The Bird That Sang...

Birdsong From Inside The Egg

Sometimes a lover of God may faint

In the presence. Then the beloved bends

And whispers in his ear, "Beggar spread out

Your robe. I'll fill it with gold.

I've come to protect your consciousness.

Where has it gone? Come back into awareness!"

This fainting is because

Lovers want so much.

A chicken invites a camel into her henhouse,

And the whole structure is demolished.

A rabbit nestles down

With its eyes closed

In the arms of a lion.

There is an excess

In spiritual searching

That is profound ignorance.

Let that ignorance be our teacher!

The friend breathes into one

Who has no breath.

A deep silence revives the listening,

And the speaking of those two

Who meet on the riverbank.

Like the ground turning green in a spring wind.

Like birdsong beginning inside the egg.

Like the universe coming into existence,

The lover wakes and whirls

In a dancing joy,

Then kneels down

In praise.

Rumi wrote that over 700 years ago. Coleman Barks translated it into English in his book The Essential Rumi. When I found Rumi over twelve years ago, this was the first Rumi book I purchased. I immediately read it from cover to cover. I continue to read it over and over again because I find something to think and write about every time I pick it up.  To me, Rumi's words are like the camel being invited into the henhouse demolishing my thoughts of separation and I find my self experiencing a different dimension of knowing. I am like the rabbit with my eyes closed in the arms of a lion who nurtures me instead of tearing me apart. He is a friend who breathes spiritual awareness into me because somewhere along the way I forgot how to breathe it my self.

A new universe, a new song, is coming into existence. Like a whirling Dervish I wake and dance to the sound of its silence. While dancing I remember that this song is not new, it is the birdsong I sang before I was born. Inside the egg of consciousness I listened and danced in unity to the beat of oneness and experience the peace of spirit. I am filled with the gold of awareness and shine in its image.

The shift in consciousness is about this birdsong. It's about waking up from fainting in the presence of God and coming back into awareness. The ability to wake up is within me. It is an innate gift that I ignore in my ignorant illusion called physical life. I want too much and seek the golden treasure of fame and fortune only to find pain and poverty. I search for the meaning of life and never realize I am the meaning and the experience that I seek. I wander from one thought to another and never realize that my beliefs restrict the search within my self. External spirituality becomes my mission and my ego sits on the riverbank of fear waiting for the next steamboat of logic to take me to it; one boat after another boat docks and I get on each one and find them empty and filled with holes. My profound ignorance is dipped in the waters of man-made salvation and I shiver in the coldness of its uselessness.

Just like the chicken who invites the camel to the henhouse, I begin to invite my inner consciousness to participate in my search for my self. This camel demolishes my old beliefs and I find my self naked in its presence. My ignorance becomes my teacher and I begin to feel other aspects of my self and accept them. I become the rabbit riding on the back of the lion and I kiss my self for the reunion. I am the beggar who now gives instead of takes; who loves instead of hates. Just like the ground turning green in the spring wind I sense a group of selves that exist in this beginning universe of the egg, and I experience them simultaneously.

Sometimes I faint in this new universe which is not new at all, but I always wake up and begin to dance again. I whirl and the joy of being one again overshadows my fainting and forgetfulness. I grow from each fainting spell and little by little I become the bird I have always been; the bird that sang inside the egg and danced at the same time.