THE PROPHET
Kahilil Gibran
(Alfred A. Knopf Publication)
THE PROPHET written by Kahilil Gibran is a remarkable comment upon our Human
struggle to become the Gods that we are destined to become.
Some even say that THE PROPHET might (in the future) become
THE GOSPLE according to Kahilil Gibran simply because there is
(according to some) more Love and Insight than even the original gospels.
Below are some edited versions.
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ON LOVE:
When Love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
For even as Love crown you so shall he
Crucify you. Even as he is for your growth
So is he for your pruning.
Even as she ascends to your height and
Caresses your tenderest branches that quiver
In the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and
Shake them in their clinging to the earth.
Love possesses not nor would it be
Possessed;
For love is sufficient unto Love.
ON MARRIAGE:
Let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the Heavens dance
Between you.
Love one another, but make not a bond
Of Love:
Give your hearts, but not into each
Other’s keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain
Your hearts.
And stand together yet not too near
Together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart.
ON CHILDREN:
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s
Longing for itself.
They come through you but not from
You,
And though they are with you yet they
Belong not to you.
You may house their bodies but not
Their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of to-
Morrow, which you cannot visit.
ON GIVING:
You give but little when you give of your
Possessions.
It is when you give of yourself that you
Truly give.
And there are those who have little and
Give it all.
These are the believers in life and the
Bounty of life, and their coffer is never
Empty.
It is well to give when asked, but it is
Better to give unasked.
ON WORK:
And when you work with love you bind
Yourself to yourself, and to one another,
And to God.
WORK IS LOVE MADE VISIBLE.
And if you cannot work with love but only
With distaste, it is better that you should
Leave your work and sit at the gate of the
Temple and take alms of those who work with joy.
ON SORROW:
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
The deeper that sorrow carves into your
Being, the more joy you can contain.
Verily you re suspended like scales between
Your sorrow and your joy.
ON HOUSES:
Your house is your larger body.
It grows in the sun and sleeps in the
Stillness of the night; and it is not dreamless.
Does not your house dream?
Have you beauty, that leads the heart
From things fashioned of wood and stone to
The holy mountain?
Tell me, have you have these in your houses?
Or have you only comfort, and the lust
For comfort, that stealthy thing that enters
The house a guest, and then becomes a host,
And then a master?
ON CLOTHES:
Your clothes conceal much of your beauty,
Yet they hide not the unbeautiful.
And forget not that the earth delights to
Feel your bare feet and the winds long to
Play with your hair.
ON BUYING AND SELLING:
When in the market place you toilers of
The sea and fields and vineyards meet the
Weavers and the potters and the gatherers of
Spices,---
Invoke then the Master Spirit of the earth,
To come into your midst and sanctify the
Scales and the reckoning that weighs value
Against value.
And if there come the singers and the
Dancers and the flute players, --buy of their
Gifts also.
For they too are gatherers of fruit and
Frankincense, and that which they bring,
Though fashioned of dreams, is raiment
And food for your soul.
And before you leave the market place,
See that no one has gone his way with
Empty hands.
ON CRIME AND PUNISHMENT:
Oftentimes have I heard you speak of one
Who commits a wrong as though he were
Not one of you, but a stranger unto you and
An intruder upon your world.
But I say that even as the holy and the
Righteous cannot rise beyond the highest
Which is in each one of you,
So the wicked and the weak cannot fall
Lower than the lowest which is in you also.
And when one of you falls down he falls
For those behind him, a caution against the
Stumbling stone.
Ay, and he falls for those ahead of him,
Who though faster and surer of foot, yet
Removed not the stumbling stone.
ON LAWS:
You delight in laying down laws,
Yet you delight more in breaking them.
ON REASON AND PASSION:
Reason, ruling alone, is a force confining;
And passion, unattended, is a flame
That burns to its own destruction.
Therefore let your soul exalt your reason
To the height of passion, that it may sing;
And let it direct your passion with
Reason, that your passion may live through
Its own daily resurrection, and like the
Phoenix rise above its own ashes.
ON PAIN:
Your pain is the breaking the shell
Of your understanding.
And could you keep your heart in wonder
At the daily miracles of your life, your pain
Would not seem less wondrous than your
Joy.
Much of your pain is self-chosen.
It is the bitter potion by which the physician
Within you heals your sick self.
ON SELF-KNOWLEDGE
The self is a sea boundless and measureless.
Say not, "I have found the truth," but
rather, " I have found a truth."
Say not, " I have found the path of the soul,"
Say rather, "I have met the soul walking upon my path."
For the soul walks upon all paths.
The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of
countless petals.
ON TEACHING
The teaacher who walks in the shadow of the
temple, among his followers, gives not
of his wisdom but rather of his faith and
his lovingness.
If he is indeed wise he does not bid you
enter the house of his wisdom, but rather
leads you to the threshold of your own
mind.
The astronomer may speak to you of his
understanding of space, but he cannot give
you his understanding.
For the vision of one man leads not its
wings to another man.
And even as each one of you stands alone
in God's knowledge, so must each one of
you be alone in his knowledge of God.
ON FRIENDSHIP
Your friend is your needs answered.
And he is your board and your fireside.
For you come to him with your hunger,
and you seek him for peace.
And let there be no purpose in friendship
save the deepening of the Spirit.
For what is your friend that you should
seekk him with hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live.
For it is his to fill your need, but not
your emptiness.
ON TALKING
You talk when you cease to be at peace
with your thoughts.
And when you can no longer dwell in the
solitude of your heart you live in your lips.
There are those among you who seek the
talkaative through fear of being alone.
And there are those who talk, and without
knowledge or forethought reveal a truth
which they themselves do not understand.
And there are those who have the truth
within them, but they tell it not in words.
ON TIME
You would measure time the measureless
and the immeasurable.
Yet the timeless in you is aware of life's
timelessness,
And knows that yesterday is but today's
memory and tomorrow is today's dream.
ON GOOD AND EVIL
Of the good in you I can speak, but not
of the evil.
For what is evil but good tortured by its
own hunger and thirst?
You are good when you are one with
yourself.
Yet when you are not one with yourself
you are not evil.
You are good when you strive to give of
yourself.
Yet you are not evil when you seek gain
for yourself.
You are good when you walk to your
goal firmly and with bold steps.
Yet you are not evil when you go thither
limping.
You are good in countless ways, and you
are not evil when you are not good,
You are only loitering and sluggard.
ON PRAYER
You pray in your distress and in your need;
would that you might pray also in
the fullness of your joy and in your days
of abundance.
I cannot teach you how to pray in words.
God listens not to your words save when
He Himself utters them through your lips.
It is enough that you enter the temple
invisible.
And I cannot teach you the prayer of the
seas and the forests and the mountains.
But you who are born of the mountains
and the forests nd the seas can find their
prayer in your heart.
ON PLEASURE
Pleasure is a freedom-song,
But it is not freedom.
It is a depth calling unto a height,
But is not the deep nor the high.
Oftimes in denying yourself pleasure
you do but store the desire in the recesses
of your being.
Who knows but that which seems omitted
today, waits for tomorrow?
ON BEAUTY
Where shall you seek beauty, and how
shall you find her unless she herself be your
way and your guide?
And beauty is not a need but an ecstasy.
It is not a mouth thirsting nor an empty
hand stretched forth,
But rather a heart enflamed and a soul
enchanted.
Beauty is life when life unveils her holy face.
But you are life and you are the veil.
Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a
mirror
But you are eternity and you are the
mirror.
ON RELIGION
Have I spoken this day of aught else?
Who can separate his faith from his actions,
or his belief from his occupations?
He who defines his conduct by ethics imprisions
his song-bird in a cage.
Your daily life is your Temple and your Religion.
And take with you all men:
For in adoration you cannot fly higher than their hopes
nor humble yourself lower than their despair.
And if you would know God be not therefore a solver of riddles.
You shall see HIM smiling in flowers, then rising and waving HIS hands in trees.
ON DEATH
You would know the secret of death.
Buts how shsall you find it unless you seek
it in the heart of life?
For life and death are one, even as the
river and the sea are one.
Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd
when he stands before the king whose hand is to be
laid upon him in honour.
For what is it to die but to stand naked
in the wind and to melt into the sun?
And what is it to cease breathing, but to
free the breath from its restless tides, that
it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?
And when you have reached the mountain top,
then you shall begin to climb.
And when the earth shall claim your limbs,
then shall you truly dance.
THE END
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