Everything we see or experience has something to teach us, if we know how to 'see' with our hearts, and not only our eyes. Yesterday, my teacher was a bird whose lesson came in a most unexpected way.
Perhaps a Fish Hawk or Osprey like this one.
I was walking beside a lake in Currumbin valley, where I had just finished making a mandala out of natural materials. As usual, I had prepared for that mandala exercise with a shamanic smoke cleansing and afterwards was still in a slightly meditative state, so I thought this would be a perfect time to ask nature for a teaching.
Recalling the three shamanic principles of earnestness, “hollow bone”, and heart-centredness”, I walked to the other side of the lake, emptying (as much as I could) my mind of thoughts and expectations, and asking Nature to tell me what I needed most to know at this time for my soul growth.
There were birds lakeside, and one kept looking at me, so I asked, mentally, ‘Do you have a lesson for me?’ The bird rose up and circled around once before landing at the same place, then did it again. Three is usually an omen for me, so I told myself that if it flew around again, this would be my teacher.
Once more, the bird flew up, then swooped low over the water and rose, and there seemed to be a brief altercation during which another bird that gave out the clear cry of a hawk, then flew off over my head. Still thinking that the first bird might be my teacher, I looked up to check if the newcomer was indeed a hawk, and to my surprise, saw that it held a small silver fish - a bream - in its beak. Yet I had not seen it dive. It must have stolen the fish from the first bird! Then it disappeared behind some distant trees.
Photo of Hawk with fish (had to be fast!)
To me, this seemed significant, this bird carrying a fish, full of symbolic meaning. So I thought, if this bird has a lesson for me, it will fly over me two more times, and to my astonishment, it did, still carrying the fish in its mouth, each time flying right over me than disappearing again behind the distant trees. Only three times, no more.
No doubt about it. This bird had a lesson for me, and I knew immediately what the lesson was: to focus my intention. Just as the hawk sets its intention on catching a particular fish, or as in this case, snatching it from another bird’s beak mid-air, I must set my sights on what I intend, and not waver.
This is a perfect lesson for me, as I have a very curious, far-ranging and broad curiosity that wants to know everything, wants to try everything, and I often have great difficulty focusing on one thing for long. So I accomplish far less than I could, or want to.
Hawk was showing me through her example to determine what it is that I want, to begin with clear, strong intention, and hold onto it. And more than that, she showed me that my heart is not in it, if I do not really desire it, no goal will ever hold my attention for long."
Here is the key to Joseph Campbell's famous words, "Follow your bliss." Not necessarily what makes you happy at that time (because you may not be happy or excited about anything at the time), but what you crave, desire, yearn towards with all your heart.
Intention of the intellect is not sufficient to generate the kind of energy needed to pursue a long-term goal, or an aim that requires sustained effort until the end.
Intention must also engage the heart.
The intention that drives you forward and draws towards it the help you need comes from the heart, a yearning towards, a passion for, a yearning for, love for what is being sought. You might have the very best reasons for pursuing a goal, moving along a chosen path. You can apply every ounce of your intellect and energy, but if that aim, that path does not sufficiently engage your heart, if your heart is not really in it, you may lose energy, lose interest, lose your motivation to see it through. .
Heart, I now know, is what makes hawk such an excellent hunter, and the tree so good at growing: they act on the desire of the heart. Heart is at the centre of their being, as it should be ours.
‘I want that fish! I love it!’ says the heart of the hawk.
‘I yearn towards the sky, that beloved sky!’ says the heart of the tree.
With that single-minded desire, fish are drawn to hawk as she is to them. Sky pours the energies of the cosmos into the leaves of the tree. No matter what the aim, it is the same.
My little self is nervous. ‘This all feels so unfamiliar, so dangerous,’ it thinks. I reassure it. I ask it to wait, to hold back, to listen for what heart has to say, for mind must learn to trust the wisdom of heart.