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The Bird on the Pole



Posted: Sunday, June 24, 2007

by
Dhammabucha Rocksprings Meditation

There is a bird that sits atop a high telephone pole in the woods across from my house. I watch it almost every morning. This morning as I was watching it, my neighbor walked by. He exercises his arms as he walks by moving them up and down dramatically in cadence with his walking like two pumps. The bird watched him for a moment.

I wondered if the bird was aware that she (or he, not sure which, it really doesn’t matter) should be exercising so that her health remained robust? Probably not; she doesn't seem concerned with her health at all. She simply sits there, pruning herself, looking about here and there and singing profusely.

And I wondered about life, as I watched my bird, and wondered if she worried about death. Every morning she acted as if this was the first morning of her life, so bright and full of hope, interested in everything that passed below no matter how many times she had seen them before.

I remember a Roshi once telling me that Zen is ordinary life, but I didn’t understand what he was saying then. At the time, I thought that Zen was a metaphysical escape from life, but of course I was wrong, as a new trainee seems to always be. I didn’t yet believe that ordinary life was everything . . . but my bird understood.

She understood to the point that all concepts of life had disappeared, until there was only life itself; bare, essential, immaculate, beautiful. Within her small world, a world that contained the entire universe, her incredible moment to moment discoveries unveiled themselves, so dramatically, so precious and amazing that all she could do was break out into spontaneous song.

I knew that one day I would find my bird at the bottom of the telephone pole, dead. Birds don't live long. I was sure that she would die there. But I don’t think that she would be sad when she died, I believe that she would look upon her death as she looked upon her life; full of hope and anticipation.

And with a song ever in her heart.

E. Raymond Rock of Fort Myers, Florida is cofounder and principal teacher at the Southwest Florida Insight Center, www.SouthwestFloridaInsightCenter.com His twenty-eight years of meditation experience has taken him across four continents, including two stopovers in Thailand where he practiced in the remote northeast forests as an ordained Theravada Buddhist monk. His book, A Year to Enlightenment (Career Press/New Page Books) is now available at major bookstores and online retailers. Visit www.AYearToEnlightenment.com

E. Raymond Rock (anagarika eddie) is a meditation teacher at the DhammaRocksprings Theravada Buddhist Meditation Retreat Center: http://www.dhammarocksprings.org and author of “A Year to Enlightenment: http://www.amazon.com/Year-Enlightenment-Steps-Enriching-Living/dp/1564148912

He lived at Wat Pah Nanachat under Ajahn Chah, at Wat Pah Baan Taad under Ajahn Maha Boowa, and at Wat Pah Daan Wi Weg under Ajahn Tui. He had been a postulant at Shasta Abbey, a Zen Buddhist monastery in northern California under Roshi Kennett; and a Theravada Buddhist anagarika at both Amaravati Monastery in the UK and Bodhinyanarama Monastery in New Zealand, both under Ajahn Sumedho. The author has meditated with the Korean Master Sueng Sahn Sunim; with Bhante Gunaratana at the Bhavana Society in West Virginia; and with the Tibetan Master Trungpa Rinpoche in Boulder, Colorado. He has also practiced at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, and the Zen Center in San Francisco.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)
» left by Steve Radford
 4 years 189 days ago.
46 fans.
Great vision E. Thanks for sharing it.
» left by 4 years 189 days ago.
We share the vision, Steve. Thanks.
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