By Paulo Coelho
(Here I continue to reproduce excerpts from talks with my master, from 1982 to 1990)
- What is the Personal Legend?
- It is your blessing, the path God has chosen for you here on Earth. Whenever a man does that which gives him enthusiasm, he is following his Legend. However, not everyone has the courage to face up to his own dreams.
- Why is that?
- There are four obstacles. The first: he has heard, right from childhood, that everything he wishes to live is impossible. He grows up with this idea, and as he acquires age, he also accumulates layers of prejudices, fears, guilt. There comes a time when his Personal Legend is so deeply buried within his soul, he can no longer see it. But it is still there.
“If he has the courage to unearth his dreams, he then faces a second obstacle: love. He now knows what he desires to do, but he thinks he will harm those around him, if he gives everything up to follow his dreams. He does not understand that love is an additional impulse, not something which hinders one from going forward. He does not understand that those who truly wish him well are longing for his happiness, and are ready to accompany him on this adventure.
“After accepting love as a stimulus, a man faces the third obstacle: the fear of the defeats he will encounter along the way. A man who fights for his dream suffers far more when something doesn’t go well, because he cannot use the famous excuse: “oh, well in fact that wasn’t exactly what I wanted anyway…” He does want it, and knows he is putting everything into it, and also that the Personal Legend is just as difficult as any other path - the difference being that your heart is present on this journey. So, a warrior of the light must be prepared to be patient at difficult times, and know that the Universe is conspiring in his favor, even if he does not understand how.
- Are the defeats necessary?
- Whether necessary or not, they occur. When he begins fighting for his dreams, man has no experience, and makes many mistakes. But the secret in life is to fall seven times, and rise up eight times.
- Why is it important to live the Personal Legend, if we are to suffer just as much as others?
- Because after having overcome the defeats - and we always overcome them - we feel much more euphoria and confidence. In the silence of our hearts, we know we are worthy of the miracle of life. Each day, each hour, is part of the Good Combat. We begin to live with enthusiasm and pleasure. Very intense and unexpected suffering begins passing faster than apparently tolerable suffering: that drags on for years, eroding our soul without us noticing what is happening - until one day we can no longer free ourselves of the bitterness, and it accompanies us for the rest of our lives.
- And what is the fourth obstacle?
- After unearthing your dream, using the power of love for support, spending many years with the scars, a man realizes - from one day to the next - that everything he always wanted is right there, waiting for him, perhaps the very next day. Then comes the fourth obstacle: the fear of realizing the dream he has fought for all his life.
- That makes no sense.
- Oscar Wilde said that we always destroy the thing we love the most. And it is true. The simple possibility of achieving that which we desire causes the soul of the common man to be filled with guilt. He looks around, and sees many others who have not succeeded, and so he thinks he does not deserve it. He forgets everything he overcame, all he suffered, everything he had to renounce in order to come this far. I know many people who, when they are within reach of their Personal Legend, make a series of silly mistakes and do not attain their objective - when it was just one step away.
“This is the most dangerous of the obstacles, because it has a certain aura of sanctity about it: to renounce to joy and the conquest. But if the man is worthy of that which he has fought so hard for, he then becomes an instrument of God, aids the Soul of the World, and understands why he is there”.
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Yes…
There’s something inside us that doesn’t let us believe in…dreams, fairy tales, magical moments.
Even if it’s right there before you, even if the door is open, it’s still hard to believe that we are the ones.
We wish to believe and we almost do, yet something, maybe this other side of us, tells us…no..it’s not true, you are going to get hurt, you are going to be disappointed, so maybe will be better for you not to step forward.
But….if we close our eyes, listen to the music of the heart, we may hear the sound, a whisper…of…something bigger than this whole world, bigger than this Universe…something or Someone…and…believe..
What do we have to lose? Life with no time?
Life will go on, whether we’ll cry or smile, and.. every tear, every smile….they… just drops of immortal feelings everyone has inside.
They can only tear up the sky and open the gates to…paradise.
love
Agnieszka
I wish all people could understand what this means for their day-to-day life. But everyone has to find his own way to its own personal legend, and this may take more than one life…
Anyway, your words are always very inspiring to me. Reading this note tonight, I wondered if you had come across “Conversation with God” by Neale Donald Walsch?
This is great. It makes me reflect on the nature of the Personal Legend, and what stands between our realization of it. “When the doors of perception are cleansed, things will appear to man as they truly are…infinite.” - William Blake
Agnieska I’m watching the film the 5th element right now, your last sentence sounds something like that.
Tired,
Clover
Dear magnificent Agnieszka..always so beautiful..so touching…i just answered the week of the question, and now i cant help my tears falling down my face..
Oh Annie..you touch my heart too, always, thank you, love to you.
and Clover, I’ve never seen the 5th element. I know it is science fiction kind, that’s all.
love
Agnieszka
I have first encountered that word when I turned 16. It was in a letter written to me by a mentor. A wonderful mentor who happened to give me a nice token along with the story in his letter.
He explained to me what a personal legend is. He then asked me if I have already discovered what my personal legend is at that age.
Well, I have nothing to contribute or comment on this post but this just struck me (once again as the Witch of Portobello has struck me) and I remembered him once more. It also reminded me to move or else I will be too late for everything.
To learn to listen to ourselves is exactly what we need to do to deepen self-understanding. That journey is infinite and life-transforming.
Now I am really ashame,because you are so right.Sometimes when I am very near to reach a dream,I can help making stupid mistakes,and even if I dont destroy the dream,I change everything.Now I see why,maybe I was told that we must sacriffice us for the other,so I thougt it was no good in arriving at the goal.Is very interesting the presentation of the good fight,I love it,I keep it in my mind.The best wishes to everybody,Bye.
The fourth obstacle is the one that describes my greatest freedom in the last several years….
to realize that by waiting for another moment to find my contentment, my moments slipped away into waiting. Oh the joy of the moment!
i love so much the last sentence, and mostly the part ‘ aids the Soul of the World’… we have so potential to change the world…but we dont see it because all we see are these obstacles, that seem huge to our eyes, like the highest walls to climb..if we realise that only by taking this path of our personal legend can we be true to ourselves, we can help the universal energy to upgrade..
and then recompose the world..
One day, a man told me that I was not afraid to loose, but that I really was in fear with success. He was right.
The word written in this correspondance are quite true I think. A mirror of myself.
Many experiences shows us the strength and the magical chance we are brought by , then.
It’s true I don’t know many conquest, as I often have a lack of something just before it. Suddendly, just before the proof.
In my work, I don’t do all. And I’m not at ease in all. As an example I love to write a movie, but I know all the work for the production then, so it can discourage me. Then I can bear the montage, so I have to find money to, and I’m not good at that either. Untrue, it’s better to say I don’t like it. I know the path is not a always a garden, but it goes down deep against my way of sight.
Just now, I just begin to have people that are ready to rely on me. And like my art needs only my body, I can go everywhere, I will always have work.
For art generally, the worse moment for me is definitely showing myself. I have gifts, but I’m afraid of what? What I’m saying? What people could feel? Both. And maybe other fears I can’t see now.
That’s why maybe, I stop before the end.
I’ve contented my heart a “beat”, to return to the place, where I’m asking in eternity: “what I’m doing here?”
Also, I understood here, that I have to feel enthusiasm. I could feel afraid to make the same mistakes again. But now, I know things appeared in cycles in my life. I’ll just have to be careful. Anyway, there are too many signs due about a prayer. And I’ve always been a stranger in this town.
I’m thinking seriously about quitting that energy, by going where it shares with me, in a good alchemy. Like a diver, I take that risk.
Thank you Paulo.