The Master has nothing against emotional content or the expression of such material.
Still, he will try to point to the suffering arising whenever emotion becomes the only aspect through which disciples will try to approach the world.
The world, then, becomes peopled with teenager-adults, individuals who are being played with by themselves and others. They have become the toy of those in charge of feeding the emotional fire and the circular tunes of blazing tongues.
Through the language of childish emotions, dripping from the corner of their mouth, I can make out the adult, burning himself down, again and again.
©FJ Oct 2021
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Notes & Silence 
My initial reaction is that I would have put a full stop after the fourth word.
More seriously, I would quote Gibran again:
And the priestess spoke again and said:
« Speak to us of Reason and Passion. »
And he answered saying:
Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgment wage war against 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 our 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.
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Thank you Simon for sharing.
A healthy respiration I should meditate on.
First, I’ll share it with my daughter, as I was in quest for inspirational content that could at the same time water her garden, and help her practice her English…And, killing two birds with one stone (or feeding two fish with one slice of bread (without resorting to miraculous means), this text comes right in time.
Or three birds, even, as obviously, I’ll use it to think about it myself while sharing with my daughter about it.
Gibran means a lot to me.
The Prophet is one of the first ‘spiritual’ read I’ve had, way before even thinking it would end up occupying such a huge space in my life.
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Full stop,
as in : » the Master has nothing » (ears nothing, knows nothing)
or as in : » The Master has nothing » (you don’t, so stop wasting your time looking for some unattainable exogenous knowledge ?
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Do they not resolve into the same thing, if only like parallel lines that meet at infinity?
Paulo Coelho has written « Manuscript Found in Accra » which has a similar structure to « The Prophet ». I find it a rather pale imitation, but it is not without value.
I think the complete text of « The Prophet » is available to download online without payment, so you could try wrapping your daughter’s brain in the whole work… Pretty sure the rest of Gibran’s writings are out there as well.
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