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Saturday, April 25, 2009

DID YOU HEAR THAT BIRD SING?


12

DID YOU HEAR THAT BIRD SING?


Hindu India developed a magnificent image to describe God's relationship with Creation.

God 'dances' Creation. He is the Dancer, Creation is his Dance.

The dance is different from the dancer,

yet it has no existence apart from him.

You cannot take it home in a box,

if it pleases you.

The moment the dancer stops, the dance ceases to be.


In our quest for God, we think too much, reflect too much, and talk too much.

Even when we look at this dance that we call creation,

we are the whole time thinking,

talking (to ourselves and others) reflecting,

analyzing, philosophizing. Words. Noise.


Be silent and contemplate the Dance.

Just look: a star, a flower, a fading leaf, a bird, a stone...

any fragment of the Dance will do.

Look. Listen. Smell. Touch. Taste.

And, hopefully, it won't be long before you see Him—the Dancer Himself!


The disciple was always complaining to his Master,

"You are hiding the final secret of Zen from me."

And he would not accept the Master's denials.

One day they were walking in the hills when they heard a bird sing.

"Did you hear that bird sing?" said the Master.

"Yes," said the disciple.

"Well, now you know that I have hidden nothing from you."

"Yes."


If you really heard a bird sing,

if you really saw a tree...

you would know.

Beyond words and concepts.

What was that you said?

You have heard dozens of birds sing and seen hundreds of trees?

Ah, was it the tree you saw or the label?

If you look at a tree and see a tree,

you have really not seen the tree.

When you look at the tree and see a miracle—

then, at last, you have seen!


Did your heart never fill with wordless wonder when you heard a bird in song?


THE SONG OF THE BIRD

Anthony de Mello S. J.

MONKEY SALVATION FOR A FISH

7

MONKEY SALVATION FOR A FISH


"What on earth are you doing?"

said I to the monkey

when I saw him Hit a fish from the water

and place it on a tree.

"I am saving it from drowning'," was the reply.


The sun that gives sight to the eagle blinds the owl.


THE SONG OF THE BIRD

Anthony de Mello S. J.



Friday, April 17, 2009

THE SONG OF THE BIRD


3

THE SONG OF THE BIRD


The disciples were full of questions about God.

Said the Master, "God is Unknown, the Unknowable.

Every statement about Him,

every answer to your questions,

is a distortion of the Truth."

The disciples were bewildered.

"Then why do you speak about Him at all?"

"Why does the bird sing?" said the Master.

Not because he has a statement, but because he has a song.



The words of the Scholar are to be understood.

The words of the Master are not to be understood.

They are to be listened to as one listens to the wind in the trees and the sound of the river and the song of the bird.

They will awaken something within the heart that is beyond all knowledge.


THE SONG OF THE BIRD

Anthony de Mello