The Wisdom Of Gibran

DIV DIVAn A-to-Z guide to the mystic poet’s maxims and aphorismsDIV /div/divDIVAn early twentieth-century Lebanese-American writer, Khalil Gibran instilled his poetry and art with his experiences in both the East and West. This selection of quotes, maxims, and aphorisms is drawn from such poems as “Secrets of the Heart,” “Spirits Rebellious,” and “Broken Wings,” as well as from his autobiography and essays. Gibran’s words express a strong spirituality and mysticism and his voice offers a direct and at times optimistic view of the brotherhood of man. Addressing everything from love and death to Jesus, motherhood, and nature, Gibran’s wisdom remains thought provoking and inspirational./div /div

One of the most popular and profound inspirational writers of all time explores the mysteries of life, sharing bite-sized wisdom for daily living. This book is a collection of Gibran’s words on life’s big questions and the mysteries of the spiritual path. It is an exploration of the riddles and conundrums that are part of the fabric of existence, and it is an attempt to penetrate and explain the mysteries of life. Gibran was fascinated by life’s puzzles and riddles—those questions that cause us to stop what we are doing and ask, “Why?” Here are his musings about the seemingly unanswerable questions and his exploration of good and evil, love and hate, and the difference between appearances and reality. Kahlil Gibran’s Little Book of Secrets is organized into five sections that elucidate the key issues and questions that each of us face: Entering the Labyrinth of Life Secrets of Life and Death Life’s Ups and Downs Secrets of Good and Evil Traveling the Inner Path This inspirational volume gently guides readers through life’s big issues: meaning and mortality, good and evil, and discovering an authentic spiritual path. Suitable for all gift-giving occasions, it is a book that delights, informs, and inspires.

DIVA revelatory collection of essays and poems by a master of Eastern philosophyDIV /divDIVIn these writings, Gibran offers verses and lyric prose that possess all the grandeur of rich music. Here are the great truths and heartening joys drawn from the tears and sufferings of man. Each work sparkles with simile and symbolism, from “Seven Reprimands,”containing wise rules to live by, to “The Sayings of the Brook,”about the secrets to beauty, wealth, and virtue. These are profound exaltations of a great soul, and a trove of wisdom as relevant today as when it was first written./div /div

Known for his evocative book The Prophet, Gibran's most original work delineates madness -- the existential angst of melancholy and misfortune that separates the individual from society, not a formal mental illness. Gibran contrasts the normal individual who conforms to society's class, role, law, and behavior, with one who sees through hypocrisy, semblance, power, and judges others as ignorant, deceived, or treacherous -- the madman. While the world classifies him as mad, he is thewise one. HOW I BECAME A MADMAN consists of 34 short multi-paragraph sketches, vignettes, parables, and tales composed in a Nietzschean prophetic voice, the insights of Blake, and Eastern story-tellers. The opening passage presents Gibran's theme of madness as social separation: "You ask me how I became a madman. It happened thus: One day, long before many gods were born, I woke from a deep sleep and found all my masks were stolen -- the seven masks I have fashioned and worn in seven lives. I ran maskless through the crowded streets shouting, "Thieves, thieves, the cursed thieves." Men and women laughed at me and some ran to their houses in fear of me. And when I reached the market place, a youth standing on a house-top cried, "He is a madman." I looked up to behold him; the sun kissed my own naked face for the first time. For the first time the sun kissed my own naked face and my soul was inflamed with love for the sun, and I wanted my masks no more. And as if in a trance I cried, "Blessed, blessed are the thieves who stole my masks." Thus I became a madman. And I have found both freedom and safety in my madness; the freedom of loneliness and the safety from being understood, for those who understand us enslave something in us. But let me not be too proud of my safety. Even a Thief in a jail is safe from another thief." Gibran shows that we wear masks to get along society that demands conformity for collective purposes, whereas to act without a mask, to think and speak and behave without the veil of illusion is to be mad. While being maskless frees us, it carries a risk of loneliness and misunderstanding as we become estranged from others. The Madman goes unnoticed, not listened to, and pitied by others. The press for conformity absorbs society like nothing else. When we look beneath the masks of daily life, we find hypocrisy, greed, pride, sloth, ambition, vanity, conformity. These people do not see anything wrong with the ways of the world. Instead, in madness there is wisdom. In HOW I BECAME A MADMAN a youth wants but to be himself, not what his parents and family demand he be, so he has fled to a madhouse --his hermitage -- to be what he wants to be. This is a heart-felt critique of hypocrisy, wealth, arrogance, and power versus the individual. Who has learned to disengage, to keep a distance while nevertheless relating to others with compassion and kindness.

A book of poetic essays written in English, Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet is full of religious inspirations. With the twelve illustrations drawn by the author himself, the book took more than eleven years to be formulated and perfected and is Gibran's best-known work. It represents the height of his literary career as he came to be noted as ‘the Bard of Washington Street.’ Captivating and vivified with feeling, The Prophet has been translated into forty languages throughout the world, and is considered the most widely read book of the twentieth century. Its first edition of 1300 copies sold out within a month.

One of the most popular and profound inspirational writers of all time shares simple wisdom for living a happy and fulfilling life. This book is a collection of Gibran's words on how to live. Here are his thoughts on what it means to live in community and solitude and what gives life meaning, along with his often prescient views on government, organized religion, wealth, and commerce. Gibran's sensibility feels contemporary. He did not recognize any ultimate authority outside of the human soul: "it were wiser to speak less of God, whom we cannot understand and more of each other, whom we may understand." This is the essential Gibran, with 88 selections organized into 5 sections that elucidate answers to the questions that each of us face: 1. Living a wise life 2. Community wisdom 3. Wise exchange 4. Wisdom from solitude 5. Wisdom beyond words this inspirational gift volume gently guides readers through life’s big issues: meaning and mortality, good and evil, and discovering an authentic spiritual path. Suitable for all gift-giving occasions, it is a book that delights, informs, and inspires.

DIVA clarion call for freedom from one of the twentieth century’s most important philosophers and writers, Kahlil GibranDIV /divDIVA book so powerful it was burned in the marketplace of Beirut at the time of its publication, Kahlil Gibran’s Spirits Rebellious is a clarion call for freedom in his homeland of Lebanon—for individuals and society. Gibran’s bitter denunciation of religious and political injustice flows through his lyric pen in three parables, that of “Madame Rose Hanie,” “The Cry of the Graves,” and “Kahlil the Heretic.” His vision of liberty is no less powerful today./div /div

The Eye of the Prophet is a luminous collection of Gibran's writings translated from Arabic into French and now into English. Here the author is the poetic, philosophical moralist, grounded in Islam, Buddhism, and Christianity, seeking the best in people, refusing to separate humankind from the natural world. Ordinary work and life, he says, has the potential to be inherently noble, if we can learn to enact our affairs with the sublimity of nature's creations. Gibran’s descriptions celebrate the dignity and freedom of animals, birds, the seasons, oceans, clouds. His is a poet’s eye; he abhors the “tentacles of government” and calls on citizens to question all ideologies. In this book he writes about life’s great moments and passages (The First Kiss, The First Glance, The Mystery of Love, Youth); eternal essences (Earth, The Nature of Woman, Marriage, Love, Truth, Poetry), and grapples with nationalism, religion, and spiritual growth. The Eye of the Prophet blends Christian, Muslim, and Buddhist ideals into a great spiritual tapestry that transcends all cultural divisions. With its vibrant, rhythmic language, it speaks to our challenging times as a worthy companion to The Prophet.

Kahlil Gibran released his universally acclaimed masterpiece, The Prophet, in 1923. Since then this incredible book has been renowned for its profound answers to life's deepest questions. Now, several generations later, Kahlil's great-cousin Hajjar Gibran has written the long-awaited answer to his ancestor's promise. The Return of the Prophet, based on Hajjar's real-life experiences, is a moving collection of inspiring words spoken to Hajjar by Kahlil in a series of visions. Hajjar's life experiences and Kahlil's wise advice and prophetic statements that are applicable to everyone are woven masterfully and told beautifully. The Return of the Prophet is written in the same style as The Prophet, yet contains a modern understanding of spirituality and faith that can be applied to all religions. Like The Prophet with its universal themes and timeless advice, The Return of the Prophet is another true insight into life's deepest meanings.