Finding yourself

An Indian guru I met in Amsterdam told me it is easier to find others than to find yourself. Your inner self is a mystery to you. So, the key to understanding yourself is to understand others. If you search your soul, you find darkness and void. You are confused. But if you search for others, you find your real self. Everything becomes crystal clear in the blink of an eye.

The Indian guru was actually defying an ancient Hindu tenet that you must look into your inner self to understand yourself. You must go inward. The tenet of Christ is the opposite. You must go outward, then everything becomes crystal clear. Love the other to find yourself.

This seeming paradox is the cosmic principle of love. It is in our nature to love, and love makes our lives meaningful. Without love, we are nothing. Without love, life is absurd and meaningless. Giving strengthens and heals, grabbing consumes and destroys.

Paulo Coelho was a patient in a mental institution, a drug addict, an ex-convict, and a drifter. But his novel The Alchemist became a best seller that sold 26 million copies in 56 languages across the globe.

He dropped out of law school, picked up a backpack, and roamed around South America, North Africa, Mexico, and Europe, where he started taking drugs. He was tortured by the military for his “subversive” lyrics before exploding into fame and fortune as a novelist.

That explosion began in 1986 when he walked 500 miles to Santiago de Compostela, a noted pilgrim’s road in Northern Spain. There, he saw the light, the same light that blinded St. Paul from a life of persecution to a life of service to the Lord. He had a spiritual awakening that would turn his world upside down. He began writing on top of his lucrative songwriting profession.

When his book The Alchemist was reviewed, critics hated this lowly deranged addict and pounced on him. But the more they pounced on him, the more people read his book, catapulting him to fame and fortune.

But what was in the book by a deranged drug-prone ex-convict that fascinated readers? What was its mystique that awed the world? The story was simple but the spirituality profound. It revolved around a peasant shepherd boy, Santiago, who had a dream where, in his travels, he encountered people and places that helped him fulfill his dream. That was the simple story. Love is the energy behind every dream.

We draw some lessons to be learned from Paolo. First, he found himself the hard way, going from total darkness to blinding light. It was perhaps by chance or by destiny. So, never lose hope, if your dreams are elusive. Keep on slugging, no matter what.

Second, Paolo’s message to the world was a simple story of a boy with a dream. You don’t need to be grandiose. Simplicity was the key to Paolo’s success. So, the virtue of simplicity should guide you in your search to find yourself.

Paulo wrote, “We all need to be aware of our personal calling.” He said that we all have a path that God chose for us here on Earth. Not all have the courage to confront one’s dream. The obstacles can be immense but love is the stimulus, the energy. We have to overcome the fear of failure, the same fear of a baby eagle during its first flight, when he either soars or he dies in a matter of seconds. Paolo knew a lot about failure. He was an “expert” at it.

Authors Note. Like Paulo Coelho, I took wing, drifting through Europe and North Africa for three years. Like him, I wrote a book (Wings and Wanderlust) which triggered a dramatic change in my life, from drifter and disgruntled computer analyst to journalist and healing ministry missionary.

While taking a seven-day 80-kilometer hike from Lisbon to Fatima as a pilgrim, I prayed three rosaries a day that I would find myself in this cruel frenzied world. I did, but it would take 20 years, when I became a journalist, columnist, and healing missionary.

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