The Whispers of Little Wing
A few days ago, I read in Susan Blackmore’s book about how people believe that coincidental happenings are acts of gods, spirits, or even worse, something they themselves made happen. There were experiments cited to debunk this faith which were quite funny and I even repeated this information in reference to how cavemen became spiritual. (Consciousness: A very Short Introduction)

The next day, I passed by some flowers growing on a bush on my way back to my kuti and thought to myself how wonderful it would be if I asked someone to pluck some flowers so I could have a flower offering to my Buddha in a Sri Lankan Style: on a plate like a Mandala. One or two days later (yesterday), I received a very large collection of white flower tops in a bag during the alms food line at Pa-Auk. I think it was the first time I had ever received such a large collection of loose flowers at Pa-Auk. It was special too, because the unfamiliar lady who I think was passing out mangos, turned away from me and then reached back from a special place and put the special bag on my bowl cover.

OK, so I am back to believing again!

There is a less known Meditation practice called “Awareness Of Devas.”. The Pali word “deva” translates to angels, gods, fairies or what Jimi calls, “Little Wing.”. One can practice by contemplating that the devas know all of your thoughts, let alone your speech and actions. This can help one watch the mind and keep it pure. Christians may believe that Jesus can do this, or the Muslims, Allah. It is my belief that these devas can whisper into the ears of others to influence their subconscious minds to make things happen, like a bag of flowers.

Whatever it is, the most important thing is to do what you can to keep the body speech and mind pure.
..And of course to follow through with wholesome deeds…I did an offering of flowers and chanted Sri Lankan Style.

(I added the red flower cap from a flower i had in the vase for the picture.)

Chapter VII of The Path of Purification p187 has this recollection. It is called Recollection on Deities (A very small description).


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