Maktub

I recently reread The Alchemist, a book that I come back to every couple of years or so. This time around, there were several thoughts and ideas that touched me in different ways, and I'd like to share them with you.

⌚ Personal Legends:

According to the book's author, Paulo Coelho, "To realize one's Personal Legend is a person's only real obligation." A personal legend is a story we all want to write about our lives. As children, it's clear to us what our personal legend is, but as we grow older, we often lose sight of it due to society's judgments, responsibilities, fear of achieving it, and the lack of anything to look forward to afterward. The book also talks about omens, which are clues left by the universe (or God) to help us follow our unique path. If we ignore the omens, they will abandon us, and we'll get off the path chosen for us. It's essential to follow our personal legend to the end to live life to the fullest. For some, their personal legend is creating a nice family; for others, it's making a lot of money, finding true love, traveling the world, or attaining knowledge. We all have a calling, and in some ways, it's the path that chooses us.

📣 The Language of the World:

In The Alchemist, Coelho talks about a language that all things in the world speak, a language that is not of words. It's a spiritual/religious concept that can be described as a feeling of contemplation. The main character, on a hero's journey, learns about the world through contemplation. He learns from observing his sheep as a shepherd. He also learns a lot from traveling through and looking at the desert. He learns to read the omens and "talk" to the desert and contemplate his place in it. We often function under the assumption that we are separate entities with separate selves, but we are part of nature too, just like the flight of birds or the flowing of the river. We have access to contemplating the beauty of nature (and our own) and thus speak the language of the world.

✍🏼 Maktub:

Maktub is an Arabic word that roughly translates to "It is written." It represents the idea that everything in the universe is predetermined, and every event in our lives has already been written. We are meant to follow our own destiny, which is the thing that calls to us (our personal legend). The book is a meditation that our personal legend is already realized and waiting for us, and it is up to us to have the courage to follow it through to its completion. This requires trusting in the universe and believing that everything happens for a reason, even if we don't always understand it at the time. The book suggests that worrying and negative thoughts only serve to pollute our hearts and distract us from our true purpose.

🪱 Paradox to Reason:

The universe is a paradox. The protagonist is on a quest to find a treasure he dreamed of in an abandoned church in Spain. However, during his journey, he meets a woman in a desert oasis and they fall in love. He does not want to leave her in pursuit of this legend, but he must see it to the end. Love and indifference come together. He loves her, but he must be indifferent to that for now because the omens are calling him forward. She also understands that he will be miserable if he stays and lets him go. How can two completely opposite things, love, and indifference, come together?

At the end of the story, it is revealed that his treasure is not under the pyramids of Egypt as he dreamed but is under the church in Spain where he dreamed about it. To me, this signifies the most important lesson of this book: we already have the treasure within us, but we must still make the journey to find it in ourselves.