The Kingfisher was perched on the tallest coconut palm in our garden and was steadfastly and intently focussed on the distant view. It was so still that I wondered if anything could disturb it. Among the bird visitors to our garden, Kingfishers have fixed flight stations, form where they have an overview of long distances from that vantage position. Looking ahead is a way of living by choice and discipline of planning.
The Bulbul was looking back and stayed in that posture for several minutes. It looked to be engaging in some sight. Single birds have a habit of seeking for security. They have a practice of assigning a territory to stay in order to be safe form predators. This speaks of the territorial instinct of some birds, who by practice of being there regularly, proclaim its claim on the flight stations. I have seen other birds moving away once a regular visitor has come to perch on a tree. Tracing back the flight path is one way of remembering the path taken. Remembering to recall the way we travelled each day creates within us the practice of pondering. Some of us even make a journal of events and experiences to recall the paths that we tread.
The third photo is that of a Pair of Bulbuls in a state of stillness and vigilance. I have watched such sights so often with some bird pairs that I am tempted to refer to such times as listening time. The avian movements can be seen and heard. Those birds whose eye sight is not as good as that of the Eagles and Kingfishers for a distant vision, would perhaps use listening as way of knowing the terrain. The chirps and birdcalls are all in the air. It is when birds are still, they can listen to what is going on around and make sense inwardly of the next move. For birds, movements and flights are part of their second nature. They can move only when they are sure of the avian terrain ahead. The listening time is also a time of communion in companionship. They communicate between themselves with sounds and moves. Often one bird moves away to be followed by the other. They would take different flight paths but arrive at the next station together.
Looking ahead, recollecting and staying still for inward listening are habits that humans have followed for centuries. The saints and sages have practiced it as their way of staying ahead of time with a prophetic sense!
In some air ports I have been, there are meditation rooms. The one in Zurich air port is a place I have visited to be still, during the transit time in the air port. I recollect some occasions when Anna and I have been together in that room, sometimes with a friend. It was an occasion to look back on the flight till then and look forward to the remaining flight. Often the flight induced tiredness was replaced by an inward alertness and readiness for the next flight.
The interior silence in a noisy world is what humans need. The impulsive living and governing to me, would be a reaction to what we hear and see, rather than an action from a message received by inward listening.
I had prepared a power point presentation yesterday morning for a meeting in the afternoon. I saved it but the computer kept giving an error message. I did not take it seriously. When I opened the computer later to edit the presentation, it was nowhere in the folder. It meant sending another four hours remaking the presentation, finishing half an hour before the scheduled meeting. I was awfully disturbed by what happened to begin with. But during the remaking, the thrust of the presentation changed to another direction, which in retrospect was more apt for the occasion.
A disappointing time but a redeeming time! It was in the stillness of that time I found acceptance rather than be a slave to a complaining behaviour. A friend having known about it said: you did not look disturbed by it. I was in fact so disturbed that I had thought of making a verbal presentation. It was in the stillness of few minutes, it dawned on me that there are pictures and tables I have to present, which cannot be done through an oral presentation.
To live our lives contextually in our setting, each of us needs a discerning spirit, which can come to us, by interior silence and inward listening.
The bird visitors are messengers calling me to revise habits to stay centred in an inward consciousness of truth, beyond the just the superficial perception!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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