Mikhail Naimi. The Book of Mirdad.

[vestnikra]

I would like to share with you this increadible book that made a significant impact on my life: The Book of Mirdad by Mikhail Naimi. Here is an excerpt from the book:
MIRDAD: Love is the Law of God.
You live that you may learn to love.
You love that you may learn to live.
No other lesson is required of Man.
And what is it to love but for the lover to absorb forever the beloved so that the twain be one?
And whom, or what, is one to love? Is one to choose a certain leaf upon the Tree of Life and pour upon it all one's heart? What of the branch that bears the leaf? What of the stem that holds the branch? What of the bark that shields the stem? What of the roots that feed the bark, the stem, the branches and the leaves? What of the soil embosoming the roots? What of the sun, and sea, and air that fertilize the soil?
If one small leaf upon a tree be worthy of your love how much more so the tree in its entirety? The love that singles out a fraction of the whole foredooms itself to grief.

[vestnikra]

Here is another escerpt from The Book of Mirdad:
The Way to Painless Life.
MIRDAD: This is the way to freedom from care and pain:
- So think as if your every thought were to be etched in fire upon the sky for all and everything to see. For so, in truth, it is.
- So speak as if the world entire were but a single ear intent on hearing what you say. And so, in truth, it is.
- So do as if your every deed were to recoil upon your heads. And so, in truth, it is.
- So wish as if you were the wish. And so, in truth, you are.
- So live as if your God Himself had need of you His life to live. And so, in truth, He does.

[~¤LilacSky¤~]

[vestnikra]

By the way, Khalil Gibran and Mikhail Naimi knew each other.
Here is a short reference from Wikipedia:
MIKHAIL NAIMY was born in Baskinta, in central Lebanon.
He was educated in Russia and obtained degrees of Liberal Arts and law at the University of Washington USA. In 1916 HE MOVED TO New york where he founded with his closest friend KAHLIL GIBRAN, a dynamic movement for the rejuvenation of arabic liiterature. MIKHAIL NAIMY was the Biographer of Kahlil Gibran. He has been described as one of the greatest spiritual writers of the 20th century.