For the record, not that I really care what people think of me, I'm not a Republican, nor am I a Democrat, but if shooting things were viewed less evil, I might move that up on my priority list of solutions for a lot of things and likely be the better for it. As it is, I am registered well to the left of middle, but see good and bad positions on each side of the isle. Mostly bad or disingenuous. And I put shooting things as my solution of last resort. My woods are filled with daffodils and naked ladies (that's flowers to you BB so don't go getting too excited
, I have three big flower gardens that take more time than they are worth (thank you Mrs. Mo Heat), I grow a few vegetables every year, and I do my best to live in harmony with natural law. I love flowers, puppies and guns. Hopefully that will remove me from most little boxes so many seem to think within.
Few are as tender hearted as Mrs. and Mother Mo Heat, but even they gave their blessing before I cracked open the gun safe and got medieval on a couple Downies and Tufted Titmice. These birds were
dug in and going nowhere after 3 years of fruitless renaissance removal techniques. Sorry, don't feel like raising nets for that Halloween home appearance. Man is a predator after all.
Even the Dali Lama kills pests. During an interview he was being bitten by a mosquito. The first time he shooed it away. It returned and bit him again. Again he shooed it away. The interviewer was impressed by his compassion and probably said so. Then it returned a third time and bit him again. He smashed it dead without compunction, likely to the surprise of his interviewer, saying that he had given the mosquito two chances and he only had two cheeks to turn, or something like that. I'm telling this story second hand so some of the details are probably inaccurate, but the killing of the mosquito is a certainty.
Below is a quote from a Dali Lama lecture at UT. To be fair I've included both yin and yang statements. Life is after all a complex interaction of opposites (duality). Rising above judgement leaves only action without the mistake of the mind so he tempers his statement with a second qualifier statement that warns of blindly applying concepts wholesale to all situations. In other words, there is always an "on the other hand" when it comes to thinking. In doing so he, as most gifted spiritual masters do, equates the good and the bad and leaves your thoughts conflicted and somewhere in the middle. The lesson being that thinking is thinking while action is action. They are associated in people, but are discreet entities as well (does the tree falling in the forest make a sound if no one hears it? what is the sound of one hand clapping.
He of course understands well the concept of karma and the interplay of the three Gunas (Satva, Tamas, and Rajas) of Vedic tradition from which Buddhism is anchored whether acknowledged or not. Here is the quote:
Sometimes anger protects you (ex: a mosquito - anger will kill it and protect you from further suffering, whereas patience may give you malaria). But decisions in the heat of the moment are not your normal mind. It is blind energy, self-destruction.
The lesson? Kill, but do it with premeditation and intent, not blind emotional reaction. Hmmm... It's weird how philosophy and law seems at odds sometimes, isn't it?
The one picking at my house is the male, it's got the red on the head while the female swoons in the tree (no red). It's cute the family hangs out together.
