lördag 10 december 2011

The Alchemist


The book that I have been reading during this semester is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. After reading the book I have been thinking and reflecting more about my life and how important it is to have dreams and to actually try to fulfil them.


The Alchemist
The book is about a young shepherd and his journey during a part of his life. One night he has a dream where he sees a treasure by the pyramids in Egypt. The young shepherd realizes after a while that it is his personal legend to travel to the pyramids, it is his destiny and a part of why he is on this earth. On the way to the pyramids he travels through the desert where he meets the alchemist who later on accompanies him through the desert and helps him to understand how life works.     

There are two quotes who summarizes the meaning of this wonderful book in a good way:

Remember what I told you: the world is only the visible aspect of God. And that what alchemy does is to bring spiritual perfection into contact with the material plane.” (Page 142, rows 19-22)

No matter what he does, every person on earth plays a central role in the history if the world. And normally he doesn´t know it.” (Page 158, row 26 and page 159 rows 1-2)

I think the author want to describe how everything is connected; how humans, animals, deserts, wind, water and heaven all connects in different ways. By observing closely and listen to people, nature and God, you can see and experience a lot more than if you go through life only concerned about what’s closest to yourself. The red line though the book is how important it is that each and every one of us tries to fulfil their dreams, even if it would take a lifetime. The author describe how a person gets happier and enjoys life much more if they at least try to achieve their dreams, and this seems right to me, of course you would be a happier and more at peace person if you once could experience your big dream.         

While reading the book I also started reflecting on if each and every one of us has a destiny. If everything is determined in advance and if something like determinism really exists. I am not a person who believes in God and heaven, but sometimes you can start thinking if a person is put on this planet for a special reason. One can think about things like this for a lifetime and we would never really get an answer to how everything works. What do you think about this? What do you belive? 

1 kommentar:

  1. Wow great read! Must be a very good book to produce these kinds of reflections! I am myself a determinist! After some reflection the idea of free will just seems unlikely, as scary as that conclusion is.

    SvaraRadera