Spring Comes to the Plateau



Crow by Sonnische

Crows were here before we were, long before the house was built, before the road was paved, before General John Sullivan drove the Iroquois from the Delaware Valley and this plateau and up into Canada.

Meditating today it came to me to draw a crow with my new iPhone app MyBrushes and use it to illustrate a new blog post.

Crows are so smart, canny and curious. They stride like men with hands clasped behind their backs when I cast stale bread out back, a lookout peering at me from perch up high in pine or elm, then calling to the crew of crows who all descend.

Our friends, corvis brachyrhinos, can live for 20 years or more. Crow expert J. Crow relates an account of Tata, a crow who as a fledgling was injured and could not fly, and was taken in by a family in New York and eventually being given to another when that family could no longer care for him. It is reported that he lived to be 59 years of age.

I find a sadness within when I think how man treats our animal brethren. The Buddha said,

Not one or two but all the beings - men, women, animals, birds, trees, rocks. All the beings in the world. One should create such a determination that 'I will lead them all into nirvana.'

And the Buddha also said,

Meditate. Live purely. Be quiet. Do your work with mastery. Like the moon, come out from behind the clouds! Shine.