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Main Index
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SORROW?"
As he comes closer to the earth, as he comes closer to the outer world, as he comes closer to the flowers and the stars, a problem: HOW SHALL I GO IN PEACE... WITHOUT SORROW? -- in a ship one knows nothing about. You cannot even see the ship clearly, it is surrounded in mist; how can you see the other shore? It is absolutely invisible. And who knows whether there is any other shore? because nobody has ever returned from the other shore to give you an eyewitness account.
HOW SHALL I GO IN PEACE....? -- he's torn apart -- AND WITHOUT SORROW?... and for many reasons.
NAY, NOT WITHOUT A WOUND IN THE SPIRIT SHALL I LEAVE THIS CITY.
The world of our experiences, the world of our bodily pleasures, the world of our mind, its flights...."How shall I leave? So much beauty on one side -- which is tangible; I can touch it, I can feel it -- and I'm to leave all this for something unknown, intangible, invisible." You can understand; putting yourself in his place, the heart will be torn apart. It will be almost the anguish of "To be, or not to be?" because all that you are, your roots, are here in this earth.
LONG WERE THE DAYS OF PAIN I HAVE SPENT WITHIN ITS WALLS.
He's not unaware of the fact: "In this city, which is known to me... LONG WERE THE DAYS OF PAIN... anguish, anxiety. AND LONG WERE THE NIGHTS OF ALONENESS. But still -- and this has to be understood by every meditator -- because everybody has lived in this world, in this body, perhaps for many, many lives, we have even become accustomed to pain. We will miss it. We have become accustomed to misery. You cannot conceive of yourself without misery, without pain, without anxiety. Then what will you be? -- because all that you have been consists of all these things. So although they are not your longings, not your desires, the very experience of living in them for centuries and they have become your second nature.
Kahlil Gibran gives a greater psychological insight than any psychologist of our times:
AND WHO CAN DEPART FROM HIS PAIN AND HIS ALONENESS WITHOUT REGRET?
Strange seems to be the statement -- but it is not strange, it is the experience of
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