120 philosophical essays you must read in your life

Chapter 20

Chapter 1 Chapter 19 Between You and Me

[Lebanon] Gibran
Your mind advocates the pursuit of fame and limelight, but mine advises me, implores me to put aside these worldly fame, like a grain of sand scattered on the beach of heaven.

Your mind instills arrogance and a sense of superiority in you.

My thoughts sow a love of peace and a desire for independence in my heart.

Your mind dreams of sweet dreams, of jeweled sandalwood furniture and silken beds.

My thoughts whispered in my ear, "Even if you have nowhere to rest your head, keep your body and mind clean."

Your thoughts make you pray for status and status.

My mind counsels me to serve others humbly.

You have your thoughts and I have mine, that's the difference between you and me.

Your mind is a social science, a dictionary of religion and politics.

My thinking is a simple truth.

Your mind is constantly talking about beautiful women, ugly women, good women, prostitutes, cultured women and stupid women.

My mind sees every woman as a man's mother, sister or daughter.

The subjects of your mind are thieves, criminals, and murderers.

My mind asserts that thieves are offspring of monopolies, criminals offspring of tyrants, murderers and murderers alike.

Your thoughts describe laws, courts, trials and punishments.

My thinking explains that when people make laws, they don't want to violate them or obey them.If there is a fundamental law, then we must be treated the same before it.

Your mind is concerned with people of skill: artists, intellectuals, philosophers and teachers.

My thoughts speak of love, devotion, sincerity, honesty, candor, kindness and sacrifice.

In your mind there are the rich, the poor and the beggar.

In my thoughts there is no wealth, only life, we are all beggars, there are no benefactors, only life itself.

You have your thoughts, I have mine.

【Together with you】

We cannot say that a poor-minded person is rich; nor can we say that a rich-minded person is poor.

Because the most important thing that determines whether a person is noble or not is his thought.The difference between rich and poor is not the amount of money, but the vastness of the free mind.A rich man doesn't have any space for his heart other than making money. Can we say he is rich?We also have no reason to say that a person who comes from a poor family but has a wide spiritual field is poor.

(End of this chapter)