The Song of a Bird

Last year I can remember walking down a country road with my girlfriend.

'Isn't that amazing', I said stopping and looking up at a tree.

She stopped, looked up and agreed.

A car slowly drove passed and a head stuck out of the passenger window and shouted, 'It's a tree!!!'

It was hilarious.

The thing is, though, it wasn't a tree. It was a tree if we're clinging to labels, but what if we take the label away? You've got something unknowable. Something beautiful. A miracle. 

I like this story taken from Anthony De Mello's The Song of a Bird:

THE DISCIPLE WAS ALWAYS COMPLAINING TO HIS MASTER, "YOU ARE HIDING THE FINAL SECRET OF ZEN FROM ME." AND HE WOULD NOT ACCEPT THE MASTER'S DENIALS.

ONE DAY THEY WERE WALKING IN THE HILLS WHEN THEY HEARD A BIRD SING.

"DID YOU HEAR THAT BIRD SING?" SAID THE MASTER.

"YES," SAID THE DISCIPLE.

"WELL, NOW YOU KNOW THAT I HAVE HIDDEN NOTHING FROM YOU."

"YES."

If you really heard the bird sing, if you really saw a tree... you would know. Beyond words and concepts.

What was that you said? You have heard dozens of birds sing and seen hundreds of trees? Ah, was it the tree you saw or the label? If you look at a tree and see a tree, you have really not seen the tree. When you look at a tree and see a miracle-then, at last, you have seen! Did your heart never fill with wordless wonder when you heard a bird in song?