Chapter 42 swan in heart

Read the fairy tale "The Ugly Duckling" with your children, and then you will know that swans can fly, and they are migratory birds that can fly halfway around the world. "Then why can't swans fly now?" the child asked me, I went to the library to borrow a book "How to Raise Swans", and then I knew the truth. The nobles in the Middle Ages in Europe liked the posture of swans and believed that swans were nobles among birds, so they wanted to raise swans in their own manors to show off their wealth and taste. So, after they caught the swan, they used three methods to make the swan unable to fly.

One is to cut off the feathers of the swan's wings so that the swan loses its balance and cannot fly. The second is to tie the swan's wings so that it cannot open its wings and take off. The third is that the swan needs a large lake to start off. If the distance between the ponds is shortened, the swan will lose its starting line and cannot fly. The first two methods are too cruel and will harm the graceful posture of the swan, so the third method is generally used. Over time, the swan loses the ability to take off, and even forgets that it can fly.Those swans that can fly over mountains and seas became pets of nobles.

Once, when I was traveling in Switzerland, in the lake of Lusan, I saw a large group of swans swimming to the wooden bridge to beg for food from the tourists. Did your ancestors ever fly freely? An ancient book said: "A sparrow knows the ambition of a pigeon?" It means: "How can a bird like a swallow and a sparrow understand the ambition of a swan?" This sentence became a kind of irony, because swallows and sparrows still Flying in the sky, the swan has become a flightless bird because of human selfishness. I have always believed that there is a swan in the human heart, which can let thoughts and creativity fly without bounds. Many people are bound by desire, or their ambition to fly is cut off in life, or because the lake from which they take off is too small, over time, they lose The ability to think and create will also lose the heart of freedom and sky.

Flying freely in the sky is the gift of a bird, whether it is a swan, a peacock, a swallow or a sparrow. Having freedom of thought and boundless creativity is a spiritual gift of a person, no matter a saint or an ordinary person. Unfortunately, many people are forced by lust and lose the clarity of their altars. I think of the Zen Master Dogen, the ancestor of Zen in Japan, who once wrote a poem on enlightenment: open sky, Birds fly like birds. the water is clear, Fish act like fish. How open and transparent the sky is!Birds fly like birds.How clear the water is!Fish swim like fish.This seemingly simple world actually hides such a happy Zen mind!

A bird flies like a bird and has the dignity of a bird; a fish swims like a fish and has the dignity of a fish; a person lives like a human and has the dignity of a human. This is the most basic pattern of the civilized world. I like the graceful lines and posture of the swan, but I don't want the swan to be kept in the pond. I hope the swan can spread its wings and fly over our heads so that we can look at the vast sky. The ancient Chinese believed that seeing swans flying from afar (or doves) meant that good things would happen in life, but modern people no longer have such good things!