12 Lessons From Kahlil Gibran
Love not a half lover, nor befriend a half friend. Indulge not in the work of the half talented. Live not a half life, nor die a half death...
A half drink does not satisfy your thirst, nor a half meal your hunger.
A half path leads you nowhere, and a half thought yields no result.
A half life is a moment of weakness, but you are not weak, for you are not a half person.
You are a person! You exist to live a full life, not a half life.
- Kahlil Gibran, “Half-Life”
Kahlil Gibran is a poet, philosopher and artist. He’s the third best-selling poet in history after Shakespeare and Lao Tzu. And… I only came across his work for the first time last year at a small bookshop in the boonies.
Episode 13 was on Gibran’s famous fable, The Prophet. If you haven’t already read it, grab a copy (currently ranked #1 on Amazon under American Poetry). Highly recommend.
The above quote is an excerpt from the poem “Half-Life”. I suggest reading it in full. There are two translations. Both are excellent—I’m using the newer translation. I was deeply moved by it. So I read the full poem at the end of the episode on Gibran.
Onwards!
12 Lessons from Kahlil Gibran
Suffering is embedded into life, but there is meaning in it. “The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven? And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?”
Time is your most precious asset. How you spend it reveals your character. “You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow?”
Remember your children are individuals, not robots, who learn and grow up. “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.”
Don’t abandon love, especially when it gets difficult. “When love beckons to you, follow him, though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you yield to him, though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you… for even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning. Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun, so shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.”
You have two lives; the second begins when you realize you only have one.
“Love not a half lover, nor befriend a half friend.Indulge not in the work of the half talented.
Live not a half life, nor die a half death.”
“No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.”
Your knowledge of dogmas and philosophies might help you build a ladder, but you must climb it for yourself. “And even as each one of you stands alone in God’s knowledge, so must each one of you be alone in his knowledge of God and in his understanding of the earth.”
Find solitude, my friend.* “You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts; and when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart you live in your lips, and sound is a diversion and a pastime… there are those among you who seek the talkative through fear of being alone. The silence of aloneness reveals to their eyes their naked selves and they would escape.”
Be grateful for your food each time. “But since you must kill to eat, and rob the newly born of its mother’s milk to quench your thirst, let it then be an act of worship.”
Do work which engages your whole being to come alive. “And what is it to work with love? It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth. It is building a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house.”
“Much of your pain is self chosen. It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self. Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and tranquillity.”
“There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward. There are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism.”
Till next week,
Peace!
*I’m personally preparing to do a silent retreat in the coming months. If you listen to the pod, you know I often speak about the importance of silence/finding solitude, how I prepare for them, what I do on these mini silent retreats, etc.