Posted inArt and Poems, Dogen, Other Teachings

A Bird Flies High

December 19, 2016

A bird flies high in the sky
Where there is nowhere to go.
What remains?
Just this flying!

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Dogen wrote on this subject:

Birds fly the skies, and however much they fly, there is no end to the skies.
Birds never forsake the sky.
When their need is great, there is great activity.
When their need is small, there is small activity.
In this way, none ever fails to exert itself, and nowhere does any fail to move and turn freely.
If a bird leaves the sky, it will soon die.
We should grasp that the sky means life for the bird. It must be that the bird means life for the sky; that life is the bird.
We could continue in this way even further, because for practice and realisation, and for all that is possessed of life, it is the same.

Photo and Birds Fly High poem by Rosa Bellino

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