Your suffering is not a curse
Lessons from Kahlil Gibran, a poet, a philosopher, and an artist.
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Kahlil Gibran was a poet, a philosopher, and an artist. He’s the most widely read poet after Shakespeare and Lao Tzu.
Gibran dedicated his life to bridging the gap between the infinite and the finite. His poetry and art were not merely intellectual pursuits but a spiritual practice. He knew the depths of the human soul. The capacity within us to endure terrible suffering and pain. But in the same breath the potential to experience the infinite, all-pervading Tao.
That’s why he saw his art as a bridge. So he writes:
Art is a step from nature towards the Infinite
Gibran’s not only employed his hands and head but also his heart. And it’s this last part, the heart, which made all the difference. And why I think his influence continues today.
He who works with his hands is a labourer; he who works with his hand and his head is a craftsman; but he who works with his hands and his hand and his heart is an artist.
This quote by Louis Nizer captures Gibran’s essence.
More broadly Nizer’s observation is correct. It’s only when our hearts come into action that we transmute our craft into art and becomes transcendent… Until then we’re in the domain of the transient.
For the heart sees what the eyes cannot, and the heart feels what the hands cannot.
Lessons from Gibran
When you’ve contemplated your mortality, you are ready for it. Because you see that in death is the birth of a new dawn. How often have you sailed in my dreams? And now you come in my awakening, which is my deeper dream. Ready am I to go, and my eagerness with sails full set awaits the wind.
You cannot live until you’ve died. For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.
Love not as a means but as an end. When you love you should not say, “God is in my heart,” but rather, “I am in the heart of God.” And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course
Generosity is not your material gift but rather the gift of your presence. 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?
Your suffering is not without reason. 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?
It’s only when you let go of your relentless desires, will you find freedom. For you can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you, and when you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and a fulfilment. You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a want and a grief.
The pain often is the path towards healing. 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.
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