|
And
an old priest said:
Speak
to us of Religion.
And
he said:
Have
I spoken this day of aught else?
And
that which is neither deed nor reflection,
but
a wonder and a surprise ever springing in
the
soul, even while the hands hew the stone
or
tend the loom?
Who
can separate his faith from his actions,
or
his belief from his occupations?
Who
can spread his hours before him, saying,
"This
for God and this for myself; This for my soul
and
this other for by body"?
All
your hours are wings that beat through space
from
self to self.
He
who wears his morality but as his best garment
were
better naked.
The
wind and the sun will tear no holes in his skin.
And
he who defines his conduct by ethics imprisons
his
song-bird in a cage.
The
freest song comes not through bars and wires.
And
he to whom worshipping is a window,
to
open but also to shut, has not yet visited the
house
of his soul whose windows are from
dawn
to dawn.
Your
daily life is your temple and your religion.
Whenever
you enter into it take with you your all.
Take
the plough and the forge and the
mallet
and the lute,
The
things you have fashioned in necessity or
for
delight.
For
in reverie you cannot rise above your
achievements
nor fall lower than your failures.
And
take with you all men:
For
in adoration you cannot fly higher than their
hopes
nor humble yourself lower than their despair.
And
if you would know God, be not therefore a
solver
of riddles.
Rather
look about you and you shall see Him
playing
with your children.
And
look into space; you shall see Him walking
in
the cloud, outstretching His arms in the
lightning
and descending in rain.
You
shall see Him smiling in the flowers, then
rising
and waving His hands in trees.
~
Kahlil Gibran ~
The
Prophet
|
