Reading section 3

108 God is ashamed when the prosperous boasts of His special favour.

109 I cast my own shadow upon my path, because I have a lamp that has not been lighted.

110 Man goes into the noisy crowd to drown his own clamour of silence.

111 That which ends in exhaustion is death, but the perfect ending is in the endless.

112 The sun has his simple robe of light. The clouds are decked with gorgeousness.

113 The hills are like shouts of children who raise their arms, trying to catch stars.

114 The road is lonely in its crowd for it is not loved.

115 The power that boasts of its mischiefs is laughed at by the yellow leaves that fall, and clouds that pass by.

116 The earth hums to me to-day in the sun, like a woman at her spinng, some ballad of the ancient time in a forgotten tongue.

117 The grass-blade is worth of the great world where it grows.

118 Dream is a wife who must talk. Sleep is a husband who silently suffers.

119 The night kisses the fading day whispering to his ear, "I am death, your mother. I am to give you fresh birth."

120 I feel, thy beauty, dark night, like that of the loved woman when she has put out the lamp.

121 I carry in my world that flourishes the worlds that have failed.

122 Dear friend, I feel the silence of your great thoughts of may a deepening eventide on this beach when I listen to these waves.

123 The bird thinks it is an act of kindness to give the fish a lift in the air.

124 "In the moon thou sendest thy love letters to me," said the night to the sun.

"I leave my answers in tears upon the grass."

125 The Great is a born child; when he dies he gives his great childhood to the world.

126 Not hammerstrokes, but dance of the water sings the pebbles into perfection.

127 Bees sip honey from flowers and hum their thanks when they leave. The gaudy butterfly is sure that the flowers owe thanks to him.

128 To be outspoken is easy when you do not wait to speak the complete truth.

129 Asks the Possible to the Impossible, "Where is your dwelling place?"

"In the dreams of the impotent," comes the answer.

130 If you shut your door to all errors truth will be shut out.

131 I hear some rustle of things behind my sadness of heart,--I cannot see them.

132 Leisure in its activity is work. The stillness of the sea stirs in waves.

133 The leaf becomes flower when it loves. The flower becomes fruit when it worships.

134 The roots below the earth claim no rewards for making the branches fruitful.

135 This rainy evening the wind is restless. I look at the swaying branches and ponder over the greatness of all things.

136 Storm of midnight, like a giant child awakened in the untimely dark, has begun to play and shout.

137 Thou raisest thy waves vainly to follow thy lover. O sea, thou lonely bride of the storm.

138 "I am ashamed of my emptiness," said the Word to the Work. "I know how poor I am when I see you," said the Work to the Word.

139 Time is the wealth of change, but the clock in its parody makes it mere change and no wealth.

140 Truth in her dress finds facts too tight. In fiction she moves with ease.

141 When I travelled to here and to there, I was tired of thee, O Road, but now when thou leadest me to everywhere I am wedded to thee in love.

142 Let me think that there is one among those stars that guides my life through the dark unknown.

143 Woman, with the grace of your fingers you touched my things and order came out like music.

144 One sad voice has its nest among the ruins of the years. It sings to me in the night,--"I loved you."

145 The flaming fire warns me off by its own glow. Save me from the dying embers hidden under ashes.

146 I have my stars in the sky, But oh for my little lamp unlit in my house.

147 The dust of the dead words clings to thee. Wash thy soul with silence.

148 Gaps are left in life through which comes the sad music of death.

149 The world has opened its heart of light in the morning. Come out, my heart, with thy love to meet it.

150 My thoughts shimmer with these shimmering leaves and my heart sings with the touch of this sunlight; my life is glad to be floating with all things into the blue of space, into the dark of time.

151 God's great power is in the gentle breeze, not in the storm.

152 This is a dream in which things are all loose and they oppress. I shall find them gathered in thee when I awake and shall be free.

153 "Who is there to take up my duties?" asked the setting sun.

"I shall do what I can, my Master," said the earthen lamp.

154 By plucking her petals you do not gather the beauty of the flower.

155 Silence will carry your voice like the nest that holds the sleeping birds.

156 The Great walks with the Small without fear. The Middling keeps aloof.

157 The night opens the flowers in secret and allows the day to get thanks.

158 Power takes as ingratitude the writhings of its victims.

159 When we rejoice in our fulness, then we can part with our fruits with joy.

160 The raindrops kissed the earth and whispered,--"We are thy homesick children, mother, come back to thee from the heaven."

161 The cobweb pretends to catch dew-drops and catches flies.

162 Love! when you come with the burning lamp of pain in your hand, I can see your face and know you as bliss.

163 "The learned say that your lights will one day be no more." said the firefly to the stars.

The stars made no answer.