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The Little Book of Life's Wisdom

Page 11

by Kahlil Gibran

in Paris.

  1911:

  Settles in New York where he starts

  an intimate correspondence with May

  Ziadeh, a Lebanese intellectual living

  in Cairo.

  1918:

  The Madman, Gibran’s first book writ-

  ten in English, is published.

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  1920:

  Together with other Arab and

  Lebanese writers and poets living

  in the United States, he founds a

  literary society called Al Rabita al

  Qalamiyyah (The Pen Bond).

  1923:

  The Prophet published with immedi-

  ate success. Begins friendship with

  Barbara Young who later becomes his

  new muse and editor.

  1928:

  Jesus The Son of Man published.

  1931:

  Dies in a hospital in New York at

  the age of 48, due to cirrhosis of the

  liver. As was his wish, his body is

  transferred in 1932 to Lebanon and is

  buried in his native town of Bsharri.

  An old monastery is purchased, which

  becomes a museum in his memory.

  These bare facts belie the complexity and

  turbulence of Kahlil Gibran’s life, both inner and

  outer. As one of his biographers, Suheil Bushrui,

  writes:

  A B O U T T H E AU T H O R

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  The more that has been written about

  Gibran, the more elusive the man himself

  has tended to become, as critics, friends,

  and biographers have built up a variety of

  unconnected pictures. Gibran himself is

  partly to blame. He wrote very little about

  his own life, and in recurrent moments of

  insecurity and “vagueness,” particularly dur-

  ing his first years of recognition, often fabri-

  cated or embellished his humble origins and

  troubled background. This self-perpetuation

  of his myth—a tendency followed by other

  literary figures such as Yeats and Swift—was

  not intellectual dishonesty, but a manifesta-

  tion of the poetic mind’s desire to create its

  own mythology (Bushrui, 1998).

  A good online biography can be found at

  the website of the Gibran National Committee:

  www.gibrankhalilgibran.org.

  As Bushrui notes, the many biographies and

  biographical studies of Gibran do not agree on

  many points. They are very much like the differ-

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  ent voices presented in Gibran’s book Jesus The

  Son of Man, each reporting various facets of a

  person who embraced both the highs and lows,

  the lights and shadows of a fully human life.

  A selection of the biographies and collec-

  tions of Gibran’s letters is below.

  Bushrui, S., and J. Jenkins. (1998). Kahlil

  Gibran: Man and Poet. Oxford: Oneworld.

  Bushrui, S., and S. H. al-Kuzbari (eds. and

  trans.). (1995). Gibran: Love Letters. Oxford:

  Oneworld.

  Gibran, J., and K. Gibran. (1974). Kahlil

  Gibran: His Life and World. Boston: New

  York Graphic Society.

  Hilu, V. (1972). Beloved Prophet: The Love Letters

  of Kahlil Gibran and Mary Haskell and Her

  Private Journal. New York: Alfred Knopf.

  Naimy, M. (1950). Kahlil Gibran: A Biography.

  New York: Philosophical Library.

  A B O U T T H E AU T H O R

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  Waterfield, R. (1998). Prophet: The Life and

  Times of Kahlil Gibran. New York: St.

  Martin’s Press.

  Young, B. (1945). This Man from Lebanon:

  A Study of Kahlil Gibran. New York:

  Alfred Knopf.

  K A H L I L G I B R A N ’ S L I T T L E B O O K O F L I F E

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  About the Compiler

  Neil Douglas-Klotz, PhD

  is a renowned writer

  MatheiuA.

  in the fields of Middle

  illiam W

  Eastern spirituality and

  y b

  the translation and

  Photo

  interpretation of the

  ancient Semitic languages of Hebrew, Aramaic,

  and Arabic. Living in Scotland, he directs the

  Edinburgh Institute for Advanced Learning an

  for many years was cochair of the Mysticism

  Group of the American Academy of Religion.

  A frequent speaker and workshop leader,

  he is the author of several books. His books

  on the Aramaic spirituality of Jesus include

  Prayers of the Cosmos, The Hidden Gospel,

  Original Meditation: The Aramaic Jesus and

  the Spirituality of Creation, and Blessings of

  the Cosmos. His books on a comparative view

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  of “native” Middle Eastern spirituality include

  Desert Wisdom: A Nomad’s Guide to Life’s Big

  Questions and The Tent of Abraham (with

  Rabbi Arthur Waskow and Sr. Joan Chittister).

  His books on Sufi spirituality include The Sufi

  Book of Life: 99 Pathways of the Heart for the

  Modern Dervish and A Little Book of Sufi Stories.

  His biographical collections of the works of his

  Sufi teachers include Sufi Vision and Initiation

  (Samuel L. Lewis) and Illuminating the Shadow

  (Moineddin Jablonski). He has also written a

  mystery novel set in the first century C.E. Holy

  Land entitled A Murder at Armageddon.

  For more information about his work, see the

  website of the Abwoon Network www.abwoon

  .org or his Facebook page https://www.facebook

  .com/AuthorNeilDouglasKlotz/.

  K A H L I L G I B R A N ’ S L I T T L E B O O K O F L I F E

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  Hampton Roads

  Publishing Company

  . . . for the evolving human spirit

  Hampton Roads Publishing Company publishes

  books on a variety of subjects, including spiritu-

  ality, health, and other related topics.

  For a copy of our latest trade catalog, call

  (978) 465-0504 or visit our distributor’s website

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  to www.redwheelweiser.com/newsletter/.

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  Do

  About the Author

  ugl

  Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) was a

  as

  Timeless Wisdom to Feed the Spirit

  -K

  For the past eighty years, the beautiful

  words of the Lebanese-American poet

  Lebanese-American artist, poet, and writer

  lo

  Kahlil Gibran have graced everything from

  t

  and Nourish the Soul

  of the New York Pen League. A native of

  z

  greeting cards and wedding invitations to

  what is now Lebanon, he immigrated with

  inspirational wall hangings and corporate

  his family to the United States, where he

  motivational literature. By one account,

  studied art and began his literary career,

  Kahlil Gibran’s Little Book of Life

  Gibran is the third bestselling poet of all

  writing in both English and Arabic. In

  time, after Shakespeare and Lao Tzu.

  Th e Valu e of Ti m e

  the Arab world, Gibran is regarded as a

  In Kahlil Gibran’s Little Book of Life,

  literary and political rebel. He is chiefl y

  we discover the essential wisdom of what

  They deem me mad because

  known in the English-speaking world for

  it means to be alive. For Gibran, life is that

  I will not sell my days for gold.

  his 1923 book The Prophet, an early exam-

  energy that saturates all we see and feel—

  And I deem them mad because

  ple of inspirational fi ction that includes a

  they think my days have a price.

  as well as what we can only imagine. Here

  series of philosophical essays written in

  are over one hundred fables, aphorisms,

  poetic English prose.

  They spread before us their riches

  parables, stories, and poems in that vision-

  of gold and silver, of ivory and ebony,

  ary voice of comfort, love, and tolerance.

  About the Compiler

  and we spread before them

  Sections include Listening to Nature’s Life,

  Neil Douglas-Klotz (Saadi Shakur Chishti),

  our hearts and our spirits.

  Beauty and the Song of Life, Life’s Human

  PhD, is a world-renowned scholar in reli-

  gious studies, spirituality, and psychology.

  And yet they deem

  Kahlil Gibran’s Journey, and Life as a Journey.

  The words in this charming little book

  themselves the hosts

  Living in Edinburgh, Scotland, he directs

  are infused with wisdom and joy. It is

  and us the guests.

  the Edinburgh Institute for Advanced

  indeed an ideal book for every season of

  Learning and for many years was the

  one’s life.

  cochair of the Mysticism Group of the

  L i t t l e B o o k o f L i f e

  American Academy of Religion. He is also

  the cofounder of the International Network

  www.redwheelweiser.com

  for the Dances of Universal Peace.

  I S B N 978-1-57174-830-0

  U.S. $15.95

  5 1 5 9 5

  Neil Douglas- Klotz

  9 7 8 1 5 7 1 7 4 8 3 0 0

  Document Outline

  Cover

  Inside front flap

  Copyright

  Contents

  Introduction

  1. Listening to Nature's Life The Law of Nature

  Said a Blade of Grass

  Three Dogs

  Shadows

  Song of the Rain

  A Hyena and a Crocodile

  Two Oysters

  Trees are Poems

  The Red Earth

  The Full Moon

  The Supreme Act

  The Pomegranate

  Solitude

  Living Water

  Other Seas

  The River

  Contentment and Thrift

  The Lotus-Heart

  The Shadow

  The Serpent and the Lark

  Frogs: On the Nature of Disturbance

  Song of the Flower

  Spring in Lebanon

  2. Beauty and the Song of Life Life's Purpose

  Singing

  Secrets of the Beauty of Life

  The Poet

  Art and Life

  Pleasure is a Freedom Song

  SInging

  Before the Throne of Beauty

  The Flute

  Beauty

  Soul of the Dancer

  An Hour Devoted to Beauty and Love

  3. Life's Human Journey Your Daily Life is your Temple

  Burying Dead Selves

  Giving Up a Kingdom

  Possessions

  Treasure

  The Value of Time

  With Senses Continually Made New

  Work is Love

  Builders of Bridges

  Renown

  Life is a Procession

  Song of Humanity

  Singing in the Silence

  Modesty

  Between

  Ignorance

  When You Meet a Friend

  Strangers to Life

  Life is a Resolution

  Longing

  To American Immigrants from the Middle East (1926)

  4. Seasons of Life Changing with the Seasons

  No Miracles Beyond the Seasons

  Youth and Knowledge

  Seasons

  Autumn and Spring

  Time

  All Your Hours are Wings

  Be Dark

  Day and Night

  Shell-Life

  Tides of Breath

  Shoreless Without a Self

  Finding Fault

  Every Year I Had Waited for Spring...

  5. Paradoxical Life Life Comes Walking

  Talk

  A Tale of Two Tales

  Confession

  Yesterday and Today

  Gifts of the Earth

  Giving and Gaining

  High and Low

  Seeking

  Freedom

  Limits

  Owl Eyes

  Voices

  Ocean and Foam

  Blessing Darkness

  Agreement

  Jesus and Pan

  6. The Life of the Soul Resurrection of Life

  A Fragment

  The Greater Sea

  Truth is Like the Stars

  Have Mercy on Me, My Soul

  Trust the Dreams

  The Greater Self

  Rising

  Children of Space

  Leave Me, My Blamer

  The Forerunner

  Walk Facing the Sun

  Soul's Dewdrop

  Roots Between

  Self is a Sea

  The Longing of the Giant Self

  Angels and Devils

  Blessed Mountain

  Song of the Soul

  Sources of the Selections

  Selection Notes

  About the Author

  About the Compiler

  Inside back flap

  Backcover

 

 

 



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