“You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (Page 64)
For what is prayer but the expansion of yourself into the living ether? And if it is for your comfort to pour your darkness into space, it is also for your delight to pour forth the dawning of your heart.”
“Excellence is mundane. Superlative performance is really a confluence of dozens of small skills or activities, each one learned or stumbled upon, which have been carefully drilled into habit and then are fitted together in a synthesized whole. There is nothing extraordinary or superhuman in any one of those actions; only the fact that they are done consistently and correctly, and all together, produce excellence. When a swimmer learns a proper flip turn in the freestyle races, she will swim the race a bit faster; then a streamlined push off from the wall, with the arms squeezed together over the head, and a little faster; then how to place the hands in the water so no air is cupped in them; then how to lift them over the water; then how to lift weights to properly build strength, and how to eat the right foods, and to wear the best suits for racing, and on and on. Each of those tasks seems small in itself, but each allows the athlete to swim a bit faster. And having learned and consistently practiced all of them together, and many more besides, the swimmer may compete in the Olympic Games… the little things really do count.”
Daniel Chambliss
“When you part from your friend, you grieve not;
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (Page 56)
For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain. And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.”
“No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (Page 53)
The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple, among his followers, gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness.
If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.”
“Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul.
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (Page 47)
If either your sails or your rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas. For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.
Therefore let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion, that it may sing;
And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes.”
“You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a want and a grief,
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (Page 43)
But rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.”
“Having a fluid sense of identity, where you allow yourself to change, leads to a happier life because you are moving with the natural flow of change as opposed to against it. You exist because of change. When you think about who you are at the ultimate level, you are essentially the coming together of physical and mental phenomena at incredibly fast speeds, from the cellular down to the subatomic, everything about you is in motion. This should inspire you to allow your preferences, likes, and dislikes to evolve over time. Don’t be attached to the old you, let the new you emerge.”
Yung Pueblo
“Those who hurt have been hurt. Hurt is passed down from one person to another, like this, pain spreads through the web of humanity. People who learn to heal themselves are points in the web of humanity where hurt is decreased and where it is less likely for new hurt to spread to another person. Having a mindset where you do your best to not harm those who cross your path makes the world a more peaceful place.”
Yung Pueblo
“When we do something nice for someone, a ‘thank you’ and a smile is nice to receive. And, in many parts of human culture, it’s a bit expected. But when something goes wrong, if we drop a plate or miss a turn or make someone late, it’s particularly delightful and memorable if we are greeted warmly instead of stomped on. The moments when it’s the most difficult to be kind are the moments where it matters the most.”
Seth Godin
“The lust for comfort murders the passion of the soul, and then walks grinning in the funeral.”
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (Page 30)
“The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.”
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (Page 27)
“Work is love made visible.
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (Page 26)
And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.
For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger.
And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine. And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man’s ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.”
“The wind speaks not more sweetly to the giant oaks than to the least of all the blades of grass;
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (Page 26)
And he alone is great who turns the voice of the wind into a song made sweeter by his own loving.”
“There are those who give little of the much which they have—and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome.
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (Page 18)
And there are those who have little and give it all.
These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty.”
“You give but little when you give of your possessions.
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (Page 18)
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.”
“Your children are not your children.
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (Page 15)
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 yet 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 seek not 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.”
“Love one another, but make not a bond of love:
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (Page 13)
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 oaf. 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.”
“Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (Page 10)
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. To know the pain of too much tenderness
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstacy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.”
“Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (Page 9)
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.”
“A friend comes and holds your hand. Don’t miss this opportunity—because God has come in the form of the hand, in the form of the friend. A small child passes by and laughs. Don’t miss this, laugh with the child—because God has laughed through the child. You pass through the street and a fragrance comes from the fields. Stand there a moment, feel grateful—because God has come as a fragrance. If one can celebrate moment to moment, life becomes religious—and there is no other religion, there is no need to go to any temple. Then wherever you are is the temple, and whatever you are doing is religion.”
Osho, Everyday Osho (Page 220)