mutual arising - bird dreams, riding hope

 

I learned about mutual arising from Alan Watt’s Watercourse Way. There is a Hiroshige wood block about the myth that deer will wait under a tree through the night so that they will become human in the dawn.  The narrator in bird dreams, riding hope is like the deer. But she is waiting for the osprey to return from its migratory home in the south and she thinks she might be turning into a bird so that the following fall she can join the osprey and migrate with them.  When I was in the wind tunnel of so many wishes and hopes for what bird dreams might become I was touched by many concerns about our ecos, our natural world, our world and how to describe it. Many talk about nature as if it’s outside of our lives. I remember the feeling of climbing trees when I was a kid. I still look at trees to access if I can climb them. Never thought to wait under a tree through the night to become anything. Now I’m thinking the idea of waiting, of transforming through our love and attention for the world that is our home, the world that we belong to and are a part of, is a way to mutually arise and join with the many lives that we touch.

Or we can all be a part of the great trails, like the Pacific Coast Trail or the Appalachian Trail (AT) that step away from the rush of the world and bring us back in touch with nature. We can be a trail angel, those generous folks that maintain their bit of the AT trail, so that others may hike it. I dream of a trail across the whole country, and wandering as it must to help all the wildlife, perhaps like Edwin Way Teale's trips across the country in following the seasons - to protect them and allow wildlife to thrive.  So many ways to love the world, to help it be more human.  We can be on the trail, a part of the trail or under a tree. We can bring each other up and mutually arise while waiting for our migrating birds to return. We can protect their path too. bird dreams is kind of a fable, kind of a mosaic; and all of it is in hopes of supporting those that help our world, our lands and waters, our wildlife and lives.