8/1/13

Man in the Mirror PROJECT: The Upanishads; two BIRDS


I would like to start this first segment of the Upanishads with a poem written by Michael Jackson.  It was written in his book "Dancing the Dream" published back in 1992 and endorsed by another one of my favorite people, Elizabeth Taylor:

two BIRDS

It's hard to tell them what I feel for you.  They haven't ever met you, and no one has your picture.  So how can they ever understand your mystery?  Let's give them a clue:

Two birds sit in a tree.  One eats cherries, while the other looks on.  Two birds fly through the air.  One's song drops like crystal from the sky while the other keeps silent.  Two birds wheel in the sun.  One catches the light on its silver feathers, while the other spreads wings of invisibility.

It's easy to guess which bird I am, but they'll never find you.  Unless . . .
Unless they already know a love that never interferes, that watches from beyond, that breathes free in the invisible air.  Sweet bird, my soul, your silence is so precious.  How long will it be before the world hears your song in mine?  Oh, that is a day I hunger for!

Sri Aurobindo has been introduced to me with Michael on the other side of the veil.  It was his contention that we explore the Upanishads, which I knew nothing about when he mentioned them.  Since I have purchased a book to explore them and while I do that I have invited my readers.  I have another book, the only one I've ever had by Michael Jackson called "Dancing the Dream".  In it I found poetry that was too beautiful to ever lose.  Since reviewing the Upanishads, I have noticed the similarity in content.  Let us begin with the Mundaka Upanishad, Ch 3 Sec 1, Verses 1 and 2 translated by Sri Aurobindo himself in The Upanishads.

Two birds, beautiful of wing, close companions, cling to one common tree:  of the two one eats the sweet fruit of the tree, the other eats not but watches his fellow.  

The soul is the bird that sits immersed on the one common tree; but because he is not lord he is bewildered and has sorrow.  But when he sees that other who is the Lord and beloved, he knows that all is His greatness and his sorrow passes away from him.

The longing and search for our higher self, the true self, or soul will lead us down many paths.  We will watch ourselves in our turmoil, our anger and pain, until the time comes when we ourselves have come into union with our true natures.  We are truly the seers, the masters that create.  We need only to let ourselves know who we truly are and enter into it.  Before we can do that, we must embrace the idea that we are one and the same.  For in doing so we can encompass our beauty and our pain.  Weeding out our false ideas one at a time until we have a beautiful garden of delight within our very souls.  This is true happiness, true bliss and the seed and identity we all carry within.

I believe that this is also the necessity when finding one's twin flame.  One of the birds possesses the soul; the complete soul that is you and your beloved.  You, the soul, watch each other silently as you each embrace your pain, sorrow and triumphs.  When you come to know the other as the silent bird on the tree, it is then that the soul becomes united and whole once again.

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