The alchemist

It was yet another sad parting when I bid farewell to the last page of ‘The Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho. Reading his book is like talking to an old friend; a friend whom knows every of your deepest and most profound thoughts. Thoughts which nobody has excess to and it was imbedded deep into the recess of your soul. You will feel like you have the best conversation yet none of you spoke a word.

I have heard many positive comments regarding ‘The Alchemist’ but didn’t have the chance to read it. Yiling was the first person to recommend me his book with ‘Veronika decides to die’ as the first entry point. I couldn’t keep my hands off his books ever since.

Based on my own interpretation: (Spoilers)

The story speaks of a boy in search of his calling in life. To put it tangibly, he traveled all the way from Spain to Egypt looking treasures base on his recurring dreams and omens that he has. So off he went, selling all his possessions and embarks on the journey of his lifetime. Throughout his experience, he met many people whom became teachers to him, teaching him of the simple and yet unseen lessons of life and how to attain his personal callings.

Hypotheses of the lessons in life include:

Principle of favorability.

When we play the cards for the first time, we are almost sure to win. (some people call it beginner’s luck) It is because there is a force that wants you to realize your personal calling and will whet your appetite with a taste of success.

The destination of your goal is a mean to an end, not an end itself.

When we are too focused on achieving our goal, we forget the most important things; which is to learn the lessons along the way. To achieve your goal without learning anything is a futile process. You haven’t really attained your goal anyway.

Simplest lesson in life: When you possess great treasures within you and you tell people about it, they will seldom believe you.

I was reminded of Jesus. Jesus has the truth inside him that He knew that He is the Son of God that will redeem the sins of the world. He told his disciples about it but none of them really understood what he is talking about.

These are just some of the hypotheses that he has conjured about life. The book contains cauldron of such philosophies and is really interesting to read.

Anyway, the boy made his way to Egypt at his final destination. Unfortunately, he met a thieve that stole all his possessions and even tries to kill him. Not only has he lost all his belonging to get home, he didn’t find his treasures.

The irony twist came when the thieve told him that 2 years ago, he (the thieve) has a recurring dream to go to Spain to look for treasures under an old church but he wasn’t stupid enough to be like the boy to go just because of some stupid dreams.

The boy finally knew where his treasure was.

It was right where he has started his journey; In spain, besides an old church.

Fate has led him on a merry-go-round in search of the thing he was looking for but little does he knows that it was all along right under his nose.

I believe this is very applicable in real life. See, many times we are searching for happiness, love, money and what have you, but it was under our very eyes. We couldn’t see that we simply need contentment to enjoy those things. Until we went on a journey searching for them, going through difficult times, bruising our head and our heart did we find it where we have left off.

Do you think we could have found it if we weren’t led through the difficult period? Will we appreciate it just as much? What exactly do we find at the end of the journey is not really happiness, love or joy because we have them all along. But it is to be contented to know that they are there and to learn to appreciate them.

If the boy hasn’t gone all the way to Egypt, would he found what he is looking for? Even if he has found it, will he treasure it as much knowing that attaining that doesn’t come easy?



Give some thoughts to that.