I found the book Prophet by Kahil Gibran lying at a friend’s place today, and picked it up to read. I’m neither religious nor spiritual, however, I found a few lines worth remembering.
The book is a quick read, partitioned into short chapters, each a dialogue/monologue on a topic. Here are select snippets with the chapter titles and occasional comments
Love
But if in your fear you would seek only love’s peace and love’s pleasure, then it is better for you to cover your nakedness and pass out of love’s threshing floor, into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.
I can’t articulate exactly why this resonated with me but it did. So did this next one.
Think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
Marriage
[…] let there be spaces in your togetherness […]
Love one another but not make a bond of love; let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls
The last line beautifully echoes the sentiment.
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.
Leave space for growth. In love or marriage, or in any relationship. There will be differences, there will be disagreements. Love shouldn’t seek to control.
Children
Oh this one is sweet. Especially since I get triggered by parents who seek to control their children. Helicopter parenting as an extreme but in many subtler ways.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts.
You may strive to be like them but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday
Giving
You often say, “I would give, but only to the deserving.” The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture.
Work
You work that you may keep peace with the earth and the soul of the earth. For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons, and to step out of life’s procession, that marches in majesty and proud submission towards the infinite.
Work is love made visible
This is superficially in conflict with my philosophy of work. However it is merely superficial since I despise working as a necessity. I wish to work for my own well-being, so that I may not remain idle and wither. Modern life of work that does not leave the choice is repulsive to me. The choice matters to me.
Joy and sorrow
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful look again at your heart and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.
Houses
What have you in these houses? And what is it you guard with fastened doors? […] Is it just the lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house as a guest and then becomes a host and then a master? It becomes a tamer, and with hook and scourge makes puppets of your larger desires.
The lust for comfort murders the passion of the soul, and then walks grinning in the funeral
Your house shall be not an anchor but a mast. It shall not be a glistening film that covers a wound but an eyelid that guards the eye. You shall not fold your wings that you may pass through doors, […]
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.
How true. It is extremely easy to get into a us vs them mindset. Or to believe we are somehow above those who do wrong.
Laws
What of the cripple who hates dancers? What of the ox who loves his yoke and deems the elk and deer of the forest stray and vagrant things? […]
Freedom
You can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you, and when you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and a fulfilment.
A very nice spiritual point of view, but I’m not ready to embrace it yet, if ever. I chase freedom, recognize how it is a binding in itself, but consider them necessary for now and wrap them willingly.
In truth that which you call freedom is the strongest of these chains, though its links glitter in the sun and dazzle your eyes.
Reason and Passion
Surely you would not honor one guest above the other, for he who is more mindful of one loses the love and faith of both
That is a very good analogy in my opinion.
Teaching
The vision of one man lends not its wings to another man
Friendship
When you part from your friend, you grieve not, for that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber may be clearer from the plain
For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill? Seek him always with hours to live
Such a sappy statement but one worth remembering.
And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed
A wordy way of saying little things matter, but I like the words.
Talking
Speak little, and well. That’s all.
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, and sound is a diversion and a pastime. And in much of your talking, thinking is half-murdered.
Not all talk, but yeah.
Good and Evil
Even those who limp do not go backward
You are good in countless ways, and you are not evil when you are not good, you are only loitering and sluggard. Pity that the stags can not teach the turtles.
Religion
Your daily life is your temple and your religion
Advice and philosophy that more people should follow, religious or otherwise.