Blue Mosque, Istanbul - mosque where the Muslim's pray |
Have I spoken this day of aught else?
Is not religion all deeds and all
reflection,
And that which is neither deed nor
reflection, but a wonder and a surprise ever springing in the soul, even while
the hands hew the stone or tend the loom?
Who can separate his faith from his
actions, or his belief from his occupations?
Who can spread his hours before him,
saying, "This for God and this for myself; This for my soul, and this
other for my body?"
St Stephen Cathedral, Vienna - church where the Christian's pray |
All your hours are wings that beat through
space from self to self.
He who wears his morality but as his best
garment were better naked.
The wind and the sun will tear no holes in
his skin.
And he who defines his conduct by ethics
imprisons his song-bird in a cage.
The freest song comes not through bars and
wires.
And he to whom worshipping is a window, to
open but also to shut, has not yet visited the house of his soul whose windows
are from dawn to dawn.
Your daily life is your temple and your
religion.
Whenever you enter into it take with you
your all.
Take the plough and the forge and the
mallet and the lute,
The things you have fashioned in necessity
or for delight.
For in revery you cannot rise above your
achievements nor fall lower than your failures.
And take with you all men:
For in adoration you cannot fly higher than
their hopes nor humble yourself lower than their despair.
And if you would know God be not therefore
a solver of riddles.
Rather look about you and you shall see Him
playing with your children.
And look into space; you shall see Him
walking in the cloud, outstretching His arms in the lightning and descending in
rain.
You shall see Him smiling in flowers, then
rising and waving His hands in trees.
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