Imbibing Kahlil Gibran's 'The Prophet'

Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) was a Lebanese American artist, poet and writer. One of his famous work, 'The Prophet', is about a Prophet who has lived in a foreign city of Orphalese for 12 years. 

He is about to board a ship that will take him home, as he is stopped by its citizens, whom he enlightens on the mysteries of life like love, passion, beauty, marriage, work and play.

The Prophet explained the answer to each query that was put forward by the people of Orphalese; I jot below my heartfelt impression of Gibran's philosophy.

Love - is that which beckons you with its wings enfolding to yield to it and also that which can crucify you right after the crowning. On one hand it could be the peace and pleasure that one seeks, while on the other hand it could mean the pain of the wounds caused by its understanding. 

Marriage - is the bonding of togetherness and not love, with intentional spacing needed between each other. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone; stand together, yet not too near together – for even the string of a lute are alone, though they quiver with the same music.

Children - are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. Your children, they come through you but are not you. Though they are with you, they do not belong to you. You may give them your love, but not your thoughts, as they have their own thoughts.

You are the bow, from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. As the Archer bends you with His might, let that bending be for gladness – for even as He loves the arrows that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Giving – should be without the fear of holding possessions for the need that may arise tomorrow. "What shall tomorrow bring to the over-prudent dog burying bones in the trackless sand as he follows the pilgrims to the holy city." There are those who have little and give it all, those who give for recognition, those who give with joy and others who give with pain.

While there are those who give and not know pain in the giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue – its from the hands of such as these that God speaks, and from behind their eyes that he smiles upon the  earth.

Eating and Drinking - One does not yield the capability to live on the fragrance of the earth and like an air plant be sustained by the light. So one kills to eat and rob a newly born of its mother's milk.

Thus while killing a beast acknowledge that I too will be slain and be consumed by a mightier hand. As you gather grapes from your vineyard during autumn for making wine, realize that you too are a vineyard, and your fruit gathered for the winepress. And like new wine, you too shall be kept in eternal vessels, to be consumed in the winter having a remembrance of the autumn days.

Work – is love made visible. As you work with love, you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music – you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God. If you cannot work with love but only 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; for the bread baked with indifference is bitter bread, that could only feed but half man's hunger.

Joy and Sorrow – your joy is your sorrow unmasked. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven? And is not the lute that soothes your spirit the very wood that was hollowed with knives? 

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 in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

House – your house is your larger body. With the houses that you have built using things fashioned with wood and stone, with lust for comfort, with doors to guard your treasure – have you peace, the quiet urge that reveals your power?

You shall not dwell in tombs made by the dead for the living. And though of magnificence and splendor, your house shall not hold your secret nor shelter your longing. For that which is boundless in you abides in the mansion of the sky, whose door is the morning mist, and whose windows are the songs and the silences of the night.

Clothes – your clothes conceal much of your beauty, yet they hide not the  less beautiful. As one seeks in garments the freedom of privacy, one may find in them a harness and a chain that prevents our skin to meet the sun and the wind - for the breath of life is in the sunlight and the hand of life in the wind.

And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.

Buying and selling – The earth yields her fruit for you to have your share of fill; it is in exchanging the gifts of the earth that you shall find abundance and be satisfied. Just make sure that the exchange be in love and kindly justice, lest it leads some to greed and others to hunger. Let there be a marketplace where toilers of the sea, fields, vineyards meet the weavers, the potters, the gatherers of spices – and before leaving the marketplace just ensure that no one goes empty handed.

Crime and punishment –  A crime is committed when the spirit goes wandering upon the wind, committing a wrong unto others and therefore unto yourself. However a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent knowledge of the whole tree. So the wrong doer cannot do wrong without the hidden will of you all. Thus the fact remains that you cannot separate the just from the unjust and the good from the wicked.

To punish in the name of the righteousness, lay the axe unto the tree that is evil, let him see to its roots. Is there a way to punish those whose remorse is already greater than their misdeeds? The only understanding is that the erect and the fallen are but one man standing in twilight between the night of his pigmy-self and the day of his god-self.

Laws – it so happens that each one of us delights in laying down laws and finds even more delight in breaking them. The ocean laughs along with the innocent children, who build sandcastles by the ocean and then destroy them with laughter. Law is nothing but a chisel with which one carve things out for their own likeness, just as the cripple who hates dancers and the old serpent who cannot shed his skin and calls all others naked and shameless.

Freedom – you can only be free when the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you, and when you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and a fulfillment. Instead you are free not to care about your day and have your nights without a want and grief, even as you rise above them naked and unbound. Your freedom is that which loses its fetters and becomes itself the fetter of a greater freedom, just as the shadow that fades and is no more, the light that lingers becomes a shadow to another light.

Reason and passion – your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which you reason and your judgement wage war against your passion and you appetite. Among the hills, when you sit in the cool shade of the huge tree, sharing the peace and serenity of distant fields and meadows, then let your heart say in silence, “God rests in reason”. And when the storm comes, and the mighty wind shakes the forest, and thunder and lightning proclaim the majesty of the sky, then let your heart say in awe, “God moves in passion”. And since you are a breath in God's sphere and a leaf in God's forest, you too should rest in reason and move in passion.

Pain – your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain. Trust the pain that you choose, to be the bitter potion that the physician within you recommends to heal your sick-self. Hence trust the physician and drink his remedy in silence and tranquility.

Self-knowledge – the self is a sea boundless and measureless. Try saying “I have found truth” instead of “I have found the truth”. Its not “I have found the path of the soul” rather “I have met the soul walking upon my path”. And its all about the soul unfolding itself, like a lotus of countless petals.

Teaching – a teacher gives not his wisdom, but rather his faith and his loving-ness; for the vision of one man, lends not his wings to another man and one must learn to be alone in their understanding of God and earth.

Friendship – your friends are your needs answered, for in friendship, all thoughts, desires, expectations are born and shared with joy that is beyond acclaim. Do not grieve in the absence of your friend as you seek what you love most, when you part with him. And let there be not purpose in friendship, save the deepening of the spirit.

Talking – you start talking when you no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart and choose your lips to live out your heart. And in much of your talking, thinking is half-murdered, for thought is a bird of space, that in a cage of words may indeed unfold its wings, but cannot fly.

There are those who become talkative for the fear of being alone, while there are those who talk without forethought, revealing something that they  themselves do not understand. And others who have truth within them, but they tell it not in words.  Let us learn to use the voice within our voice to do the talking straight to the ears of the listener.

Time – you could try measuring the time that is measureless and the immeasurable, with constant awareness of life's timelessness. For to revel in the knowledge that yesterday is but today's memory and tomorrow is today's dream.

You could measure time by defining into seasons, then let each season encircle all other seasons. Let today embrace the past with remembrance and tomorrow with longing.

Good and evil – I can speak of the good in you, but not of the evil, for what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst. You are good when you walk to your goal firmly and with bold steps. Yet, you are not evil when you go thither limping. Even those who limp does not go backward. But those who are strong and swift, ensure that you do not limp before the lame, deeming it an act of kindness.

Prayer – is the expansion of yourself into the living ether. How many of us pray when we are filled with joy, and in our good times? We normally call out in distress and at times of need. Let us not enter the temple to pray for something that we need, for we shall not receive. Let us not enter to humble ourselves, for we shall not be lifted. Also let us not enter to beg for the good of the others, for we shall not be heard.

It is enough that we enter the temple invisible.

Pleasure – you often have elders regretfully speaking of pleasure as a wrongdoing committed in drunkenness. Of trying to shun all pleasures, lest they neglect the spirit or offend it. But can pleasure really offend the spirit? Can the nightingale offend the stillness of the night, or the firefly the stars?

Try to be like the bee and the flower, who take pleasure in giving and receiving. For the bee, the flower is a fountain of life, and for the flower, the bee is a messenger of love.

Beauty – at night some say that “Beauty shall rise with the dawn from the east”.  At noon, “Beauty leans over the earth from the windows of the sunset”.  During winter when there is snow all around, some say that “Beauty shall come with the spring, leaping upon the hills”. During summer as one thinks about cleaning the garden they say that “ She danced with the autumn leaves and as she carried a drift of snow in her hair.” Beauty seems to be an image one sees with their eyes closed and a song they can hear with their ears shut.

Beauty is eternity  gazing at itself in a mirror. But you are eternity and you are the mirror.

Religion – your daily life is your temple and your religion. Can one divide their time and say “This is for God and this is for me. This is for my soul and this other is for my body.”  Can they separate their faith from their actions, or their belief from their occupations.

“He who wears his morality but as his best garment were better naked.”

Try knowing your life, as knowing God not as a solver of riddles, but as someone playing joyfully amongst us.

Death – is to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun. To seek it, one must take a look closer into the heart of life. Feel what it is to cease breathing, as to free the breath from its restless tides. Something that may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered.

Life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.

And with these spoken words he bids goodbye to the people as he boards the ship that will take him home - "but should my words fade in your ears, and my love vanquish in your memory, then I will come again."

Forget not that I shall come back to you.  A little while, and my longing shall gather dust and foam for another body. A little while, a moment of rest upon the wind, and another woman shall bear me.