Today’s Question by Aart Hilal

by Paulo Coelho on July 4, 2008

You must have heard that there are numerous people who committed suicide from a sense failure. How do you view these incidents since you once said “When you want something, you have to fight for it, then the whole universe will help you. But not the way that you expect it.” In reality, is it a fact that not everyone will achieve what they want?

The concept of Personal Legend is beyond our daily lives. Joseph Campbell used a different expression, “Personal Bliss”, and we all know, when we are young, that there is something in life that makes us full of joy, while other things bother us. This is what Personal Legend is all about: following the path of enthusiasm. People who committed suicide from a sense of failure normally do that because they are following their parents path, not their own.

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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }

zingsho July 9, 2008 at 3:02 pm

dear Paul!!!
i got a message something similar to this from my friend
it goes like this
“its madness to hate all roses because you got scratched by one thorn,
to give up all your dreams because one didn’t come true, to loose faith in prayers because one wasn’t answere,
to give up on your efforts because one of them failed,
to condemn all your friends because one betrayed you,
not to believe in love because someone was unfaithful, remember that another chance will come up,
a new friend,
a new love,
a new life,
never give up because Life is indeed Beautiful…. Live!!!

its really something that draws you back when you’r in the verge of giving up!!! sometimes i think to kill myself!!! but then there is something inside you that tells you “are you crazy! only unbelievers do that!” believe!Light shines in the darkest part of the lane!!!!try to listen to the voice so soft..calms ur soul! once you know and take hid of what it says you’ll finally find an answer! i would like to follow my heart and be free rather than taking vices of someone or anyone who never have an answer nor ever did.

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Agnieszka July 7, 2008 at 4:01 pm

Dear Paul,
Not really but thank you for your answer. What I have meant is that sometimes we go like Napoleon “through dead bodies” to sstisfy the dream and even if we reach the destination it doesn’t necessarly mean that we’ve won… in the eyes of God.
Question is whether our conscious, our heart is OK with that.
love
Agnieszka

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Sibila Maria India July 7, 2008 at 10:56 am

From what I´ve learned, what drives us to suicide is when hopelessness and despair overtakes us completely inside. At some point we all need to learn to dare to base our lives on our own inner choices, based on what our own heart really tells us to do. We all have times in our lives where the choices for daring to listening to ourselves are truelly our own – and no one else´s. Love, courage, hope build and unfold. Fear destroys and contracts, turns hope´s light off. It´s up to us if we base our lives on love or fear, on light or darkness. I think it is also relevant to consider in order to find meaning and not utter meaninglessness in these ecsistential questions, that spiritual principles act thoughout much longer timeframes than on the span of one single lifetime.

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Agnieszka July 7, 2008 at 4:28 am

You know Paul,
I just watched “The other Boleyn girl” movie and there’s a moment when those words are said: “since when the ambition became not a sin but the virtue?”
and it got me thinking because as we all know “the stick has two ends”, where’s the end of the enthusiasm and the beginning of..the abyss?
so..
is that true that “without the courage the warrior is lost”?
or
the loss starts with…the sin?
:-)

love
Agnieszka

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sandra July 6, 2008 at 11:28 am

Firstly,Failure and success are only a mental state,every failure if persisted leads to success.,this lesson should be taught when children are 2-3 year old.Every child should be guided keeping in mind,that they have their own likes and dislikes and give a free hand to follow thier path,only guiding when they go wrong.
Secondly,If u ask the person who wants to commit suicide 2 questions,many suicides can be prevented(1) Has the person been responsible for his or her BIRTH? Then he or she has no right to end it(2).Is the person sure what awaits on the other side? Greater suffering than what they are suffering on this side.
sandra.

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Tania July 6, 2008 at 9:15 am

Its very sad when souls feel like they have no other solution but to leave ..take their own lives ,its such a waste of a precious life ,when your hearts a singing thats the joy,love,light and passion of something good -this leads us all on to our paths ,its sad when parents or others try to take away enthusiasm you have to fight hard be strong and have faith to get you through ,but I guess we do not like to let people down or hurt our loved ones when we are following our dreams but hurt ,pain come with growth.We do our best as parents and we choose our lessons and parents as part of our journey ,so our children choose us too .We are the light and that is who you are first and foremost-the rest comes when we trust in ourselves and the universe ,it guides us on our adventures,discoveries to new knowledge and wisdom ,gifts and best of all it listens very carefully and carries out every plan -prayer with love and patience . All we can do is love our children ,in body ,mind and spirit and demonstrate to them our way of living and loving and how we treat oursleves and them as well as others ..then the rest us up to them to fullfill their destiny .Blessings Tania*

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Freddy July 6, 2008 at 3:18 am

Suicide is a very desperate thing, only for people who are in very deep trouble. It’s their only way out. It is so easy to say that suicide is for cowards. Losing a friend like that is very difficult, you blame yourself for not having said or done things.
His parents had no part in it..

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Paul July 5, 2008 at 2:34 pm

So true. So simple. And so hard to apply within everyday’s life usual constraints.
Forgetting who you think you are just to be who you are

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shampa from India July 5, 2008 at 11:29 am

We all crave for success. A success which is defined in my terms as success not an existing definition. Failures usually are the unabilities to meet up the set standards of success. In such a situation, one may desire to liberate him/her from everything possible, say the existing standards, the people around who are constantly comparing the efforts of individual’s with their percieved notions of success. Death seems to be a kind of easy liberation or a perfect solution to be away from everything, to people at that time. Its true that everyone can achieve what they want, but usually we end up trying to achieve what others want. Coz as per the “standards” true success needs applauds of the world, one cannot be successful being quietly pursuing some interest of him/her in a remote corner of the world. The nature and Universe will help you to achieve what you want but of course, the universe will not abide by this worldly definition of success of pre concieved standards. And people may call it a failure!

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aditya July 5, 2008 at 9:12 am

“When you want something, you have to fight for it, then the whole universe will help you. But not the way that you expect it.”

in the original in alchemist, it says universe conspires to help u suceed but there is no mention of “But not the way that you expect it.” amongst many reasons for phenomenol success of alchemist, this promise ‘universe conspires to help’ was a big one ! we all would like to beleive it, we woulld like things to be like this, whenever we want something we want universe to help us.

but then looking at statistics, looking at the number of people who have ‘failed’ to number of ‘successful’ people, one can see that a ) either this promise is not so accurate b) very few people in this world pursue what universe has desinged them to pursue !!

but suicide under any condition is not appreciated by the ‘universe’, it takes comming togather of a very large number of variables to make us, our life possible here on earth. life is for learning from sucess and from failure too. It’s a fact that whoever commits suicide, suicide is commited to escape to ‘situations’, finds him/herself stuck in the same situation for a very long time. people who feel they can escape their agony by suicide find to their bitter surprise that they get stuck in the same situation, and now they don’t even have a ‘body’ with which they can try to change their situation !

love
aditya

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Agnieszka July 4, 2008 at 11:34 pm

Following your own enthusiasm is not easy and it can also be selfish sometimes, especially when we have people around us which we can hurt when we do that.
If we were alone nothing would stop the wild horses inside us, nothing would stand in a way, but.. how can we free ourselves and fly and avoid the hurt?
love
Agnieszka

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Serena July 4, 2008 at 3:35 pm

Should we follow the path of enthusiasm or lead our enthusiasm to the final, isn’t this what Legend is about? should we consider ourselves a legend than the world around us will revolve only to us, however if we consider life as a legend and us as small entities attempting to build up that legend and live,, than we will no longer be possessed by that force that rules us and makes us attempt suicide… NO life ain’t about following enthusiasm’s path but leading enthusiasms to the goal only then we would reach,,, and attain personal bliss… Suicide is not only a lack of courage but also a fear of failure,,, suicide is in itself a failure to contribute to the world…

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