A parable from priest and therapist Anthony de Mello on the stories we tell ourselves:
"A man found an eagle's egg and put it in a nest of a barnyard hen. The eaglet hatched with the brood of chickens and grew up with them.
All his life the eagle did what the barnyard chicks did, thinking he was a barnyard chicken. He scratched the earth for worms and insects. He clucked and cackled. And he would thrash his wings and fly a few feet into the air.
Years passed and the eagle grew very old. One day he saw a magnificent bird above him in the cloudless sky. It glided in graceful majesty among the powerful wind currents, with scarcely a beat of its strong golden wings.
The old eagle looked up in awe. "Who's that?" he asked.
"That's the eagle, the king of the birds," said his neighbor. "He belongs to the sky. We belong to the earth—we're chickens."
So the eagle lived and died a chicken, for that's what he thought he was."
Source: Song of the Bird -- Anthony de Mello
牧師兼治療師安東尼·德梅洛- Anthony de Mello 的一個寓言《鳥之歌 Song of the Bird>講述了我們告訴自己的故事:
“一個人發(fā)現(xiàn)了一個鷹蛋，把它放在了一個母雞的窩里。小鷹和一窩小雞一起孵出來，一起長大。
這只鷹一輩子都在做那些小雞做的事，以為自己是一只小雞。他挖土找蟲子。他咯咯地笑。他會拍打翅膀，飛到幾英尺高的空中。
許多年過去了，老鷹很老了。一天，他看見頭頂上無云的天空中有一只美麗的鳥。它優(yōu)雅威嚴地在強勁的風中滑行，幾乎不拍打它那強壯的金色翅膀。
老鷹敬畏地抬起頭來?！澳鞘钦l?”他問。
鄰居說:“那是鷹，鳥中之王?！?
“他屬于天空。我們屬于地球——我們是雞?！?/p>
所以，鷹生是雞，死是雞，因為它自認為自己就是雞?！?/b>
來源:鳥之歌 -- 安東尼·德梅洛
