Japa With Morning Birds

This morning I was doing japa but my mind was not steady. Thoughts relative to the upcoming day were coming up. There were even a few new ideas that I wanted to jot down for fear of losing them. Needless to say, I was half-here-half-there, fumbling through my observance.

Suddenly a pitch black pigeon flew down from the sky, and perched a few feet away from me. Where I live pigeons are quite common, but pitch black ones, especially one so large was an unusual sight. What was more unusual, however, was what the pigeon did…

This pigeon turned around itself, clockwise, rotating three times in a ritualistic fashion. (If you ever see a pigeon turning around itself in a ritualistic fashion, you will know exactly what I mean!) Then it looked at me to see if I got the message. And it immediately flew off after receiving my acknowledgement.

We want to move in spirals not circles. Our actions should not lock us into a circular life. Our thoughts should not trap us in useless roundabouts. And even our japa should not turn into loops.

This has particular relevance to japa, and I would like to offer an alternative perspective:

Think of japa as tuning a radio to a particular frequency. Think of the count as the time you have to get the tuning task done. This way it’s not about getting to X count, but it’s about discovering something and having it “work” before the count is reached.

I am certain that it’s not about reaching a particular count and mindfulness seems to be a crucial ingredient in the process.