DK Matai - October 28, 2006
. I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.
. Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.
. God made Truth with many doors to welcome every believer who knocks on them.
. If indeed you must be candid, be candid beautifully.
. If you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work.
. If you reveal your secrets to the wind you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.
. Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.
. Say not, 'I have found the truth,' but rather, 'I have found a truth.'
. The lights of stars that were extinguished ages ago still reaches us. So it is with great men who died centuries ago, but still reach us with the radiations of their personalities.
. To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to do.
. Yesterday is but today's memory, tomorrow is today's dream.
. In battling evil, excess is good; for he who is moderate in announcing the truth is presenting half-truth. He conceals the other half out of fear of the people's wrath.
. It is well to give when asked but it is better to give unasked, through understanding.
. Yes, there is a Nirvanah; it is leading your sheep to a green pasture, and in putting your child to sleep, and in writing the last line of your poem.
. And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter and the sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.
Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) was a poet, philosopher, and artist and he was born in Lebanon, a land that has produced many prophets. The millions of Arabic-speaking peoples familiar with his writings in that language consider him the genius of his age. He was a man whose fame and influence spread far beyond the Near East. His poetry has been translated into more than twenty languages. His drawings and paintings have been exhibited in the great capitals of the world and compared by Auguste Rodin to the work of William Blake. In the United States, which he made his home during the last twenty years of his life, he began to write in English. The Prophet and his other books of poetry, illustrated with his mystical drawings, are known and loved by innumerable people across the world including many in America, who find in them an expression of the deepest impulses of man's heart and mind.
In The Prophet, Gibran wrote of Friendship as follows:
And a youth said, "Speak to us of Friendship."
Your friend is your needs answered.
He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.
And he is your board and your fireside.
For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.
When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the "nay" in your own mind, nor do you withhold the "ay."
And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;
For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.
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 is clearer from the plain.
And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.
For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.
And let your best be for your friend.
If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.
For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live.
For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.
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.
What do you think of Kahlil Gibran? What are your thoughts, observations and views.
Do you have some similar favourite poems to share?
With warm wishes
DK
DK Matai
The Philanthropia, ATCA, mi2g.net
Posted by DK Matai at October 28, 2006 05:40 PM
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