3/20/00

[Guest guest]

Upon the same tree there are two birds, one on the top, the other

below. The one on the top is calm, silent, and majestic, immersed in

his own glory; the one on the lower branches, eating sweet and bitter

fruits by turns, hopping from branch to branch, is becoming happy and

miserable by turns. After a time the lower bird eats an exceptionally

bitter fruit and gets disgusted and looks up and sees the other bird,

that wondrous one of golden plumage, who eats neither sweet nor

bitter fruit, who is neither happy nor miserable, but calm,

Self-centered, and sees nothing beyond his Self. The lower bird longs

for this condition but soon forgets it, and again begins to eat the

fruits. In a little while, he eats another exceptionally bitter

fruit, which makes him feel miserable, and he again looks up, and

tries to get nearer to the upper bird. Once more he forgets and after

a time he looks up, and so on he goes again and again, until he comes

very near to the beautiful bird and sees the reflection of light from

his plumage playing around his own body, and he feels a change and

seems to melt away; still nearer he comes, and everything about him

melts away, and at last he understands this wonderful change. The

lower bird was, as it were, only the substantial-looking shadow, the

reflection of the higher; he himself was in essence the upper bird

all the time.