Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.
Kahlil Gibran passed in 1931, yet he continues to teach us many things. He spoke from his Soul and he had words of immense healing. When there is something on my mind, the writings of Gibran are among the select handful of sacred places I go to to seek out further understanding.
One of the things that has been on my mind lately is Death. At this point in my life, I don’t hold any sort of fear around the experience for myself. Actually, I am kind of looking forward to when it comes to be my time of passing away; I know it will all be in perfect timing and that it will be a familiar, sweet existence waiting for me. I imagine the sensation to be a far more intensely satisfying version of coming home after a long day.
However, when others pass… Well, that is a different story. From my personal experience of the few losses I have encountered, there are different types of feelings that seemingly ebb and flow in a rhythmic pattern that is sometimes chaotic and sometimes calm and sometimes non existent. The initial feeling is a sort of surface numbness, then comes the feelings of pain and loss, then eventually the feelings of happiness for them, then the feelings of acceptance and so on and so forth. I have also comes to realize that there is no actual letting go or moving on or forgetting of any kind. There is growth from pain and there is newness and transformation, but the feelings of the loss and the moments of nostalgia never truly go away.
To truly understand death is to heal ones own self here in this waking physical reality we call Life. Gibran is one of many that came here and helped us with that healing.
Below, I have transcribed Gibran’s words on Death from his 1923 book, The Prophet.
Enjoy!
You would know the secret of death. But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?
The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light. 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.
In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond; And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring.
Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.
Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honour. Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling, that he shall wear the mark of the king? Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling?
For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun? And what is it to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?
Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
Read, re-read; Re-read while you read.
Ruminate. Meditate. Be you, you are amazing.
Peace & Love, my friends. Thanks for reading!
Internal Divine 