Kahlil Gibran
From The Prophet
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.
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