Selections From Gibran

Scott Bradley

I have finally read a book, The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran. If I may presume to critique, I would say it has much of insightful and practical wisdom, though not so much that is helpful, in the case of my journey at any rate, that illumines a path to liberation. Here are some selections:

"On Marriage": "Love one another, but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music."

"On Clothes": "Forget not that modesty is for a shield against the eye of the unclean. And when the unclean shall be no more, what were modesty but a fetter and a fouling of the mind?"

"On Reason and Passion": "Would that I could be the peacemaker in your soul, that I might turn the discord and rivalry of your elements into oneness and melody. But how shall I, unless you yourselves be also the peacemakers, nay, the lovers of all your elements?"

"On Pain": "Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. [...] And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields. And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief."

"On Teaching": "No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge. [...] For the vision of one man lends not its wings to another man."

"On Good and Evil": "You are good when you are one with yourself. Yet when you are not one with yourself you are not evil. For a divided house is not a den of thieves; it is only a divided house."

"On 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 a mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain."

On Pleasure”: “Some of your youth seek pleasure as if it were all, and they are judged and rebuked. I would not judge nor rebuke them. I would have them seek. […] Have you not heard of the man who was digging in the earth for roots and found treasure?”

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