Bunnysatva

In Buddhism a bodhisattva is an enlightened one who stays behind to help others along the path.   A few weeks ago a bodhisattva came to me in the form of a dead bunny.

 

My spouse and I were driving home one night along the dirt road leading up to our house when our headlights caught our neighbor’s cat stalking a cottontail rabbit.  The cat started running in full pursuit, the rabbit took of bounding, and the cat was closing the distance.  I was torn between getting out of the car and running so as to startle the cat or to tear it from the bunny should he catch him, or getting my spouse to drive the car fast so as to catch up quicker to the chase.  I started to yell “gun it, gun it” when I saw the cat catch the bunny and both flip in the air, and my spouse did just that.  When the bunny hit the ground, now free from the cat, he came running back towards us right into the wheel of our accelerating car.  The bunny died instantly.  With my spouse’s head in his hands I gathered up the still, soft bunny and immediately walked back with him cradled in my arms to show our neighbors what their cat had precipitated.  Perhaps not the most usual way to meet your neighbors with a dead bunny in you arms, but I had wanted to speak with them for months about their cats hunting birds and mammals on our property. 

 

My neighbor said that these were feral cats that they fed and didn’t allow inside their homes. They had them neutered and vaccinated and were attached to them.  I asked her if there was no way they could take them in so they wouldn’t hunt and hurt the other species around, and in our backyard sanctuary.  She could not think of any solution.

 

I cannot think of any solution either.  We tried as hard as we could to save the bunny, and it ended up dying because of our choice of gunning the car.  If I am to trap the feral cat so it no longer hunts birds and bunnies on our property, what damage might it cause in human relationships and the bond between the neighbors and their feral cats.  I have trapped feral cats before, and do not do so lightly, because to do so almost surely means their death as the animal shelters cannot find homes for all these semi-wild felines.  So who gets to live?  Who gets to die?  And who gets to decide?  And will our decisions actually do less harm than our lack of decision?

 

I am greatly humbled with this incident.  Even when I think I know the right thing to do, I don’t have all the answers.  Life is complex, the answers unfathomable.  But the path seems somehow simpler now.  The bunny tells me to live the life of compassion, of authenticity, and of heart breaking love that cares for my neighbors, their cats, the birds and bunnies that flourish and fail at our hands, and myself.  Somewhere in that engagement a light came to me so that I could more clearly see that though there is suffering all around me, there is also beauty.  Out of that clearing of the extraneous, the grace of that bunny’s life and death as I held its soft rabbit feet against my wet cheeks taught me to trust in love and that somehow we’ll find a way to build the beloved community of mixed species. What this means in actual concrete actions I do not know – maybe trapping, maybe more conversations with the neighbors, and most certainly, a watering of the life around me with tears so that love may grow.

 

Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln Ask Questions at their Birthday Party

Partial Sermon Delivered at the Unitarian Univeralist Fellowship of  Gainesville

February 8, 2009

 

Rev. LoraKim Joyner

 

 

Darwin:  Yes, do you believe in God?

 

LoraKim:

 

In this country about 90% believe in God or a higher power. For us here, we don’t worry so much about what you believe, but how you act in the world. 

 

Perhaps like your successful marriage Mr. Darwin, it can be a good thing we can’t reconcile our beliefs with each other.  It causes alteration, which might just be about the healthiest thing about having beliefs.   

 

Darwin:

 

That’s right.  Ah, our marriage was so healthy. Emma told me that her love was stronger than her faith.

 

LoraKim: 

 

You mean, you didn’t need to think alike, to love alike?

 

Darwin:

 

By Jove, that’s right, you’ve got it!

 

LoraKim:

 

You did get it, even way back then.  Through you we may have slipped further from belief in heaven, but we became greater lovers of earth.

 

Lincoln: 

 

Are you lovers of humanity?

 

LoraKim:

 

That’s a bit harder.  I believe that as the decades proceed we humans have a greater sense that we are interconnected with all of life.   Charles you helped us see this, I even carry with proof this in a discovery of yours.  Look at my ear.

 

Charles: 

 

My, it’s a Darwin’s pinnacle – the vestige of the tip of formerly erect and pointed ears from our ancestors that occasionally appear in humans.   

 

Lincoln: 

 

But what happened to our animal nature, violence and competition? 

 

LoraKim:  

 

Well, some used Mr. Darwin’s theory to develop social Darwinism to say that our lives are about survival of the fittest and if you aren’t fairing well, it’s because you aren’t fit, and you are subhuman.  It has fed a runaway capitalism and fueled bigotry, racism, war, violence, and habitat degradation.   

 

Charles: 

 

But I spoke of collaboration, and cooperation!

 

LoraKim: 

 

Indeed you did.  But we haven’t quite figured out the mix of nature and nurture to forswear our descent into chaos.  Now I’m beginning to talk like the two of you!

 

Lincoln: 

 

You mentioned capitalism as a problem. How so? In my time it was the way and hope forward.

 

LoraKim: 

 

If you had lived just a few decades longer you would have found that unscrupulous business practices took over, and are with us today, wrecking great havoc. 

 

Charles: 

 

What of science and religion?  Do you believe in evolution?

 

LoraKim: 

 

Sixty percent believe humans and other animals always existed as they do now or evolved over time under guidance of a Supreme Being.  Only 25 % believe life evolved through natural selection.

 

Charles: 

 

What happened?

 

LoraKim:

 

Well we are still shifting from a view of life that dictates that what the most powerful people say is true.  From you we learned not so much to ask “what,” but to see that there is quality in asking why is something this way and what is the relationship to us the observer.  To truly ask that question one must be open to uncomfortable and changing understandings – to the unknown in ourselves, in others, and in existence.

 

Charles:

 

So the theory of evolution didn’t give you the meaning of life and unify the earth in harmony?

 

Lincoln:

 

And the Civil War didn’t end all wars and bloodshed?

 

LoraKim:

 

Not yet, though I believe we are on our way.

 

Evolutionary theory told us, and faith in humanity informs us that if we want rule of law, free speech, and individual rights, equality of races and sexes, a sustainable earth, that there is nothing in biology to tell us we can’t. Furthermore these days, we are learning more and more that biology says we can have freedom and flourishing for all.  It’s in us, though no certainty that it shall come to pass.

 

Lincoln: 

 

So you live with even more doubt than I did, for I had Providence.

 

Charles: 

 

And I had evolution.

 

LoraKim: 

 

Don’t get me wrong.  Liberalism may accept a plurality of hats, but we do this in order to arrive at a working majority of hearts.  We have confidence in this in part because of you Mr. Lincoln who confirmed in us materialist certitudes and rationalist confidence of enlightenment when you said government of the people, by the people and that we could be the better angels of our nature.  Somehow we have maintained values of the enlightenment in the face of pessimistic truths of the universe and political conduct. There may be no plan, but we can still describe the maze; describing the maze is, in fact, the first step in getting out of it. (Adam Gopnik in Angels and Ages:  A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life)

 

Lincoln:

 

But your maze is so thick, I can read it in the faces of the people here, what do you do while you are stuck not being able to see over the hedgerows of human failing?

 

LoraKim:

 

Well, we are mystical materialists, like you both.  You see we have faith in what the eyes see and what the mind knows, and we still recognize that the heart and soul seek more. (Gopnik).  For us “religion has become for most an affirmation not of a certain understanding of history, but of a way to live in the present; it is an expression of a social practice, of community ritual, and life seems sad without it.”

 

 

Lincoln: 

 

Oh, you have learned to mourn as we did in my day, and on a massive pubic scale.  We had so much anxiety and doubt. How could a good God would allow so much death of the young?  We had to feel death fully as unappeasable loss.  The only thing that made sense was that so many died for freedom, and now I’m not so sure that they did.

 

LoraKim:

 

Dear Mr. President, you’ve had so much pain, and so have we.  We must live with the dual reality that our motives are pure, but also with the harm that comes to the victims of all kinds, species, and the very earth.  No one escapes from the curtain of their life being drawn to discover our days of are harm and loss, and of giving and abundance. 

 

Lincoln: 

 

Curtains, curtains. I recall this in my last moments. What happened?  I was shot wasn’t I?

 

LoraKim: 

 

You were.  And when you finally died the words uttered over your still heart were either you now belong to the ages, or to the angels. We don’t know which.  All we know for sure was that “everyone was weeping and the room was full.”  (Gopnik)

 

Not much has changed today.

 

The earth is full, watching, waiting, and we are weeping.  We look to the past as you did to look at slavery and humanity, Mr. Lincoln, and as you did Mr. Darwin with your birds and worms, so that we can face forward and be led into the mysterious unknown.

 

We also face inward to have empathy for tortoises and for those suffering, so that we gather a deep knowing of the world and see if we can make things a little better.

 

Our hope is to study life, to see all life, no matter how lowly, to know where we come from, who we were, who we are, so that we can be all of who we might become.  We are not here to be at the top of a great chain of being, but in the midst of the web of life that holds us in this truth; “There is more to human than the breath in her body, or the hat on his head.  It is the hope in our heart.” (adapted from Adam Gopnik)

 

For this hope we gather, and in hope, let us sing.

Happy Birthday Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln

This past Sunday we celebrated the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln, both born on February 12, 2009.  We were quite fortunate that they chose both to visit our congregation.  They materialized when our children sang them each Happy Birthday.  For the first part of the service they spoke to our children reaffirming, "it is a blessing you were born, it matters what you do, and you  don't have to go it alone."  During the second part of the service we asked Mr. Darwin and Mr. Lincoln questions, and the for the final part of the service, they asked us questions.  I have included a snippet below that I address to them both at the end of their questions.  The answers to all their questions can be found in "more information" (though not the answers to all our questions).

The earth is full, watching, waiting, and we are weeping.  We look to the past as you did to look at slavery and humanity, Mr. Lincoln, and as you did Mr. Darwin with your birds and worms, so that we can face forward and be led into the mysterious unknown.

We also face inward to have empathy for tortoises and for those suffering, so that we gather a deep knowing of the world and see if we can make things a little better.

 

Our hope is to study life, to see all life, no matter how lowly, to know where we come from, who we were, who we are, so that we can be all of who we might become.  We are not here to be at the top of a great chain of being, but in the midst of the web of life that holds us in this truth; “There is more to human than the breath in her body, or the hat on his head.  It is the hope in our heart.” (adapted from Adam Gopnik in Angels and Ages:  A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life)

 

May this week lead to the discovery of hope and faith in the evolving tree of life.

Guatemala - A Big Bite of Reality

 Wildlife Conservation Society 

 

I'll be returning to Guatemala in late March to help booster the defenses of the people and parrots of Guatemala in the Mayan Biosphere Reserve.  I have not worked in El Peten, the north forest of Guatemala before, nor with wild Scarlet Macaws.  This is a compelling time for me as I prepare to journey to Mother Earth (Qachuu Aloom) where I know there is peril, danger, and tragedy in disappearing forests, species, and cultures.  May I along with others of my species fortify ourselves with the beauty and wonder of these communities of mixed species with the sacred covenant known as the web of life so that we may weave a beautiful tapestry of interconnection and unity. 

 

When living in Guatemala during the first half of the 90’s I was on-site manager for the Guatemalan Psittacine Project.  We invited in other avian projects that pertained to species other than parrots.  These projects often began as short surveys to determine the feasibility of more in-depth studies and to test the waters regarding experimental technique.   One such mini-study, organized by Rodney and Marcos, was a mist net survey of local birds.  They believed in part, as did we all, that habitat destruction, high pesticide use, and other factors made the situation of migrating birds dire indeed.  A mist net survey would help substantiate this suspicion.

 

 

Rodney and Marcos went bravely forward to gather data.  Up went the mist nets on the first morning, then a break for the afternoon, and then up again in the evening.  Every hit (bird caught) was carefully recorded – its weight and species – and then the bird released.  They had not had many hits before dusk descended.   They were about to take the nets down for the night when suddenly the nets rippled with multiple flying beings.  Marcos ran to one net and Rodney to the other.  Just as Marcos realized what was happening and shouted a warning to Rodney, he heard Rodney say, “Shit, these birds sure can bite.”  They were not birds, but bats. 

Rodney and Marcos were able to extricate the handful of bats.  During the two weeks of their study there were no further incidents with the mist netting, although I did experience the unfathomable wonder and inner soul rejoicing of holding a Painted Bunting that Rodney and Marcos caught. 

 

We worried about rabies, but not very much.  Not until Rodney spoke to his family and friends in the U.S. about the bat bite did he fully realize he needed the rabies shots.  The day he went to Guatemala City to seek out the injections, he was running a high fever and thought this was rabies setting in.  Turned out it wasn’t rabies.  It was just a cold, and Rodney returned the same evening.  In the following days, I administered the remaining shots.  Rodney had received a bite of reality and a shot in the arm to booster his defenses against death, but what of the birds whose lives are still in so much danger?

 

Do you recall an incident of unexpected harm where your life was in danger? 

How did your respond – with permanent fear, gratitude once the danger had passed, or appreciation of what is important to your life? 

Video: Feed the Birds