Listen: A Seeker's Resource for Spiritual Direction, Vol 5.1, January 2011

Field Guide:
Learning Bird Language—A Pathway to a Contemplative Life

"Contemplative living is living in true relationship with oneself, God, others and nature, free of the illusions of separateness.” – Thomas Merton

It is easy to think of contemplation as something people do in a monastery or learn in their later years. But for indigenous people throughout the world, and especially for the ancient scout, a contemplative heart was acquired as part of learning survival. Those of us who seek to live a contemplative life can learn a great deal from indigenous cultures whose very way of being in the world cultivated contemplation and interiority.

It was the job of the ancient scouts to travel many miles ahead of the people so that they could discern danger and find suitable living situations for the group. The survival of all depended on the scouts' alertness and attentiveness to their environment. Because the ancient scouts were so attuned to the earth and its creatures they could read the language of the birds just as we learn to read road signs. It was the language of the birds that could, and still can, be discerned by the five universal messages they all convey. Most significantly, the scout could decipher the bird's alarm call as distinct from their other four calls. This understanding guided and protected the scout.

From the youngest ages, the elders trained their children to listen. They learned to listen to the birds, the wind, and most of all to the silence. They were trained to be at home in the silence as it is a doorway to the Great Silence or to the Spirit-that-moves-through-all-things. Even when they played with other children, there was a great deal of shared silence and attentiveness to the environment that surrounded them. This stands in sharp contrast to the frequency with which modern youth fill up natural spaces with boom boxes that exude loud hyper music.

Jon Young is a contemporary expert on nature awareness and the language of the birds. His expertise comes from elders of indigenous tribes as well as from the birds themselves. He would say there is nothing spiritual or religious about the information he teaches as it simply reflects a way of life. I would suggest that the entire life of the indigenous people was a contemplative one. In order to understand his teachings and to understand the significance of bird language, it is necessary to understand what Young and others call Jungle Law. This law pertains to nature in general and the rules are the same whether one is in Africa, Asia, or North, Central, or South America. We are all interconnected, not only at the level of matter, but also at the level of perception and communication.

There is a huge network of interspecies communication occurring all the time, and it appears that we humans are the only ones who are often oblivious to that fact. It is possible for a scout to traverse the woods without setting off dramatic creature alarms, but most of us seem to have what Young calls the bird plow effect. We walk into the woods noisily and without respect, and then wonder why we never get to see wild animals up close.

We don't see them because the birds and other creatures have already warned them, minutes before we even get near. Just as we get vibes about other people rather quickly, the birds are scanning and profiling us all the time. They are reading our spirits and our intent with amazing accuracy. They have to, as their very survival depends on discerning predators quickly. And as far as the birds can tell, most of us are very dangerous or at least questionable characters. We traverse the terrain without respect for other creatures, their habitat or their life cycles. But this is not always the case. There are humans who quietly pass through this veil of bird and creature alarm, seemingly unnoticed. I say seemingly because they have been embraced by the creature world as a non-threat. Their energy has been profiled and they have passed the test. It is not luck that enables them to see creatures up close and personal, but rather their level of sensitivity and at-one-ment with all life that has enabled them to enter this contemplative state.

Young calls this state of peace baseline; losing our minds and coming to our senses; becoming a reflective pond; coming into the Sacred Silence; or recovering what we knew as children. When baseline is achieved, the creatures are relaxed and co-exist in a peaceful state. Ancient scouts could travel in that state of harmony, knowing the creatures would alert them at least two minutes before a dangerous person or animal arrived. Of all the creatures, it is the birds that have the greatest vantage point and the greatest ability to scan the environment. So the scouts would pay special attention to their calls. Of the five universal calls of the birds, only one is an alarm call. A student of bird language must first learn to distinguish the territorial call from the male-male aggression call, the companion call, and the feed me call. These are distinct from the alarm call. In order to learn the distinct calls, Young encourages the student to study ground feeding birds such as robins and sparrows, as they will be the most readily attuned to dangers on the ground like humans and animals.

In order to more fully understand how this communication and warning system works, one must be aware of what Jon Young and others speak of as the concentric rings of nature. All life forms send out information in the form of motion, smell, sound, and so forth. This information spreads out with a ripple effect in the form of concentric rings just as a drop of water sends out rings of water. The bird sends out an alarm call, the deer hears it and then animals see the deer dart, and so forth. Once the bird sends the initial alarm, all the other creatures are alerted to the fact that a dangerous intruder is near. So it is not a coincidence that some people get to see creatures readily and others do not. Jon Young tells the story of his son who learned at an early age that the forest treats you differently when you are in a bad mood.” The forest is literally offering us instant biofeedback as to the condition of our soul and our spirit. Perhaps that explains why Saint Francis was known to have birds land on his shoulder.

In contrast to the insensitive bird plough effect of the modern person, the indigenous persons learned how to quiet their bodies and their minds so that they could be attentive to their environment. From the earliest age, the elders would tell the children "Sh-h-h-h, listen!" Not always clear as to what they were supposed to hear, the children would develop a general listening and attentive posture. This capacity for listening and being still is the first and most crucial skill students must learn in Jon Young's Nature Awareness School. It is also a key element in cultivating a contemplative heart. Each student must find a secret spot in nature where they return for at least twenty to thirty minutes a day. While at their spot, they must remain quiet and still in body and mind, paying attention only to that which surrounds them, and especially the birds.

Young teaches this skill to children and adults. It is the first step toward becoming a non-threatening presence in nature. Young says it takes a minimum of twenty minutes of stillness and peacefulness for the creatures to trust that one is not a threat and for baseline to be restored to the environment. After that time the students begin to hear birdsong return and animals begin to take a risk and allow themselves to be seen more readily. For the more reticent creatures, it takes much longer. In fact, he says it is unlikely that an animal is ever unaware of you. Rather, it is more likely that they have been watching you long enough to feel safe enough to allow you to see them. An up-close-and-personal animal encounter is a biofeedback acknowledgement that one is growing in his or her capacity for stillness and presence in the here and now.

As one spends more and more time cultivating this capacity for a quiet, still and non-threatening profile in nature, it becomes apparent that many changes take place. The creatures are not only beginning to feel safer, but one also begins to internalize a Silent Mind or the Sacred Silence. The deer notice you, but they don't sneak away. It is as if you are invited into a secret world of harmony and trust. For the native people, entryway into this seemingly secret world was predicated on an understanding of what Young calls the Routine of Invisibility. Invisibility is this capacity to traverse the land without setting off alarm or being perceived as a threat.

The first thing one does in this routine is become anchored in an attitude of gratitude. One is thankful for all living things including plants, animals, minerals, creatures of the sea, people, ancestors and the Giver of all Life. Then one attunes oneself to the environment with special attention to sound and sights in all directions. One walks slowly and respectfully, honoring the other creatures and doing everything possible to not disturb them. Again, this would include respect for jungle law. For example, do not stare down another creature, unless you want to fight with them or mate with them. Do not crowd a creature when they are eating peacefully.

For those of us who would seek to learn these old ways, this process is a self-conscious and deliberate one, but for the children who grew up in an indigenous culture, these patterns were a way of life. I would also add, a contemplative way of life. Those of us, in the modern world, who seek to have a more contemplative life, work hard to quiet our monkey minds. We work hard to incorporate more quiet and stillness in our overly busy lives. We try to learn how to be present to the moment. We regularly remind ourselves to cultivate an attitude of gratitude. We do all of this while continuing to spend most of our lives in buildings and cars. We are cut off from the very thing that nurtures a contemplative life, which is the natural environment of which we are a part. But we can learn from the example of Young and other modern day contemplatives who have come to be at home in the wilderness among other creatures.

Young tells a compelling story and example of the extent to which we are connected to other creatures. After being in the wilderness for a long while, Young says he “had been living in a dynamic meditation for days.” He claims to have been able to go beyond the place of thinking, as the thinking state removes one from a state of awareness, unity, and harmony with all. As he walked the woods in this state of oneness, he noticed a fox heading toward him down the narrow path. He knew they would pass within one or two feet of each other, and became very excited to be that near to a wild fox. Then he said that for the first time in days, he had a thought, "I can't wait to tell people about this."! As soon as he entered into that thinking zone, the fox showed his teeth in a defensive posture. Upset with himself, Young quickly did all he could to abandon his thought and return to the former state of oneness and harmony. As soon as he did so, the fox returned to a relaxed state and they were able to pass each other with ease.  As unusual as this story sounds, it is not as uncommon as one might think. In the Catholic tradition, as in many spiritual traditions, Catholic saints were known to befriend creatures and demonstrate an unusual ability to tame ferocious creatures with loving-kindness.

It is often said that the sign of a true saint or a true mystic is the degree to which their lives manifest the love of God for all people and all creatures. It is not enough that they would reach heights and depths of unitive experience. It has always been the quality of love with which they returned from those experiences that distinguished them as great saints or great contemplatives. In a similar manner, Young speaks of the Seven Sacred Attributes. These attributes indicate that one is living in the natural state of awareness or the Sacred Way. These attributes also suggest that it is the nature of unitive experiences to enliven us and increase our gratitude, our compassion and our desire to give to others.

The Seven Sacred Attributes are:

   1. Quietness

   2. Happiness of a child

   3. Quickness of health like a wolf or a coyote

   4. Being truly helpful and understanding your gifts—why you were put on earth

   5. Empathy with and compassion for all living things. Seeing the Creator's love in all things

   6. Gratitude and thankfulness

   7. Feeling you have come alive–loving life, appreciating every moment

These attributes were a sign that one was living in accord with the Sacred Way. Young explains that there was once a time where the common person was highly aware of the landscape and highly attuned to the environment as well as to the Spirit-that-moves-through-all-things. That is why the ancient teachings could say, "The common person, their way is sacred." But that is no longer the case. More often than not, people have forgotten the old ways. We no longer have the keen awareness of our environment or of the sacredness of the Spirit that is moving through all of it. With sadness, one can only more accurately say, "People who lived the sacred way–all was sacred."

Too often we hear the hopeless forecasts about our planet and our precarious future. But the ancient teachings tell us that the future is not fixed. We are told that there are many possible futures and it is never too late for us to choose something new, or perhaps something very old. Our very survival on this planet depends on it, as does the salvation of our spirits.

Jon Young is a pioneer in helping modern day seekers find their home in nature and in the Sacred Way. He would not say he is a spiritual or religious leader, but I think Merton would disagree. The ancient teachings Young presents help an individual discover what Merton defines as contemplative living. Adults and children alike are finding an unself-conscious pathway to this contemplative life as they return to their original home among all living things. They are finding, as Merton writes, a "true relationship with oneself, God, others and nature, free of the illusions of separateness."

Nancy Cannon is an artist and a spiritual director who lives with her husband on eight wooded acres in Michigan, USA. Their land provides daily creature encounters as well as endless inspiration for her art. She can be reached at nancycannon@allearthtiles.com.

*Author footnote: I live on eight wooded acres of land in Michigan. Over time the animals have become used to my presence and will sometimes ignore me instead of alarm. From the moment I first began this essay, I sat outside in our woods. As I began to write, three deer sauntered within thirty to forty feet of my spot. Eventually they found their day beds and slept while I continued to write. Hours later they began to explore closer to my spot and eventually became very curious about me. I tried to avoid eye contact as much as possible as they walked up to within twenty feet of me–staring inquisitively. Then one of them snorted and spooked me. I jumped a little and they darted, only to return again and stare some more. By that time my first draft was completed, I thanked the deer for their support, and went back to my house nearby.

Excerpt from Listen: A Seeker’s Resource for Spiritual Direction, Vol. 5.1, “Field Guide: Learning Bird Language” by Nancy Cannon, (Spiritual Directors International (c) 2011). Used with the permission of Spiritual Directors International. To order copies or a FREE subscription to Listen: A Seeker’s Resource for Spiritual Direction call 1-425-455-1565 or go to www.sdiworld.org.

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