All right, folks, this is not a drill. I have read The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho:
What a killer story. What a truly killer story.
What is this story about? This story is about Dreams, Listening to Your Heart, and learning the Universal Language. It's an unapologetically idealistic, mystic story about the battle against fear that keeps us from so many things. It's about the way that we choose what narratives we listen to. It's about the way that every step towards a dream, round about though it may be, can be enjoyed because we know that are pursuing something close to our heart. It's about honesty that hurts. It's about love that starts from the self and spreads outwards.
Ok, I could keep gushing and get more and more florid with my sentences.
But when we get down to it, we have a youth who has the same dream two nights in a row and, in the process of trying to find out what it means, meets a guide who sends him on a journey of thousands of miles.
This story actually is a perfect fit with Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey.
He receives the dream--a call to adventure--and a supernatural aid, in the form of a king who gives him two stones for asking questions (spiritual aid) and who guides/guards the threshold. Then, when the youth sells his flock and turns over a 10th of that flock (tithe anyone?) to the king--he is sent across the threshold into the unknown in search of that adventure. It is the beginning of transformation--a transformation which becomes literal towards the end of the story when he is asked on pain of death to transform himself into the wind. He faces many challenges and temptations on this fairly simple journey--the dream is that he will find treasure at the Pyramids in Egypt.
But the true treasure is in the journey itself. It's in the transformation of self and purpose that he gains from going through it.
One of the biggest things that this story has me thinking about is fear and dreams. And listening to your heart.
I often have a hard time listening to the voice inside me that whispers from my own heart. Like the youth, I often feel that my heart says horrible things. I reframe the words and have a habit of not acknowledging that they come from myself--but the alchemist/spiritual guide that the youth meets late in the book tells him that the heart not only speaks in love but also in fear. But that if you listen to it carefully you will learn to tell the difference of fear. You will learn to understand the things that you heart says to you.
I love this advice. This wisdom?
I love it because it doesn't meet out punishment. It doesn't say "ah, fear, my strong friend": you listen because then you understand. You will understand the difference between the fear and the dream.
For me, the fear is loneliness--I've spoken about it a couple times in reference to the dissertation. It's not even really being alone that is the fear but the overwhelming feeling of loneliness. As the book notes, the fear of suffering is often worse than the suffering itself (exhibit a: when I got my ears pierced). The fear that I will not be alone but FEEL alone.
So what is the advice he gives?
Pursue the Dream that your heart whispers about. Don't let the whispers fade before you act on them. ACT on them.
It is the doing of them that makes them real and that quiets the fear.
Even if you die in pursuit of the dream, every day leading towards it will have been worth it.
This book was just so good and so achingly wonderful to read. I finished it and I went for a run. Because I want to move. I want to move so much!
Hence my Practice as Research love: the knowledge you gain through motion is so fascinating and powerful for me. The knowledge you gain through writing.
So what's the take away?
What a killer story. What a truly killer story.
What is this story about? This story is about Dreams, Listening to Your Heart, and learning the Universal Language. It's an unapologetically idealistic, mystic story about the battle against fear that keeps us from so many things. It's about the way that we choose what narratives we listen to. It's about the way that every step towards a dream, round about though it may be, can be enjoyed because we know that are pursuing something close to our heart. It's about honesty that hurts. It's about love that starts from the self and spreads outwards.
Ok, I could keep gushing and get more and more florid with my sentences.
But when we get down to it, we have a youth who has the same dream two nights in a row and, in the process of trying to find out what it means, meets a guide who sends him on a journey of thousands of miles.
This story actually is a perfect fit with Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey.
Exhibit A
He receives the dream--a call to adventure--and a supernatural aid, in the form of a king who gives him two stones for asking questions (spiritual aid) and who guides/guards the threshold. Then, when the youth sells his flock and turns over a 10th of that flock (tithe anyone?) to the king--he is sent across the threshold into the unknown in search of that adventure. It is the beginning of transformation--a transformation which becomes literal towards the end of the story when he is asked on pain of death to transform himself into the wind. He faces many challenges and temptations on this fairly simple journey--the dream is that he will find treasure at the Pyramids in Egypt.
But the true treasure is in the journey itself. It's in the transformation of self and purpose that he gains from going through it.
One of the biggest things that this story has me thinking about is fear and dreams. And listening to your heart.
I often have a hard time listening to the voice inside me that whispers from my own heart. Like the youth, I often feel that my heart says horrible things. I reframe the words and have a habit of not acknowledging that they come from myself--but the alchemist/spiritual guide that the youth meets late in the book tells him that the heart not only speaks in love but also in fear. But that if you listen to it carefully you will learn to tell the difference of fear. You will learn to understand the things that you heart says to you.
I love this advice. This wisdom?
I love it because it doesn't meet out punishment. It doesn't say "ah, fear, my strong friend": you listen because then you understand. You will understand the difference between the fear and the dream.
For me, the fear is loneliness--I've spoken about it a couple times in reference to the dissertation. It's not even really being alone that is the fear but the overwhelming feeling of loneliness. As the book notes, the fear of suffering is often worse than the suffering itself (exhibit a: when I got my ears pierced). The fear that I will not be alone but FEEL alone.
So what is the advice he gives?
Pursue the Dream that your heart whispers about. Don't let the whispers fade before you act on them. ACT on them.
It is the doing of them that makes them real and that quiets the fear.
Even if you die in pursuit of the dream, every day leading towards it will have been worth it.
This book was just so good and so achingly wonderful to read. I finished it and I went for a run. Because I want to move. I want to move so much!
Hence my Practice as Research love: the knowledge you gain through motion is so fascinating and powerful for me. The knowledge you gain through writing.
So what's the take away?
- Listen to your heart until you know the dreams from the fear--journaling and meditating are great methods for this. Be brave enough to ask those questions and sift for the answers. They may not be the ones you expect. Be honest.
- Move/Act/Run towards your dream--no matter what it is. This is where the other narratives come in and say it isn't good enough, it will hurt, you'll feel lonely, you'll never make it. This is where you do it anyway.
- Live and Love in this moment--because, when you live this way, every moment is beautiful.
No comments:
Post a Comment