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05 - The Prophet - Kahlil Gibran · Philosophy and Faith

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  Speaker 1: Chapter nineteen, on friendship. At a youth said, speak to
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  Speaker 1: us of friendship, And he answered, saying, your friend is
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  Speaker 1: your needs answered. He is your field, which you sow
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  Speaker 1: with love and reap with thanksgiving. And he is your
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  Speaker 1: board and your fireside. For you come to him with
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  Speaker 1: your hunger, and you seek him for peace. When your
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  Speaker 1: friend speaks his mind, you fear not the neigh in
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  Speaker 1: your own mind, nor do you withhold the eye. And
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  Speaker 1: when he is silent, your heart ceases not to listen
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  Speaker 1: to his heart. For without words, in friendship, all thoughts,
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  Speaker 1: all desires, all expectations are born and shared with joy
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  Speaker 1: that is unacclaimed. When you part from your friend, you
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  Speaker 1: grieve not for that which you love most in him
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  Speaker 1: may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to
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  Speaker 1: the climber is clearer from the plain. And let there
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  Speaker 1: be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.
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  Speaker 1: For love that seeks aught, but the disclosure of its
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  Speaker 1: own mystery is not love, but a net casts forth,
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  Speaker 1: and only the unprofitable is caught. And let your best
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  Speaker 1: be for your friend. If he must know the ebb
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  Speaker 1: of your tide, let him know its flood. Also, for
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  Speaker 1: what is your friend, that you should seek him with
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  Speaker 1: ours to kill, seek him always with ours to live,
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  Speaker 1: For it is his to fill your need, but not
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  Speaker 1: your emptiness. And in the sweetness of friendship, let there
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  Speaker 1: be lefter and sharing of pleasures. For in the do
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  Speaker 1: of little things the heart finds its mourning and is refreshed.
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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty on talking. And then a scholar said, speak
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  Speaker 1: of talking, And he answered, saying, you talk when you
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  Speaker 1: cease to be at peace with your thoughts, and when
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  Speaker 1: you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart.
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  Speaker 1: You live in your lips. And sound is a diversion
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  Speaker 1: and a pastime. And in much of your talking, thinking
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  Speaker 1: is half murdered. For thought is a bird of space, that,
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  Speaker 1: in a cage of words, may indeed unfold its wings,
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  Speaker 1: but cannot fly. There are those among you who seek
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  Speaker 1: the talkative through fear of being alone. The silence of
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  Speaker 1: a loneness reveals to their eyes their naked selves, and
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  Speaker 1: they would escape. And there are those who talk, and,
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  Speaker 1: without knowledge or forethought, reveal a truth which they themselves
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  Speaker 1: do not understand. And there are those who have the
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  Speaker 1: truth within them, but they tell it not in words.
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  Speaker 1: In the bosom of such as these, the spirit dwells
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  Speaker 1: in rhythmic silence. When you meet your friend on the
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  Speaker 1: roadside or in the market place, Let the spirit in
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  Speaker 1: you move your lips and direct your tongue. Let the
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  Speaker 1: voice within your voice speak to the ear of his ear,
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  Speaker 1: for his soul will keep the truth of your heart,
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  Speaker 1: as the taste of the wine is remembered, when the
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  Speaker 1: color is forgotten and the vessel is no more. Chapter
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  Speaker 1: twenty one, on time. And an astronomer said, Master, what
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  Speaker 1: of time? And he answered, you would measure time the
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  Speaker 1: measureless and the immeasurable. You would adjust your conduct, and
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  Speaker 1: even direct the course of your spirit according to hours
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  Speaker 1: and seasons of time. You would make a stream upon
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  Speaker 1: whose bank you would sit and watch its flowing. Yet
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  Speaker 1: the timeless in you is aware of life's timelessness, and
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  Speaker 1: knows that yesterday is but to day's memory, and tomorrow
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  Speaker 1: is to day's dream. And that which sings and contemplates
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  Speaker 1: in you is still dwelling within the bounds of that
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  Speaker 1: first moment which scattered the stars into space. Who among
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  Speaker 1: you does not feel that his power to love is boundless?
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  Speaker 1: And yet who does not feel that very love, though
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  Speaker 1: boundless encompassed within the center of his being, and moving
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  Speaker 1: not from love thought to love thought, nor from love
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  Speaker 1: deeds to other love deeds. And is not time, even
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  Speaker 1: as love is undivided and paceless. But if in your
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  Speaker 1: thought you must measure time into seasons, let each season
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  Speaker 1: encircle all the other seasons. And let today embrace the
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  Speaker 1: past with remembrance, and the future with longing. Chapter twenty
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  Speaker 1: two on good and Evil. And one of the elders
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  Speaker 1: of the city said, speak to us of good and evil?
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  Speaker 1: And he answered, of the good in you, I can speak,
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  Speaker 1: but not of the evil. For what is evil but
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  Speaker 1: good tortured by its own hunger and thirst. Verily, when
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  Speaker 1: good is hungry, it seeks food even in dark caves,
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  Speaker 1: And when it thirsts, it drinks even of dead waters.
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  Speaker 1: You are good when you are one with yourself. Yet
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  Speaker 1: when you are not one with yourself, you are not evil.
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  Speaker 1: For a divided house is not a den of thieves,
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  Speaker 1: it is only a divided house. And a ship without
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  Speaker 1: rudder may wander aimlessly among perilous isles, yet sink not
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  Speaker 1: to the bottom. You are good when you strive to
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  Speaker 1: give of yourself. Yet you are not evil when you
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  Speaker 1: seek gain for you, for when you strive for gain,
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  Speaker 1: you are but a root that clings to the earth
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  Speaker 1: and sucks at her breast. Surely the fruit cannot say
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  Speaker 1: to the root, be like me, ripe and full in
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  Speaker 1: ever giving of your abundance. For to the fruit, giving
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  Speaker 1: is a need, as receiving is a need to the root.
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  Speaker 1: You are good when you are fully awake in your speech.
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  Speaker 1: Yet you are not evil when you sleep while your
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  Speaker 1: tongue staggers without purpose, and even stumbling speech may strengthen
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  Speaker 1: a weak tongue. You are good when you walk to
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  Speaker 1: your goal firmly and with bold steps. Yet you are
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  Speaker 1: not evil when you go thither limping. Even those who
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  Speaker 1: limp go not backward. But you, who are strong and swift,
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  Speaker 1: see that you do not limp before the lame, deeming
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  Speaker 1: it kindness. You are good in countless ways, and you
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  Speaker 1: are not evil. When you are not good, you are
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  Speaker 1: only loitering and sluggard. Pity that the stags cannot teach
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  Speaker 1: swiftness to the turtles in your longing, for your giant
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  Speaker 1: self lies your goodness, And that longing is in all
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  Speaker 1: of you, but in some of you that longing is
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  Speaker 1: a torrent, rushing with might to the sea, carrying the
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  Speaker 1: secrets of the hillsides and the songs of the forest,
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  Speaker 1: and in others it is a flat stream that loses
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  Speaker 1: itself in angles and bends and lingers before it reaches
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  Speaker 1: the shore. But let not him who longs much, say
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  Speaker 1: to him who longs little? Wherefore are you slow and
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  Speaker 1: halting for the truly good? Ask not the naked where
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  Speaker 1: is your garment? Nor the houseless? What is befallen your house?
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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty three, on prayer. Then the priestess said, speak
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  Speaker 1: to us of prayer. And he answered, saying, you pray
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  Speaker 1: in your distress and in your need. Would that you
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  Speaker 1: might pray also in the fullness of your joy and
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  Speaker 1: in your days of abundance. For what is prayer but
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  Speaker 1: the expansion of yourself into the living ether. And if
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  Speaker 1: it is for your comfort to pour your darkness into space,
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  Speaker 1: it is also for your delight to pour forth the
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  Speaker 1: dawning of your heart. And if you cannot but weep
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  Speaker 1: when your soul summons you to prayer, she should spur
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  Speaker 1: you again and yet again, though weeping, until you shall
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  Speaker 1: come laughing. When you pray, you rise to meet in
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  Speaker 1: the air, those who are praying at that very hour,
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  Speaker 1: and whom save in prayer you may not meet. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: let your visit to that Temple invisible be for naught
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  Speaker 1: but ecstasy and sweet communion. For if you should enter
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  Speaker 1: the temple for no other purpose than asking, you shall
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  Speaker 1: not receive. And if you should enter into it to
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  Speaker 1: humble yourself, you shall not be lifted. Or even if
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  Speaker 1: you should enter into it to beg for the good
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  Speaker 1: of others, you shall not be heard. It is enough
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  Speaker 1: that you enter the temple invisible. I cannot teach you
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  Speaker 1: how to pray in words. God listens not to your words,
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  Speaker 1: save when He himself utters them through your lips. And
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  Speaker 1: I cannot teach you the prayer of the seas and
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  Speaker 1: the forests and the mountains. But you, who are born
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  Speaker 1: of the mountains and the forests and the seas, can
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  Speaker 1: find their prayer in your heart. And if you but
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  Speaker 1: listen in the stillness of the night, you shall hear
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  Speaker 1: them saying, in silence, our God, who art our wing itself,
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  Speaker 1: it is Thy will in us that willeth, It is
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  Speaker 1: Thy desire in us that desireth. It is Thy urge
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  Speaker 1: in us that would turn our knights which are Thine,
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  Speaker 1: into days which are thine. Also we cannot ask THEE
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  Speaker 1: for aught, For thou knowest our needs before they are born.
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  Speaker 1: In us, Thou art our need, and in giving us
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  Speaker 1: more of thyself, thou givest us all. End of section