Many roads lead to the path, but basically there are only two:
reason and practice.
Words are the signs of ideas.
Birds and flowers
óthey are closely associated in our thoughtsó
they are part of our heritage of beauty.
To search beyond this mind is impossible.
Little strokes fell great oaks.
It is true that the bird is not always used realistically.
Bloodstream sermon.
The trappers sat round their campfire.
We find much dead game and barnyard poultry.
*
First, suffering injustice.
Most words are the signs of definite ideas, as:
Charles, captain, cat, strike, dive, climb, triangular, careless.
But birds are never static. People, though, are deluded.
The book lies on the table.
Skilful and delightful esthetically as a bird or flower painting may be, there is always a suggestion behind the subject.
The mind is always present. You just donít see it.
Other examples are: iron, stone, paper, sugar, salt, bark, quiet, black, light, head, wet, round, square, winter, spring.
"Roll Call of the Birds."
*
Second, adapting to conditions.
Thus, in the first example, the subject is fire and the predicate is burns.
It is significant, too, that the dove bearing
an olive branch has come to mean peace.
Unless you see your mind, reciting so much prose is useless.
Is in this use is often called the copula, that is, the "joiner" or "link."
This naturally leads to a word or two about the famous "Chelsea birds" that are so much an item for collectors of porcelain.
As long as youíre enthralled by a lifeless form, youíre not free.
The wind blows. Her jewels sparkled.
The horses ran. Tom climbed a tree.
The fire blazed. The dynamite exploded.
"The flight of the gull is as wonderful as the Andes."
By this truth, all appearances are empty. Defilement and attachment, subject and object donít exist.
Here comes Tom.
Over went the carriage.
Time after time she returned to it, with her sharp bill cutting all the threads and unraveling them.
And you certainly canít grab it.
A verb is a word which asserts.
They render birds.
If you attain anything at all, itís conditional.
Other examples are: act, address, ally, answer, boast, care, cause, close, defeat, doubt, drop, heap, hope, mark,
offer, pile, place, rest, rule, sail, shape, sleep, spur, test, watch, wound.
Nor must we forget what photographers are doing with birds today.
They fall into endless space.
That book is a dictionary.
The swallows fly constantly.
*
Unable to distinguish white from black, how can they escape birth and death?
A bright fire burned. The fire burned brightly.
He was careful to consider them always as living creatures,
even if he worked from dead models.
But if the mind is present, why donít I see it?
We went below.
Mr. E.H. Forbush paints a delightful word picture of a little boy standing shoulder-high in a field of buttercups and daisies, and holding up a fluffy white feather.
Form and mind are both pure.
The subject is almost always omitted.
óbright scarlet, known to be eatenó
*
Third, seeking nothing.
A sentence is a group of words which expresses a complete thought.
óto say nothing of talking birdsó
When you seek nothing, youíre on the Path.
Examples: Lincoln, William, Elizabeth, sister, Chicago, island, star, window, happiness, anger, sidewalk, courage, loss.
*
To return to the eagle.
Heís free of cause and effect;
hence the name, which means "thrown in."
We find numberless birds.
You ask. Thatís your mind. I answer. Thatís my mind.
An adjective limits a substantive by restricting the range of its meaning.
Every bird note brings back to us some associationó
The truth is, thereís nothing to find.
Our condition seemed desperate.
The other birds do not seem to mind at all.
All the suffering and joy we experience depends on conditions.
Fire burns.
Rain is falling.
The army approached the city.
"Oh woe, oh woe, woe," moans the mourning dove contentedly.
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