tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21964087337893489672024-02-20T00:29:31.594-08:00Random Spiritualities from a Doctor's Chaira missional hermeneutics of Christian spiritualities, formation and transformationAlex Tanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04003300678212296112noreply@blogger.comBlogger3746125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2196408733789348967.post-90111079747270663232017-11-29T23:20:00.001-08:002017-11-29T23:20:25.310-08:00Blogging at Spiritual Formation on the RunI will not be updating this blog. I will continue to blog at <b><i>Spiritual Formation on the Run </i></b> < draltang.wordpress.com><br />
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Thankful for your friendship and fellowship here. Join me in my new blog.<br />
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<br />Alex Tanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04003300678212296112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2196408733789348967.post-8306700166375155542016-03-03T01:30:00.000-08:002016-03-03T01:30:07.888-08:00Khalil Gibran on Time<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhwFzy8gsMgiFBd0l3PIEsWimIfYFl2-gXrJ_eDyfpUL0XZV-G3mh2y7xQsOjrqysiZACSpCsQat447_MUARGOKFPRhsY7Z5BtTME96kJYi8HFXQQI-X8JAg7BHSjK97DrObWPOoIBdVWG/s1600/Gibran_Prophet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhwFzy8gsMgiFBd0l3PIEsWimIfYFl2-gXrJ_eDyfpUL0XZV-G3mh2y7xQsOjrqysiZACSpCsQat447_MUARGOKFPRhsY7Z5BtTME96kJYi8HFXQQI-X8JAg7BHSjK97DrObWPOoIBdVWG/s320/Gibran_Prophet.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large; text-align: justify;"><b>A</b><span style="font-size: medium;">ND</span></span><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;"> an astronomer said, “Master, what of Time?”</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">And he answered:</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">You would measure time the measureless and the immeasurable.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">You would adjust your conduct and even direct the course of your spirit according to hours and seasons.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">Of time you would make a stream upon whose bank you would sit and watch its flowing.</span><br />
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Yet the timeless in you is aware of life’s timelessness,<br />And knows that yesterday is but to-day’s memory and to-morrow is to-day’s dream.<br />And that which sings and contemplates in you is still dwelling within the bounds of that first moment which scattered the stars into space.</div>
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<br />Who among you does not feel that his power to love is boundless?<br />And yet who does not feel that very love, though boundless, encompassed within the centre of his being, and moving not from love thought to love thought, nor from love deeds to other love deeds?<br />And is not time even as love is, undivided and paceless?</div>
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But if in your thought you must measure time into seasons, let each season encircle all the other seasons,</div>
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<br />And let to-day embrace the past with remembrance and the future with longing.</div>
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Alex Tanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04003300678212296112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2196408733789348967.post-41405671900125109452016-02-29T00:30:00.000-08:002016-02-29T00:30:00.849-08:00Khalil Gibran on Good and Evil<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhwFzy8gsMgiFBd0l3PIEsWimIfYFl2-gXrJ_eDyfpUL0XZV-G3mh2y7xQsOjrqysiZACSpCsQat447_MUARGOKFPRhsY7Z5BtTME96kJYi8HFXQQI-X8JAg7BHSjK97DrObWPOoIBdVWG/s1600/Gibran_Prophet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhwFzy8gsMgiFBd0l3PIEsWimIfYFl2-gXrJ_eDyfpUL0XZV-G3mh2y7xQsOjrqysiZACSpCsQat447_MUARGOKFPRhsY7Z5BtTME96kJYi8HFXQQI-X8JAg7BHSjK97DrObWPOoIBdVWG/s320/Gibran_Prophet.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large; text-align: justify;"><b>A</b><span style="font-size: medium;">ND</span></span><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;"> one of the elders of the city said, Speak to us of Good and Evil.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">And he answered:</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">Of the good in you I can speak, but not of the evil.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst?</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">Verily when good is hungry it seeks food even in dark caves, and when it thirsts it drinks even of dead waters.</span><br />
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You are good when you are one with yourself.<br />Yet when you are not one with yourself you are not evil.<br />For a divided house is not a den of thieves; it is only a divided house.<br />And a ship without rudder may wander aimlessly among perilous isles yet sink not to the bottom.</div>
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<br />You are good when you strive to give of yourself.<br />Yet you are not evil when you seek gain for yourself.<br />For when you strive for gain you are but a root that clings to the earth and sucks at her breast.<br />Surely the fruit cannot say to the root, “Be like me, ripe and full and ever giving of your abundance.”<br />For to the fruit giving is a need, as receiving is a need to the root.</div>
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You are good when you are fully awake in your speech.<br />Yet you are not evil when you sleep while your tongue staggers without purpose.<br />And even stumbling speech may strengthen a weak tongue.</div>
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You are good when you walk to your goal firmly and with bold steps.<br />Yet you are not evil when you go thither limping.<br />Even those who limp go not backward.<br />But you who are strong and swift, see that you do not limp before the lame, deeming it kindness.</div>
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You are good in countless ways, and you are not evil when you are not good,<br />You are only loitering and sluggard.</div>
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<br />Pity that the stags cannot teach swiftness to the turtles.</div>
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IN your longing for your giant self lies your goodness: and that longing is in all of you.<br />But in some of you that longing is a torrent rushing with might to the sea, carrying the secrets of the hillsides and the songs of the forest.<br />And in others it is a flat stream that loses itself in angles and bends and lingers before it reaches the shore.<br />But let not him who longs much say to him who longs little, “Wherefore are you slow and halting?”</div>
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<br />For the truly good ask not the naked, “Where is your garment?” nor the houseless, “What has befallen your house?”</div>
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Alex Tanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04003300678212296112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2196408733789348967.post-20072256607170613552016-02-27T23:32:00.002-08:002016-02-27T23:32:33.028-08:00SOME FILL WITH EACH GOOD RAIN<b style="background-color: #ffffcc; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', Arial, Helvetica; text-align: -webkit-center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">SOME FILL WITH EACH GOOD RAIN</span></b><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; font-family: Arial; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-center;"><br />There are different wells within your heart.<br />Some fill with each good rain,<br />Others are far too deep for that.<br /><br />In one well<br />You have just a few precious cups of water,<br />That "love" is literally something of yourself,<br />It can grow as slow as a diamond<br />If it is lost.<br /><br />Your love<br />Should never be offered to the mouth of a<br />Stranger,<br />Only to someone<br />Who has the valor and daring<br />To cut pieces of their soul off with a knife<br />Then weave them into a blanket<br />To protect you.<br /><br />There are different wells within us.<br />Some fill with each good rain,<br />Others are far, far too deep<br />For that.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #ffffcc; font-family: Arial; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-center;">Hafiz</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #ffffcc; font-family: Arial; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-center;">.</span>Alex Tanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04003300678212296112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2196408733789348967.post-90754072835734041782016-02-26T09:55:00.002-08:002016-02-26T09:55:55.742-08:00Contemplation has a context<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #001f30; font-family: OptimaLT; font-size: 15.8928px; line-height: 25.1328px;"> Contemplation has a context: it does not occur in a vacuum. Today’s context is that of the multinational corporations, the arms race, the strong state, the economic crisis, urban decay, the growing racism, and human loneliness. It is within this highly deranged culture that contemplatives explore the waste of their own being. It is in the midst of chaos and crisis that they pursue the vision of God and experience the conflict which is at the core of the contemplative search. They become part of that conflict and begin to see into the heart of things. The contemplative shares in the passion of Christ which is both an identification with the pain of the world and also the despoiling of the principalities and powers of the fallen world-order.</span></blockquote>
<cite style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #001f30; display: block; font-family: OptimaLT; font-size: 15.8928px; line-height: 25.1328px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: right; vertical-align: baseline;">Kenneth Leech</cite>Alex Tanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04003300678212296112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2196408733789348967.post-23282896421031619642016-02-26T09:51:00.003-08:002016-02-26T09:51:16.537-08:00Live in Much Peace and Quiet<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: #fcfaf2; color: #003751; font-family: OptimaLT; font-size: 23.52px; font-style: italic; line-height: 32.928px;">Do not, then, stir yourself up to useless interior activities. Avoid everything that will bring unnecessary complications into your life. Live in as much peace and quiet and retirement as you can, and do not go out of your way to get involved in labors and duties, no matter how much glory they may seem to give to God. </span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: #fcfaf2; color: #003751; font-family: OptimaLT; font-size: 23.52px; font-style: italic; line-height: 32.928px;">Do the tasks appointed to you as perfectly as you can with disinterested love and great peace in order to show your desire of pleasing God. Love and serve Him peacefully and in all your works preserve recollection. Do what you do quietly and without fuss. </span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: #fcfaf2; color: #003751; font-family: OptimaLT; font-size: 23.52px; font-style: italic; line-height: 32.928px;">Seek solitude as much as you can; dwell in the silence of your own soul and rest there in the simple and simplifying light which God is infusing into you. </span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: #fcfaf2; color: #003751; font-family: OptimaLT; font-size: 23.52px; font-style: italic; line-height: 32.928px;">Do not make the mistake of aspiring to the spectacular “experiences” that you read about in the lives of great mystics. None of those graces (called </span><em style="background-color: #fcfaf2; border: 0px; color: #003751; font-family: OptimaLT; font-size: 23.52px; line-height: 32.928px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">gratis datae</em><span style="background-color: #fcfaf2; color: #003751; font-family: OptimaLT; font-size: 23.52px; font-style: italic; line-height: 32.928px;">) can sanctify you nearly so well as this obscure and purifying light and love of God which is given you to no other end than to make you perfect in His love.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #001f30; font-family: OptimaLT; font-size: 16.8px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 25.2px;">Thomas Merton</span><br />
<span class="source-title" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #001f30; font-family: OptimaLT; font-size: 16.8px; font-style: italic; line-height: 25.2px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #001f30; font-family: OptimaLT; font-size: 16.8px; line-height: 25.2px;"> (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 2003), p. 97.</span>Alex Tanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04003300678212296112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2196408733789348967.post-13020843146273880942016-02-23T01:30:00.000-08:002016-02-23T01:30:04.745-08:00Khalil Gibran on Death<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhwFzy8gsMgiFBd0l3PIEsWimIfYFl2-gXrJ_eDyfpUL0XZV-G3mh2y7xQsOjrqysiZACSpCsQat447_MUARGOKFPRhsY7Z5BtTME96kJYi8HFXQQI-X8JAg7BHSjK97DrObWPOoIBdVWG/s1600/Gibran_Prophet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhwFzy8gsMgiFBd0l3PIEsWimIfYFl2-gXrJ_eDyfpUL0XZV-G3mh2y7xQsOjrqysiZACSpCsQat447_MUARGOKFPRhsY7Z5BtTME96kJYi8HFXQQI-X8JAg7BHSjK97DrObWPOoIBdVWG/s320/Gibran_Prophet.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large; text-align: justify;"><b>T</b><span style="font-size: medium;">HEN</span></span><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;"> Almitra spoke, saying, “We would ask now of Death.”</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">And he said:</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">You would know the secret of death.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.</span><br />
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IN the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond;<br />And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring.<br />Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.<br />Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honour.</div>
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<br />Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling, that he shall wear the mark of the king?<br />Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling?</div>
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For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?<br />And what is it to cease breathing but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?</div>
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Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.<br />And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.<br />And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.</div>
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Alex Tanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04003300678212296112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2196408733789348967.post-36385321334569995762016-02-18T01:00:00.000-08:002016-02-18T01:00:07.151-08:00Khalil Gibran on Religion<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhwFzy8gsMgiFBd0l3PIEsWimIfYFl2-gXrJ_eDyfpUL0XZV-G3mh2y7xQsOjrqysiZACSpCsQat447_MUARGOKFPRhsY7Z5BtTME96kJYi8HFXQQI-X8JAg7BHSjK97DrObWPOoIBdVWG/s1600/Gibran_Prophet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhwFzy8gsMgiFBd0l3PIEsWimIfYFl2-gXrJ_eDyfpUL0XZV-G3mh2y7xQsOjrqysiZACSpCsQat447_MUARGOKFPRhsY7Z5BtTME96kJYi8HFXQQI-X8JAg7BHSjK97DrObWPOoIBdVWG/s320/Gibran_Prophet.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large; text-align: justify;"><b>A</b><span style="font-size: medium;">ND</span></span><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;"> an old priest said, “Speak to us of Religion.”</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">And he said:</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">Have I spoken this day of aught else?</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">Is not religion all deeds and all reflection,</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">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?</span><br />
<br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">Who can separate his faith from his actions, or his belief from his occupations?</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">Who can spread his hours before him, saying,</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">“This for God and this for myself;</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">“This for my soul and this other for my body”?</span><br />
<br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">All your hours are wings that beat through space from self to self.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">He who wears his morality but as his best garment were better naked.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">The wind and the sun will tear no holes in his skin.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">And he who defines his conduct by ethics imprisons his song-bird in a cage.</span><br />
<br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">The freest song comes not through bars and wires.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">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.</span><br />
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Your daily life is your temple and your religion.<br />Whenever you enter into it take with you your all.<br />Take the slough and the forge and the mallet and the lute,<br />The things you have fashioned in necessity or for delight.</div>
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<br />For in reverie you cannot rise above your achievements nor fall lower than your failures.<br />And take with you all men:<br />For in adoration you cannot fly higher than their hopes nor humble yourself lower than their despair.</div>
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And if you would know God, be not therefore a solver of riddles.<br />Rather look about you and you shall see Him playing with your children.<br />And look into space; you shall see Him walking in the cloud, outstretching His arms in the lightning and descending in rain.</div>
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<br />You shall see Him smiling in flowers, then rising and waving His hands in trees.</div>
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Alex Tanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04003300678212296112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2196408733789348967.post-90706180043848187102016-02-15T01:00:00.000-08:002016-02-15T01:00:10.220-08:00Khalil Gibran on Beauty<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhwFzy8gsMgiFBd0l3PIEsWimIfYFl2-gXrJ_eDyfpUL0XZV-G3mh2y7xQsOjrqysiZACSpCsQat447_MUARGOKFPRhsY7Z5BtTME96kJYi8HFXQQI-X8JAg7BHSjK97DrObWPOoIBdVWG/s1600/Gibran_Prophet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhwFzy8gsMgiFBd0l3PIEsWimIfYFl2-gXrJ_eDyfpUL0XZV-G3mh2y7xQsOjrqysiZACSpCsQat447_MUARGOKFPRhsY7Z5BtTME96kJYi8HFXQQI-X8JAg7BHSjK97DrObWPOoIBdVWG/s320/Gibran_Prophet.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large; text-align: justify;"><b>A</b><span style="font-size: medium;">ND</span></span><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;"> a poet said, Speak to us of Beauty.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">And he answered:</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">Where shall you seek beauty, and how shall you find her unless she herself be your way and your guide?</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">And how shall you speak of her except she be the weaver of your speech?</span><br />
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The aggrieved and the injured say, “Beauty is kind and gentle.<br />“Like a young mother half-shy of her own glory she walks among us.”<br />And the passionate say, “Nay, beauty is a thing of might and dread.<br />“Like the tempest she shakes the earth beneath us and the sky above us.”</div>
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The tired and the weary say, “Beauty is of soft whisperings.<br />“She speaks in our spirit.<br />“Her voice yields to our silences like a faint light that quivers in fear of the shadow.”</div>
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<br />But the restless say, “We have heard her shouting among the mountains,<br />“And with her cries came the sound of hoofs, and the beating of wings and the roaring of lions.”</div>
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At night the watchmen of the city say, “Beauty shall rise with the dawn from the east.”<br />And at noontide the toilers and the wayfarers say, “We have seen her leaning over the earth from the windows of the sunset.”</div>
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In winter say the snow-bound, “She shall come with the spring leaping upon the hills.”<br />And in the summer heat the reapers say, “We have seen her dancing with the autumn leaves, and we saw a drift of snow in her hair.”</div>
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<br />All these things have you said of beauty,<br />Yet in truth you spoke not of her but of needs unsatisfied,<br />And beauty is not a need but an ecstasy.<br />It is not a mouth thirsting nor an empty hand stretched forth,<br />But rather a heart inflamed and a soul enchanted.<br />It is not the image you would see nor the song you would hear,<br />But rather an image you see though you close your eyes and a song you hear though you shut your ears.<br />It is not the sap within the furrowed bark, nor a wing attached to a claw,<br />But rather a garden for ever in bloom and a flock of angels for ever in flight.</div>
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People of Orphalese, beauty is life when life unveils her holy face.</div>
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<br />But you are life and you are the veil.<br />Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.<br />But you are eternity and you are the mirror.</div>
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Alex Tanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04003300678212296112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2196408733789348967.post-10050999833163895942016-02-11T01:00:00.000-08:002016-02-11T01:00:09.501-08:00Khalil Gibran on Prayer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhwFzy8gsMgiFBd0l3PIEsWimIfYFl2-gXrJ_eDyfpUL0XZV-G3mh2y7xQsOjrqysiZACSpCsQat447_MUARGOKFPRhsY7Z5BtTME96kJYi8HFXQQI-X8JAg7BHSjK97DrObWPOoIBdVWG/s1600/Gibran_Prophet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhwFzy8gsMgiFBd0l3PIEsWimIfYFl2-gXrJ_eDyfpUL0XZV-G3mh2y7xQsOjrqysiZACSpCsQat447_MUARGOKFPRhsY7Z5BtTME96kJYi8HFXQQI-X8JAg7BHSjK97DrObWPOoIBdVWG/s320/Gibran_Prophet.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: x-large; text-align: justify;"><b>T</b><span style="font-size: medium;">HEN</span></span><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;"> a priestess said, “Speak to us of Prayer.”</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">And he answered, saying:</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.</span><br />
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For what is prayer but the expansion of your self into the living ether?<br />And if it is for your comfort to pour your darkness into space, it is also for your delight to pour forth the dawning of your heart.</div>
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<br />And if you cannot but weep when your soul summons you to prayer, she should spur you again and yet again, though weeping, until you shall come laughing.<br />When you pray you rise to meet in the air those who are praying at that very hour, and whom save in prayer you may not meet.</div>
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<br />Therefore let your visit to that temple invisible be for naught but ecstasy and sweet communion.<br />For if you should enter the temple for no other purpose than asking you shall not receive:<br />And if you should enter into it to humble yourself you shall not be lifted:<br />Or even if you should enter into it to beg for the good of others you shall not be heard.<br />It is enough that you enter the temple invisible.</div>
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I cannot teach you how to pray in words.</div>
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God listens not to your words save when He Himself utters them through your lips.<br />And I cannot teach you the prayer of the seas and the forests and the mountains.<br />But you who are born of the mountains and the forests and the seas can find their prayer in your heart,</div>
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<br />And if you but listen in the stillness of the night you shall hear them saying in silence:<br />“Our God, who art our winged self, it is thy will in us that willeth.<br />“It is thy desire in us that desireth.<br />“It is thy urge in us that would turn our nights, which are thine, into days, which are thine also.<br />“We cannot ask thee for aught, for thou knowest our needs before they are born in us:<br />“Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all.”</div>
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Alex Tanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04003300678212296112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2196408733789348967.post-83226441599265627082016-02-02T00:30:00.000-08:002016-02-02T00:30:07.355-08:00Khalil Gibran on Crime and Punishment<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhwFzy8gsMgiFBd0l3PIEsWimIfYFl2-gXrJ_eDyfpUL0XZV-G3mh2y7xQsOjrqysiZACSpCsQat447_MUARGOKFPRhsY7Z5BtTME96kJYi8HFXQQI-X8JAg7BHSjK97DrObWPOoIBdVWG/s1600/Gibran_Prophet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhwFzy8gsMgiFBd0l3PIEsWimIfYFl2-gXrJ_eDyfpUL0XZV-G3mh2y7xQsOjrqysiZACSpCsQat447_MUARGOKFPRhsY7Z5BtTME96kJYi8HFXQQI-X8JAg7BHSjK97DrObWPOoIBdVWG/s320/Gibran_Prophet.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: x-large; text-align: justify;"><b>T</b><span style="font-size: medium;">HEN</span></span><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;"> one of the judges of the city stood forth and said, Speak to us of Crime and Punishment.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">And he answered, saying:</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">It is when your spirit goes wandering upon the wind,</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">That you, alone and unguarded, commit a wrong unto others and therefore unto yourself.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">And for that wrong committed must you knock and wait a while unheeded at the gate of the blessed.</span><br />
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Like the ocean is your god-self;<br />It remains for ever undefiled.<br />And like the ether it lifts but the winged.<br />Even like the sun is your god-self;<br />It knows not the ways of the mole nor seeks it the holes of the serpent.</div>
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<br />But your god-self dwells not alone in your being.<br />Much in you is still man, and much in you is not yet man,<br />But a shapeless pigmy that walks asleep in the mist searching for its own awakening.<br />And of the man in you would I now speak.</div>
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<br />For it is he and not your god-self nor the pigmy in the mist that knows crime and the punishment of crime.</div>
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Oftentimes have I heard you speak of one who commits a wrong as though he were not one of you, but a stranger unto you and an intruder upon your world.<br />But I say that even as the holy and the righteous cannot rise beyond the highest which is in each one of you,<br />So the wicked and the weak cannot fall lower than the lowest which is in you also.<br />And as a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent knowledge of the whole tree,<br />So the wrong-doer cannot do wrong without the hidden will of you all.<br />Like a procession you walk together towards your god-self.</div>
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You are the way and the wayfarers.<br />And when one of you falls down he falls for those behind him, a caution against the stumbling stone.<br />Aye, and he falls for those ahead of him, who, though faster and surer of foot, yet removed not the stumbling stone.</div>
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And this also, though the word lie heavy upon your hearts:<br />The murdered is not unaccountable for his own murder,<br />And the robbed is not blameless in being robbed.<br />The righteous is not innocent of the deeds of the wicked,<br />And the white-handed is not clean in the doings of the felon.<br />Yea, the guilty is oftentimes the victim of the injured,</div>
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<br />And still more often the condemned is the burden bearer for the guiltless and unblamed.<br />You cannot separate the just from the unjust and the good from the wicked;<br />For they stand together before the face of the sun even as the black thread and the white are woven together.</div>
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<br />And when the black thread breaks, the weaver shall look into the whole cloth, and he shall examine the loom also.</div>
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IF any of you would bring to judgment the unfaithful wife,<br />Let him also weigh the heart of her husband in scales, and measure his soul with measurements.<br />And let him who would lash the offender look unto the spirit of the offended.<br />And if any of you would punish in the name of righteousness and lay the axe unto the evil tree, let him see to its roots;</div>
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<br />And verily he will find the roots of the good and the bad, the fruitful and the fruitless, all entwined together in the silent heart of the earth.<br />And you judges who would be just.</div>
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<br />What judgment pronounce you upon him who though honest in the flesh yet is a thief in spirit?<br />What penalty lay you upon him who slays in the flesh yet is himself slain in the spirit?<br />And how prosecute you him who in action is a deceiver and an oppressor,<br />Yet who also is aggrieved and outraged?</div>
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And how shall you punish those whose remorse is already greater than their misdeeds?<br />Is not remorse the justice which is administered by that very law which you would fain serve?<br />Yet you cannot lay remorse upon the innocent nor lift it from the heart of the guilty.<br />Unbidden shall it call in the night, that men may wake and gaze upon themselves.<br />And you who would understand justice, how shall you unless you look upon all deeds in the fullness of light?</div>
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<br />Only then shall you know that the erect and the fallen are but one man standing in twilight between the night of his pigmy-self and the day of his god self,<br />And that the corner-stone of the temple is not higher than the lowest stone in its foundation.</div>
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Alex Tanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04003300678212296112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2196408733789348967.post-31302746694650777642016-01-29T02:00:00.000-08:002016-01-29T02:00:11.791-08:00Khalil Gibran on Work<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhwFzy8gsMgiFBd0l3PIEsWimIfYFl2-gXrJ_eDyfpUL0XZV-G3mh2y7xQsOjrqysiZACSpCsQat447_MUARGOKFPRhsY7Z5BtTME96kJYi8HFXQQI-X8JAg7BHSjK97DrObWPOoIBdVWG/s1600/Gibran_Prophet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhwFzy8gsMgiFBd0l3PIEsWimIfYFl2-gXrJ_eDyfpUL0XZV-G3mh2y7xQsOjrqysiZACSpCsQat447_MUARGOKFPRhsY7Z5BtTME96kJYi8HFXQQI-X8JAg7BHSjK97DrObWPOoIBdVWG/s320/Gibran_Prophet.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large; text-align: justify;"><b>T</b><span style="font-size: medium;">HEN</span></span><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;"> a ploughman said, Speak to us of Work.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">And he answered, saying:</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons, and to step out of life’s procession that marches in majesty and proud submission towards the infinite.</span><br />
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When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music.<br />Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison?</div>
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Always you have been told that work is a curse and labour a misfortune.<br />But I say to you that when you work you fulfill a part of earth’s furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born,</div>
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<br />And in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life,</div>
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<br />And to love life through labour is to be intimate with life’s inmost secret.</div>
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But if you in your pain call birth an affliction and the support of the flesh a curse written upon your brow, then I answer that naught but the sweat of your brow shall wash away that which is written.</div>
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You have been told also that life is darkness, and in your weariness you echo what was said by the weary.</div>
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<br />And I say that life is indeed darkness save when there is urge,<br />And all urge is blind save when there is know ledge.<br />And all knowledge is vain save when there is work,<br />And all work is empty save when there is love;<br />And when you work with love you bind your self to yourself, and to one another, and to God.</div>
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And what is it to work with love?</div>
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<br />It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth.<br />It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house.<br />It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit.<br />It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit,<br />And to know that all the blessed dead are standing about you and watching.</div>
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Often have I heard you say, as if speaking in sleep, “He who works in marble, and finds the shape of his own soul in the stone, is nobler than he who ploughs the soil.<br />And he who seizes the rainbow to lay it on a cloth in the likeness of man, is more than he who makes the sandals for our feet.”</div>
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<br />But I say, not in sleep, but in the overwakefulness of noontide, that the wind speaks not more sweetly to the giant oaks than to the least of all the blades of grass;<br />And he alone is great who turns the voice of the wind into a song made sweeter by his own loving.</div>
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Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.</div>
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<br />For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger.<br />And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distills a poison in the wine.<br />And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man’s ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.</div>
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Alex Tanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04003300678212296112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2196408733789348967.post-73316966166907212612016-01-27T01:00:00.000-08:002016-01-27T01:00:00.218-08:00Khalil Gibran on Self Knowledge<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhwFzy8gsMgiFBd0l3PIEsWimIfYFl2-gXrJ_eDyfpUL0XZV-G3mh2y7xQsOjrqysiZACSpCsQat447_MUARGOKFPRhsY7Z5BtTME96kJYi8HFXQQI-X8JAg7BHSjK97DrObWPOoIBdVWG/s1600/Gibran_Prophet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhwFzy8gsMgiFBd0l3PIEsWimIfYFl2-gXrJ_eDyfpUL0XZV-G3mh2y7xQsOjrqysiZACSpCsQat447_MUARGOKFPRhsY7Z5BtTME96kJYi8HFXQQI-X8JAg7BHSjK97DrObWPOoIBdVWG/s320/Gibran_Prophet.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large; text-align: justify;"><b>A</b><span style="font-size: medium;">ND</span></span><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;"> a man said, Speak to us of Self-Knowledge.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">And he answered, saying:</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">Your hearts know in silence the secrets of the days and the nights.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">But your ears thirst for the sound of your heart’s knowledge.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">You would know in words that which you have always known in thought.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">You would touch with your fingers the naked body of your dreams.</span><br />
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And it is well you should.</div>
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<br />The hidden well-spring of your soul must needs rise and run murmuring to the sea;<br />And the treasure of your infinite depths would be revealed to your eyes.<br />But let there be no scales to weigh your unknown treasure;<br />And seek not the depths of your knowledge with staff or sounding line.<br />For self is a sea boundless and measureless.</div>
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Say not, “I have found the truth,” but rather, “I have found a truth.”<br />Say not, “I have found the path of the soul.” Say rather, “I have met the soul walking upon my path.”<br />For the soul walks upon all paths.<br />The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed.<br />The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals.</div>
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Alex Tanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04003300678212296112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2196408733789348967.post-10474744180197453352016-01-26T01:00:00.000-08:002016-01-26T01:00:10.560-08:00Khalil Gibran on Marriage<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhwFzy8gsMgiFBd0l3PIEsWimIfYFl2-gXrJ_eDyfpUL0XZV-G3mh2y7xQsOjrqysiZACSpCsQat447_MUARGOKFPRhsY7Z5BtTME96kJYi8HFXQQI-X8JAg7BHSjK97DrObWPOoIBdVWG/s1600/Gibran_Prophet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhwFzy8gsMgiFBd0l3PIEsWimIfYFl2-gXrJ_eDyfpUL0XZV-G3mh2y7xQsOjrqysiZACSpCsQat447_MUARGOKFPRhsY7Z5BtTME96kJYi8HFXQQI-X8JAg7BHSjK97DrObWPOoIBdVWG/s320/Gibran_Prophet.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large; text-align: justify;"><b>T</b><span style="font-size: medium;">HEN</span></span><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;"> Almitra spoke again and said, And what of Marriage, master?</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">And he answered saying:</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">You were born together, and together you shall be for evermore.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">But let there be spaces in your togetherness.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.</span><br />
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Love one another, but make not a bond of love:<br />Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.<br />Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup.<br />Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.<br />Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,<br />Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.</div>
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Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping.<br />For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.<br />And stand together yet not too near together:<br />For the pillars of the temple stand apart,<br />And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.</div>
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Alex Tanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04003300678212296112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2196408733789348967.post-51095528501933230882016-01-25T01:00:00.000-08:002016-01-25T01:00:13.632-08:00Khalil Girbran on Children<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhwFzy8gsMgiFBd0l3PIEsWimIfYFl2-gXrJ_eDyfpUL0XZV-G3mh2y7xQsOjrqysiZACSpCsQat447_MUARGOKFPRhsY7Z5BtTME96kJYi8HFXQQI-X8JAg7BHSjK97DrObWPOoIBdVWG/s1600/Gibran_Prophet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhwFzy8gsMgiFBd0l3PIEsWimIfYFl2-gXrJ_eDyfpUL0XZV-G3mh2y7xQsOjrqysiZACSpCsQat447_MUARGOKFPRhsY7Z5BtTME96kJYi8HFXQQI-X8JAg7BHSjK97DrObWPOoIBdVWG/s320/Gibran_Prophet.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large; text-align: justify;"><b>A</b><span style="font-size: medium;">ND</span></span><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;"> a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, Speak to us of Children.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">And he said:</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">Your children are not your children.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">They come through you but not from you,</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.</span><br />
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You may give them your love but not your thoughts,<br />For they have their own thoughts.<br />You may house their bodies but not their souls,<br />For their souls dwell in the house of to-morrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.<br />You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.<br />For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.<br />You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.<br />The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.<br />Let your bending in the Archer’s hand be for gladness;<br />For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.</div>
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Alex Tanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04003300678212296112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2196408733789348967.post-27294017785744018082016-01-24T00:30:00.000-08:002016-01-24T00:30:00.229-08:00Khalil Gibran on Love<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhwFzy8gsMgiFBd0l3PIEsWimIfYFl2-gXrJ_eDyfpUL0XZV-G3mh2y7xQsOjrqysiZACSpCsQat447_MUARGOKFPRhsY7Z5BtTME96kJYi8HFXQQI-X8JAg7BHSjK97DrObWPOoIBdVWG/s1600/Gibran_Prophet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhwFzy8gsMgiFBd0l3PIEsWimIfYFl2-gXrJ_eDyfpUL0XZV-G3mh2y7xQsOjrqysiZACSpCsQat447_MUARGOKFPRhsY7Z5BtTME96kJYi8HFXQQI-X8JAg7BHSjK97DrObWPOoIBdVWG/s320/Gibran_Prophet.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large; text-align: justify;"><b>T</b><span style="font-size: medium;">HEN</span></span><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;"> said Almitra, Speak to us of Love.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">And he raised his head and looked upon the people, and there fell a stillness upon them. And with a great voice he said:</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">When love beckons to you, follow him,</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">Though his ways are hard and steep.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">And When his wings enfold you yield to him,</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">And When he speaks to you believe in him,</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.</span><br />
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For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you.<br />Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.<br />Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,<br />So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.<br />Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.<br />He threshes you to make you naked.<br />He sifts you to free you from your husks.<br />He grinds you to whiteness.<br />He kneads you until you are pliant;<br />And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God’s sacred feast.</div>
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All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life’s heart.</div>
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But if in your fear you would seek only love’s peace and love’s pleasure,<br />Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love’s threshing-floor,<br />Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.</div>
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Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.<br />Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;<br />For love is sufficient unto love.</div>
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When you love you should not say, “God is in my heart,” but rather, “I am in the heart of God.”<br />And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.</div>
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Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.<br />But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:<br />To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.<br />To know the pain of too much tenderness.<br />To be wounded by your own understanding of love;<br />And to bleed willingly and joyfully.<br />To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;<br />To rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy;<br />To return home at eventide with gratitude;<br />And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.</div>
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Alex Tanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04003300678212296112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2196408733789348967.post-10657579937774477192016-01-23T19:50:00.000-08:002016-01-23T19:50:10.587-08:00Khalil Gibran on Giving<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhwFzy8gsMgiFBd0l3PIEsWimIfYFl2-gXrJ_eDyfpUL0XZV-G3mh2y7xQsOjrqysiZACSpCsQat447_MUARGOKFPRhsY7Z5BtTME96kJYi8HFXQQI-X8JAg7BHSjK97DrObWPOoIBdVWG/s1600/Gibran_Prophet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhwFzy8gsMgiFBd0l3PIEsWimIfYFl2-gXrJ_eDyfpUL0XZV-G3mh2y7xQsOjrqysiZACSpCsQat447_MUARGOKFPRhsY7Z5BtTME96kJYi8HFXQQI-X8JAg7BHSjK97DrObWPOoIBdVWG/s320/Gibran_Prophet.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large; text-align: justify;"><b>T</b><span style="font-size: medium;">HEN</span></span><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;"> said a rich man, Speak to us of Giving.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">And he answered:</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">You give but little when you give of your possessions.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them to morrow?</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">And to-morrow, what shall to-morrow bring to the over-prudent dog burying bones in the trackless sand as he follows the pilgrims to the holy city?</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">And what is fear of need but need itself?</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, the thirst that is unquenchable?</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">There are those who give little of the much which they have – and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">And there are those who have little and give it all.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue;</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">Through the hands of such as these God speaks, and from behind their eyes He smiles upon the earth.</span><br />
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IT is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding;<br />And to the open-handed the search for one who shall receive is joy greater than giving.<br />And is there aught you would withhold?<br />All you have shall some day be given;<br />Therefore give now, that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors’.</div>
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You often say, “I would give, but only to the deserving.”<br />The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture.<br />They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish.<br />Surely he who is worthy to receive his days and his nights is worthy of all else from you.<br />And he who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life deserves to fill his cup from your little stream.<br />And what desert greater shall there be, than that which lies in the courage and the confidence, nay the charity, of receiving?<br />And who are you that men should rend their bosom and unveil their pride, that you may see their worth naked and their pride unabashed?<br />See first that you yourself deserve to be a giver, and an instrument of giving.<br />For in truth it is life that gives unto life-while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness.</div>
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And you receivers – and you are all receivers – assume no weight of gratitude, lest you lay a yoke upon yourself and upon him who gives.<br />Rather rise together with the giver on his gifts as on wings;<br />For to be overmindful of your debt is to doubt his generosity who has the free-hearted earth for mother, and God for father.</div>
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Alex Tanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04003300678212296112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2196408733789348967.post-11037478300948312622016-01-23T19:46:00.001-08:002016-01-23T19:46:24.322-08:00On Friendship<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjALYMiLSjYrguAqjq3tkG8tCupxLAJg_7jKRf2NsRfREbxlcUBa8XqUWlw9eYG7RKOgODTCG9zJdL23fbnic1cuhFc9OHe3vNNvS7EW-2UNrPT2aeBWt_JkMlSrBzNzkzjhhhe100IzRBN/s1600/Gibran_Prophet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjALYMiLSjYrguAqjq3tkG8tCupxLAJg_7jKRf2NsRfREbxlcUBa8XqUWlw9eYG7RKOgODTCG9zJdL23fbnic1cuhFc9OHe3vNNvS7EW-2UNrPT2aeBWt_JkMlSrBzNzkzjhhhe100IzRBN/s320/Gibran_Prophet.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large; text-align: justify;"><b>A</b><span style="font-size: medium;">ND</span></span><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;"> a youth said, Speak to us of Friendship.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">And he answered, saying:</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">Your friend is your needs answered.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">And he is your board and your fireside.</span><br style="text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; text-align: justify;">For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.</span><br />
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When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the “nay” in your own mind, nor do you withhold the “aye.”<br />And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;<br />For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unclaimed.<br />when you part from your friend, you grieve not;<br />For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.<br />And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.<br />For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.</div>
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And let your best be for your friend.<br />If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.<br />For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?<br />Seek him always with hours to live.<br />For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.<br />And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.<br />For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.</div>
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Alex Tanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04003300678212296112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2196408733789348967.post-27402038502321448462016-01-22T06:26:00.001-08:002016-01-22T06:26:47.788-08:00Raining<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm2K8DlN6MBxKQphx16g9EmlYyxlK5eIZAd0QZd79a2nvj3T_9Ld5ajMMKMKo-jm3ie0I5oLvrvmdOIuAX3Uu9NRTqLKSivvoufJ_M-2_s7VsY-UbJaEeo9JopWk6BFHiZzs4uL1XVvoma/s1600/_DSC9613.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm2K8DlN6MBxKQphx16g9EmlYyxlK5eIZAd0QZd79a2nvj3T_9Ld5ajMMKMKo-jm3ie0I5oLvrvmdOIuAX3Uu9NRTqLKSivvoufJ_M-2_s7VsY-UbJaEeo9JopWk6BFHiZzs4uL1XVvoma/s400/_DSC9613.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain. </div>
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Alex Tanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04003300678212296112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2196408733789348967.post-78080977729228182722016-01-22T06:10:00.000-08:002016-01-22T06:10:05.916-08:00A Decade of Blogging<div style="line-height: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";">I have been blogging for ten years! The unsettling events of 2015 and the beginning of 2016 had so distracted me that that I almost let such an important anniversary slipped my mind! I started this blog on 21 January 2006. I posted my <a href="http://draltang01.blogspot.my/2008/07/one-thousand-post.html">1000th post</a> on 20 July 2008, 2001st post on 1 Jan 2010, and <a href="file:///C:/Users/Alex/Dropbox/myweb/%E2%80%9Dhttp://draltang01.blogspot.my/2015/02/my-3000th-blog-post.html%E2%80%9D">3000th post</a> on 11 Feb 2015. One of the features I like about blog is that I can easily retrieve previous posts, unlike Facebook or twitters. Blogging is part of my <a href="http://draltang01.blogspot.my/2010/06/digital-great-commission.html">digital Great Commission</a> activities.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">My very first post <i><a href="file:///C:/Users/Alex/Dropbox/myweb/%E2%80%9Dhttp://draltang01.blogspot.my/2006/01/why-i-begin-blogging.html%E2%80%9D">Why I begin blogging</a> </i>in 2006 states the reasons why I started the blog.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial";">• With the numerous viewpoints available, I want to add a distinctive Christian one</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";">• I support the open access of knowledge that the Internet offers</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";">• Use Web 2.0 as a platform to sharing our learning experiences</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";">• Be part of an online community</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">In time, my blogging activities expanded and so did my number of blogs. Aside from this blog, I also administer the following blogs, reflecting my diverse interests.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial";">• <a href="http://draltang.blogspot.my/">Random Writing from a Doctor’s Chair</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";">• <a href="http://draltang02.blogspot.my/">Random Sermon from a Doctor’s Chair</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";">• <a href="http://draltang03.blogspot.my/">Random Spirituality from a Doctor’s Chair</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";">• <a href="http://www.alextang.photography/#sthash.MN6B6IxF.dpbs">Random Photos from a Doctor’s Chair</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">My postings in the blogs have lessen in the last few years because of my increased involvement in </span><a href="http://www.facebook.com/draltang">Facebook</a>, <a href="http://www.twitter.com/alexthtang">Twitter</a>, <a href="http://www.my.linkedin.com/in/draltang">Linkedin</a>, <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/draltang">Pinterest</a>, <a href="http://www.plus.google.com/+draltang">Google Plus</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/draltang">Youtube</a>. This does not mean that I think that the importance of blogs has decreased. In fact, I believe that blogging has settled into the distinctive niche it was meant to be. Where Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest and Google Plus deal with the daily, social online interactions, blogs offers a place for longer, more reflective and reasoned articles to be posted.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">I will continue to blog </span></div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial";"><b> Spiritual discipline</b>. </span><span style="font-family: "arial";">Blogging is a spiritual discipline as I try to write at least 1,000 words daily. Not all of what I have written will be posted. Some will be published elsewhere. I find writing helps me to think and understand myself. It also helps me to experience God and engage with his creation.</span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br /></span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial";"><b>Teaching.</b> The Internet has grown tremendously in the last two decades. It has become the largest depository of knowledge mankind has ever created. It is also the largest collection of hubris. I will continue to present a Christian viewpoint from as far as I understand it. I do not pretend to know it all but I see the need for Christian counterpoint especially from an Asian perspective.</span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br /></span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial";"><b>Recommending.</b> I will continue to recommend good books, blog postings and websites. I find open sharing is very useful as others may also come across articles or post I am not aware of.</span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br /></span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial";"><b>Interaction.</b> I value interactions on my blogs and other social media. I value open minds and fellow seekers. However, I will not waste my time with biased, opinionated, rude bigots. We learn more in our interactions.</span><span style="font-family: "arial";"> </span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br /></span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial";"><b>Community.</b> My readers and friends are my online tribe and community. I value every one of them. Their comments and likes are much appreciated. I love the friendships we have formed online and in some cases in the physical world. It is always a pleasure to meet someone in the flesh whom we have met online. I am slowly going down the list and praying for each of my Facebook friends.</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="line-height: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";">Dear friends, thank you for reading this far and being part of my life. God bless you all. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial";">.</span></div>
Alex Tanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04003300678212296112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2196408733789348967.post-27943847716325120682014-08-28T21:17:00.000-07:002014-08-28T21:17:05.930-07:00Friends<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmVXJvcOazx0u5iX58BlllwD1xeMG8_MLWPJ9ejLoRNvRO6wpOMj8xJg1wTuttTM-OD_2GVT6GA2HIgicjfGsKqbij5s1yzvF_bl8nJ8FlPmyl4QJXKzPe2xjZX3FGGerDimAlkBACig0/s1600/_DSC1413.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmVXJvcOazx0u5iX58BlllwD1xeMG8_MLWPJ9ejLoRNvRO6wpOMj8xJg1wTuttTM-OD_2GVT6GA2HIgicjfGsKqbij5s1yzvF_bl8nJ8FlPmyl4QJXKzPe2xjZX3FGGerDimAlkBACig0/s1600/_DSC1413.JPG" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">true friends are those who know the worst in you, believe the best in you and love you all the same.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">.</span>Alex Tanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04003300678212296112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2196408733789348967.post-59051429317419449052014-08-28T21:16:00.002-07:002014-08-28T21:16:20.645-07:00Doors<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg6uoD4lTiZzrtDW6lHn79f9lpFJ6rGkV4bjPkLxpVCuwy7FU-l02q7XXo2i-zO8Zs5TyvojHI1B-ZLx6BOpHpoWT0bFD5js1mooAK5j8fA5s1Mncz8gJ1XGRrHT2Sq1BIUfpt45WtNqE/s1600/_DSC1594.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg6uoD4lTiZzrtDW6lHn79f9lpFJ6rGkV4bjPkLxpVCuwy7FU-l02q7XXo2i-zO8Zs5TyvojHI1B-ZLx6BOpHpoWT0bFD5js1mooAK5j8fA5s1Mncz8gJ1XGRrHT2Sq1BIUfpt45WtNqE/s1600/_DSC1594.JPG" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">what matters are not the closed doors but the ones that are open</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">.</span>Alex Tanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04003300678212296112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2196408733789348967.post-63293957219478655142014-08-28T21:15:00.003-07:002014-08-28T21:15:33.999-07:00Life<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgzf2e_gBWGTLyDTO-EvYVN-mDyrvDXocq93e_UsLTcSbUJOE3XcYYh_ClGMTKg8CY_4cuxVS9qMQkHcJ5eCtUIw1lYirmcp3uckn5oatkIN4PvBgWiDWT53p-fbxFbOzGjW-3otjTb_Y/s1600/L1000010-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgzf2e_gBWGTLyDTO-EvYVN-mDyrvDXocq93e_UsLTcSbUJOE3XcYYh_ClGMTKg8CY_4cuxVS9qMQkHcJ5eCtUIw1lYirmcp3uckn5oatkIN4PvBgWiDWT53p-fbxFbOzGjW-3otjTb_Y/s1600/L1000010-2.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />
a purpose-driven life is a life of love and obsession<br />
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<br />
.Alex Tanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04003300678212296112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2196408733789348967.post-57743892974471366722014-06-18T22:17:00.001-07:002014-06-18T22:17:27.377-07:00Conversation with my granddaughter about technology<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmVbA3TPWs9tc5mhg3N0hDioMbABwXCTOC-UiGAuFdDO9nU0bVGveVNO-GhwEqVas57TZ7HDaCbtPpS8hB7rDydkMClAUiie-RNcUJ4khmgCV3Xwmv09bM4w8foobgwZk5I8n7_ZT9dJQ/s1600/1064026_10152452204068465_2492144934804956794_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmVbA3TPWs9tc5mhg3N0hDioMbABwXCTOC-UiGAuFdDO9nU0bVGveVNO-GhwEqVas57TZ7HDaCbtPpS8hB7rDydkMClAUiie-RNcUJ4khmgCV3Xwmv09bM4w8foobgwZk5I8n7_ZT9dJQ/s1600/1064026_10152452204068465_2492144934804956794_o.jpg" height="263" width="400" /></a></div>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Hello little one. I can see that you are having a good
time with your iPad. Frankly I am amazed at how your little fingers interact so
effortless with the touch screen and how instinctively you seem to know your
way around an apps and to change to another apps when you are done with one.
Grampa will have taken hours to do what you did within minutes and even then
Grampa would need to consult an operating manual (if there is one
available). Things are changing so fast
that Grampa has difficulty keeping pace. Grampa is sure you will not be able to
imagine a world without mobile smartphones and Facetime where not only can you
talk to Grampa but also to see Grampa and show your latest achievement or
demonstrate some new acrobat skills you have developed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
This has not always been so, little one. In Grampa’s
younger days, there were no computers and mobile smartphones. Grampa had to use
a typewriter to write. What is a typewriter, you will ask. To show you, Grampa
will have to take you to a museum! You can still see the large house phone at
Grampa’s house but in time this will be replaced by the mobile phones.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
You grew up with rapidly changing technology so to you
are comfortable with it. To many big people technology is a big threat. They
will tell you that technology like the iPad will damage your brain and impair
your thinking skills. They will further espouse that mobile smartphones will
retard your communication skills and sense of community. Do not fear, little
one. Grampa do not believe this. As long as you master technology and not the
other way around, you will be okay. I am sure that when the printing press was
invented, there were a hue and cry about how the printed pages will distort the
thinking of those who read these words, the death of writing and the demise of
memory. Yet, the printing press has been with us for more that five hundred
years and after billion of books, our reshaped society cannot live without the
printed word. People still write with pen and paper. They can still use their
memory to remember things. Within reasonable limits they seem to be able to
think.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Grampa knows that the way you receive and process information
will be different from Grampa’s. Grampa’s mental processing tends to be linear
following the cause and effect progression. Yours will be new processes of
thinking that will take years of
research for educationalists and neuroscientist to understand. However this
will be the way your generation thinks. There is nothing wrong with that. What
you will think of, experience and create, Grampa, with all his imagination,
will never ever conceive of. When you invented a warp capable spaceship, don’t
forget to beam Grampa up!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Use technology but do not let technology be your master.
Use technology but do not be so dependent on technology that you cannot
function without it. Grampa can see that you have no problem with that at this
moment. You do your magic with your iPad but Grampa observes that you still go
back to your coloring pencils and sticker books. Grampa is happy with that
because Grampa is more competent in using color pencils than painting with the
iPad!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Dear Lord, help this little one to develop her mental
processes so that she will be able to use technology as a tool in her thinking
process. Teach and guide her to perceive and receive your truth as you reveal
yourself to her. Amen<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
.</div>
Alex Tanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04003300678212296112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2196408733789348967.post-76234880387709264102013-08-12T10:28:00.000-07:002013-08-12T10:28:17.963-07:00The False Shalom<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDsYixSYSCwodC7Bk8O1rVEjpf2BorJskeIPDi48OPSs0FEa8mDv9lv4MRZaZRE6zQ-jHdmy2j0PaWHozbzK0qvrb9AoSCy2z3mHZtRB5_IK8EFKH0w4hN7fMQmYHaHkwYXTfjStkobT-u/s1600/baby-face.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDsYixSYSCwodC7Bk8O1rVEjpf2BorJskeIPDi48OPSs0FEa8mDv9lv4MRZaZRE6zQ-jHdmy2j0PaWHozbzK0qvrb9AoSCy2z3mHZtRB5_IK8EFKH0w4hN7fMQmYHaHkwYXTfjStkobT-u/s1600/baby-face.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Wandering monkey mind,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
fleeting flighty thoughts,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
rapid shallow breathing,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
racing stressed heartbeats,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
ever restless moving body,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
the ‘shalom’ of stress.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Mindfulness of the moment,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
reflection of consciousness,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
deep breaths of life,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
slower drumbeats of mortality,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
body still, relaxed at rest,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
the shalom of eternity.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Why do we live with the false shalom?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
. </div>
Alex Tanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04003300678212296112noreply@blogger.com0