The Mockingbird Story..

What would the world be like if you dropped all your labels and concepts?

Once there was a mockingbird who would come to my balcony every night at about 2:00 in the morning. His voice was so loud that it would wake me, and I often just lay there listening to his many, varied songs. It seemed that he would go on for an hour or more, singing to the very top of his voice, and he never repeated the same song twice. His songs were magnificent, even though they were often an annoyance too. I loved that bird.

One night, after meditating, I fell deep into a dreamless sleep. Then, long into the night, I was awakened to the sound of the most beautiful angel voices. I heard a choir of thousands of sweet voices all in perfect holy harmony, all creating the most wonderous sound I had ever known. Actually I did not hear them so much as feel them with my whole body. It was not just my ears that delighted in the sound, it seemed as if my whole body resonated in harmony with the voices, as though they were inside me, and I was inside them. I had the feeling there was actually no difference between me and the voices.

Then I began to wake up from my sleep.

In the hypnogogic state, somewhere closer to waking than sleep, I recognized where the sound was coming from -- it was the mockingbird. And, as soon as I labeled the sound "mockingbird" the angel voices were gone; all I could hear was the familiar song of the mockingbird. The angel voices were actually initiated by the mockingbird.

Realizing that I had lost the voices by labeling them, I allowed myself to go back into sleep, just a little, and once again there were the angel voices -- swooning in a chorus so beautiful it made me cry... and then I woke up to hear "just" the mockingbird, once again.

This is when I realized what the masters have taught, about the necessity of dropping our concepts and labels. Life is wonderous beyond belief when we allow it to be as it is. But when we label an experience or try to understand it with our minds, we collapse it into a mental concept that is but a symbol of the truth. Since then I realize, when I hear a bird or see any object, that what I am experiencing is but a symbol of something much deeper, something I can only know when I drop my labels and my concepts about what it is.

Everything is unique, and far more rich than our normal senses can accept. Yet, we have a knowingness that can penetrate to the very divinity of any seemingly separate thing -- even a mockingbird is holy, and far more beautiful than we usually imagine. And everything is intimateloy connected in one Whole.

I have had only a few other experiences like this one since the mockingbird left, years ago. And each one confirms for me the truth of the masters, that we but live in a dream of our own making, that this dream is made of our concepts and ideas. We rarely experience the fullness of anything, directly. We think about things, and believe our thoughts are real. Yet, our thoughts are always conditioned by the past; they are just our symbols of past experiences which we keep recreating over and over again as we recall only the labels we have placed on them. We eat the menu instead of the meal, and wonder why we are still hungry for the truth.

For the first time, when I heard that mockingbird directly, without my concepts and labels, I ate the meal. And, still, to this day, even though I have had a few similar experiences, I still eat the menu most of the time. The experience does not persist for me, and perhaps I could not long live in a body if it did.

Yet, now I now know there is something we can experience that is so far beyond our usual dream that the best description I can find for it is "reality." Perhaps being fully awake is to hear the angels in every voice and to live in awe. Perhaps being fully awake to the awesomeness of life would cause this little life of separation to vanish, as all dreams do when we awaken.

I have chosen not to leave this dream just yet. Many still "live" in fear and suffering, thinking this is all so real. But, only Love itself is real, and fear is always a mistake. We are the perfect arising of a perfect Universe, how could it be otherwise? We are eternal beings. There is no death. If it were otherwise, life would be a cruel joke, and we are all doomed. I choose to believe that which empowers me, and so I believe in eternity, in Love, in Peace, in the perfection of the Universe which is in me as I am in It, and there is only a difference of perspective between us, not a difference of substance.

May we all awaken and live in Love and Peace and Harmony; why suffer any longer? Forgiveness is the way to awaken, because it's only our belief in separation that creates the illusion of separation. True forgiveness brings us all together again, as one. Without forgiveness, we live in fear and suffering. With forgiveness we grant holiness to our brothers and sisters, as being one with us. Forgiveness grants that we are all doing the best we know how at the time, and that we are all here to grow and learn from our mistakes. Forgiveness acknowledges that we do not know the truth of anything, that we are all deep in the dream of separation and we are all trying to awaken, as best as we know how. Yes, some of us have very negative ideas on what life is all about.

You and I can help awaken our Brothers and Sisters by simply granting them forgiveness. You are empowered to do so, and it is the greatest gift you can give, because it leads to acceptance and from acceptance we awaken, naturally.

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