Years ago, my family and friends got involved in a production of “The Prophet” by Kahlil Gibran. It changed them, even as it was emotionally draining on their mind, body and soul. Why? Because those words have a startling affect to remind us we live far too much in ego, where it is impossible to love or forgive in any meaningful way. The ego is the sum total of our attachments, roles, and clinging of the mind.
On LOVE: When love beckons to you, follow him, though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings unfold you yield to him, though the sword hidden among his pinons may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him, though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden. For even as his 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’s 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 the sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God‘s sacred feast.
All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and that knowledge become a fragment of Life’s heart. But if in your fear you would seek only love’s peace and love’s pleasure, then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love’s threshing floor, into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught from itself. Love possesses not nor would it be possessed; For love is sufficient unto love.
When you love you should not say, “God is in my heart,” but rather “I am in the heart of God. “ And think not that you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself. But if you love and have desires let these be your desires: To melt and be like a running brook that sings it’s 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 ecstasy; 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.
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My Take: Love is not child’s play, although a playful embrace of love’s joy is necessary to really know what is possible in manifesting the kind of love that is depicted in this poetic peace. In order to know this kind of love, we must raise consciousness to embrace the soul and the Atman. The kind of Love written about here, is agape, unconditional and generous. Therefore, ego consciousness must be abandoned and discarded as we travel the inner pathways of our human being-ness. Loving Awareness allows us to recognize all the places we withhold our gifts, and sets us free to be the Love we are here in this lifetime to give. OM