Birds of Peace

A mother whose husband died years before shared a beautiful story in meditation class. Each time she entered the room during the day, there were always birds came and knocking the window. Surprised by the repeating experiences, this mother then asked: "What is the message behind this?". With a smile the inner Guru answered: "Birds are angels of joy which are here to remind that life is a song of joy".

The Frozen Self

Sadly, there are very few people who understand life as a song of joy. One of the reason, there are too many people who live within a rigid and frozen self. Look deeply within when you are harmed. There is energy which reject the harming. There's certain power within which want to fight back. This is called the frozen self. 

This rigid and frozen self which preventing many souls to see God as love. This frozen self is also the root of many suffering. And the practice of meditation is like the sun which shining to the frozen snow. To put it simply, whenever suffering and sadness visit you, learn to be fully presence in the midst of suffering. Gently hug the suffering like a mother who hug her only son.

To be fully presence means to enter the room of suffering. Suffering is not to be rejected, sadness is not discarded. Simply being there as it is. Sadness, soul wounds are gently hugged without any judgments. In the language of meditation, everything is embraced as it is.

The Flowing Self

Zen teacher Ezra Bayda introduced an approach of three breaths. Whenever grief and suffering come, learn to be presence in the depth of grief at least within three inhaling and exhaling breath. Inhale, feel the sorrow without any judgment. Exhale, feel the sorrow without any judgment.

Most commoners tend to run away from sorrow. Some people even being carried away by the suffering. That's why few of them committed dangerous mistakes like suicide. The approach of meditation is the opposite. One is suggested to gently hug sorrow, like a mother who hug her only son.

In this way, you bring the sun of consciousness into the frozen self. As a result, you give birth to the new self which is the flowing self. This is the self who plant the seeds of healing and peace within. This is also the self who guide soul to be back home.

Awareness as The True Self

The transformation from frozen self to flowing self sound to be easy, but in practice it is far from easy. Even when you spend twenty years of your life keep meditating, no one can guarantee that you will be successful. However, there is no other choice except to continue the spiritual growth.

The spiritual group under the guide of zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh is a collection of diligent and sincere people who trained themselves continuously. Whenever having conversation with this spiritual group, suddenly there will be a holy bell ringing which asks us to pause and silence for a while. Then we are asked to be fully presence to this moment as it is. 

The consistency to practice meditation like this for years can make a person to give birth to a new self which is awareness. When sadness comes, simply aware. When happiness comes, simply aware. At this level of self, one can deeply understand this simple but profound message: "in the end, there is no difference between the sound of cursing neighbor with the sound of singing birds". Both are the same birds of peace.

Author: Gede Prama
Photo Courtesy: Twitter @Drc_19

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