The Prophet
***** *****
And the priestess spoke again
and said: Speak to us of _Reason and
Passion_.
And he answered, saying:
Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield,
upon which your reason and your judgment
wage war against your passion and your
appetite.
Would that I could be the peacemaker in
your soul, that I might turn the discord
and the rivalry of your elements into
oneness and melody.
But how shall I, unless you yourselves
be also the peacemakers, nay, the lovers
of all your elements?
Your reason and your passion are the
rudder and the sails of your seafaring
soul.
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.
*****
I would have you consider your judgment
and your appetite even as you would two
loved guests in your house.
Surely you would not honour one guest
above the other; for he who is more
mindful of one loses the love and the
faith of both
Among the hills, when you sit in the
cool shade of the white poplars, sharing
the peace and serenity of distant fields
and meadows--then let your heart say in
silence, “God rests in reason.”
And when the storm comes, and the
mighty wind shakes the forest,
and thunder and lightning proclaim the
majesty of the sky,--then let your heart
say in awe, “God moves in passion.”
And since you are a breath in God’s
sphere, and a leaf in God’s forest, you
too should rest in reason and move in
passion.
***** *****
And a woman spoke, saying, Tell us
of _Pain_.
And he said:
Your pain is the breaking of the shell
that encloses your understanding.
Even as the stone of the fruit must
break, that its heart may stand in the
sun, so must you know pain.
And could you keep your heart in wonder
at the daily miracles of your life, your
pain would not seem less wondrous than
your joy;
And you would accept the seasons of your
heart, even as you have always accepted
the seasons that pass over your fields.
And you would watch with serenity
through the winters of your grief.
Much of your pain is self-chosen.
It is the bitter potion by which the
physician within you heals your sick
self.
Therefore trust the physician, and drink
his remedy in silence and tranquillity:
For his hand, though heavy and hard, is
guided by the tender hand of the Unseen,
And the cup he brings, though it burn
your lips, has been fashioned of the
clay which the Potter has moistened with
His own sacred tears.
***** *****
And a man said, Speak to us of
_Self-Knowledge_.
And he answered, saying:
Your hearts know in silence the secrets
of the days and the nights.
But your ears thirst for the sound of
your heart’s knowledge.
You would know in words that which you
have always known in thought.
You would touch with your fingers the
naked body of your dreams.
And it is well you should.
The hidden well-spring of your soul must
needs rise and run murmuring to the sea;
And the treasure of your infinite depths
would be revealed to your eyes.
But let there be no scales to weigh your
unknown treasure;
And seek not the depths of your
knowledge with staff or sounding
line.
For self is a sea boundless and
measureless.
*****
Say not, “I have found the truth,” but
rather, “I have found a truth.”
Say not, “I have found the path of the
soul.” Say rather, “I have met the soul
walking upon my path.”
For the soul walks upon all paths.
The soul walks not upon a line, neither
does it grow like a reed.
The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of
countless petals.
***** *****
Then said a teacher, Speak to us of
_Teaching_.
And he said:
“No man can reveal to you aught but that
which already lies half asleep in the
dawning of your knowledge.
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.
The astronomer may speak to you of his
understanding of space, but he cannot
give you his understanding.
The musician may sing to you of the
rhythm which is in all space, but he
cannot give you the ear which arrests
the rhythm nor the voice that echoes it.
And he who is versed in the science
of numbers can tell of the regions
of weight and measure, but he cannot
conduct you thither.
For the vision of one man lends not its
wings to another man.
And even as each one of you stands alone
in God’s knowledge, so must each one of
you be alone in his knowledge of God and
in his understanding of the earth.
***** *****
And a youth said, Speak to us of
_Friendship_.
And he answered, saying:
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.
When your friend speaks his mind you
fear not the “nay” in your own mind, nor
do you withhold the “ay.”
And when he is silent your heart ceases
not to listen to his heart;
For without words, in friendship, all
thoughts, all desires, all expectations
are born and shared, with joy that is
unacclaimed.
When you part from your friend, you
grieve not;
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.
For love that seeks aught but the
disclosure of its own mystery is not
love but a net cast forth: and only the
unprofitable is caught.
*****
And let your best be for your friend.
If he must know the ebb of your tide,
let him know its flood also.
For what is your friend that you should
seek him with hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live.
For it is his to fill your need, but not
your emptiness.
And in the sweetness of friendship
let there be laughter, and sharing of
pleasures.
For in the dew of little things
the heart finds its morning and is
refreshed.
***** *****
And then a scholar said, Speak of _Talking_.
And he answered, saying:
You talk when you cease to be at peace
with your thoughts;
And when you can no longer dwell in the
solitude of your heart you live in your
lips, and sound is a diversion and a
pastime.
And in much of your talking, thinking is
half murdered.
For thought is a bird of space, that in
a cage of words may indeed unfold its
wings but cannot fly.
There are those among you who seek the
talkative through fear of being alone.
The silence of aloneness reveals to
their eyes their naked selves and they
would escape.
And there are those who talk, and
without knowledge or forethought reveal
a truth which they themselves do not
understand.
And there are those who have the truth
within them, but they tell it not in
words.
In the bosom of such as these the spirit
dwells in rhythmic silence.
*****
When you meet your friend on the
roadside or in the market place, let the
spirit in you move your lips and direct
your tongue.
Let the voice within your voice speak to
the ear of his ear;
For his soul will keep the truth of
your heart as the taste of the wine is
remembered
When the colour is forgotten and the
vessel is no more.
***** *****
And an astronomer said, Master, what of _Time_?
And he answered:
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.
Of time you would make a stream upon
whose bank you would sit and watch its
flowing.
Yet the timeless in you is aware of
life’s timelessness,
And knows that yesterday is but today’s
memory and tomorrow is today’s dream.
And that that which sings and
contemplates in you is still dwelling
within the bounds of that first moment
which scattered the stars into space.
Who among you does not feel that his
power to love is boundless?
And yet who does not feel that very
love, though boundless, encompassed
within the centre of his being, and
moving not from love thought to love
thought, nor from love deeds to other
love deeds?
And is not time even as love is,
undivided and paceless?
*****
But if in your thought you must measure
time into seasons, let each season
encircle all the other seasons,
And let today embrace the past with
remembrance and the future with longing.
***** *****
And one of the elders of the city
said, Speak to us of _Good and Evil_.
And he answered:
Of the good in you I can speak, but not
of the evil.
For what is evil but good tortured by
its own hunger and thirst?
Verily when good is hungry it seeks food
even in dark caves, and when it thirsts
it drinks even of dead waters.
You are good when you are one with
yourself.
Yet when you are not one with yourself
you are not evil.
For a divided house is not a den of
thieves; it is only a divided house.
And a ship without rudder may wander
aimlessly among perilous isles yet sink
not to the bottom.
You are good when
you strive to give of yourself.
Yet you are not evil when you seek gain
for yourself.
For when you strive for gain you are
but a root that clings to the earth and
sucks at her breast.
Surely the fruit cannot say to the root,
“Be like me, ripe and full and ever
giving of your abundance.”
For to the fruit giving is a need, as
receiving is a need to the root.
*****
You are good when you are fully awake in
your speech,
Yet you are not evil when you sleep
while your tongue staggers without
purpose.
And even stumbling speech may strengthen
a weak tongue.
You are good when you walk to your goal
firmly and with bold steps.
Yet you are not evil when you go thither
limping.
Even those who limp go not backward.
But you who are strong and swift, see
that you do not limp before the lame,
deeming it kindness.
*****
You are good in countless ways, and you
are not evil when you are not good,
You are only loitering and sluggard.
Pity that the stags cannot teach
swiftness to the turtles.
In your longing for your giant self lies
your goodness: and that longing is in
all of you.
But in some of you that longing is a
torrent rushing with might to the sea,
carrying the secrets of the hillsides
and the songs of the forest.
And in others it is a flat stream that
loses itself in angles and bends and
lingers before it reaches the shore.
But let not him who longs much say to
him who longs little, “Wherefore are
you slow and halting?”
For the truly good ask not the naked,
“Where is your garment?” nor the
houseless, “What has befallen your
house?”
***** *****
Then a priestess said, Speak to us
of _Prayer_.
And he answered, saying:
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.
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.
And if you cannot but weep when your
soul summons you to prayer, she should
spur you again and yet again, though