphany - “I am like everyone else - I see the world in terms of what I would like to see happen, not what actually does”. If we are not empowered to see with our hearts in a discerning fashion, we cannot see through the deceptions of the masks.
The boy also realised at that point that he had a choice. He “had to choose between thinking of himself as the poor victim of a thief or as an adventurer in quest of his treasure.” Victim versus Victimhood, we have a choice. In this case, the boy decided that he would see himself as “an adventurer, looking for treasure.” He did not give in to the allure of “victimhood”. He chose the route of empowerment.
As the MMS class says - Empower Thyself.
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The path to enlightenment is one that necessitates focus. Focus on the self. Not in a selfish way but in the knowledge that everyone has a different path. We can only focus on our own path and respect that others have their own paths to follow. We help when we can but we should never confuse someone else’s path for our own. The boy realises this truth when he was working for a crystal glass seller. The crystal glass seller’ dream was to embark on a pilgrimage to Mecca. However, he seemed to find an excuse at every turn. Finally, he tells the boy that he was afraid of disappointment and would “prefer to just dream about it”.
“Not everyone can see his dreams come true the same way”.
The crystal glass seller said to the boy: “I don’t want anything else in life . But you are forcing me to look at wealth and at horizons I have never known. Now that I have seen them, and now that I see how immense my possibilities are, I’m going to feel worse than I did before you arrived. Because I know the things I should be able to accomplish, and I don’t want to do so.”
Sometimes, what holds us back is not our lack of power but rather our fear of our own power.
There is also the lesson in “attachment” that the boy learns in the desert. He was thinking of his sheep and suddenly it hit him that the sheep were no longer his. “They must be used to their new shepherd, and have probably already forgotten me. That is good. Creatures like the sheep, that are used to travelling, know about moving on.”
Here, the camel driver who helps the boy journey across the desert had his tale to tell. He told of losing all his land and his olive trees through a flood. “The land was ruined and I had to find some other way to earn a living. So now, I am a camel driver. But that disaster taught me to understand the word of Allah: people need not fear the unknown if they are capable of achieving what they need and want.”
In short, we have the power to manifest and create anything we want if we know what we want.
Oftentimes, it is our attachment that holds us back.
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One of the biggest keys to joy is an appreciation for the present. The past is history and the future is anyone’s guess. Staying present is really all we have and to be able to fully stay with the present is to have mastery over oneself.
As the MMS path also says - Master Thyself.
In the book, the camel driver says: “Because I don’t live in either my past or my future. I’m interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you’ll be a happy man. You’ll see that there is life in the desert, that there are stars in the heavens, and that tribesmen fight because they are part of the human race. Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we’re living right now”.
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Somewhere along the way, the boy also learns that following one’s destiny is not the path of least resistance. Rather it is a path where challenges arise to test you so that you may expand and learn. Much like the spiritual path, there will always be tests of persistence and courage.
In my own life, I had often mistaken spiritual awakening to feeling better. Feeling better however is an illusion if nothing ever changes. It is only when one faces his or her adversaries and surmounts them, can there be lasting change.
Somewhere along his journey, the boy learns that tests and challenges are “a language of God to indicate what he should do.”
For me personally, the most moving part of the book was when the boy discovers the pure “Language of the World” - that of love. It requires no explanation. Through the words of Fatima, the girl he meets by the well in the Oasis, the boy truly understands that while we are individuals, we are also a collective.
“The desert takes our men from us, and they don’t always return….. We know that, and we are used to it. Those who don’t return become a part of the clouds, a part of the animals that hide in the ravines and of the water that comes from the earth. They become a part of everything…. They become the Soul of the World”.
This chapter gripped me and brought me to tears. As I saw the divine in me, I saw the divine in everything that surrounded me. There could be no hate or anger for we are all one.
It is also a reminder that we are eternal beings. As the founder of the MMS, Gudni Gunnason says: “ We have never been born, so we can never die”.
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Lastly, what escaped me at the last reading was the awareness of duality within ourselves - that we are both bad and good. We cannot unearth the mysteries of life without first shining a light on our shadows.
At the Oasis, one of the men talked about the ongoing war.
“It’s not a battle of good against evil. It is a war between forces that are fighting for balance of power, and, when that type of battle begins, it lasts longer than others - because Allah is on both sides.”
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This is a multi-layered book that speaks of many truths depending on which part of the journey you are on.
But first, you have to take a step…..
And if you haven’t, The Alchemist will certainly inspire you to.
