Can you imagine that I wrote the draft many months ago (together with the introduction which you can read from here)? Definitely need to complete this post this round.
I finished this book very long time ago. And I had even bought this book for a friend though now I think over it, he doesn’t really need it. He walked the finance path, while I chose the personal learning path. (Hmm as of date, I’m not sure. I do hope the best for him though.)
The idea for this story is taken from a short prose-poem by Oscar Wilde called 'The Disciple'.
When Narcissus died the pool of his pleasure changed from a cup of sweet waters into a cup of salt tears, and the Oreads came weeping through the woodland that they might sing to the pool and give it comfort.
And when they saw that the pool had changed from a cup of sweet waters into a cup of salt tears, they loosened the green tresses of their hair and cried to the pool and said, 'We do not wonder that you should mourn in this manner for Narcissus, so beautiful was he.'
'But was Narcissus beautiful?' said the pool.
'Who should know that better than you?' answered the Oreads. 'Us did he ever pass by, but you he sought for, and would lie on your banks and look down at you, and in the mirror of your waters he would mirror his own beauty.'
And the pool answered, 'But I loved Narcissus because, as he lay on my banks and looked down at me, in the mirror of his eyes I saw ever my own beauty mirrored.'
Then the story goes on to talk about...
Personal Legend:
It’s what you have always wanted to accomplish. 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. But, as time passes, a mysterious force begins to convince them that it will be impossible for them to realise their Personal Legend.
Mysterious force:
It’s a force that appears to be negative, but actually shows you how to realise your Personal Legend. It prepares your spirit and your will, because there is one great truth on this planet: whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, its’ because that desire originated in the soul of the universe. It’s your mission on earth. The Soul of the World is nourished by people’s happiness. And also by unhappiness, envy, and jealousy. To realize one’s destiny is a person’s only real obligation. All things are one.
People learn, early in lives, what is their reason for being. Maybe that’s why they give up on it so early too. But that’s the way it is.
Treasure is uncovered by the force of flowing water, and it is buried by the same currents. If you want to learn about your own treasure, you will have to give me one-tenth of your flock.
What about one-tenth of my treasure?
If you start out by promising what you don’t even have yet, you’ll lose your desire to work toward getting it.
The boy felt jealous of the freedom of the wind, and saw that he could have the same freedom. There was nothing to hold him back except himself.
Principle of favourability. When you play cards the first time, you are almost sure to win. Beginner’s luck. Because there is a force that wants you to realize your Personal Legend; it whets your appetite with a taste of success.
I am guessing at the future. The future belongs to God, and it is only he who reveals it, under extraordinary circumstances. How do I guess at the future? Based on the omens of the present. The secret is here in the present. If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it. And if you improve on the present, what comes later will also be better. Forget about the future, and live each day according to the teachings, confident that God loves his children. Each day, in itself, brings with it an eternity.
God rarely reveals the future. When he does so, it is for only one reason: it’s a future that was written so as to be altered.
IT’s not what enters men’s mouths that’s evil. It’s what comes out of their mouths that is.
Wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure. You’ve got to find the treasure, so that everything you have learned along the way can make sense.
You must understand that love never keeps a man from pursuing his Personal Legend. If he abandons that pursuit, it’s because it wasn’t true love… the love that speaks the Language of the World.
Don’t think about what you’ve left behind. Everything is written in the Soul of the World, and there it will stay forever.
His heart told him that it was happy. Even though I complain sometimes, it’s because I’m the heart of a person and people’s hearts are that way. People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel that they don’t deserve them, or that they’ll be unable to achieve them. We, their hearts, become fearful just thinking of loved ones who go away forever, or of moments that could have been good but weren’t, or of treasures that might have been found but were forever hidden in the sands. Because, when these things happen, we suffer terribly.
The fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because everything second of the search is a second’s encounter with God and with eternity.
Everyone on earth has a treasure that awaits him. We, people’s hearts seldom say much about those treasures, because people no longer want to go in search of them. We speak of them only to children. Later, we simply let life proceed, in its own direction, toward its own fate. But, unfortunately, very few follow the path laid out for them – the path to their Personal Legends, and to happiness. Most people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do, the world turns out, indeed, to be a threatening place. So, we, their hearts, speak more and more softly. We never stop speaking out, but we begin to hope that our words won’t be heard: we don’t want people to suffer because they don’t follow their hearts.
Before a dream is realized, the Soul of the World tests everything that has learned along the way. It does this not because it is evil, but so that we can, in addition to realizing our dreams, master the lessons we’ve learned as we’ve moved toward that dream. That’s the point at which most people give up. It’s the point at which, as we say in the language of the desert, one ‘dies of thirst just when the palm trees have appeared on the horizon’.
Every search begins with beginner’s luck. And every search ends with the victor’s being severely tested.
It said that the darkest hour of the night came just before the dawn.
Does a man’s heart always help him? Mostly just the hearts of those who are trying to realize their Personal Legends. But they do help children, drunkards and the elderly too.
Doest that mean that I’ll never run into danger?
It means only that the heart does what it can.
This is why alchemy exists, so that everyone will search for his treasure, find it, and then want to be better than he was in his former life. Lead will play its role until the world has no further need for lead; and then lead will have to turn itself into gold. That’s what alchemists do. They show that, when we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too.
Love is the force that transforms and improves the Soul of the World. When I first reached through to it, I thought the Soul of the World was perfect. But later, I could see that it was like other aspects of creation, and had its own passions and wars. It is we who nourish the Soul of the World, and the world we live in will be either better or worse, depending on whether we become better or worse. And that’s where the power of love comes in. because when we love, we always strive to become better than we are.
Life might be listening, and give you less the next time.
Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.
Few alchemists have succeeded in turning lead into gold. They were looking only for goal. They were seeking the treasure of their Personal Legend, without wanting actually to live out the Personal Legend.
Gospel of Luke (Chapter 7): My Lord I am not worthy that you should come under my roof…”
No matter what he does, every person on earth plays a central role in the history of the world. And normally he doesn’t know it.
When you possess great treasures within you, and try to tell others of them, seldom are you believed.
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