What’s love for you ?
There’s a motto in Alchemy: “Concentrate and dissolve”. As you may know alchemists would, through laboratory studies, try to distill the mercury from the sulfur and then refine the mercury until it converted into gold. This quest would lead them to the Philosopher Stone (which was the solid component) and the Long Life Elixir. All the process of distilling is based on this very simple motto: concentrate – meaning extracting the essence – and dissolve – meaning mixing the essence with something else.
Many disregard that through this routine, alchemists were also training their patience and thus transforming their perception of the world.
I think you can apply this same motto to love: in order to preserve love’s freedom, one has to be able at the same time to dive into its essence and to share it others.





Thank you, Mr. Paulo, for sharing a motto of alchemy. But I found it is too abstract for me to understand. So I will give you an example and I would be grateful if you could tell me whether I got it right or not.
There was a scientist who studied for years by himself and finally produced an enzyme. He fed cows his enzyme to see if it could cure BSE. It could. He fed human his enzyme to see if it could cure diabetes. It significantly ease the condition. It was such a significant discovery that someone asked him if he was going to apply a patent. ‘No,’ he said. ‘Whoever wants to take it, take it. It is free.’
This story could be ‘concentrate and dissolve’?
(I know if you simplify something essential, you might end up changing its true meaning but i just wanted to ask.)
Thank you for reading:)
love
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Thank You so Much Nelson …
Like Thelma said: Thanks for such lovely words :) .. I am Happy Now, its just sometimes memories play an evil part in our lives …. :) …. Otherwise … Everything is fine … And ALCHEMIST is still the best book i’ve ever Read !! ..
Thanks
Nida.
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Dear Nelson D’Silva I have just read your comment @ Nida and I would like to express to you my admiration for your kindness and concern for other people. I was a little annoyed with your comment for me being the .. engineer the other day, but of course, my heart is full of love and tenderness for all of us. Take care.
Love,
Thelma
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Dear Nida,
Love is truly a beautiful thing. Keep your faith; the “Director” surely has something wonderful in store for you. Learn from what has happened. Keep an open mind and don’t keep any resentment in your heart.
The almighty only wants us to be happy, our sorrow we bring on ourselves.
Be cheerful dear Nida,
Nelson
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There was this guy who introduced me to paulo cohelo .. … Alchemist was his fav book … He loved to discuss it all the time ……. …….. i loved him … !!
and while our conversations abt ALCHEMIST i fell in more n more in love with him …… ….. i started to relate each n every thing of my life with the sayings of this book … like i was convinced that if i would follow my heart some day he too will start loving me …. and yes that happened … he came in my life proposed me .. and left saying that he cannot do any thing about our relationship …… he got married with some one else … i ended all the relationships with him … .. i don’t even talk to him any more ………
When he left me he said that He cannot do anything for me .. and that i have to figure out the meaning of this situation by my self cause THE ALCHEMIST say nothing of a situation when You loose u’r treasure before u could achive it “…………..
I followed my heart, i did all that i was capable of doing .. yet i didn’t found him ….
Now after such a long time i again read ALCHEMIST …. This time i read it from another prespective ….. The prespective of THE MAKTAB …. !!! ..Its already written… and i noted one thing … we read only those things that fit to our life ….. Other things no matter how true they are seem worthless …… so i come up with the conclution that it’s not a lie that at a time we are not able to controll our lives … !! Its True … some times we don’t just have the controll over THINGS .. !! we have controll on our LIVES for sure …. But When Things don’t go how u want them to be ….. U’r Life IS effected !!
I am truly convinced that we all have a story just like that of the movies or some story books ….. we are the Heros or the heroines of our Stories … !!! and most interesting is that we our selves are the Story writters …. It’s just that some times the director is not able to put our story in to the film so the story has to be changed … ……
U know what … It still hurts alot !! Cause i miss him !!!
And LOVE is the most beautiful feeling that can ever be on this earth !! …. See He Left me … He did very wrong with me …. Still i love him … Miss him ….. Isn’t LOVE a wonderful thing .. !!
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Love is… because I want for nothing… and yet… have everything…
Love, is all you need, Paul
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Or to make from the basis element ,the essence,something new.I mean not search Love as you heard your friends told you it must appear.Might be a very unique feeling,not simillar to the others.Avoid patterns.
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The love is’nt Alchimy, Paulo! The True Love is ONESTY! Are You onest with YOU?
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The love is’nt Alchimy, Paulo! The True Love ONESTY! Are You onest with YOU?
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http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ILW_REqUOFk&feature=related
‘You made me love you and now I am so sad…’a Greek nice song. Almost all greek songs speak about love..
Love,
Thelma
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Dear Paulo, that is a beautiful definition.
When I think of love, I think of it as caring for the growth (spiritual growth as well as psychological) and wellbeing of another as much or more than we care for our own. When we think of love in this way, it is not so much an act of clinging, of holding on, but more a willingness to nurture and let go, at all costs, to let the other person have the freedom and the space to grow and evolve.
There is one complaint that I commonly hear people make of their spouses, people especially who are about to file for divorce. They say, of their husband or their wife: “He (or she) has changed. He (or she) is not the same person that I married twenty years ago.” Well, of course they are not the “same person,” at least I should hope not! Everything evolves, everyone grows and changes. If they are not changing, if they have ceased to evolve - now that is a problem.
The thing is, we meet a person we are attracted to, we fall in love, and in our minds we attach to them a thousand labels that define who they are. Then we expect them never to change, to stay just like that forever - an object frozen in time. In essence, this is not love; this is a form of suffocation - asking someone to cease to become….
When we truly love someone, we give them the same respect that we give to a stranger - we see them daily with new eyes. We do not judge them by what they were yesterday. There is no past. We see them only in the moment, as though we had never laid eyes upon them before. We give them the same respect we offer strangers in another sense as well: We do not act as though we are somehow in charge of their life. We do not profess to hold dominion over their dreams. When strangers tell us of their dreams, we listen with an open heart and an open mind, without the impulse to judge. True love enables us to offer this same form of respect to those whom we have known even for years. It enables us to listen, truly listen, to see, with open eyes, and to nourish and encourage rather than criticize and control.
I know that such love exists. I haven’t found it yet - not in a romantic relationship anyway. But still I believe…. Such a mutual relationship is possible. Love does not have to be - and real love is not - a club we use to cripple one another with. It is not a chain or a whip. Neither is it a crutch. It is more like a pair of invisible wings that enables us to fly even higher than we ever imagined.
Love,
Savita
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http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YdeaPrha_io&feature=related
An old film with a beautiful greek song: what is this, that is called love and mades you say …I love you! Σ’ αγαπώ.
Love,
Thelma
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it’s an exchange between souls.
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