Paulo Coelho

Life is a journey filled with dreams, pain, despair, hope, prayers, truths and spiritual clarification. Every human makes this journey and whether the meaning for one's life is is found or not, there is the eternal quest to understand why everyone of us feels this urge to go on, move ahead and search and search for that elusive treasure.

Paulo Coelho ( pronounced paulu 'kwelu) writes an exotic tale of a shepherd boy from the Andalusian mountains who dreams of a treasure at the Pyramids of Egypt, a land across the seas...he sets out, though he is content with his life as a shepherd, talking to them, taking care of them at night and hoping that, perhaps, one day he might marry the merchant's daughter. He leaves this life that he is used to, propelled by the dream. The journey that he undertakes is so symbolic of the life that each of us must take - look for omens, take up opportunities, believe in oneself, be one's own alchemist, meet the love of one's life and ultimately find the treasure right at the doorstep.

Santiago is the flagship for all of us. He tells his father of his wish and his father tries to dissuade him, but finally gives him a few gold coins to go on his search for treasure in a distant land. Santiago realises "...in his father's gaze a desire to be able to travel...a desire still alive, despite his father having had to bury it, over dozens of years, under the burden of struggling for water to drink, food to eat, and the same place to sleep every night of his life'. How soon we become addicted to the monotony and strange comfort of a life we all know. Our lives as shepherds and bakers become 'more important than our destinies'. My heart ached a little at these lines...how ordinary can our lives be, if we do not wake up to go in search of our dreams. Each one of us must 'be an adventurer, looking for treasure'.

Through his journey, the boy finds that language is no barrier. The only language that one needs ' is the language of enthusiasm, of things accomplished with love and purpose, and as a part of a search for something that one believed in and desired'. He understands that when desires something, all the Universe works to help him get it. He learns to 'listen to his heart, because it came from the Soul of the World and will one day return there'. When his heart tells him that people are afraid to follow their dreams because they are afraid of leaving loved ones or they feel that they don't deseve these dreams, the boy realises that every day of his serach has been luminous because he has found things he would never have found if he had stayed at Andalusia as a shepherd.

As for love, he finds that 'love is something that transforms and improves the Soul of the World'. What a wonderfully mature way to describe the best aspect of love.

Everything about this book is like this...the reader goes through a sudden flash of understanding of something that one always thought was crystal clear and something about which one thought one had understood it all.

What a soul stirrer this story of 202 pages is...a clarification of one's purpose in life, the words are those of a sage...in a language that the modern world understands, the lessons are from a great Teacher who has sensed the Soul of the World. I keep returning to this book and every time I read, there is something new for me to know and act on. One of the best books I could ever have had the opportunity to read.