FEAR
Khalil Gibran
It is said that before entering the sea
a river trembles with fear.
She looks back at the path she has traveled,
from the peaks of the mountains,
the long winding road crossing forests and villages.
And in front of her,
she sees an ocean so vast,
that to enter
there seems nothing more than to disappear forever.
But there is no other way.
The river can not go back.
Nobody can go back.
To go back is impossible in existence.
The river needs to take the risk
of entering the ocean
because only then will fear disappear,
because that’s where the river will know
it’s not about disappearing into the ocean,
but of becoming the ocean.
***
Imagination sees the complete reality, – it is where past, present and future meet… Imagination is limited neither to the reality which is apparent – nor to one place.It lives everywhere. It is at a centre and feels the vibrations of all the circles within which east and west are virtually included. Imagination is the life of mental freedom.It realizes what everything is in its many aspects … Imagination does not uplift: we don’t want to be uplifted, we want to be more completely aware.(Gibran’s words quoted from Mary Haskell’s journal dated 7th June 1912)
***
I want to be alive To all the life that is in me now, to know each moment to the uttermost.(Gibran’s words quoted from Mary Haskell’s journal dated 7th June 1912)
Madness
Madness is the first step towards unselfishness. Be mad and tell us what is behind the veil of sanity.The purpose of life is to bring us closer to those secrets, and madness is the only means.
Marriage
Marriage is the union of two divinities that a third might be born on earth. It is the union of two souls in a strong love for the abolishment of separateness. It is that higher unity which fuses the separate unities within the two spirits. It is the golden ring in a chain whose beginning is a glance and whose ending is eternity. It is the pure rain that falls from an unblemished sky to fructify and bless the fields of divine nature.
Knowledge
Learning follows various roads , We note the start but not the end ,
For time and fate must rule the course, While we see not beyond the bend.
The best of knowledge is a dream The gainer holds steadfast uncowed
By ridicule and moves serene Despised and lowly in the crowd.
Bravery
Bravery is a volcano , the seed of wavering does not grow on its crater.
Knowledge and Understanding are life’s two faithful companions who will never prove untrue to you.
***
Perhaps we are nearest to God each time we try to divide him and find him indivisible.Yet do I say that art ,through Drawing a line between the Beautiful and the ugly , is the nearest way to God.Pure Meditation is another way.But it leads to silence and to self-confinement. Silence is truer and more expressive than speech;and the hour shall come when we shall be silent.But why muzzle our tongues before that hour has struck ?
***
Keep me away from the wisdom that does not cry , the philosophy that which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children Not all of us are enabled to see with our inner eyes the great depth of life and it is cruel to demand that the weak sighted see the dim and far.
****
Say not “there goes a learned man “ Nor “there a chieftan dignified ‘
The best of men are in the herd ,And heed the shepherd as their guide.
***
The human soul is but part of a burning torch which God Separated from Himself at creation.
***
If I can open a new corner in a man’s own heart to him I have not lived in vain. (Gibran’s words quoted from Mary Haskell’s journal dated 25th December 1912)
***
When the hand of Life is heavy and night songless, it is the time for love and trust. And how light the hand life becomes and how songful the night, when one is loving and trusting all.(Extract from one of Gibran’s letters dated 19th December 1916)
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Among intelligent people the surest basis for marriage is friendship – the sharing of real interests- the ability to fight out ideas together and understand each other’s thoughts and dreams. (Gibran’s words quoted from Mary Haskell’s journal dated 26th May 1923)
***
What difference does it make, whether you live in a big city or in a community of homes ? The real life is within.(Gibran’s words quoted from Mary Haskell’s journal dated 27th May 1923)
Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.
Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge
The significance of a man is not in what he attains, but rather what he longs to attain.
We live only to discover beauty. All else is a form of waiting.
To be able to look back upon ones life in satisfaction, is to live twice.
Desire is half of life, indifference is half of death.
We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.
In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans.
Hell is not in torture; Hell is in an empty heart.
If I accept the sunshine and warmth I must also accept the thunder and lightning.
The most pitiful among men is he who turns his dreams into silver and gold.
The real in us is silent; the acquired is talkative.
Children
And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, “Speak to us of Children.”
And he said:
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 give them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.
rasAyana 