Fujiko Suda / Reflection

Same Book, New Reaction

This must have been over 20 times I am reading bits and pieces of The Alchemist. This is what I have been doing for the past 5 years or so. If the book I read had impact on me, I would pick it up every once in a while (when I feel like reading passages of that certain book), and read parts of them.

I have decided to read The Alchemist from cover to cover once again, and I was reading the prologue. It was about a different version of well known Greek methology about Narcissus.

He said that when Narcissus died, the goddesses of the forest appeared and found the lake, which had been fresh water, transformed into a lake of salty tears. "Why do you weep?" the goddessess asked. "I weep for Narcissus," the lake replied. "Ah, it is no surprise that you weep for Narcissus," they said, "for though we always pursued him in the forest, you alone could contemplate his beauty close at hand." "But...was Narcissus beautiful?" the lake asked. "Who better than you to know that?" the goddesses said in wonder. "After all, it was by your banks that he knelt each day to contemplate himself!" The lake was silent for some time. Finally, it said: "I weep for Narcissus, but I never noticed that Narcissus was beautiful. I weep because, each time he knelt beside my banks, I could see, in the depth of his eyes, my own beauty reflected."

Until this time around, I was unconfortable with my understanding of what this was about. Is this to say that we are all narcissist? This time around, I understand in different way. This is not to say that this is the right way to understand. It is what I got out of it.

We love those people who reflect our own beauty. I think it is particularly so with what we feel inside.

As a Man Thinkth

Sato-san recommended James Allen's As A Man Thinketh, so I read it. I think James Allen was one of the writer that inspired Margaret Thatcher when she was growing up. ( I looked for her biography, Path to Power on my bookshelf, and was annoyed I couldn't locate the book...)

It's a very short book, but full of inspiration. The philosophy of it, especially the way the sentenses felt, struck me that it sounded very similar to the book of Buddhaism. Particular line I thought of was the following:

"Rouse thyself by thyself, examine thyself by thyself; thus self-protected and attentive wilt though live happily..... For self is the lord of self, self is the refuge of self; therefore curb thyself as the merchant curbs a noble horse. By one's self the evil is done, by one's self one suffers; by one's self evil is left undone, by one's self one is purified. The pure and the impure stand and fall by themselves, no one can purify another."

The entire book of As A Man Thinketh specifically explains this concept, your life is result of what you think.More l live, more I try to learn from my life, it is becoming truer and truer. Work, love, family, it's all about what you think and the action taken.