Northern Flicker: "Heart"
What is it you seek?
(Northern Flicker - photo by Neil Barker - June 1, 2024)
A winged being appears before you, searching the ground for life.
What is it you seek on your journey? Awareness? Connection?
What walls and barriers prevent you both from seeing the Truth?
I took these photos on June 1, 2024. I was fortunate to have this Northern Flicker land about 30 feet in front of me. This Northern Flicker seemed to be searching for breakfast along the trail I hike in the morning.
While looking at these photos recently, I thought about the Heart Sutra. It has been awhile since I have read the Heart Sutra and decided to re-read it to see if anything stood out for me. The heart shape on the back of the head of the Northern Flicker and this line from the Heart Sutra stood out to me:
Without walls of the mind
and thus without fears,
they see through the delusion and finally nirvana.
(Zen Roots: The First Thousand Years. Translations and Commentary by Red Pine. p.90-91. )
Removing my own walls of the mind is a challenge on my hikes in Nature. One wall is usually trying to identify so many things. A second wall is thinking about how to take a great photo. Another wall is thinking about something else blocking my enjoyment of Nature. So many walls!
Each time I encounter Nature, I do my best to remove my mental walls. I see what I see. I experience what I experience trying to see through my own delusions and projections of what is around me in Nature. What is it I seek?
To deconstruct is to seek simplicity, to get to.the core of who we are, to return to our innocent selves. To return to Love. Our avian friends guide us on this path.
At one time I'd have an opinion or observation or aspiration to relate in this. But now, it's getting hard to..the waters are deep.