DO YOU HEAR THAT BIRD SING?

Hindu India developed a lovely image to describe the relationship between God and his Creation. God ‘dances’ his Creation. He is the Dancer, his Creation is the Dance. The dance is different from the dancer, and yet it has no existence apart from Him. You cannot take it home with you in a box, if it pleases you. The moment the dancers stops, the dance ceases to exist.

In his quest for God, man thinks too much, reflects too much, talks too much. Even when he looks at his dance that we call creation , he is the whole time thinking, talking (to himself and others), reflecting , analyzing, philosophizing, Words, words, words. Noise, noise, noise.

Be silent and look at 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 constant complaint of the disciple to his Zen Master was, ‘You are hiding the final secret of Zen from me. ‘and he refused to believe the Master’s denials.
The Master one day took him for a walk along the hills. While they were walking 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.’
If you really hear a bird sing, if you really saw a tree… you would know –beyond words and concepts.
What was that you said? That you have heard dozens of birds sing and seen hundreds of trees? Ah, was it the tree you saw or the label? When you look at a tree and see a tree, you have really not seen the tree. When you look at a tree and see a miracle- then, at last, you have seen a tree! Did your heart ever fill with wordless wonder when you heard the song of a bird?

True Spirituality

taken from awakeninthenow.com

The Master was asked, ‘ What is Spirituality?’
He said, spirituality is that which succeeds in bringing man to Inner Transformation.;
;But if I apply the traditional methods handed down by the Masters, is that not Sp?;
‘It is not Spirituality if it does not perform its function for you. A blanket is no longer a blanket if it does not keep you warm.’
‘So spirituality does change?’
‘People change and needs change. So what was Spirituality once is Spirituality no more. What generally goes under the name of Spirituality is merely the record of past methods.’
Cut the coat to fit the person. Don’t but the person to fit the coat.

THE LITTLE FISH is searching!

‘Excuse me, ‘ said one ocean fish to another, ‘You are older and more experienced than I , and will probably be able to help me. Tell me: where can I find this thing they call the Ocean? I’ve been searching for it everywhere to no avail.’

‘The Ocean, ‘said the older fish, ‘is what you are swimming in now.’
‘Oh this? But his is only water. What I’m searching for is the Ocean,’ said the young fish, feeling quite disappointed as the swan away to search elsewhere.
He came to the Master dressed in sannyasi robes.
And he spoke the language of the sannyasi: for years now I have been searching for God.
I left home and have sought him everywhere that he is said to be: on mountain peaks, in the heart of the desert, in the silence of monasteries and in the slums of the poor.

‘have you found him?’ the Master asked.
‘ I should be a conceited, lying man were I to say Yes. No, I have not found him. Have you?
What could the master say to him? The evening sun was sending shafts of golden light into the room. Hundreds of sparrows were twittering merrily away on a nearby banyan tree. In the distance one could hear the sound of highway traffic. A mosquito droned close to the ear, warning that it was about to strike…and yet this good man could sit there and say he had not found God, that he was still searching for Him.

- After a while he left the Master’s room, disappointed. He went to search elsewhere..

- Little fish, stop searching. There’s nothing to look for. Just be still, open your eyes, and look…you cannot miss it.

THE BAMBOOS

Brownie, our dog, sat in perfect attention, ears cocking , tail tensely wagging, eyes alert, looking up at the tree. He was after a monkey. Just one thing filled the whole of this conscious horizon: the monkey. And since he has no min, there was not a single thought that came to disturb his total absorption: no thought of what he would eat tonight, or whether there would be anything to eat at all, or where he would sleep. Brownie was the nearest thing to Contemplation that I have seen.
You may have experienced some of this yourself sometimes, for instance when you were totally absorbed watching a kitten at play. Here is a formula for Contemplation, as good as any other I know: be totally in the present.

Quite a tall order, really: Drop every thought of the future, drop every thought of the past- in fact, just drop every thought, period, and become totally present. Contemplation will occur. Contemplation will occur!
After years of training, the disciple
Begged his Master to give him Enlightenment. The Master led him to a bamboo grove and said to him, ‘See that bamboo, how tall it is. See that other one there, how short it is.’
At that very moment, the disciple was enlightened.
They say Buddha tried every spiritually, every form of asceticism, every discipline that was available in the India of his times, in the effort to attain enlightenment. All in vain. Finally he sat under a bodhi tree one day, and was enlightened. Eh passed on the secret of enlightenment to his disciples in words that must seem mysterious to the uninitiated, particularly to the man who deals in thoughts. When you draw in a deep breath, oh monks, be aware that you are drawing in a deep breath. And when you draw in a shallow breath, oh monks, be aware that you are drawing in a shallow breath. And when you draw in a medium-sized breath, oh monks, be aware that you are drawing in a medium-sized breath.’ Awareness. Attention. Absorption. No more.
This kind of absorption one observes in little children. They have easy access to the Kingdom of Heaven.

The smart rabbit & The cruel lion ....corrected

Many animals lived in a beautiful forest where a strong and cruel lion attacked and killed them those days.

The animals were fed up. Finally they made a big decision! They decided to surrender themselves to the lion by chance till others were more secured. One day a rabbit was selected. She was playing with her cute kids in her house. She got to a sad she couldn’t handle it. On her way to lion’s nest she received to a well and look at the bottle of the well. Suddenly she came up with an idea!She went to the lion’s nest; the lion was hungry and also terribly angry, because the rabbit was late. But she explained that she had seen a stronger and more powerful lion on her way! The lion was green with envy and asked her to take her to the lion’s place. Finally they got to the well and the jealous lion saw other lion in the well that was actually his own picture in the water. He jumped into the well to kill the lion!

So! Being smart is more important than being powerful.

Eat Your Own fruit

A disciple once complained to his Master:
You tell us stories, but you never reveal their meaning to us”
Said the Master:
How would you like it if someone
offered you fruit and masticated it
before giving it to you?
No one can find your meaning for you
Not even the Master.

The Search for the Ass

Everyone became alarmed when they saw Mulla, mounted on this ass,

Charging through the streets of the village.

‘Where are you off to, Mulla?’ they asked.

‘I’m searching for my ass, ; said the Mulla as he whizzed by.

-         The Zen Master Rinzai was once seen searching for his body. It provided endless amusement to his unenlightened disciples.

-         One even comes across people who are seriously searching for God!

Salt and Cotton in the River

Nasruddin was taking a load of salt to the market.

His donkey waded through the river and the salt dissolved .

when it reached the opposite bank the animal ran around in circles,

overjoyed hat its load had been lightened.

But Nasruddin was annoyed.

On the next market day he packed the panniers with cotton.

The ass nearly drowned with the increase of weight when it crossed the river.

‘There! Said Nasruddin gleefully. ‘That will teach you to think that each time you go through water you stand to gain!’

·  Two men walked into religion. One was enlivened, the other drowned.

Monkey Salvation for a Fish

‘what on earth are you doing?’ said I

to the monkey when I  saw him lift a

fish out of the water and place it

on the branch of a tree.

‘ I am saving it from drowning,’ was the reply.

• One man’s meat is another man’s poison.

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

The Song of the Bird

The disciples were full of questions about God.
Said the Master, ‘God is the Unknown
And the Unknowable. Every statement made 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.
A bird does not sing because he has an statement.
He sings 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 rive and the song of the bird.
They will awaken something within the heart that is beyond all knowledge.