Why Things Change when you Accept them... and the teacher with wings.

The teacher with wings

As some of you know, from watching the Instagram Stories a strange thing happened a couple of weeks ago.

As I drove down the street near my house, and approached a busy intersection, I saw a bird sitting right in the middle of the street.

I only saw it when I was too close to do anything, so I slowly drove over it, hoping it doesn't fly or move.

As expected it did not. It was hurt, probably hit by a car.

I drove about half a mile, as I headed to a bookstore before it closed. 

For some reason I couldn't shake off the thought of this bird, and I felt sure that given where it was on the intersection, it would be run over.

So I turned around, drove back, parked my car, walked the busy intersection where he was, and picked him up.

I walked a little distance before putting him down in the grass.

He didn't move.

He looked dehydrated and unable to do anything about his situation. So I scooped him up again, put him inside my jacket and brought him home.

 He stayed still. Not resisting me anymore.

Once I brought him home, my son and his friends checked out the bird. I asked them to be gentle, and they were.

We gave him water, some food, and then put him in a box to rest.


The next day he flew away, leaving a strange melancholy behind.

For some reason I still couldn't stop thinking about him.

Something about the little bird was special.


When I pondered what it was, it came to me.

When I picked him up from the street, I remember his eyes were closed.

But he wasn't asleep.

When I fed him water, he was again sitting with his eyes closed, but showed no apparent distress.

He was exhausted of course, but it was more than that.


It was as if he had completely surrendered to his situation.

Not intellectually, like humans, but spontaneously, as if that was in his nature.

There was nothing he could do.

There was nothing he needed to do.

Except wait for his strength to return.

He gave in.

He let the universe takes its course.

At one point, my dog tried to eat him too, but he didn't bite him, just gently picked up and dropped the bird.

Again the bird showed no signs of being too shaken by it.

He withstood an incredibly wild day on what must be a routine flight home.

He got hit by a car. He sat on the street as the wheels drove over him. He was picked up by a human. He was surrounded by children. He was almost eaten by a dog. He got put in a box.

But he never fought life, for one second. He was just one with it.

He was ready to die, and therefore death spared him.

Such is the strange way of life.

Perhaps we can heal too, if we don't resist so much.

Perhaps we can find that protection which exists underneath all existence too, if we learn to align ourselves with existence.


A quote I read a long time from J. Krishnamurti came to mind.

"The strength of a flower is not revealed in its ability to endure, but in its ability to withstand a casual death. That is why it covers the earth."

We believe that strength is the willingness to fight, to resist and to overcome.

That is strength too.

Yet there is another form of strength which is unreachable to the modern conditioned human brain, the strength of acceptance.

The problem of Action 

A common problem is the doubt we have about this way of life.

If I accept, how will I change the problem?

If I accept I am poor, how will I get any money?

This is because acceptance doesn't mean there is no action, but that the action comes from a place of non-resistance to reality.

First accept you are poor, to take that example.

Stop judging yourself. Stop criticizing and blaming yourself or someone else, for past mistakes. Let go of all anger, resentment and fear.

For all of these are forms of escaping the reality of being poor.

Stay with the truth. Be with it. Steady your mind.

Upon doing so you realize that as you still the mind, as you get closer and closer to the fact, the unchangeable truth of the matter, you don't feel poor anymore. 

You feel, that something shifts on the inside when you stop escaping and resisting, even though the outside is exactly the same.

There is no fear, self-doubt, or hesitation of any kind.

What has changed, is that now there is no distance between you and your reality.

Now you are aligned, therefore you can act.

For a mind that acts, changes its external reality.

Perhaps, an idea appears, or energy to do something, which changes the state of poverty.

(That is just an example. It is obvious we aren't discussing poverty as a social phenomenon.)

Surrender until it's time to act.

Then Act, until its time to Surrender.

For then the doors that have yet remained closed, will begin to open.

The wings that were closed, will heal and stretch open, and perhaps,

you too will fly. 

--

Here is the little guy drinking some water.

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