Greetings and blessings.
Thanks again for joining us on this segment as we read From the Prophet by Khalil Gibran.
Before we begin this next segment which is on work,
I just wanted to highlight something that you may have already noticed or observed,
You listened,
But it's worth mentioning now that we're a few segments in and that is the individual who asks the Prophet a particular question.
And so the mother asks about children,
The rich man asks about giving,
The innkeeper asks about eating and drinking,
And now we're to the plowman,
The laborer is asking about work and each person represents in a way their bias,
Their way of life and that informs the question that they bring to the Prophet.
And by the time we go through the entire book we've got a cross-section of our community.
It's important to note this,
To know,
To understand where the questioner is coming from.
In our practice of deep listening we want to understand that background,
That context that informs the individual whom we're listening to.
That it's not just a two-dimensional image on a screen or a voice on a phone,
Rather a human being.
That human being has been informed by their experiences,
Their life's work,
And all of those experiences inform that person's perception of the present.
And if we're present and aware we can observe those perceptions and begin to understand the relationship to reality.
Start to lift the veils of perception,
Revealing the true nature,
The truth.
So let's find a comfortable seat.
It's okay if you're on a chair,
On your cushion,
Maybe a bolster or a block.
Wherever you are,
Go ahead and close your eyes.
Start to let go of your own perceptions,
Your thoughts of the past,
Expectations of the future.
Choose to arrive in the present.
If you close your eyes and maybe bring your hands together at heart center,
Let's take a full cycle of breath together.
It's a deep breath in and a long and relaxing breath out.
Then a plowman said,
Speak to us of work.
And he answered saying,
You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth.
For to be idle is to become a stranger into the seasons and to step out of life's procession that marches in majesty and proud submission towards the infinite.
When you work you're a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music.
Which of you would be a reed,
Dumb and silent when all else sings together in unison?
Always you have been told that work is a curse and labor a misfortune.
But I say unto you that when you work you fulfill a part of earth's furthest dream,
A sign to you when that dream was born.
And in keeping yourself with labor you are in truth loving life.
And to love life through labor is to be intimate with life's inmost secret.
But if you in your pain call birth and affliction and the support of the flesh a curse written upon your brow,
Then I answer that not but the sweat of your brow shall wash away that which is written.
You've been told also that life is darkness and in your weariness you echo what was said by the weary.
And I say that life is indeed darkness save when there is urge.
And all urge is blind save when there is knowledge.
And all knowledge is vain save when there is work.
And all work is empty save when there is love.
And when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself and to one another and to God.
And what is it to work with love?
It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth.
It is to build a house with affection even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house.
It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit.
It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit and to know that all the blessed dead are standing about you and watching.
Often have I heard you say as if speaking in sleep,
He who works in marble and finds the shape of his own soul in the stone is nobler than he who plows the soil.
And he who seizes the rainbow to lay it on a cloth in the likeness of man is more than he who makes the sandals for our feet.
But I say not in sleep but the over wakefulness of noontide that the wind speaks not more sweetly to the giant oaks than to the least of all the blades of grass.
And he alone is great who turns the voice of the wind into a song made sweeter by his own loving.
Work is love made visible and if you cannot work with love but only with distaste it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.
For if you bake bread with indifference you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man's hunger.
And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes your grudge distills a poison in the wine.
And if you sing those angels and love not the singing you muffle man's ears to the voices of the day and the voices that our work be love made visible.
May everything we do be filled with the breath of our spirit the light and love and me honors the light and love and you may we work soon together.
Namaste.
