While I do like gadgets for serving the purpose of our necessity, it can't match the bliss I take in;

1) The Company Of My Little Nieces: Maheen 4, Abeera 2, and Zunaira 2 are what innocence and joy are all about. I'm happy when Maheen calls me 'edil mamoo janoo' , she pronounces my name starting with E which sounds cute when she utters it. Abeera is very quick in learning new words. She replies 'Delly' when asked about what should I buy her. She of course means 'Jelly'. And Zunaira .. she must be the most shy child of this world. She cannot stare me in eyes always burying her head in my lap.

2) Reading: I have always craved to be an avid reader but I haven't been, courtesy a plethora of reasons with the most obvious being my lack of reading concentration, yet I take pleasure in reading albeit in shorter whiles. Reading poetry is more intoxicating to me for poetic words stir something in my soul for good. I don't wanna mention a particular book here coz different writers with a variety of flavors have pleased me over the years. I'm a reverer of greats like Rumi, Rehman Baba, Khalil Gibran, Ghalib, Iqbal, Faiz, Faraz, Mohsin Naqvi and Amjad but am more interested these days in reading Pakistani english poets for they blend Pakistaniat in a universal language.

3) Cricket: It might seem an abberration to some but cricket has made me happy, if sports have anything to do with happiness. They say I was good as an opening batsman when I was a school going kid but my cricketing wings were clipped shortly after I represented my college in a few games. The reason was my dejected elder brother who made it to the Quaid-e-Azam trophy, the foremost domestic tournament at the time but was stopped to go further courtesy the lack of a backing; a pre-requisite in so many fields here. Yet, I follow the game with passion and watch it seriously.

Now, Kashkin and Nadia are tagged for the same :-)

Yeah.

Well, in my defense, it looked really cool. You should've seen it. And, for real, I liked the way he tried to talk to me. Wasn't sleazy at all, didn't try too hard. I don't care how much money a guy has, how educated he is, even how articulate he is. I need to like his style for anything to happen. But I realize that most women looking for something serious would disagree. For many, circumstances win out over style. And that's logical. It's logical, no doubt.

But then what happens when circumstances change? What happens if he loses his job or loses his mind? Do you cut your losses and run? Or do you soldier on, full of resentment and bitterness? What happens if he suddenly decides to divorce you at 53 years old? Molests your children? Starts gambling away your money? Wants to move to Germany?

Can circumstances and dental benefits really excuse a creepy vibe you get from someone?

And when I talk about style, I don't mean what labels he's wearing. I mean the overall impression you get from him, his presence. How he speaks, how he moves, how he behaves, but also the feelings you sense behind his actions and words.

The word "love" kinda tires me nowadays. It's the most abused word in the English language, in my opinion. But here's one of the best definitions of it that I've ever come across. It's almost convincing, lol:

It is wrong to think love comes from long companionship and persevering courtship. Love is the offspring of spiritual affinity and unless that affinity is created in a moment, it will not be created for years or even generations.

--Kahlil Gibran

Okay, no. I don't believe time has nothing to do with it. I do, however, believe that it's important to look for that "spiritual affinity." And I don't think it's the "magic" or the "butterflies" that TV keeps brainwashing us with. I think it's a sense of familiarity. When someone you don't know starts to feel very familiar. That's one big indication, I think, of feeling spiritually in tune with someone.

So you know what? Regardless of what happens with this fence jumper, I don't really think I'm gonna feel differently than I do now and it doesn't bother me. Let people have their wall-to-wall carpeting and matching drapes. I'll learn to play Madden for Xbox360 and I'll listen to Dipset, damn it, if that road leads to friendship and familiarity first. I honestly don't want a "lover" or "husband" as much as I want to live my life with a dude I feel spiritually in tune with, who's like a teammate, who feels like family (meaning he STAYS and doesn't jet after a fight), who I can respect, who I can enjoy things with and soldier through bad times with, and who I think is really hot. Ha, ha. I'm playing, but you get the idea. I don't care about titles and social expectations and shit like that. I just care about who I care about, period.

And if I never find him? Alhamdulillah. Life is short, man, and I have a lot to do before it's over.

Kahlil Gibran

Often manifestation of such love is not marriage, however it is not lesser in value. The famous platonic known to the world is Kahlil Gibran’s love story. One may argue that his works of love would not have been so inspiring had he not been deeply in love with May Ziadeh, a woman he never married to, nor met in person.

Ragini Puri emphasizes it well.

A traditional and conservative society like ours looks on platonic relationships with suspecting eyes. It wonders whether in a friendship, physical attraction between the friends of opposite sexes can be sidestepped, whether platonic relationships – love and friendship without sexual alliance - can exist between a man and a woman. What they fail to understand is that platonic love is actually the sublimation of sexual urges into other forms of desires and attraction. It is love that looked beyond physical bodies to pure thoughts and intellectual stimulation.

Whether you agree or disagree, check out this one.. You can say it’s tragic. I’d say it’s beautiful.

Love one another, but make not a bond of love

Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Fill each other’s cup, but drink not from one cup.

Give one another of your bread, but eat not from the same loaf.

Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,

Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping;

For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.

And stand together yet not too near together;

For the pillars of the temple stand apart,

And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

- Kahlil Gibran (The Prophet)

So...do you believe in platonic love? Do you think you can love someone you never kiss (or even never fantasize it)? Should I ask a monk (or a nun) to answer these questions? :D Since I'm not a nun (or I should say bhiksuni) I would say 'nah.. I don't believe it's love'. If you don't have the slightest desire to kiss him/her, then it ain't love. Maybe it's a cordial affection or brotherly love or friendship at its best. Yet, one more question lingers, could you develop a platonic love with someone you used to love romantically (or sexually, according to the definition)? Should I ask this to the lovely elderly couple who lives across the street? ;) Well, I won't start. They are probably -still- sexually active and me insisting this question will be a display of illicit mockery ;)

Okay, I pick a theme song to suit our mood of platonic love, Hayley Westenra - Both Sides Now. Enjoy!

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.
Kahlil Gibran - On reason and passion

I'm sharing what I went through in the hope that the process that helped me recover relatively quickly may offer some comfort to others who are hurting. It took me four months to heal, which is far better than four years . . . or forever. You can recover from a broken heart. You can heal. You can be whole again.

A great poet once said that we need to lean into the fire of our pain . . . and burn. I wholeheartedly concur. In quiet, solitary moments, find the strength to allow your suffering to wash over you, to move through you. Then brace yourself, and walk into it.

If you're going through hell, keep going.
                                               Winston Churchill

It takes courage to explore your suffering, to peel away layer after layer of beliefs, behaviors, and assumptions and rigorously hold yourself accountable to life. 

It also takes persistence. For four months, on a daily basis, I drilled as deeply into my grief as I could. I challenged myself to discover how much of my grief was genuine and how much of it was just me feeling sorry for myself. Wallowing in my emotional pain, even just a little bit, was a huge barrier to healing. I asked myself questions like:

• What is the source of my grief and why am I so invested in whatever that is?
• What exactly have I lost and how much do I need whatever that is in my life?
• What exactly am I missing—her presence or what she or the marriage represented?
• What exactly am I afraid of? Being alone? People's reactions? Not being able to find another soul mate?

• What are the expectations I had that are making me feel this way?
• Were my expectations of her realistic?
• Where did those expectations come from?
• How and why did my expectations differ from hers?
• How did I fail to meet her expectations? 

• In what ways have I impacted the relationship by being selfish or self-absorbed?
• What did she need from me that I was unable or unwilling to give her, and vice versa?
• What did she need in her life that was unacceptable to me, and vice versa?

It made a big difference that we both had been completely upfront, honest and authentic with each other from day one. There were no untruths spoken, no betrayal of trust. We were just two people who crossed paths at precisely the moment when our needs and desires perfectly overlapped. For fifteen months, we were in perfect sync. But all along, we both had kept subtly moving, in opposite directions, toward the life we each desired to lead. It was only a matter of time before we both started to step beyond the boundaries of the common ground we shared.

You may be wondering how I could marry someone and not know her lifestyle preferences. The truth is, I did. But because we were clicking on all levels, I naively assumed that no major changes would take place and that I could handle any challenges that did come along. So that's on me.

After the relationship ended, I saw clearly that I had seen only what I wanted to see, and that I had ignored red flags that, in hindsight, were painfully obvious. We simply had different ways of looking at relationships and at life in general. It was only a matter of time before we both began expressing ourselves in ways that would add distance between us.

To her credit, she was always willing to answer all my questions even as the relationship deteriorated and my grief deepened. I will always be grateful to her for that. Those discussions provided much-needed insight and clarity that greatly accelerated my healing. Most people trying to recover from a broken heart do not have the luxury of open, honest communication with their former partner. I fully realize how fortunate I was.

Toward the end, when we both knew it was only a matter of time before we would part ways, I told her that if I had known from day one that it would end up like this, I would still have signed up for it in a heartbeat. "So would I," she said. That meant a great deal to me.

Looking back, it's obvious to me that everything unfolded exactly as it should have. I see the perfection in why we came together . . . and why we came apart.

One of my most important realizations is that I needed to experience the fulfillment of what I wished for in a relationship so that I could be liberated from wanting it so badly. That doesn't mean that I don't ever want to be in another relationship. It simply means that I will now be in control of my desire for a wonderful relationship rather than having that desire control me. In other words, if I do ever enter into another relationship, it will be because I want to, not because I need to.

Before our relationship began unraveling, I thought I was walking my talk with regards to living a spiritually mature life. During my grief, I realized how much more work I had to do in order to embody the principles I planned to write and speak about. If I had not gone through the breakup of my marriage, I would not have been able to become the person I need to be in order to do the work I feel called to do. I would have lacked the authenticity and credibility to confidently speak to others about spiritual and personal growth.

Some of the specific lessons I needed to learn were:

• Look at every moment as a gift. If I believe that everything happens for a reason, and I do, then I must demand of myself to look for the blessings in every situation.

• Be unconditionally accepting and loving, even when another person's words or actions hurt me deeply.

• Remain peaceful and joyful in even the most challenging and stressful of times. In Paramahansa Yogananda’s words, I needed to learn how to “stand unshaken midst the crash of breaking worlds.”

• Be ruthlessly honest about my own flaws and work hard to correct them.

• Be more concerned with wanting what I have, not having what I want. I now repeatedly affirm: Whatever God brings to me, I want.

• Expect nothing from people other than to be authentically who they are.

• Detach from outcomes. I can’t have my heart set on having my time with someone turn out a certain way. Trying to control what is outside of my control will always end badly.

What is vitally important to remember is that just because a relationship ends does not mean it was a failure. Indeed, each relationship allows us to express and experience our deepest desires for emotional and physical intimacy. Each relationship, no matter how long it lasts, expands our self-awareness and clarifies what we do and do not desire in a partner.

When a relationship ends, you are presented with a tremendous opportunity for growth. Step out of your emotions as best you can and challenge yourself to interpret what happened with symbolic sight. Not only will you gain clarity about why things unfolded as they did, but also about what you want the rest of your life to look like.

Granted, activating your symbolic sight may be difficult to do in the midst of an emotional maelstrom. Still, the instant you unplug from reacting out of pure emotion and begin objectively observing a situation, your fears and anxieties loosen their death grip and you start to reclaim your mental clarity. 

Finally, do not allow the fear of heartbreak to stop you from pledging your love to another. If another opportunity presents itself, trust in God and dive headlong into the ocean of romantic love. The waters may be choppy from time to time, but an exhilarating world of unimaginable beauty awaits.

When love beckons to you, follow him, though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you, yield to him, though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you. And when he speaks to you, believe in him . . . though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.
                                              Kahlil Gibran

Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.

I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit.

If you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work.

Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.

Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.

Let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.

Love possesses not nor will it be possessed, for love is sufficient unto love.

No man can reveal to you nothing but that which already lies half-asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.

Safeguarding the rights of others is the most noble and beautiful end of a human being.

The lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and then becomes a host, and then a master.

We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.

Kahlil Gibran was a Lebanese-American writer, poet, artist and philosopher. Since its publication in 1923, his inspirational book,The Prophet, has never been out of print and remains an international best-seller.

Juliet Thompson wrote that Gibran "got hold of some of the Arabic of Bahá'u'lláh. He said it was the most stupendous literature that ever was written, and that...there was no Arabic that even touched the Arabic of Bahà'u'llàh.""

Later Gibran met 'Abdu'l-Bahá. "He simply adored the Master. He was with Him whenever he could be," wrote Thompson. "He told me that when he wrote The Son of Man, he thought of 'Abdu'l-Bahá all through. He said that he was going to write another book with 'Abdu'l-Bahá as the centre and all the contemporaries of 'Abdu'l-Bahá speaking. He died before he wrote it. He told me definitely that The Son of Man was influenced by 'Abdu'l-Bahá."

if you love somebody, let them go,

for if they return, they were always yours,

and if they do not, they never were.

(k. gibran)

no matter how many times i've read it, it always tugs at my heartstrings.

Whatever. They are simple, direct and I like 'em!

Tiny childlike spoons
The dishwasher eats them up
I cut my hand

Your nails grow so fast
That I can't keep up with them
Hey! Stop wiggling!

One more die cast toy
On my kitchen floor at night
My sanity gone

There's milk on the floor
There's milk stains on my carpet
No milk for daddy

Good Lord what's that smell?
Coming from the closet there
Diaper Genie sucks!

You aren't old enough
Yet to be doing that there
Leave your penis be!

This same book I've read
More times than I care to count
Aren't you tired of it?

I don't know why son
I don't know everything (yet)
Leave me alone please

Double doors, both locked
I sit silently and still
Ah, bathroom is mine!

You're so sweet asleep
When you aren't clawing at me
But your breath doth stink!

There's lots more where that came from. I'd love to hear yours!

Also, if you like poetry from non Europeans or Americans, I would highly recommend Kahlil Gibran. "The Prophet" is especially nice.

Ek lees vanoggend 'n gedig van Kahlil Gibran op ‘n juffrou se blog raak waar sy tips vir ma’s en pa’s en opvoeders gee om klein sponsbreintjies te stimuleer en te vorm. Onmiddelik neem dit my terug na my Ma se Oom Johnny wat jare lank skoolhoof was en altyd so tussen Uilspieël deur Gibran aangehaal het. Dag toe dis dalk ‘n goeie idée om ‘n slag weer ‘n gedagte vir die dag te pos. Wie dan anders as Kahlil Gibran?

Generosity is not giving me that which I need more than you do, but it is giving me that which you need more than I do.

-Kahlil Gibran-

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 sheered 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 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 form 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

And Almitra the seeress said, "Blessed be this day and this place and your spirit that has spoken."

And he answered, Was it I who spoke? Was I not also a listener?

Then he descended the steps of the Temple and all the people followed him. And he reached his ship and stood upon the deck.

And facing the people again, he raised his voice and said:

People of Orphalese, the wind bids me leave you.

Less hasty am I than the wind, yet I must go.

We wanderers, ever seeking the lonelier way, begin no day where we have ended another day; and no sunrise finds us where sunset left us.

Even while the earth sleeps we travel.

We are the seeds of the tenacious plant, and it is in our ripeness and our fullness of heart that we are given to the wind and are scattered.

Brief were my days among you, and briefer still the words I have spoken.

But should my voice fade in your ears, and my love vanish in your memory, then I will come again,

And with a richer heart and lips more yielding to the spirit will I speak.

Yea, I shall return with the tide,

And though death may hide me, and the greater silence enfold me, yet again will I seek your understanding.

And not in vain will I seek.

If aught I have said is truth, that truth shall reveal itself in a clearer voice, and in words more kin to your thoughts.

I go with the wind, people of Orphalese, but not down into emptiness;

And if this day is not a fulfillment of your needs and my love, then let it be a promise till another day. Know therefore, that from the greater silence I shall return.

The mist that drifts away at dawn, leaving but dew in the fields, shall rise and gather into a cloud and then fall down in rain.

And not unlike the mist have I been.

In the stillness of the night I have walked in your streets, and my spirit has entered your houses,

And your heart-beats were in my heart, and your breath was upon my face, and I knew you all.

Ay, I knew your joy and your pain, and in your sleep your dreams were my dreams.

And oftentimes I was among you a lake among the mountains.

I mirrored the summits in you and the bending slopes, and even the passing flocks of your thoughts and your desires.

And to my silence came the laughter of your children in streams, and the longing of your youths in rivers.

And when they reached my depth the streams and the rivers ceased not yet to sing.

But sweeter still than laughter and greater than longing came to me.

It was boundless in you;

The vast man in whom you are all but cells and sinews;

He in whose chant all your singing is but a soundless throbbing.

It is in the vast man that you are vast,

And in beholding him that I beheld you and loved you.

For what distances can love reach that are not in that vast sphere?

What visions, what expectations and what presumptions can outsoar that flight?

Like a giant oak tree covered with apple blossoms is the vast man in you.

His mind binds you to the earth, his fragrance lifts you into space, and in his durability you are deathless.

You have been told that, even like a chain, you are as weak as your weakest link.

This is but half the truth. You are also as strong as your strongest link.

To measure you by your smallest deed is to reckon the power of ocean by the frailty of its foam.

To judge you by your failures is to cast blame upon the seasons for their inconsistency.

Ay, you are like an ocean,

And though heavy-grounded ships await the tide upon your shores, yet, even like an ocean, you cannot hasten your tides.

And like the seasons you are also,

And though in your winter you deny your spring,

Yet spring, reposing within you, smiles in her drowsiness and is not offended.

Think not I say these things in order that you may say the one to the other, "He praised us well. He saw but the good in us."

I only speak to you in words of that which you yourselves know in thought.

And what is word knowledge but a shadow of wordless knowledge?

Your thoughts and my words are waves from a sealed memory that keeps records of our yesterdays,

And of the ancient days when the earth knew not us nor herself,

And of nights when earth was upwrought with confusion,

Wise men have come to you to give you of their wisdom. I came to take of your wisdom:

And behold I have found that which is greater than wisdom.

It is a flame spirit in you ever gathering more of itself,

While you, heedless of its expansion, bewail the withering of your days.

It is life in quest of life in bodies that fear the grave.

There are no graves here.

And he said:

Have I spoken this day of aught else?

Is not religion all deeds and all reflection,

And that which is neither deed nor reflection, but a wonder and a surprise ever springing in the soul, even while the hands hew the stone or tend the loom?

Who can separate his faith from his actions, or his belief from his occupations?

Who can spread his hours before him, saying, "This for God and this for myself; This for my soul, and this other for my body?"

All your hours are wings that beat through space from self to self.

He who wears his morality but as his best garment were better naked.

The wind and the sun will tear no holes in his skin.

And he who defines his conduct by ethics imprisons his song-bird in a cage.

The freest song comes not through bars and wires.

And he to whom worshipping is a window, to open but also to shut, has not yet visited the house of his soul whose windows are from dawn to dawn.

Your daily life is your temple and your religion.

Whenever you enter into it take with you your all.

Take the plough and the forge and the mallet and the lute,

The things you have fashioned in necessity or for delight.

For in revery you cannot rise above your achievements nor fall lower than your failures.

And take with you all men:

For in adoration you cannot fly higher than their hopes nor humble yourself lower than their despair.

And if you would know God be not therefore a solver of riddles.

Rather look about you and you shall see Him playing with your children.

And look into space; you shall see Him walking in the cloud, outstretching His arms in the lightning and descending in rain.

You shall see Him smiling in flowers, then rising and waving His hands in trees.

Where shall you seek beauty, and how shall you find her unless she herself be your way and your guide?

And how shall you speak of her except she be the weaver of your speech?

The aggrieved and the injured say, "Beauty is kind and gentle.

Like a young mother half-shy of her own glory she walks among us."

And the passionate say, "Nay, beauty is a thing of might and dread.

Like the tempest she shakes the earth beneath us and the sky above us."

The tired and the weary say, "beauty is of soft whisperings. She speaks in our spirit.

Her voice yields to our silences like a faint light that quivers in fear of the shadow."

But the restless say, "We have heard her shouting among the mountains,

And with her cries came the sound of hoofs, and the beating of wings and the roaring of lions."

At night the watchmen of the city say, "Beauty shall rise with the dawn from the east."

And at noontide the toilers and the wayfarers say, "we have seen her leaning over the earth from the windows of the sunset."

In winter say the snow-bound, "She shall come with the spring leaping upon the hills."

And in the summer heat the reapers say, "We have seen her dancing with the autumn leaves, and we saw a drift of snow in her hair."

All these things have you said of beauty.

Yet in truth you spoke not of her but of needs unsatisfied,

And beauty is not a need but an ecstasy.

It is not a mouth thirsting nor an empty hand stretched forth,

But rather a heart enflamed and a soul enchanted.

It is not the image you would see nor the song you would hear,

But rather an image you see though you close your eyes and a song you hear though you shut your ears.

It is not the sap within the furrowed bark, nor a wing attached to a claw,

But rather a garden forever in bloom and a flock of angels for ever in flight.

People of Orphalese, beauty is life when life unveils her holy face.

But you are life and you are the veil.

Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.

But you are eternity and you are the mirror.

And he answered, saying:

Pleasure is a freedom song,

But it is not freedom.

It is the blossoming of your desires,

But it is not their fruit.

It is a depth calling unto a height,

But it is not the deep nor the high.

It is the caged taking wing,

But it is not space encompassed.

Ay, in very truth, pleasure is a freedom-song.

And I fain would have you sing it with fullness of heart; yet I would not have you lose your hearts in the singing.

Some of your youth seek pleasure as if it were all, and they are judged and rebuked.

I would not judge nor rebuke them. I would have them seek.

For they shall find pleasure, but not her alone:

Seven are her sisters, and the least of them is more beautiful than pleasure.

Have you not heard of the man who was digging in the earth for roots and found a treasure?

And some of your elders remember pleasures with regret like wrongs committed in drunkenness.

But regret is the beclouding of the mind and not its chastisement.

They should remember their pleasures with gratitude, as they would the harvest of a summer.

Yet if it comforts them to regret, let them be comforted.

And there are among you those who are neither young to seek nor old to remember;

And in their fear of seeking and remembering they shun all pleasures, lest they neglect the spirit or offend against it.

But even in their foregoing is their pleasure.

And thus they too find a treasure though they dig for roots with quivering hands.

But tell me, who is he that can offend the spirit?

Shall the nightingale offend the stillness of the night, or the firefly the stars?

And shall your flame or your smoke burden the wind?

Think you the spirit is a still pool which you can trouble with a staff?

Oftentimes in denying yourself pleasure you do but store the desire in the recesses of your being.

Who knows but that which seems omitted today, waits for tomorrow?

Even your body knows its heritage and its rightful need and will not be deceived.

And your body is the harp of your soul,

And it is yours to bring forth sweet music from it or confused sounds.

And now you ask in your heart, "How shall we distinguish that which is good in pleasure from that which is not good?"

Go to your fields and your gardens, and you shall learn that it is the pleasure of the bee to gather honey of the flower,

But it is also the pleasure of the flower to yield its honey to the bee.

For to the bee a flower is a fountain of life,

And to the flower a bee is a messenger of love,

And to both, bee and flower, the giving and the receiving of pleasure is a need and an ecstasy.

People of Orphalese, be in your pleasures like the flowers and the bees.

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 weeping, until you shall come laughing.

When you pray you rise to meet in the air those who are praying at that very hour, and whom save in prayer you may not meet.

Therefore let your visit to that temple invisible be for naught but ecstasy and sweet communion.

For if you should enter the temple for no other purpose than asking you shall not receive.

And if you should enter into it to humble yourself you shall not be lifted:

Or even if you should enter into it to beg for the good of others you shall not be heard.

It is enough that you enter the temple invisible.

I cannot teach you how to pray in words.

God listens not to your words save when He Himself utters them through your lips.

And I cannot teach you the prayer of the seas and the forests and the mountains.

But you who are born of the mountains and the forests and the seas can find their prayer in your heart,

And if you but listen in the stillness of the night you shall hear them saying in silence,

"Our God, who art our winged self, it is thy will in us that willeth.

It is thy desire in us that desireth.

It is thy urge in us that would turn our nights, which are thine, into days which are thine also.

We cannot ask thee for aught, for thou knowest our needs before they are born in us:

Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all."

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?"

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 form 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 you 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 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 many 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 color is forgotten and the vessel is no more.

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 he said:

No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of our 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 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 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 know 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.