Birds

Looking out our hotel window here in Dingle, Ireland I noticed a beautiful little black and white bird I’ve never seen before. So cute. It was hopping around the gravel next to the driveway obviously looking for insects. This little bird looked somewhat like a few seabirds I’ve seen...but miniaturized. And it made sense that this was in fact some type of seabird as Dingle sits on a bay facing the Atlantic.

That night at dinner I saw another through the window and asked the waiter what kind of bird it was as he was Irish, probably local and perhaps grew up seeing these birds often. “I don’t know” he replied, “It’s just a bird.”

Now, he was in his 20’s, maybe having a bad day or tired of tiring tourists like me so I’ll give him a break but... how appalling to be so disconnected that you seem to have no curiosity and place little value on the life around you.

During our drive here we stopped at a sheep farm and were treated to an exhibition of a boarder collie and his trainer moving a flock around a huge rocky pasture. The dog seemed to love his work and between her and her young master they maneuvered those sheep with ease. And the sheep were amazing in their togetherness...running in a protective group... side by side jammed tight against each other. It was something to see.

Later, I saw a colony of 10 or so seagulls walking a freshly plowed field together, a murder of crows lined up on a tree limb, and cattle everywhere in the fields... but never alone...always near one another. In Dingle town itself there were crowds of people. It seems that all beings seek the comfort of their own kind, and it struck me, not for the first time or yours of course, that there is wonder in all this and what a pity it is if one is unaware or uncaring about the life around us.

© Steve Stewart and SeeNextRock, 2019.  Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Steve Stewart and SeeNextRock with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Gems of Congnition

I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and when I was 19 years old I came across this little book called Gems of Cognition.  It was written by a Hindu Yogi named Sri Subramuniya in 1958 and was published by Christian Yoga Publications in San Francisco.  The book consists of 108 excerpts and paraphrases from his book Cognizantability.  (I don't think that is an actual word!)  This book and a poster I often saw in Haight-Ashbury (when my friends and I drove up there to buy weed) kick-started my interest in Eastern philosophy and religion.  The poster was of an Indian Mystic named Meher Baba.  Here he is:

The poster said this under his photo:
I AM THE ANCIENT ONE
I was Rama.  I was Krishna.
I was this one.  I was that one.
And now I am Meher Baba.

He was an interesting guy.  Now, before you start criticizing me about being a naive stoned-out hippizoid in my youth please remember that...yes, I probably was just that.  I was young and in the era.  Unfortunately many of my age group have forgotten all about this era...to all our detriment.  Peace and Love.  Nothing wrong with that.

 Getting back to the little book though:  one of the excerpts said this:  "You are not your mind, because you can control you mind with your will."  I've been ruminating about this statement now for over 50 years and for many of those years attributed it wrongly to Meher Baba...haha.   Anyway, I know that you know that this statement is true.  Here's the kicker though:  If you are controlling your mind with your will what are you controlling your will with?  It seems there are three separate things going on here.  Here's what I've decided:  I don't know.  I can't resolve this concept.  Somewhere back in my past though I remember some guru saying that:  "All concepts are false."  So there's that.