The Prophet

Three years ago, my life was in the midst of extreme chaos and denial. Then 29 years-old, I had flown my eight-year old daughter to seek a much needed second opinion concerning her newly diagnosed brain tumor half-way across the US. While staying at The Ronald McDonald House in Houston, a place of housing for patients with special medical needs in the Houston area, I stumbled across "The Prophet" in the House's library. I read the entire book that night as my child slept, and it became evident that on some mystical level, I was meant to read Kalil's words of wisdom concerning pain, suffering and love. The book as also helped me to come to terms with my child's passing from this life onto the next and has been one of my inspirational tools in dealing with death, separation and acceptance.

Gibran gets right down to the bedrock of what it is all about. He was obviously a very enlightened man, and The Prophet is so completely, psychologically and spiritually healthy. Anyone who would not consider this work a standard for healthy living, is simply simple-minded. This book should be offered to all high school students as a guide in gaining perspective on what is really important in life. I first read The Prophet about 10 years ago, and I typically read it about once a year, just to remind myself. However, I gave my copy to my son who showed signs of being "at risk" at age 17. I believe the book had a significant, positive impact on him, and he is now 20 and living a very responsible and balanced life. After my son had read this book, I found him on the telephone one evening reading passages to a friend. It made him think, and any time you can get a teenager to think, it's a very good thing.

This is one of the first (literary) books I recall reading. My mother kept a collection of Gibran's works that she often read. I was curious to see what attracted her, so I looked into them too ( I was either eight or nine at the time). I believe that was my first taste of spirituality and seemed at the time more relevant than what I was being force-fed by nuns in catechism class. Rereading Gibran now, I'm struck by the notion that Hesse must have been aware of these texts before he wrote Siddhartha. They contain many of the same themes: No one else can guide you on your path. You must select your own course. Preachers and prophets are a dime a dozen. True wisdom comes from within.

The prophet's teaching on love is particularly relevant to me at this stage of my life:

"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. Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself. He threshes you to make you naked. He sifts you to free you from your husks. He grinds you to whiteness. He kneads you until you are pliant; And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast."

Look into these books. They may appear simplistic to the jaundiced eye, but they may also provide the inspiration you need to see you through life's travails.

I am alive like you, and I am standing beside you.
Close your eyes and look around, you will see me in front of you.
~Gibran's words on his Epitaph

The Prophet captures the teachings of Kahlil Gibran in a comforting story that succinctly touches on everyday topics like love, giving, joy, sorrow, freedom, pain, teaching, friendship and beauty. Within each tiny chapter, profound moments can occur as we are given insight into unfamiliar territory, a place of thought not commonly existing in daily life but familiar to spiritual teachers.

Kahlil Gibran magically explores the connection between sorrow and joy and how the deeper the sorrow you experience, the more joy you can contain. Talking becomes thoughts that can no longer "dwell in the solitude of your heart" so they "live in your lips."

As Almustafa waits for a ship to take him back to the isle of his birth, he climbs a hill outside the city walls and looks out to sea. When his "ship arrives" he is suddenly filled with regret, yet knows he must follow his destiny and return home.

"Long were the days of pain I have spent within its walls, and long were the nights of aloneness; and who can depart from his pain and his aloneness without regret?"

The priests and priestesses ask him to remain in very poetic ways: "Let not the waves of the sea separate us now, and the years you have spent in our midst become a memory."

Almustafa only cries and doesn't seem to speak until a woman named Almitra appears. She is a woman who believed in him and he seems to have great fondness for her. We are not given any insight into their relationship, but his respect for her is unquestioned. She understands he must leave, but asks him to give the city his wisdom. She promises they will pass this wisdom down through the generations.

While viewing pictures of Bsharri in Northern Lebanon, the mountains and the mist are almost a unique doorway into Kahlil Gibran's mind. He lived in a lush region where cascading falls, rugged cliffs and cedar trees influenced his art and writing.

We can imagine his thoughts of home and this book was actually first imagined when he wrote a short story as a teenager. A Bostonian poet, Josephine Peabody, caught Gibran's attention at an art exhibition and she later referred to him as "her young prophet." She also wrote poems about Gibran's life and how she imagined his life in Bsharri. His life is woven into his writing in the most beautiful ways. He names his book for a woman he loves and his writing is infused with spiritual teachings and influences from his journey from Lebanon to New York.

The story has an unassuming plot, but the lessons are eternal and the ending is surprisingly tender. I was left with a sense of longing that is still drifting along with me like the mists of Bsharri. The Prophet is not just a book to read, it is a spiritual journey to experience. It may take three or more days to complete the reading of this tiny book. I could only read about a third at a time because it is saturated in wisdom and many of the chapters want to be read and read again, until they are absorbed into your soul and written on your heart.

"But if you love and must needs have desires,
let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that
sings its melody to the night." ~Kahlil Gibran

~The Rebecca Review

A prophet has waited twelve years in a coastal town for the ship that will bear him back to his homeland, which he misses.

Why he is there, why he is waiting, how he knows what he knows, and who he is is a mystery. As he departs the townspeople gather to wish him well. A local seeress who knows him best asks him to share his wisdom so that it will endure for generations to come.

So, he reveals his wisdom on love, birth, marriage, children, pain, talking, pleasure, death any so much more.

It is a profound work, and here is his advice on marriage so you may judge for yourself:

You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when white wings of death scatter your days.

Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,

And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Love one another but make not a bond of love:

Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.

Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,

Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.

For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet not too near together:

For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

Its not a little similar to the Tao Te Ching: A New English Version (Perennial Classics)where a border guard recognises Lao Tzu, and asks him to share his wisdom as he goes into exile. Written 2,500 years ago, and one of the most translated books in the world. The Tao contains many principles you can use in your everyday life, and if you're not thinking in ego based ways, your wisdom based thinking opens up..

If you like one book, you will love the other, so I recommend both. For the Tao, I recommend the Stephen Mitchell version. Hope this was useful.