Sydney Insight Meditators
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Gawaine Powell Davies
​SIM newsletter November 2017

There was said to be a bird whose song so touched the heart that anyone who heard it would be happy for ever after. The king was intrigued, and sent his chief hunter to bring the bird to him.  
​ 
Noone knew what the bird looked like, or even in which forest it was to be found  The hunter knew little of birds - they knew this and flew away at his clumsy approach. So slowly he began to study them, noting where each nested, what it ate, its plumage and its song. As he came to know them the forest became alive, joyful with the skylark, mournful with the bittern and melancholy with the night owl. But  there was nothing resembling the bird that he sought.
 
One day he heard a cheeping sound coming from a thicket. A bird, quite plain and ordinary, was caught in a trap.  Its struggle pierced his heart. He knelt, and with infinite care freed the bird, checking that it was unharmed before he released it. It flew off without looking back, with a wild, harsh cry.
 
He did not go back to court. Those who sought him found him living in alone in a hut in a glade that was full of birds. He seemed quite content, and showed no interest in the news they brought.  He took them into the forest and showed them the birds and their ways. But when they asked about the bird whose song brings happiness he merely smiled and shook his head, as if at some half forgotten youthful folly.
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  • Home
  • Events Calendar
  • About us
    • Membership
    • About us, AGM & Constitution
    • Committee
    • Our History
    • Newsletter
  • Groups
    • Blue Mountains
    • Bondi Junction
    • Illawarra
    • Inner West
    • Newcastle
    • North Sydney
    • Northern Beaches
    • Northern Beaches (Narrabeen)
    • Southern Highlands
  • Teachers
  • Resources
    • Guided Meditations
    • Reading list
    • Deepening Into Stillness Recording
    • Audio files >
      • Stephen Batchelor, Sydney 2014
      • Winton Higgins, Four frontiers for Secular Buddhists 2014
      • Other audio links
    • Retreat Reflections >
      • High Country Retreat Reflections 22
      • NY Reflections 21/22
      • NY Reflections 19/20
      • DIS Reflections 2017
      • NY Retreat 2016
    • Teachers Reflections >
      • Winton Higgins. January 2018
      • Jonathan Page. May 2018
      • Gawaine Powell Davies. November 2017
      • Jill Shepherd. October 2017
  • Contact Us