The Roc And The Bird

Spoken By Supreme Master Ching Hai, Yang-Min Mountain, Taipei, Formosa
October 10, 1990 (Originally In Chinese)

Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, there was a little bird. One day, it was trapped and confined in a cage, which was pretty and spacious. The cage was so sophisticated that it was hardly visible to the bird, which tried to fly out but bumped around in it and got hurt instead, until it finally came down with an illness. The one who caught it, loving it so much, offered it the best food and water he could. Initially it ignored these things. Later as it got more used to the environment, it began to drink or eat when it was thirsty or hungry. As it missed the freedom it used to have, it still flapped around in the cage in an attempt to escape. It tried but failed every day. The master then gave it more things, and visited it more often. He did a lot for its entertainment. He tried to caress it too, but it wouldn't let him unless it was too tired to resist. If it wasn't tired, it would dodged him for sure.

Across the valley lived a roc (gigantic bird of Eastern tales) which had practiced for millions of eons and reached a high spiritual level. Some animals can practice. Have you heard of that? Human beings don't practice (Master laughs), but the animals do. You can tell from Shakyamuni Buddha's stories. In His previous incarnations as the king of the deer, peacocks, birds or lions, He had been pursuing spiritual practice all the time.

Now this roc was a spiritual practitioner too. It had practiced for eons upon eons, or maybe billions of years, and it had great magical power -- very great power. It live without food or water. It could become invisible and enlarge or shrink as it wished. As it was very big, it had to climb up to the top of the mountain whenever it wished to fly, and then one or two flaps of its wings would take it as far as millions of miles away.

The roc practiced every day, and heard the painful sobs of the bird. As the former was bestowed with all kinds of magical powers, ranging from telepathy to celestial vision and celestial hearing, it looked out from its celestial eye and saw a little bird flapping around in agony, its body injured all over, its wings ragged, and its feathers fallen off.

The roc then listened with its celestial ears. Wow! Only to hear the heartbreaking cries of the bird. I don't know if they would break a human heart as well. Probably not, otherwise its owner would have set the bird free. Anyway, the cries broke the roc's heart. By telepathy, the roc perceived the bird's yearning for liberation, which was so strong as if to explode the roc's head. As the roc could not bare such a painful, longing and ailing heart it used magical power.

One night as the bird was asleep, the roc finally shrank itself to exactly the size of the bird. Well, it could enlarge or shrink as it wished, but only when it was alone. It wouldn't let other beings see it perform the magic, so it used its magic only when no one was around -- could not make it public. Anyway, it shrank itself, flew into the cage and slept beside the bird.

As the bird woke up, the roc introduced itself by saying, "Hello, I'm your friend. Last night I came in here of my own will. At the sight of you suffering, I couldn't help coming here to console you. Just take it easy. Don't flutter your wings in the cage, or else you will get hurt and break your wings. Then if you're to be free again, you won't be able to fly as you did before."

The bird scowled, "Nonsense. I used to fly thousands and even millions of miles, but now you're telling me I shouldn't fly?"

The roc said, "You could fly before, but now you can't. You only bump into the cage, hurt yourself, and weaken your body."

The bird didn't listen. It stood up and flapped its wings. It fluttered and pecked around in the cage until it fell and lay flat with a bleeding beak and broken wings. The roc then healed the bird with its saliva and wings. It massaged and fanned the bird until it was cool, and applied its saliva on the wounds of the bird.

A few days later, the bird got better and tried to fly again. As expected, it got hurt again.

The bird was so badly injured that its saliva was not nourishing enough. So it went back to its shape as a huge roc, and set out for mountains millions of miles away, like the Himalayas, to get a most precious herb. It chewed the herb into tiny pieces, mixed it with its own saliva and hid the mixture under its wings. It shrank itself, came back into the cage and fed the mixture to the bird, which got much better and a little more enlightened, realizing that it shouldn't fly in the cage.

It no longer tried to flap around or struggle in the cage, but only when the roc was there comforting it, reasoning with it or singing to it. When the roc was away, the bird would again attempt to take flight and ended up getting hurt. Therefore, the roc had to shrink itself every day. Besides, the roc couldn't go out of the cage, because if it had to be with the bird at all, it had to act the way of the bird, so that the bird would not get suspicious. The roc had to eat and drink the same things as the bird did.

The roc would sometimes tell the bird, "I'm not an ordinary bird. I shrank to what I am just to keep you company and make you feel better, but I can get out and back in again any moment I want. I'm a huge roc, able to travel thousands of miles with only one flap of my wings. I can fly higher than the clouds if I want to."

Well, sometimes the bird believed the roc, thinking that this loving friend would not lie to it. Sometimes the bird got suspicious, because it, having stayed in the cage for a long time, could hardly imagine such a creature that could fly so far and high -- even higher than the clouds -- shrink and enlarge as it wished, and get into and out of the cage at any time. After all, it had never seen the roc getting out of the cage. (Master laughs) Since the roc only slipped out when the bird was asleep, the bird never knew it.

The bird became suspicious that the roc might want to take advantage of it. (Master laughs) Perhaps the bird coveted its food and water that its master had brought it. It told the roc in suspicion, "Don't be too boastful. You are just like any other bird. Probably you were starving outside, you saw my delicious food, so you came in here for a bite. I don't see any difference between you and me. You can't fly away either. Both of us are confined in the cage. Why did you say you could fly thousands of miles with a flap of your wings? You had better keep your mouth shut."

The roc replied, "I wouldn't lie to you. Believe it or not, it's up to you. I came here for you, to comfort you, to keep you from further injury, and to protect you from getting into a worse condition. That's why I came here, to share your joy and sorrow. I ate the terrible, stiff, lifeless food and drank the lousy, rotten, polluted water with you while I could have used the pure nectar dew and taken pearls for food. In the mountains where I come from, I didn't eat these uninteresting things."

But it was only too natural that the bird didn't understand, because it only saw the roc hang around, eating and drinking as it did, unable to fly out. How could it have imagined that the roc actually flew out for a cruise around the world while it was asleep, and then came back again to keep it company?

One day, the master, having two birds right now, was very happy. He thought he should get them a bigger cage to give them more comfort and convenience. He made a more beautiful, sturdy but more visible one and planned to move them there. But before he had time to move them into the new cage, he had to take a trip somewhere on business.

He told his son, "I'm taking a trip on business and will not be here for a couple of days. You move the two birds to the new cage and prepare fresh water and food for them. I have painted the outside of the cage and planned to move the birds when the paint dries. But now something urgent has come up. I need to go right now. I can't wait until the paint dries, but I don't want the birds to wait until I come back either; they would have to suffer the inconvenience of the small cage for a few more days. So move them to the large one as soon as possible."

The son replied, "Okay."

The paint dried in three days. So three days later, the son planned to move the birds during the day. But he went out for a picnic with his girlfriend (Master laughs) and didn't come back until nearly midnight. After he got home, he wasted no time in moving the birds, for his father would return the next day. If his father should see the birds still in the old cage, he would be harshly scolded.

But when he was about to move them, strangely enough, there was only one bird. The other one must have got out. Where had it gone? The cage was almost empty. There was hardly any corner to hide in. Unable to find the bird, he began to panic. And the bird -- I mean the real one, the small bird, not the roc -- was confused too, because it woke up and found only itself. "He was sleeping beside me, but now he is gone. Where is he?"

Only now did it realize that it was all alone. It began to panic and struggle. Meanwhile, it saw a person reaching his hand into the cage to grab it. It didn't know he was trying to move it to a larger cage, so it struggled even harder, bumping itself everywhere in the cage. What a terrible sight! Its wings were virtually broken. The man struggled to catch it but it struggled to run away from him. Both of them struggled there for a very long time.

At this moment, the roc came back from afar. At the sight of the situation, it became hesitant, wondering if it should go inside. If it didn't, the little bird would be in danger. If it did, it would be seen using its magical power and then it would end up in danger too. If it should be caught, it could no longer perform its magic. Once it was tied up, it could never get out. It hesitated for quite a long time until it couldn't help it anymore, because it saw the bird struggling desperately and bleeding all over with its wings broken. The roc flew right in.

Meanwhile, the bird was calling the roc's name, because the roc had told it before, "If you have any problem, just think of me, and I will be here to help you. I will be by your side if you think of me. This way, you won't be alone or afraid."

Therefore at that time, the bird kept calling the roc's name. The roc couldn't stand it, so it went right into the cage. The bird, seeing its friend, was very happy. The person was also very happy to see the second bird come back. (Master laughs)

The person then tied up the roc's legs. He tied up the two birds and waited for his father. If he didn't do so, the roc would fly away again, and he would be in trouble. (Master laughs)

The bird asked the roc, "Where have you been? Where have you been hiding? Are you keeping something from me?"

The roc replied, "I saw you were sound asleep, so I went out for a cruise. It's so small in here. I needed to go out for a break." The bird snarled, "You can't go out as you wish, you are tied up now, just like me. You are confined to the cage and your legs are bound together. If you can really get out any time, show me! If you can still fly, show me!"

Because the bird had been caged for too long, it was very much bothered and a little violent in its attitude. If we are confined to a house for too long, we will become upset too. Those who have been deprived of their freedom are usually very upset and snappy (Master laughs), because they are very unhappy. So all day long, the roc was busy comforting, saving, helping, and healing the bird, whereas the bird kept pecking the roc with its beak and fierce tone of speaking. But the roc put up with all this. It understood that the bird had no magic or power and couldn't possibly know how great it was, so it remained silent.

While it was bound together with the bird, it was very tolerant and kept healing the bird with its saliva. The bird was deeply touched after what the roc had done, so it offered the roc the delicious food that it had incidentally caught sight of. The roc smiled but didn't take it.

The bird had no idea why it suddenly had such good food today. It had never seen things like this before. In fact, the delicacies were brought back from the Himalayas by the roc, but the bird didn't know this. It thought the food was its own, and then offered it to the roc. (Master and audience laugh) The roc was fairly touched and delighted, and it gladly took the food. Then both of them were very happy, waiting for their master to return.

After the master came back, he would surely set the roc free. He would loosen their ties. After that, the roc would be free to go around again and take back more good food for the bird. It would give the bird more training and win its confidence, little by little, as the bird had not trusted the roc very much yet. Because of the disbelief, the bird had not been very interested in whatever the roc was trying to teach. Even if the bird did listen, it listened to only half of it. However, the roc waited patiently.

When the bird believed in it completely, it would teach the bird its magic, and then the two of them would fly away together. Let's hope that some day they will make it. That's all. (Laughter and applause)

You feel very touched after hearing this story, don't you? (Audience: Yes) Touched by the hearts of the birds. I don't know if human's hearts would feel touched or not? (Laughter) Do you feel touched? (Audience: Yes) Why? Are human beings the same as birds? (Master laughs) Which part is the same? Not enlightened! (Laughter)