The Song of Sun
All the 10,000 things begin to sing together,
The Song of Songs,
The Song lifts the mind and the mind sees the shining, golden light of pure love.
And there, is all there is, merging into a Oneness, “I AM;”
But to stare into the divine brilliance is misguided and is to go blind.
It sings: By this brilliance, look back to the beauty of the 10,000 things!
Love Sun by loving Sunflower,
Love Source in loving others.
All the physical world is symbol.
The sun of this world is not the source of sun’s meaning, sun’s song;
Meaning, the Song, gives rise to sun.
All the 10,000 things have a song,
The Song of Songs sings the myriad songs,
The songs sing the 10,000 into being.
To see the symbol as its own source results
from forgetting the Song;
The forgetting of the Song arises from a desire for control.
The desire for control arises from the delusion of separate self.
Science will chase understanding, logic will plum for meaning,
The mind will search deeper and deeper,
But the edge never can reach beyond its own border;
The fractal is endless but never arrives, never escapes its own confines.
Such is materialistic and self-driven logic.
Where such logic ends, there life begins.
Wading
After basking, my teacher lowered his leg, stretched his neck, and meditatively strode to the water’s edge. Methodically, without rush, he stepped into the creek and waded into the deeper flow. The current, though significant, streamed seamlessly around Heron’s tall, skinny legs, which posed almost no resistance. Close to midstream, he stopped. I watched in anticipation of the hunt, but had to wait. My teacher simply stood, completely at peace.
The Teaching:
Know the earth, feel the current,
But rest on a higher truth, secure and undisturbed
Observe from above.
Without elevation, there is no stability,
The current sweeps away the value
The effort ends in futility.
Let all things flow past without grasping
Leaving no hold to snag or drag down.
The sage is not concerned with possessions or position,
And so the water cannot possess or move him out of position.
The sage is not interested in control,
And so the water does not control her.
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One of the marvelous features of the Great Blue Heron is very tall and very thin legs. What provides elevation above the currents of life that might otherwise drag us downstream? Spiritual truth. Spiritual ideas have the power to elevate the receptive mind to higher values and higher vision of things. If spiritual truth is one leg, the other is spiritual practice—meditation, mindfulness, gratitude, and service.
Gratitude requires humility and so cannot exist within an ego-filled mind. Practicing gratitude elevates us above grasping and craving. Acts of service do not readily appear to lift the mind above the fray of desire and drama of life, but serving the wellbeing of all life cultivates the higher will and so lifts us up above egoic volition. Seeking the benefit of all beings raises a higher perspective. Detachment from egoic engagement in the world is ultimately inseparable from engagement in the world with selfless love. Indifference is a form of selfish engagement. The heron snaps up the fish to feed her family. The sage takes opportunities to provide for the wellbeing of others. That is the food of the soul.
How do I know that what I know as true is not false, and how do I know that what I know is good is not bad? The world was flat and the sun orbited it, until it wasn’t and it didn’t, and great atrocities have been committed in the name of justice and good. Leaving off reliance on intellect and personal willfulness, we find that we stand on the tall, thin, but sturdy and strong legs of trust and gratitude.
Heron is like a tree—reaches high, but is grounded and feeds others.
We must stretch upwards to learn a lot about spiritual reality and higher truth. Again, we can look to trees. They too reach up to catch as much light as possible. If we want higher truth, we won’t allow a single path to restrict us. It is obvious that just because we are born into a religious tradition doesn’t make it exclusively right or best. Just because others say it is exclusively right or dangerous to think outside the box doesn’t mean they are right. Just because the scriptures of some tradition claim exclusive rights to God doesn’t mean they are true. In fact, the more anyone or any book claims to be the only source of truth and goodness, the mores suspect it is in the same way a person who claims to be better than everyone else is—by that very statement—more likely worse than most.
Truth is broad and for everyone. Our Heavenly Father has many children and He loves each one of them. He reaches out to communicate to all of them in different ways. It isn’t a competition, faith is a celebration. It isn’t an exclusive country club, heaven is an expansive land that welcomes all who are willing to make love and wisdom more important than self and rightness.
So we explore truth everywhere we can find it. We seek wisdom in all things, all people, all books, and all places. If we are honest, we will soon see that wisdom is of love, and love is of wisdom. Therefore, to develop tall legs, we also will learn how to love better and better. We will practice what we learn and in the practicing, we will find that we are being given a higher and higher perspective on life, one that makes wading through life’s ups and downs easier and easier, more and more enjoyable. The fact that you are bothering to read this book indicates you are looking for higher things and are willing to look in unusual places for it.
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