As I’ve mentioned several times before, it’s big game huntin season here in Montana, a time that makes critters like me more than a little jumpy. I’m personally OK. Badgers ain’t on the list, and I’m on private land. But I feel real empathic toward my fellow critters dodgin bullets, and now, with some understanding of the Buddha’s teachings, the hunters themselves. I’ve been waitin until what felt like the right time to write this, and finally it was triggered by the followin. There’s a kinda group bulletin board for Montana birdwatchers and the monk, who’s one a that peculiar tribe, sent me this excerpt from a longer post:
…[m]y lifer was an AMERICAN THREE-TOED WOODPECKER!!!!! AMAZING looks from 10 feet away!!! first and maybe not last lifer seen through a rifle scope(didn’t grab the binoculars from the truck)
Later that day, we almost hit a RUFFED GROUSE, and got out to bag it, but found our selves staring at 3 SPRUCE GROUSE in the trees above us!!! SPRUCE GROUSE!!! WAY COOL!! I have only seen one before and it too was hunting in the same area, but this time we got to hold them. 
One of the males was a pure “FRANKLIN’S” subspecies but the other male and the female are a mix of the nominate subspecies and the the “Franklin’s” I called them ‘tweeners. I have there tails curing to be mounted. The subspecies variation in them is very cool and interesting!!
Didn’t bag a deer or elk, but came home with 3 grouse and the satisfaction of a great day of hunting, with some birding in the mix.”
This is reproduced as-was; please don’t get on the guy for syntax, typos or what have you. That ain’t the point. What struck Bitterroot was how in one mind there could be both an obvious fascination with, and aesthetic appreciation for, birds in general, as well as an unbridled enthusiasm for killing them. Now please don’t get all superior and bash this one guy in the comments. That also ain’t the point. From the Buddhist point of view, the fella’s himself prey to his own ignorance, and shouldn’t be faulted for it, but rather considered with compassion. Unknowingly, he, and however many others deliberately ending the lives of critters, are setting in motion the very thing they would like to avoid: their own future suffering.
The creation of karma
Many Montanans will be quick to tell hunting critics several things: hunters these days are among the most ardent land conservationists; that because of widespread human colonization, there’s now an imbalanced environment in which humans now fill the role of predator, instead of wolves, say, and without thinning the burgeoning herds such as elk, many would starve to death in the winter due to too many animals for too little forage; and that a good percentage of the hunters are poor and really depend on the meat to feed their families during the winter.
Bitterroot finds these arguments pretty reasonable, given the relative reality of the situation here. But the Buddha’s wisdom proceeds from his perfectly enlightened view of the ultimate reality of our situation, understandin in a very precise way how we suffer and how to get out.
The operative word here is ‘view’. If we have a view that animals were placed on this earth by a benevolent Creator for the judicious use by people, then not only is killing them OK, it can be conceived as an almost sacred act, at least in terms of gratitude toward the Creator, etc. Alternatively, if we have a view (or unconscious assumption, really) that there’s no pattern to our existence and no effect from our actions save possible violations of man’s artificially created laws, well, then, who gives a hoot? Life’s purpose is just to grab as much fun as you can get away with, and killing animals is “awesome”.
The Buddha saw things different. First off, he saw that we ain’t lived just this life. In fact we have lived too many lives to even count, in every conceivable form. I’ve been human, you’ve been badger, for instance. And he saw that everything that comes about in this or any other world does so through exacting cause and effect relationships. Most of those causes and effects are karma, the actions of previous lifetimes that have left imprints on our mindstreams and, given the right conditions, ripen as experience. In other words, don’t get all sentimental about Bambi in the rifle scope. In some previous life, Bambi was the hunter. Conversely, in some future life, the hunter’s gonna be Bambi. That’s a simplification, but not by much.
So how do we break this cycle? Again, through view, and it’s gotta be ours, ‘cause humans are (mostly) the only ones fortunate enough to be born with rational faculties. Because you humans have the marvelous power of choice, most karma is created during a human lifetime, so it behooves us to take some care.
First, we gotta consider what, when you get right down to it, makes all beings equal to one another. There’re two things. The first is our equality in terms of our drive to secure happiness and be free from suffering. What do all beings value and protect the most? (Who said “their i-phones”?) Their lives, of course. And who can honestly say that one’s right to live is superior to another’s? The second is our ultimate nature, indivisible in our fundamentally awakened state and potential to realize it.
Based on this way a thinkin, the Buddha kicks it up another notch: given all beings’ innumerable past lives, each and every being, at one time or another, has shown us unparalleled kindness as our mother. Carefully nourished us in her own body, cleaned away the filth we could not clean ourselves, sacrificed in so many ways to sustain our very lives and bring every possible benefit.
If this is true as the Buddha taught, is it possible to sight down a rifle barrel and kill your own mother? Mount her head on your wall? (Please, no mother-in-law jokes here.) Or should our way of life change? I’m talkin about entering into a sacred covenant with other living beings, vowing to repay their kindness and care for them in both ordinary and extraordinary ways.
The Dalai Lama once offered an oft-quoted summary a the Buddhist way of life: “If you can help others, do so; if you can’t, at least don’t harm them.” You hear that? As someone tuned in to spiritual life, not harming others—giving up huntin and fishin, say—is the least you can do. Helping others in ordinary ways, maybe adopting a pet or two from your local shelter, is pretty good. But best of all is cultivating what we call bodhicitta, the awakeneing mind that seeks perfect enlightenment solely to have the capacity to lead all other beings to that perfect state beyond all sorrow.
Now I’m hoping for some discussion about this, especially from those who have some knowledge of the ethical understanding within the hunting culture. But hear this: Bitterroot ain’t gonna be very tolerant at all of comments along the lines of, “Hunters are stupid, macho murderers!” Let’s try to delve a little deeper and recognize that we all have the potential to bring something positive to the table (man, Bitterroot’s startin to sound like Obama, ain’t he?).
Update: Wow, after sayin that, and since it’s the 10th day of the moon, let’s let Padmasambhava speak on the matter in his usual forthrightness: “To take the life of another is no different from murdering your own parents and children!” That’s from Advice from the Lotus-Born. Now, if you have Padmasambhava’s perfect realization, you go ahead and talk like that too. Otherwise, please be polite and well-reasoned in the comments like I asked.
One well-known emanation this century was the incomparable 
And related to compassion and loving-kindness as antidotes to mindless hatred, a local group calling itself Bozeman United has organized a “Hate-Free BoZone” march and rally for Nov. 1, from 2-4pm, to counteract the recent noxious activities of the so-called “Creativity Movement” of white supremacists. I hope all my fellow Buddhists will attend. I think the monk will be out of town or he’d be there for sure. The march will initiate at 2pm from 8th and Cleveland on the MSU campus and end in a rally at the Willson School gymnasium. 
