Day 17 - A Bird in the hand - Gone

Today was one of those days when my meditation focus had to change as new events occurred and had a huge impact on me. Pause for a moment, and try to meditate on How do we deal with a bird in the hand?

The story I will tell you tries to answer this simple question: "A rare bird flying for the first time after leaving its nest was happy and overconfident, but his wings were not strong enough and he could not fly over the tree tops, risked flying low, and hit hard a wall. Still conscious, but a bit desoriented, the bird was flapping its wings anxiously hoping to fly again, but he was hurt and could not fly anymore. Meanwhile, walking happily with her dog, a woman saw the rare bird jumping and trying to fly on the ground, and she felt so sorry for him and very carefully took the bird in her hands in an attempt to save him from ferocious predators that might pass by. She put the bird in a safe place away from the ground. However, the woman's dog was watching the whole scene and followed her owner to the place where the bird was safely resting. After the woman left the place, the dog came back, grabbed the bird with her mouth and took him to her owner as a prize, a catch. Terrified with the scene, the woman saw the rare bird she had just saved killed by her dog."

Rare Bird

Different from the famous proverb, "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush", my meditation today is based on "a bird in the hand is gone".
What is the moral of this bird parable?

There is not fixed moral, it all depends on the level of understanding we have, for example, do not attempt to save a broken wing bird while walking a dog, it might kill it instead of heal it. Helping others is welcome when we are not a threat to them.

 In my meditation, I see so many levels of undertanding of this real story. Yes, I was the woman trying her best to save the bird. My dog, on the other hand, to please me and show me how smart she is, killed the rare bird. I am still  mourning his death. I share this story so the bird have not died in vain. So to bring you this message of compassion, forgiveness, love and understanding, My suffering is healing. I am developing deep looking.
This bird was a young and strong creature. The act of saving the bird put me in touch with his bird world, the connection we made was magical, I touched his whole body, his wonderful feathers, we looked in each other in the eye, we talked to each other in our way. He was a rare bird, a very beautiful bird.
When this bird was wounded, I tried my best to help him. I did feel guilty, my own dog killed him. But I also know that a bird that cannot fly will probably die soon. Saving him was an attempt to prolongue his life and consequently his suffering. According to the Buddhist vision, I should not worry. My dog abbreviated his life and his suffering.
But I do suffer and feel guilt, this loss reverberates with my own loss, and sometimes it is difficult to heal. If one arrow strikes you, you will suffer. if a second arrows hits you in the same spot, you will suffer one hundred times more. so when I have pain or feel guilt, or feel I am a victim of injustice, I shall breath in and out and say to myself: "it is only pain from loosing a rare bird".

I hope this meditation will help me to transform my pain and suffer less, be less attached to the pain I imagined the bird might have had too.

Instead, I want to Imagine this rare bird flying strong and free, healed, and born again.

The song I chose to dance is Jack Johnson's Gone. It is about  people that are careless with the world and consumed by things..., and birds that don't want to sing... and all these things one day are gone!
We have the capacity of receiving, embracing and transforming pain when we understand with deep looking. 

Namaste


"Gone"

look at all those fancy clothes
but these could keep us warm just like those
and what about your soul is it cold
is it straight from the mold and ready to be sold
and cars and phones and diamond rings
those are only removable things
and what about your mind does it shine
or are there things that concern you more than your time
gone going gone everything gone give a damn
gone be the birds when they don’t want to sing
gone people all awkward with their things, gone
look at you out to make a deal
you try to be appealing but you loose your appeal
what about those shoes you’re in today
they’ll do no good on the bridges you’ve burnt along the way
you willing to sell anything, gone with your herd
leave your footprints and we’ll shame them with our words
gone people all careless and consumed, gone
gone going gone everything gone give a damn
gone be the birds if they don’t want to sing
gone people all awkward with their things, gone