Some will say that I have been uncommonly lucky. I shall not disagree. But I believe that luck has a cause, like anything else, and I believe there exists a mental attitude capable of shaping circumstances more or less according to one’s wishes.
Alexandra David-Neel
What an amazing quote; the idea that we can create our own luck and with our mindset shape the circumstances of our lives. Alexandra David-Neel was a remarkable woman . Born in France in 1868 she was a travel adventurer and one of her quests was to get to the Tibetan city of Lhasa and see the Potala Palace.
The fact that Tibet was forbidden to foreigners did not deter her . In 1924, at the age of 56, she put on the rags of a Tibetan pilgrim and accompanied by a young Tibetan monk she walked. Yes, walked, from the west of China to Tibet and to Lhasa. She smeared her face with dirt to darken her skin. Under her rags she carried a compass, a pistol, and a purse with some money in case she needed to pay a ransom. Her journey is recorded in her book “My Journey to Lhasa” published in 1927. It is a journey that was filled with extreme danger and physical hardship. But she succeeded in getting to Lhasa. She was the first white woman ever to do so at that time
Considering the impossibility of this quest I have to say that Alexandra David-Neel clearly believed that her mental attitude shaped the circumstances of this journey and indeed her life. She took on the impossible and she succeeded.
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