Contains my personal opinion of the book Aleph by Paulo Coelho
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How easy is it for us to believe in something that doesn’t exist for the sake of giving us sense of purpose… as you go through life you learn not to judge anything based on the way it seems; not to reject any idea just because it goes against your beliefs, say for example, reincarnation, parallel universes, vampires, mystical beings which we cannot see, et cetera. The marvels of human mind and its creativity are endless and limitless. Whether these creations of the mind exist or not, merely depends on your own perception of the word ‘existence’. Let’s say for instance that right now at this precise moment you choose to believe the existence of something which is not really there, look to the nearest table you can see and imagine a vase with beautiful gardenias in them, now say with me, ‘‘those are some beautiful gardenias’’, and voila! Gardenias in a vase it is, if you believe it long enough and keep saying it to yourself, as long as you’re concerned they do exist and they are as real as it can be. Many psychological illnesses involve what we call hallucinations, as in hearing or seeing things which are not really there. This concept stretches beyond sight or hearing; it stretches out to beliefs as well. The only constant fact that does not depend on what we believe to exist is the existence of the creator; Allah. And even that clear logical fact seems to have some rejecters.
If you’re a Paulo Coelho fan and got the chance to read his latest novel/autobiography Aleph you’ll be certain of the following facts.
- · No person, no matter how wise he may be, has the absolute truth about life.
- · He believes in reincarnation as a result of personal experience.
- · Either everything you ever believed in is wrong or he seriously has major issues regarding reality.
Reincarnation, as defined in the free online dictionary, is the belief that on the death of the body the soul transmigrates to or is born again in another body.
Crazy, right? Well to him, not so much. In the book he believes to have lived many previous lives, one specifically in which he has done an unforgivable mistake and he’s thus haunted by the past which he did not really live, in search of redemption he knows he might never get. The Aleph, is as most of you know, the first letter in the Arabic alphabet. It’s as Paulo describes, as far as my memory helps me, a place in the universe that transcends space and time. It has the future, present and past, in this place time simply does not exist. And once you enter the Aleph you are able to transcend time and space. I’ve given this much thought through reading this book. What if such thing truly exists? As mentioned earlier, through life you learn not to abide by any rules, and everything is possible. So let’s say I lived a past life, and after I die, my soul will move along to the next life. Okay, what’s next? I will absolutely have no memory of any other life except the present one unless I do believe in the idea of reincarnation and the Aleph. Moving on… so this means that in the afterlife I will be judged for let’s say a minimum of 500 lives. No it’s not like that, maybe I’m being too sarcastic. This could mean that my great great great great grandmother might end up to be my sister, by soul at least. Just too messed up to believe; at least with current explanations provided of that theory or belief. But this is not about whether reincarnation is or isn’t. This is about the power of mind. If it did not exist and you choose to believe it does, will it… the answer is simply yes. If you believe anything to be true one hundred percent, it will exist; for you. I believe Paulo to be a great writer with a great imagination. I do not however believe a single word in that book. Not that he’s lying; I do believe that he believes in every word he said. It is true for him as God is. He mentions to have experienced certain incidents that the average human mind would never comprehend; magic, and what you can call time travelling or experiencing incidents in past lives by doing certain rituals. Is it possible, who knows, I don’t believe it to be. But if I chose to believe it, for me it will, and if I believe it enough I will experience whatever it is that he has in search of redemption of past lives.
We tend to complicate life as if it weren’t complicated enough. We make up stories in our heads of every possible thing that could happen or could have happened and we forget to exist in the present. We wish life had a certain twist to it, magic, flying horses and unicorns. We keep wishing so hard that we forgot the true mystics of life. We keep on haunting myths in search of a different truth, running from what we know to be true.
You shouldn’t judge an idea based on our beliefs, but keep in mind that every single person has different beliefs no matter what religion or culture he belongs to. The mind is like a unique kingdom where everything is possible, and nothing, absolutely nothing, is out of reach. I believe that if you truly think you can fly and seek the idea that you will fly, you certainly will. Not the easy Peter Pan way, ‘think happy thoughts, and it will lift you off the ground’ but it will happen, doesn’t mean it is supposed to happen though. Magic does exist, but that doesn’t mean we should practice it. There is certain beings that we cannot see, but we cannot see them for a reason, we’re simply not supposed to. The only one we should be so eager to learn about and to try to get closer to each day is Allah. We keep on running away and deviating from that fact every single second but that doesn’t make it any less painful; life. The only relief any of us will truly get is by being closer to him and accepting him in every way to lead your way, as then you will never lose your way. But as humans we tend to seek misguidance more than light itself. We have this circle of light, an endless source once you enter; you feel beauty and peace you never thought was possible in this life. But after a while we choose to simply let go of this marvelous feeling for chasing a distant candle in the middle of darkness; a candle that once you reach will either burn you or by the time you have actually reached it, it would be simply be burnt out as a dead star millions of light years away. But by then you will neither have the candle or will you be in the circle of light.
Chasing an illusion only feels good during the chase but afterwards there is only emptiness and regret.
If you feel confused about such beliefs, if you don’t know what to believe, believe that the only truth is Allah and he says,
"And when there came to them a Messenger from Allah confirming what was with them, a party of those who were given the scripture threw away the book of Allah behind their backs as if they did not know. And they followed what the devils gave out falsely of magic of the reign of Solomon; for Solomon did not disbelieve but the devils disbelieved, teaching men magic and such things that came down at Babylon to the two angels Harut and Marut, but neither of these two (angles) taught anyone (such things) until they had said: we are only for trial, so don't disbelieve. And from them (magicians) people learn that through which they would cause separation between a person and his spouse, but they could not thus harm anyone except by Allah's leave; and they learn that which harms them rather than profits them. And indeed they knew that its practitioner would have no share in the Hereafter. And how bad indeed was that for which they sold their own selves if they but knew" (2:101-2).
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
وَلَمَّا جَاءَهُمْ رَسُولٌ مِّنْ عِندِ اللَّهِ مُصَدِّقٌ لِّمَا مَعَهُمْ نَبَذَ فَرِيقٌ مِّنَ الَّذِينَ أُوتُواْ الْكِتَابَ كِتَابَ اللَّهِ وَرَاء ظُهُورِهِمْ كَأَنَّهُمْ لاَ يَعْلَمُونَ. وَاتَّبَعُواْ مَا تَتْلُواْ الشَّيَاطِينُ عَلَى مُلْكِ سُلَيْمَانَ وَمَا كَفَرَ سُلَيْمَانُ وَلَكِنَّ الشَّيَاطِينَ كَفَرُواْ يُعَلِّمُونَ النَّاسَ السِّحْرَ وَمَا أُنزِلَ عَلَى الْمَلَكَيْنِ بِبَابِلَ هَارُوتَ وَمَارُوتَ وَمَا يُعَلِّمَانِ مِنْ أَحَدٍ حَتَّى يَقُولاَ إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ فِتْنَةٌ فَلاَ تَكْفُرْ فَيَتَعَلَّمُونَ مِنْهُمَا مَا يُفَرِّقُونَ بِهِ بَيْنَ الْمَرْءِ وَزَوْجِهِ وَمَا هُم بِضَارِّينَ بِهِ مِنْ أَحَدٍ إِلاَّ بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ وَيَتَعَلَّمُونَ مَا يَضُرُّهُمْ وَلاَ يَنفَعُهُمْ وَلَقَدْ عَلِمُواْ لَمَنِ اشْتَرَاهُ مَا لَهُ فِي الآخِرَةِ مِنْ خَلاقٍ وَلَبِئْسَ مَا شَرَوْا بِهِ أَنفُسَهُمْ لَوْ كَانُواْ يَعْلَمُونَ
صدق الله العظيم
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