“When entering the Hall of Righteousness
and hearing the swallows twittering,
Master Gensha (ninth century) said:
‘They are indeed deeply discoursing on the Reality of Things,
they are indeed talking well of the Essence of Righteousness’.”

They say that some of his monks did not understand his sermon. Francis of Assisi would have understood. He preached to the birds, and so he knew that birds also can preach. They are good preachers. They speak joy in the melody of their trills. They lighten the air with the call of their awakening. They enliven nature with the speed of their wings. They do what they are created to do, and by doing that they remind us that if we all did what we are created to do, if we thought and spoke and acted as we are meant to do by our human nature and our divine destiny, the world would be a happy place like the sky with the birds and their songs.

This is the Essence of Righteousness, that we know our place in creation, and act accordingly. At each moment and in every place. That we know the range of our throats and exercise the sounds of our music. That is the Reality of Things of which Master Gensha speaks. And the swallows know it so well that they proclaim it in every note with the faithfulness of their singing. They fit into nature. They take their place. They act their role. And in so doing they teach us the lesson and set the example for our obedience to our mission as humans, as they proclaim it in their role as birds. Masters of life in the melody of their daily concerts.

I imagine Master Gensha must have carefully prepared his sermon for the day. He must have chosen his readings from the Scriptures, his quotations from the sages, must have kept in readiness his own reflections and considerations and exhortations. He must have been thinking of all that, revising his summary and readying his punch lines for the effective presentation. But as he entered the hall, he had the wisdom to listen to the swallows. Freedom of mind of the illumined person who, while listening to his own thoughts, can also listen to the birds and change in an instant his personal lucubrations for the message of nature. The freshness of the day, the awakening of the senses, the oneness of creation.

The secret of life is the hard work of preparing one’s sermons, and the readiness to exchange them on the spot for the twittering of the swallows. To strive hard, and to be relaxed. To think one’s thoughts, and to look around. To concentrate the mind, and to listen to the birds. Whatever my day and whatever my job, I will labour and toil and plan and study and research and rehearse; and then I will let myself free to respond to the challenge of the moment with the fullness of my awareness. The difficult spontaneity which is only the fruit of hard labour.