The Invisible Revealed

I am alive like you, and I am standing beside you.
Close your eyes and look around, you will see me in front of you.
~Gibran's words on his Epitaph

The Prophet captures the teachings of Kahlil Gibran in a comforting story that succinctly touches on everyday topics like love, giving, joy, sorrow, freedom, pain, teaching, friendship and beauty. Within each tiny chapter, profound moments can occur as we are given insight into unfamiliar territory, a place of thought not commonly existing in daily life but familiar to spiritual teachers.

Kahlil Gibran magically explores the connection between sorrow and joy and how the deeper the sorrow you experience, the more joy you can contain. Talking becomes thoughts that can no longer "dwell in the solitude of your heart" so they "live in your lips."

As Almustafa waits for a ship to take him back to the isle of his birth, he climbs a hill outside the city walls and looks out to sea. When his "ship arrives" he is suddenly filled with regret, yet knows he must follow his destiny and return home.

"Long were the days of pain I have spent within its walls, and long were the nights of aloneness; and who can depart from his pain and his aloneness without regret?"

The priests and priestesses ask him to remain in very poetic ways: "Let not the waves of the sea separate us now, and the years you have spent in our midst become a memory."

Almustafa only cries and doesn't seem to speak until a woman named Almitra appears. She is a woman who believed in him and he seems to have great fondness for her. We are not given any insight into their relationship, but his respect for her is unquestioned. She understands he must leave, but asks him to give the city his wisdom. She promises they will pass this wisdom down through the generations.

While viewing pictures of Bsharri in Northern Lebanon, the mountains and the mist are almost a unique doorway into Kahlil Gibran's mind. He lived in a lush region where cascading falls, rugged cliffs and cedar trees influenced his art and writing.

We can imagine his thoughts of home and this book was actually first imagined when he wrote a short story as a teenager. A Bostonian poet, Josephine Peabody, caught Gibran's attention at an art exhibition and she later referred to him as "her young prophet." She also wrote poems about Gibran's life and how she imagined his life in Bsharri. His life is woven into his writing in the most beautiful ways. He names his book for a woman he loves and his writing is infused with spiritual teachings and influences from his journey from Lebanon to New York.

The story has an unassuming plot, but the lessons are eternal and the ending is surprisingly tender. I was left with a sense of longing that is still drifting along with me like the mists of Bsharri. The Prophet is not just a book to read, it is a spiritual journey to experience. It may take three or more days to complete the reading of this tiny book. I could only read about a third at a time because it is saturated in wisdom and many of the chapters want to be read and read again, until they are absorbed into your soul and written on your heart.

"But if you love and must needs have desires,
let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that
sings its melody to the night." ~Kahlil Gibran

~TheRebeccaReview.com

Deep thoughts in beautiful language

Have you ever read a line, first you feel the language is beautiful and next a thought, even a reality hits you? And even after you have finished, the message keeps playing on and on in your mind? Well, this book is one of them (if you have luckily found other books by other author).

It is the exploration of self, soul, community, nature, and universe. No matter what religion you hold, from where you came or who/what you are. This is a book for every human being to know and keep in perspective what they are doing everyday.

AMAZING

And excellent book. Although most people mistake the prophet for an eastern religious book (it is even clssified under that heading in bookstores!), it is NOT! Gibran was a Christian who was born in Lebanon and was exposed to several different religions and had a great insight into life and the way life should be lived. Gibran is a great writer, philosopher, artist and a poet. I was lucky enough to visit his house in the mountains of Lebanon (now a museum). I brought back pictures (cedars_liban@hotmail.com) if anybody is as much in love with Gibran as I am!