Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.
Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be.
A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.
And ever has it been known that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.
If you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work.
If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.
Life
Birth: Gibrān Khalīl Gibrān bin Mikhā’īl bin Sa’ad was born to Khalil and Kamila on January 6, 1883 in Bsharri, modern day Lebanon, which was part of Ottoman controlled Syria.
Realization: Khalīl Gibran proved to be a solitary and pensive child who relished the natural surroundings of the cascading falls, the rugged cliffs and the neighboring green
cedars, the beauty of which emerged as a dramatic and symbolic influence to his drawings and writings. At the age of ten, Gibran fell off a cliff, wounding his left shoulder, which remained weak for the rest of his life ever since this incident a symbolic incident reminiscent of Christ’s wanderings in the wilderness and which remained etched in Gibran’s memory.
Death: Gibrān Khalīl Gibrān bin Mikhā’īl bin Sa’ad died April 10, 1931 in New York City, United States
Teaching Style: Though Khalil Gibran was not a teacher or; a spiritual Guru he taught people through his Drawings , writings and philosophy.
Fame: Khalīl Gibrān was a Lebanese-American artist, poet, writer, philosopher and theologian. He is the third-bestselling poet in history after William Shakespeare
and Laozi. Much of Gibran’s writings deal with Christianity, especially on the topic of spiritual love. His poetry is notable for its use of formal language, as well as insights on topics of life using spiritual terms. Gibran’s best-known work is The Prophet, a book composed of twenty-six poetic essays.
Legacy: As a result of his family’s poverty, Gibran did not receive any formal schooling during his youth. However, priests visited him regularly and taught him about the Bible, as well as the Arabic and Syriac languages .Gibran started school on September 30, 1895. He caught the attention of his teachers at the public school, who saw an artistic future for the boy. They contacted Fred Holland Day, an artist and a supporter of artists who opened up his cultural world and set him on the road to artistic fame. His drawings used for various purposes. His works influenced many especially American popular culture.
Teachings
Gibran believed that if a sensible way of living and thinking could be found, people would have mastery over their lives. About a teacher he told that 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.
He told that knowledge of the self is the mother of all knowledge. So it is incumbent on me to know my self, to know it completely, to know its minutiae, its characteristics, its subtleties, and its very atoms.
According to him your friend is your needs answered. He is your field which you sow with love
and reap with thanksgiving.And he is your board and your fireside. For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace. He told that you would measure time the measureless and the immeasurable. You would adjust your conduct and even direct the course of your spirit according to hours and seasons.
About pray he told that 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. He told that “Pleasure is a freedom-song, But it is not freedom. It is the blossoming of your desires, But it is not their fruit. It is a depth calling unto a height, But it is not the deep nor the high. It is the caged taking wing, But it is not space encompassed. In very truth, pleasure is a freedomsong.”
According to him, Your daily life is your temple and your religion. Whenever you enter into it take with you your all. If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life. For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.
You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
Love one another, but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
