Kahlil Gibran's Little Book of Wisdom

by Kahlil Gibran, Neil Douglas-Klotz (Editor)

Overview

One of the most popular and profound inspirational writers of all time shares simple wisdom for living a happy and fulfilling life.

This book is a collection of Gibran's words on how to live. Here are his thoughts on what it means to live in community and solitude and what gives life meaning, along with his often prescient views on government, organized religion, wealth, and commerce. Gibran's sensibility feels contemporary. He did not recognize any ultimate authority outside of the human soul:
"It were wiser to speak less of God, whom we cannot understand and more of each other, whom we may understand."

This is the essential Gibran, with 88 selections organized into 5 sections that elucidate answers to the questions that each of us face:

1. Living a Wise Life
2. Community Wisdom
3. Wise Exchange
4. Wisdom from Solitude
5. Wisdom Beyond Words

This inspirational gift volume gently guides readers through life’s big issues: meaning and mortality, good and evil, and discovering an authentic spiritual path. Suitable for all gift-giving occasions, it is a book that delights, informs, and inspires.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781571748355
Publisher:	Red Wheel/Weiser
Publication date:	09/01/2019
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	1,054,953
Product dimensions:	4.90(w) x 6.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Kahlil Gibran (January 6, 1883–April 10, 1931) was a Lebanese-American artist, poet, and writer of the New York Pen League. He is chiefly known in the English-speaking world for his 1923 book The Prophet, an early example of inspirational fiction that includes a series of philosophical essays written in poetic English prose. The book sold well despite a cool critical reception, gaining popularity in the 1930s and again in the 1960s. Gibran is the third bestselling poet of all time, behind Shakespeare and Lao Tzu.

Neil Douglas-Klotz, PhD, (Saadi Shakur Chishti) is a world-renowned scholar of religious studies, spirituality, and psychology. Living in Scotland, he directs the Edinburgh Institute for Advanced Learning and for many years was cochair of the Mysticism Group of the American Academy of Religion. He is also the cofounder of the International Network of the Dances of Universal Peace.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Living a Wise Life

Everyday life offers us many opportunities to make mistakes, learn from experience, and discover wisdom. How can we put what we learn into action in ways that are practical and down-to-earth?

Nirvana

Yes, there is a nirvana.
It is in leading your sheep to a green pasture,
and in putting your child to sleep,
and in writing the last line of your poem.

To Be a Garden Without Walls

After a space, one of the disciples asked him: "Master, speak to us of being. What is it to be?"

Almustafa looked long upon him and loved him. And he stood up and walked a distance away from them. Then returning, he said:

In this garden my father and my mother lie, buried by the hands of the living, and in this garden lie buried the seeds of yesteryear, brought here upon the wings of the wind. A thousand times shall my mother and my father be buried here, and a thousand times shall the wind bury the seed.

And a thousand years from now shall you and I and these flowers come together in this garden, even as now. And we shall be, loving life, and we shall be, dreaming of space, and we shall be, rising towards the sun.

But now today, to be is to be wise, though not a stranger to the foolish. It is to be strong, but not to the undoing of the weak. To play with young children, not as fathers, but rather as playmates who would learn their games.

To be simple and guileless with old men and women and to sit with them in the shade of the ancient oak-trees, though you are still walking with spring.

To seek a poet, though he may live beyond the seven rivers, and to be at peace in his presence — nothing wanting, nothing doubting, and with no question upon your lips.

To know that the saint and the sinner are twins, whose father is our Gracious King, and that one was born but the moment before the other, wherefore we regard him as the crowned prince.

To follow Beauty even when she leads you to the verge of the precipice. And though she is winged and you are wingless, and though she shall pass beyond the verge, follow her! For where Beauty is not, there is nothing.

To be a garden without walls, a vineyard without a guardian, and a treasure- house forever open to passersby.

There Lived a Man

Long ago there lived a man who was crucified for being too loving and too lovable.

And strange to relate, I met him thrice yesterday.

The first time he was asking a policeman not to take a prostitute to prison.

The second time he was drinking wine with an outcast.

And the third time he was having a fistfight with a promoter inside a church.

The Other

If other people laugh at you, you can pity them. But if you laugh at them, you may never forgive yourself.

If other people injure you, you may forget the injury.

But if you injure them, you will always remember.

In truth the other person is your most sensitive self given another body.

Eating and Drinking

Then an old man, a keeper of an inn, said "Speak to us of eating and drinking."

And Almustafa said:

Would that you could live on the fragrance of the earth and be sustained by the light like an air plant.

But since you must kill to eat and rob the newborn of its mother's milk to quench your thirst, let it then be an act of worship.

And let your table stand as an altar on which the pure and the innocent of forest and plain are sacrificed for that which is purer and still more innocent in a human being.

When you kill a beast, say to it in your heart, "By the same power that slays you, I too am slain, and I too shall be consumed. For the law that delivered you into my hand shall deliver me into a mightier hand. Your blood and my blood is nothing but the sap that feeds the tree of heaven."

When you crush an apple with your teeth, say to it in your heart, "Your seeds shall live in my body, and the buds of your tomorrow shall blossom in my heart. Your fragrance shall be my breath, and together we shall rejoice through all the seasons."

In the autumn, when you gather the grapes of your vineyard for the winepress, say in your heart, "I too am a vineyard, and my fruit shall be gathered for the winepress. And like new wine, I shall be kept in eternal vessels."

In winter, when you draw the wine, let there be in your heart a song for each cup. And let there be in the song a remembrance for the autumn days, for the vineyard, and for the winepress.

Gatekeeper of Your Necessities

They wonder that he who said
"My kingdom is not of this earth" also said
"Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's."

Yet they do not know that if they would be free to enter the kingdom of their passion,
they must not resist the gatekeeper of their necessities.

It behooves them to gladly pay the price to enter into that city.


When You Work with Love

You have also been told that life is darkness,
and in your weariness you echo what was said by the weary.

And I say that life is indeed darkness,
save when there is urge.
And all urge is blind,
save when there is knowledge.
And all knowledge is vain,
save when there is work.
And all work is empty,
save when there is love.

When you work with love you bind yourself to yourself and to one another and to God.

The Wisdom of Critics

One nightfall a man traveling on horseback towards the sea reached an inn by the roadside.

He dismounted and, trusting people and night like all riders towards the sea, tied his horse to a tree beside the door and entered into the inn.

At midnight, when all were asleep, a thief came and stole the traveler's horse.

In the morning the man awoke and discovered that his horse was stolen. He grieved for his horse and that a man had found it in his heart to steal.

Then his fellow lodgers came and stood around him and began to talk.

The first man said, "How foolish of you to tie your horse outside the stable."

And the second said, "Still more foolish, without even hobbling the horse."

And the third man said, "It is stupid at best to travel to the sea on horseback."

And the fourth said, "Only the indolent and the slow of foot own horses."

Then the traveler was much astonished.

At last he cried, "My friends, because my horse was stolen, you have hastened one and all to tell me my faults and my shortcomings. But strange, not one word of reproach have you uttered about the man who stole my horse!"

The Scholar and the Poet

There lies a green field between the scholar and the poet.
Should the scholar cross it,
he becomes a wise man.
Should the poet cross it,
he becomes a prophet.


The Mask of Wit

Wit is often a mask.

If you could tear it away,
you would find either a genius irritated or cleverness juggling.

And only when jugglers miss catching the ball do they appeal to me.


Professional Talkers

The most talkative is the least intelligent,
and there is hardly a difference between an orator and an auctioneer.


Being Candid

If indeed you must be candid,
be candid beautifully.

Otherwise keep silent,
for there is a person in our neighborhood who is dying.


Ancestry

Every person is the descendant of every king and every slave that ever lived.

If the great-grandfather of Jesus had known what was hidden within him,
would he not have stood in awe of himself?

The Children of Tomorrow

The children of yesterday are walking in the funeral of an era that they created for themselves. They are pulling a rotted rope that might break soon and cause them to drop into a forgotten abyss.

They are living in homes with weak foundations. As the storm blows — and it is about to blow — their homes will fall upon their heads and so become their tombs.

I say that all their thoughts, sayings, quarrels, compositions, and books — all their work — are nothing but chains dragging them down, because they are too weak to pull the load.

But the children of tomorrow are the ones called by life, and they follow life with steady steps and heads high.

They are the dawn of new frontiers. No smoke will veil their eyes, and no jingle of chains will drown out their voices.

They are few in number, but the difference is as between a grain of wheat and a stack of hay.

No one knows them, but they know each other.

They are like the summits of mountains, which can see or hear each other — not like the caves, which cannot hear or see.

They are the seed dropped by the hand of God in the field, breaking through its pod and waving its sapling leaves before the face of the sun.

It shall grow into a mighty tree, its root in the heart of the earth and its branches high in the sky.

Your Children

A woman who held a babe against her bosom said, "Speak to us of children."
And Almustafa said:

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of life's longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you.
And though they are with you,
they belong not to you.

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.

You may strive to be like them,
but do not seek to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children, as living arrows,
are sent forth.

The Archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and bends you with his might that the arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the Archer's hand be for gladness.

For even as he loves the arrow that flies,
so he loves also the bow that is stable.

The Best Sacrifice

The disciple Matthew recalls sayings from Jesus' "Sermon on the Mount":

"You have been charged by the ancients to bring your calf, your lamb, and your dove to the temple and to slay them upon the altar, that the nostrils of God may feed upon the odor of their fat, and that you may be forgiven your failings.

"But I say unto you, would you give God that which was God's own from the beginning? And would you appease the One whose throne is above the silent deep and whose arms encircle space?

"Rather, seek out your brother and sister and be reconciled unto them before you seek the temple. And be a loving giver unto your neighbor.

"For in the soul of these God has built a temple that shall not be destroyed, and in their hearts God has raised an altar that shall never perish.

Speaking Less of God

And Almustafa said to them:

You would rise up in fancy to the clouds, and you deem it height. And you would pass over the vast sea and claim it to be distance.

But I say unto you that when you sow a seed in the earth, you reach a greater height. And when you hail the beauty of the morning to your neighbor, you cross a greater sea.

Too often do you sing of God the infinite, and yet in truth you do not hear the song.

Would that you might listen to the songbirds, and to the leaves that forsake the branch when the wind passes by. And do not forget, my friends, that these sing only when they are separated from the branch!

Again I bid you to speak not so freely of God, who is your All, but rather speak and understand one another, neighbor to neighbor, a god unto a god.

It is only when you are lost in your smaller selves that you seek the sky that you call "God."

Would that you might find paths into your vast selves! Would that you might be less idle and pave the roads!

It were wiser to speak less of God, whom we cannot understand, and more of each other, whom we might understand.

Yet I would have you know that we are the breath and the fragrance of God.

We are God — in leaf, in flower, and often-times in fruit.

CHAPTER 2

Community Wisdom

People naturally group together in communities as do many other species. How do we create associations that benefit us, rather than place us in chains — in body or thought? What would a healthy government, religious organization, legal system, or nation-state actually look like?

Government

Government is an agreement between you and me.
You and I are often wrong.

The true prince is the one who finds his throne in the heart of the dervish.

Between the Frown of the Tiger and the Smile of the Wolf

Since the beginning of creation and up to our present time, certain clans, rich by inheritance, in cooperation with the clergy, have appointed themselves the administrators of the people. It is an old, gaping wound in the heart of society that cannot be removed except by the intense removal of ignorance.

The one who acquires wealth by inheritance builds a mansion with the weak poor's money. The clergy erect their temples upon the graves and bones of their devoted worshippers.

The prince grasps the fellahin's arms while the priest empties their pockets. The ruler looks upon the children of the fields with a frowning face, and the bishop consoles them with his smile. And between the frown of the tiger and the smile of the wolf, the flock perishes.

The ruler claims himself as king of the law and the priest as the representative of God, and between these two, bodies are destroyed and souls wither into nothing.

Inherited Spiritual Disease

Human society has yielded for seventy centuries to corrupted laws, until it cannot understand the meaning of superior and eternal laws.

A person's eyes that have become accustomed to the dim light of candles cannot see the sunlight.

Spiritual disease is inherited from one generation to another until it becomes a part of people, who look upon it not as a disease but as a natural gift showered by God upon Adam.

If those people found someone free from the germs of this disease, they would think of him with shame and disgrace.

Good Government

The people of the Kingdom of Sadik surrounded the palace of their king, shouting in rebellion against him. And he came down the steps of the palace, carrying his crown in one hand and his scepter in the other.

The majesty of his appearance silenced the multitude, and he stood before them and said, "My friends, who are no longer my subjects, here I yield my crown and scepter unto you. I would be one of you. I am only one man, but as a man I would work together with you that our lot may be made better. There is no need for a king. Let us go therefore to the fields and the vineyards and labor, hand in hand. Only you must tell me to what field or vineyard I should go. All of you now are king."

The people marvelled, and stillness was upon them for the king whom they had deemed the source of their discontent now yielded his crown and scepter to them and became as one of them.

Then each and every one of them went his way, and the king walked with one man to a field.

But the Kingdom of Sadik did not fare better without a king, and the mist of discontent was still upon the land. The people cried out in the marketplaces saying that they wanted to be governed and that they would have a king to rule them. And the elders and the youths said, as if with one voice, "We will have our king!"

So they sought the king and found him toiling in the field. They brought him to his seat and yielded to him his crown and scepter. And they said, "Now rule us, with might and with justice."

And he said, "I will indeed rule you with might, and may the gods of the heaven and the earth help me that I may also rule with justice."

Now there came into his presence men and women who spoke to him of a baron who mistreated them and to whom they were but serfs.

And straightway the king brought the baron before him and said, "The life of one man is as weighty in the scales of God as the life of another. And because you know not how to weigh the lives of those who work in your fields and your vineyards, you are banished and you shall leave this kingdom forever."

The following day came another company to the king and spoke of the cruelty of a countess beyond the hills and how she brought them down to misery. Instantly the countess was brought to court, and the king sentenced her also to banishment saying, "Those who till our fields and care for our vineyards are nobler than we who eat the bread they prepare and drink the wine of their winepress. And because you do not know this, you shall leave this land and live far from this kingdom."

Then came men and women who said that the bishop made them bring and hew stones for the cathedral, yet he gave them nothing though they knew the bishop's coffer was full of gold and silver while they themselves were empty with hunger.

And the king called for the bishop, and when the bishop came, the king said to him, "That cross you wear upon your bosom should mean giving life unto life. But you have taken life from life, and you have given none. Therefore you shall leave this kingdom never to return."

Thus each day for a full moon men and women came to the king to tell him of the burdens laid upon them. And each and every day for a full moon some oppressor was exiled from the land.

And the people of Sadik were amazed, and there was cheer in their hearts.

And one day the elders and the youths came and surrounded the tower of the king and called for him. And he came down holding his crown in one hand and his scepter in the other.

And he asked, "Now what do you want of me? Behold, I yield back to you that which you desired me to hold."

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Kahlil Gibran's"
by .
Copyright © 2019 Neil Douglas-Klotz.
Excerpted by permission of Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Introduction,
1. Living a Wise Life,
Nirvana,
To Be a Garden Without Walls,
There Lived a Man,
The Other,
Eating and Drinking,
Gatekeeper of Your Necessities,
When You Work with Love,
The Wisdom of Critics,
The Scholar and the Poet,
The Mask of Wit,
Professional Talkers,
Being Candid,
Ancestry,
The Children of Tomorrow,
Your Children,
The Best Sacrifice,
Speaking Less of God,
2. Community Wisdom,
Government,
Between the Frown of the Tiger and the Smile of the Wolf,
Inherited Spiritual Disease,
Good Government,
Busy Cattle,
The One Thousand Laws,
The Criminal,
Your Thought and Mine,
War and the Small Nations (1920),
History and the Shepherdess (1914â&8364;"1918),
Pity the Nation,
The New Frontiers (1925),
O Liberty,
A Throne Beyond Your Vision,
3. Wise Exchanges,
A Gracious Wolf,
Credit,
Pomegranates,
A Prison of Wealth,
The Song of True Fortune,
Value,
In the Marketplace,
Giving Without Looking in a Mirror,
Generosity and Pride,
Giving as the Myrtle Breathes,
Generosity,
None to Receive,
Giving for Those in Need,
The House of Real Fortune,
4. A Life Apart: Wisdom from the Solitude,
Solitude,
Beyond My Solitude,
I Am Not What I Seem,
There Is a Space,
Your House Is Your Larger Body,
Seeds of a Tenacious Plant,
Dwelling in Rhythmic Silence,
Only the Naked Live in the Sun,
Hunter and Hunted,
The Mountainous Spirit,
Finding God,
A Voice from the Storm,
5. Wisdom Beyond Words,
Talkative Faults,
To Write or Not to Write?,
Surface and Depth,
The Problem with the Eye,
Four Frogs,
Limitations,
The Last Watch,
Shall I Sing?,
The Stream Has Reached the Sea,
The Word of Longing,
Let Your Longing Pronounce the Words,
The Wings of Vision,
Two Learned Men,
I Came to Remove Your Wisdom,
Doctrines,
Disclosing the Power to Rise,
Singing Your Lost Dreaming,
When Wisdom Ceases to Be Wisdom,
A Love Song in the Wind,
I Go with the Wind,