The Little Book of Life's Wisdom

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by Kahlil Gibran




  Do

  About the Author

  ugl

  Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) was a

  as

  Timeless Wisdom to Feed the Spirit

  -K

  For the past eighty years, the beautiful

  words of the Lebanese-American poet

  Lebanese-American artist, poet, and writer

  lo

  Kahlil Gibran have graced everything from

  t

  and Nourish the Soul

  of the New York Pen League. A native of

  z

  greeting cards and wedding invitations to

  what is now Lebanon, he immigrated with

  inspirational wall hangings and corporate

  his family to the United States, where he

  motivational literature. By one account,

  studied art and began his literary career,

  Kahlil Gibran’s Little Book of Life

  Gibran is the third bestselling poet of all

  writing in both English and Arabic. In

  time, after Shakespeare and Lao Tzu.

  Th e Valu e of Ti m e

  the Arab world, Gibran is regarded as a

  In Kahlil Gibran’s Little Book of Life,

  literary and political rebel. He is chiefl y

  we discover the essential wisdom of what

  They deem me mad because

  known in the English-speaking world for

  it means to be alive. For Gibran, life is that

  I will not sell my days for gold.

  his 1923 book The Prophet, an early exam-

  energy that saturates all we see and feel—

  And I deem them mad because

  ple of inspirational fi ction that includes a

  they think my days have a price.

  as well as what we can only imagine. Here

  series of philosophical essays written in

  are over one hundred fables, aphorisms,

  poetic English prose.

  They spread before us their riches

  parables, stories, and poems in that vision-

  of gold and silver, of ivory and ebony,

  ary voice of comfort, love, and tolerance.

  About the Compiler

  and we spread before them

  Sections include Listening to Nature’s Life,

  Neil Douglas-Klotz (Saadi Shakur Chishti),

  our hearts and our spirits.

  Beauty and the Song of Life, Life’s Human

  PhD, is a world-renowned scholar in reli-

  gious studies, spirituality, and psychology.

  And yet they deem

  Kahlil Gibran’s Journey, and Life as a Journey.

  The words in this charming little book

  themselves the hosts

  Living in Edinburgh, Scotland, he directs

  are infused with wisdom and joy. It is

  and us the guests.

  the Edinburgh Institute for Advanced

  indeed an ideal book for every season of

  Learning and for many years was the

  one’s life.

  cochair of the Mysticism Group of the

  L i t t l e B o o k o f L i f e

  American Academy of Religion. He is also

  the cofounder of the International Network

  www.redwheelweiser.com

  for the Dances of Universal Peace.

  I S B N 978-1-57174-830-0

  U.S. $15.95

  5 1 5 9 5

  Neil Douglas- Klotz

  9 7 8 1 5 7 1 7 4 8 3 0 0

  Kahlil Gibran’s

  L IT T L E BOOK OF L IFE

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  Kahlil Gibran’s

  L IT T L E BOOK OF L IFE

  Neil Douglas-Klotz

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  Copyright © 2018

  by Neil Douglas-Klotz

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be repro-

  duced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic

  or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any

  information storage and retrieval system, without permission in

  writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief

  passages.

  Cover design by Jim Warner

  Cover illustration: Bridgeman images © Rebecca Campbell,

  The Trumpeter

  Interior by Deborah Dutton

  Typeset in ITC Garamond Std and MrsEaves

  Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc.

  Charlottesville, VA 22906

  Distributed by Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

  www.redwheelweiser.com

  Sign up for our newsletter and special offers by going to

  www.redwheelweiser.com/newsletter.

  ISBN: 978-1-57174-830-0

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Gibran, Kahlil, 1883-1931 author. | Douglas-Klotz, Neil

  compiler author of introduction.

  Title: Kahlil Gibran's little book of life / Kahlil Gibran ; selected

  and introduced by Neil Douglas-Klotz.

  Other titles: Little book of life

  Description: Charlottesville, VA : Hampton Roads Publishing,

  2018. | Includes bibliographical references.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2017039961 | ISBN 9781571748300 (paperback)

  Subjects: | BISAC: RELIGION / Christian Life / Inspirational. |

  POETRY /

  Inspirational & Religious. | RELIGION / Islam / Sufi.

  Classification: LCC PS3513.I25 A6 2018 | DDC 811/.52--dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017039961

  Printed in Canada

  MAR

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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  FOR ALL THE IMMIGRANTS WHO CONTRIBUTE TO

  NEW CULTURES AND CIVILIZATIONS

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  Contents

  Introduction xiii

  1. Listening to Nature’s Life 1

  The Law of Nature

  2

  Said a Blade of Grass

  4

  Three Dogs

  5

  Shadows

  7

  Song of the Rain

  8

  A Hyena and a Crocodile

  11

  Two Oysters

  12

  Trees Are Poems

  13

  The Red Earth

  14

  The Full Moon

  15

  The Supreme Ant

  16

  The Pomegranate

  18

  Solitude

  20

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  Living Water

  21

  Other Seas

  22

  The River

  23

  Contentment and Thrift

  25

  The Lotus-Heart

  26

  The Shadow

  29

  The Serpent and the Lark

  30

  Frogs: On the Nature of Disturbance

  33

  Song of the Flower

  36

  Spring in Lebanon

  38

  2. Beauty and the Song of Life 41

  Life’s Purpose


  42

  Singing

  43

  Secrets of the Beauty of Life

  45

  The Poet

  47

  Art and Life

  51

  Pleasure Is a Freedom Song

  53

  Singing

  54

  Before the Throne of Beauty

  55

  The Flute

  59

  Beauty

  61

  Soul of the Dancer

  64

  An Hour Devoted to Beauty and Love

  66

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  3. Life’s Human Journey 69

  Your Daily Life Is Your Temple

  70

  Burying Dead Selves

  72

  Giving Up a Kingdom

  73

  Possessions

  77

  Treasure

  78

  The Value of Time

  79

  With Senses Continually Made New

  80

  Work Is Love

  82

  Builders of Bridges

  84

  Renown

  86

  Life Is a Procession

  87

  Song of Humanity

  88

  Singing in the Silence

  91

  Modesty

  92

  Between

  93

  Ignorance

  94

  When You Meet a Friend

  95

  Strangers to Life

  96

  Life Is a Resolution

  97

  Longing

  98

  To American Immigrants from the

  Middle East (1926)

  99

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  4. Seasons of Life 103

  Changing with the Seasons

  104

  No Miracles Beyond the Seasons

  105

  Youth and Knowledge

  108

  Seasons

  109

  Autumn and Spring

  110

  Time

  111

  All Your Hours Are Wings

  112

  Be Dark

  113

  Day and Night

  114

  Shell-Life

  115

  Tides of Breath

  116

  Shoreless Without a Self

  117

  Finding Fault

  118

  Every Year I Had Waited for Spring . . .

  119

  5. Paradoxical Life 123

  Life Comes Walking

  124

  Talk

  125

  A Tale of Two Tales

  126

  Confession

  127

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  Yesterday and Today

  128

  Gifts of the Earth

  133

  Giving and Gaining

  134

  High and Low

  135

  Seeking

  136

  Freedom

  137

  Limits

  140

  Owl Eyes

  141

  Voices

  142

  Ocean and Foam

  143

  Blessing Darkness

  144

  Agreement

  146

  Jesus and Pan

  147

  6. The Life of the Soul 151

  Resurrection of Life

  152

  A Fragment

  153

  The Greater Sea

  154

  Truth Is Like the Stars

  157

  Have Mercy on Me, My Soul

  158

  Trust the Dreams

  162

  The Greater Self

  163

  Rising

  165

  Children of Space

  166

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  Leave Me, My Blamer

  167

  The Forerunner

  171

  Walk Facing the Sun

  173

  Soul’s Dewdrop

  174

  Roots Between

  175

  Self Is a Sea

  176

  The Longing of the Giant Self

  178

  Angels and Devils

  179

  Blessed Mountain

  180

  Song of the Soul

  181

  Sources of the Selections 184

  Selection Notes 185

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  Introduction

  For the past eighty years, the beautiful words of

  the Lebanese-American poet Kahlil Gibran have

  graced everything from greeting cards and wed-

  ding invitations to inspirational wall hangings

  and corporate motivational literature. By one

  account, Gibran is the third best-selling poet of

  all time, after Shakespeare and Lao-Tzu. Through

  short excerpts, largely extracted from his famous

  book The Prophet, most of us know him as a

  visionary voice of comfort, love, and tolerance.

  As wonderful as this is, there is much more

  to Kahlil Gibran.

  These new “little book” collections take a

  fresh look at Gibran’s words and wisdom taking

  into account the major influences on his life: his

  Middle Eastern culture, nature mysticism, and

  spirituality. One could easily argue that what the

  average reader of his time found exotic in Gibran

  is the way he clearly expressed a region that

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  most regarded as a conundrum. A hundred years

  later, understanding this conundrum has moved

  beyond being an exotic pastime to becoming a

  matter of survival.

  The book before you collects Gibran’s words

  on “life.” Future books in this series will collect

  Gibran’s writings on love and relationships, on

  secrets of the spiritual path, and on wisdom for

  everyday life.

  To English speakers, the word life remains

  abstract. Do we mean the life-span of a human

  being, the course of daily life, or the philosophi-

  cal premise of existence? Who or what has life?

  To a Middle Easterner, the word life has a very

  specific meaning. Whether in biblical Hebrew,

  the Aramaic of Jesus, or the literary Arabic in

  which Gibran wrote many of his early works, life

  means life energy and vitality. What is important

  is the way someone or something expresses

  this life, not the way he, she, or it appears. Life

  (hayy in Arabic) is related to the common word

  for breath in the Semitic languages—a breath of

  life that is found in all of nature and throughout

  the universe.

  K A H L I L G I B R A N ’ S L I T T L E B O O K O F L I F E

  xiv

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  The “unnameable Name” of God in the

  ancient Hebrew tradition is related to this word

  as is one of the “99 Beautiful Names” of God in

  the Islamic tradition. Whether earthly or heavenly

  life, temporal or eternal life, inner or outer life—

  to a Midd
le Eastern poet and mystic like Gibran it

  is all one life energy saturating everything we can

  see and feel, as well as what we can only imagine.

  Because Gibran deliberately connects cat-

  egories that most of us see as opposites, some

  critics have accused him of exploiting the simple

  literary device of paradox to artificially confuse

  and bemuse his readers. But seeing light and

  dark, inner and outer, good and evil as comple-

  ments, not opposites, lies at the heart of Middle

  Eastern culture and philosophy. If there is only

  one life behind and within everything, then con-

  nections lie around every corner, so to speak.

  According to one of his biographers, Suheil

  Bushrui, Gibran was heavily influenced by the

  mysticism of the 12th-century Andalusian Sufi

  Moinuddin Ibn Arabi. In Ibn Arabi’s idea of the

  “unity of Being,” the divine reality suffuses all

  of existence, yet is greater than anything we can

  I N T R O D U C T I O N

  xv

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  experience or discover. Even more, Ibn Arabi

  implies that what we call life is a kind of

  experiment-in-process by which the Greater

  Reality (related to what Gibran calls the “Greater

  Soul”) progressively learns more about itself

  through the life journeys of every plant, animal,

  human being, star, and galaxy, as well as an

  unnameable number of unseen beings.

  Another major influence: Gibran was raised

  as a Maronite Christian, an Eastern church allied

  to the Roman Catholic, but which until the 18th

  century spoke and used in liturgy the Syriac lan-

  guage, related to Jesus’ native Aramaic. According

  to Dr. Walid Phares, the Secretary General of the

  World Maronite Union, “the historic identity

  of the Maronite people is Aramaic, Syriac, and

  Eastern. . . . Maronites, particularly the national

  community that lived in Mount Lebanon and its

  peripheries for thirteen centuries, have main-

  tained their historical identity despite attempts

  by regional powers, including Arab and Ottoman

  empires, to impose an alien identity.”

  This upbringing had two major effects

  on Gibran.

  K A H L I L G I B R A N ’ S L I T T L E B O O K O F L I F E

  xvi

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  First, the Aramaic-speaking churches histori-

  cally viewed Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth, as

  a human being, a small-s “son” of God, who

  uniquely fulfills his destiny and expresses the

  divine life in a way open to us all. In this sense,

  we can all become “children” of God, that is,

  of “Sacred Unity” (the literal translation of the

  Aramaic word for God, Alaha). Gibran’s book

  Jesus The Son of Man takes the same viewpoint.

  In a very modern way, it tells the prophet’s story

 

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