The Prosperity & Wealth Bible - Kahlil Gibran

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creeds, and to continue in the ceaseless round of sin and suffering. Strive to rise, by the power of meditation, above all selfish clinging to partial gods or party creeds; above dead formalities and lifeless ignorance. Thus walking the high way of wisdom, with mind fixed upon the spotless Truth, you shall know no halting-place short of the realization of Truth.

      He who earnestly meditates first perceives a truth, as it were, afar off, and then realizes it by daily practice. It is only the doer of the Word of Truth that can know of the doctrine of Truth, for though by pure thought the Truth is perceived, it is only actualized by practice.

      Said the divine Gautama, the Buddha, “He who gives himself up to vanity, and does not give himself up to meditation, forgetting the real aim of life and grasping at pleasure, will in time envy him who has exerted himself in meditation,” and he instructed his disciples in the following “Five Great Meditations”: —

      “The first meditation is the meditation of love, in which you so adjust your heart that you long for the weal and welfare of all beings, including the happiness of your enemies.

      “The second meditation is the meditation of pity, in which you think of all beings in distress, vividly representing in your imagination their sorrows and anxieties so as to arouse a deep compassion for them in your soul.

      “The third meditation is the meditation of joy, in which you think of the prosperity of others, and rejoice with their rejoicings.

      “The fourth meditation is the meditation of impurity, in which you consider the evil consequences of corruption, the effects of sin and diseases. How trivial often the pleasure of the moment, and how fatal its consequences.

      “The fifth meditation is the meditation on serenity, in which you rise above love and hate, tyranny and oppression, wealth and want, and regard your own fate with impartial calmness and perfect tranquility.”

      By engaging in these meditations the disciples of the Buddha arrived at a knowledge of the Truth. But whether you engage in these particular meditations or not matters little so long as your object is Truth, so long as you hunger and thirst for that righteousness which is a holy heart and a blameless life. In your meditations, therefore, let your heart grow and expand with ever-broadening love, until, freed from all hatred, and passion, and condemnation, it embraces the whole universe with thoughtful tenderness. As the flower opens its petals to receive the morning light, so open your soul more and more to the glorious light of Truth. Soar upward upon the wings of aspiration; be fearless, and believe in the loftiest possibilities. Believe that a life of absolute meekness is possible; believe that a life of stainless purity is possible; believe that a life of perfect holiness is possible; believe that the realization of the highest truth is possible. He who so believes, climbs rapidly the heavenly hills, whilst the unbelievers continue to grope darkly and painfully in the fog-bound valleys.

      So believing, so aspiring, so meditating, divinely sweet and beautiful will be your spiritual experiences, and glorious the revelations that will enrapture your inward vision. As you realize the divine Love, the divine Justice, the divine Purity, the Perfect Law of Good, or God, great will be your bliss and deep your peace. Old things will pass away, and all things will become new. The veil of the material universe, so dense and impenetrable to the eye of error, so thin and gauzy to the eye of Truth, will be lifted and the spiritual universe will be revealed. Time will cease, and you will live only in Eternity. Change and mortality will no more cause you anxiety and sorrow, for you will become established in the unchangeable, and will dwell in the very heart of immortality.

      Star of Wisdom

      Star that of the birth of Vishnu,

      Birth of Krishna, Buddha, Jesus,

      Told the wise ones, Heavenward looking,

      Waiting, watching for thy gleaming

      In the darkness of the night-time,

      In the starless gloom of midnight;

      Shining Herald of the coming

      Of the kingdom of the righteous;

      Teller of the Mystic story

      Of the lowly birth of Godhead

      In the stable of the passions,

      In the manger of the mind-soul;

      Silent singer of the secret

      Of compassion deep and holy

      To the heart with sorrow burdened,

      To the soul with waiting weary: —

      Star of all-surpassing brightness,

      Thou again dost deck the midnight;

      Thou again dost cheer the wise ones

      Watching in the creedal darkness,

      Weary of the endless battle

      With the grinding blades of error;

      Tired of lifeless, useless idols,

      Of the dead forms of religions;

      Spent with watching for thy shining;

      Thou hast ended their despairing;

      Thou hast lighted up their pathway;

      Thou hast brought again the old Truths

      To the hearts of all thy Watchers;

      To the souls of them that love thee

      Thou dost speak of Joy and Gladness,

      Of the peace that comes of Sorrow.

      Blessed are they that can see thee,

      Weary wanderers in the Night-time;

      Blessed they who feel the throbbing,

      In their bosoms feel the pulsing

      Of a deep Love stirred within them

      By the great power of thy shining.

      Let us learn thy lesson truly;

      Learn it faithfully and humbly;

      Learn it meekly, wisely, gladly,

      Ancient Star of holy Vishnu,

      Light of Krishna, Buddha, Jesus.

      Chapter 2 — The Two Masters, Self and Truth

      Upon the battlefield of the human soul two masters are ever contending for the crown of supremacy, for the kingship and dominion of the heart; the master of self, called also the “Prince of this world,” and the master of Truth, called also the Father God. The master self is that rebellious one whose weapons are passion, pride, avarice, vanity, self-will, implements of darkness; the master Truth is that meek and lowly one whose weapons are gentleness, patience, purity, sacrifice, humility, love, instruments of Light.

      In every soul the battle is waged, and as a soldier cannot engage at once in two opposing armies, so every heart is enlisted either in the ranks of self or of Truth. There is no half-and-half course; “There is self and there is Truth; where self is, Truth is not, where Truth is, self is not.” Thus spake Buddha, the teacher of Truth, and Jesus, the manifested Christ, declared that “No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.”

      Truth is so simple, so absolutely undeviating and uncompromising that it admits of no complexity, no turning, no qualification. Self is ingenious, crooked, and, governed by subtle and snaky desire, admits of endless turnings and qualifications, and the deluded worshipers of self vainly imagine that they can gratify every worldly desire, and at the same time possess the Truth. But the lovers of Truth worship Truth with the sacrifice of self, and ceaselessly guard themselves against worldliness and self-seeking.

      Do you seek to know and to realize Truth? Then you must be prepared to sacrifice, to renounce to the uttermost, for Truth in all its glory can only be perceived and known when the last vestige of self has disappeared.

      The

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