'Is not religion all deeds and all reflection?'

[Guest guest]

Claude Bragdon's description of Khalil Gibran:

" His power came from some great reservoir of spiritual life else it

could not have been so universal and so potent, but the majesty and

beauty of the language with which he clothed it were all his own. "

 

From Khalil Gibran's work 'The Prophet', which offers deep spiritual

insight into all aspects of our lives:

 

Chapter 26:Religion

 

And an old priest said, " Speak to us of Religion. "

 

And he said:

 

Have I spoken this day of aught else?

 

Is not religion all deeds and all reflection,

 

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 my 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 revery 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 flowers, then rising and waving His

hands in trees.

 

Here the complete version of 'The Prophet' may be found:

 

http://www.columbia.edu/~gm84/gibtable.html