Estudiante

THE SONG OF THE BIRD

The book The song of the bird by Anthony De Mello uses fables and proverbs from a number of religions to set forth a viewpoint of life that transcends the physical world byengulfing it.

Seize the day Live in the moment. Be a part of what surrounds you rather than a casual observer. This is the message opening the book. The notion of God surrounding us only takes achange in our point of view. The see the wonderment that surrounds us and belies our comprehension is to realize the omnipotence that surely exists.

Page six tells the story of The Elephant And TheRat. The moral is "the elephant will sooner fit in the swim trunks of a rat than God will fit into our notions of him." Our idea of God has been transformed from an omnipotent energy source from whicheverything springs from to that of a man. Call him Jesus Christ, Buddha, or Mohamed; all are incarnations we have projected godliness onto. Rather than heed their teachings and receive them asmessengers giving us a guideline to reaching a higher plane of though we quote them as if they are somehow more of a part of this universal energy than we are.
We attempt to put God in a box like our othercollections and carry it from house to house thinking we are better for possessing it. In fact we would be better to leave the box behind realizing that we are God. This place is God. No mosque walls,no golden chalice, no image emblazoned on clothe can contain God.
Three animal parables strive to cast light on our error of restricted sight. The first is from the tales of Nasrudin. Nasrudin is anarchetypal character of Middle Eastern dissent used by Sufi mystics to direct thoughts away from their typical discriminations. As Nasrudin strolls through the royal garden he happens upon a royalfalcon. Being unfamiliar with this type of bird he unwittingly clips it to resemble the pigeon he is accustomed to seeing. Blaming a neglectful keeper Nasrudin dismissed the possibility of natural...