A mouse

[Ryumon]

Titus the Cat woke me this morning around 6 am. He was on the floor next to my bed, yipping like a dog. I told him to go away, but he kept on yipping, so I realized it was important. I picked up my phone to shine some light on him, and I saw that he was proudly standing before the warm cadaver of a mouse.

Now, I live in a semi-rural area, technical next to a farm. Mice are common here, as is other wildlife; for example, we often see pheasants in our garden. Titus the Cat is a skilled hunter, and often brings prizes back to the house. This time, he may have wanted to show his conquest to Rosalind the Cat, our five-month old kitten who has not yet been outside on her own.

Part of me feels pain for the poor mice that get slain by such a devastating predator, but another part of me congratulates Titus the Cat for his success. (In fact, I don't know if he caught the mouse outside or in the house; perhaps it was the latter, and that's why he was so excited. We only saw a mouse in the house once.) It is the natural order of things that predators eat prey, and mice are, in many cases, vermin. (Like the ones that chewed up a child seat, stored in a shed outside, that my partner bought for when her granddaughter visits.)

I know we're supposed to help all sentient beings, but should I be interfering with the natural order of things? I can't stop Titus the Cat from hunting, but I feel a bit conflicted about the whole thing.

Gassho,

Kirk

#SatThisMorningEarlierThanUsual

[Jundo]

I too once tried to get our Cat to take the Buddhist Precepts ...

To mark the start of April, I thought I would answer some questions from the mail bag. One that I am asked about a lot is whether our family pets might benefit from practicing Buddhism and Zazen.

ABSOLUTELY! They're sentient beings, too. Only, with paws.

Kitties are nothing but cuddly fur balls of delusions and attachments. We must help our dogs find out for themselves whether they have Buddha-Nature or not. Even our hamsters and birdies can be freed from mental cages.

So, get a little Dogen into your doggie, and tell him to "SIT!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MidgayrszQM

This also connects to some of the other discussions around here about, for example, termites and spiders and mosquitoes and such ...

http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?13092-Newbie-s-topic-on-compassion-insects-and-so-on&p=145602&viewfull=1#post145602

Maybe just offer a bow to both mouse and cat, or recite the Heart Sutra, then get on with it.

Gassho, J

SatToday

[Kyotai]

cats do what cats do. If they didn't, eventually you may need to purchase mouse traps. Titus is helping keep your home disease free.

Offer a Gassho, as Jundo said.

Gassho, Kyotai
ST

[MyoHo]

Give it some time and the borders between cat and mouse will disapear. The cat will make shure they become One.

Gassho

Myoho

[Mp]

Had Kirk,

Jundo and Kyotai are right ... cats are cats, it is there nature. Big a bow for both the cat and mouse and carry on with your day holding gratitude in your heart for both. =)

This is an old fable, it maybe true or not, but thought it appropriate.

The Scorpion and the Frog

A scorpion and a frog meet on the bank of a stream and the
scorpion asks the frog to carry him across on its back. The
frog asks, "How do I know you won't sting me?" The scorpion
says, "Because if I do, I will die too."

The frog is satisfied, and they set out, but in midstream,
the scorpion stings the frog. The frog feels the onset of
paralysis and starts to sink, knowing they both will drown,
but has just enough time to gasp "Why?"

Replies the scorpion: "Its my nature..."

Gassho
Shingen

s@today

[Ryumon]

I too once tried to get our Cat to take the Buddhist Precepts ...

Brilliant! :-)

Gassho,

KirkSatToday

[Kyonin]

Hi Kirk,

My cat, Mr. Tamale, often hunts for bugs and twice he had gifted me with fresh dead mice. I also feel bad for the little guys, but a cat is just a cat and he is doing his job in nature: hunt-predator.

Still, all sentient beings need compassion and what I do here is to have tons of toys for the cat. He has fun chasing a laser dot and I have fun playing. At the same time, bugs and mice thrive... not sure if that's a good thing. HAHAHAH

Gassho,

Kyonin
#SatToday

[Joyo]

Whether the cat kills a mouse, or eats cat food.....it is eating a dead animal. I know it's upsetting to see your pet kill another creature. I was so upset with my dog when I tried to make a bird sanctuary in my backyard but he turned it into a bird death trap. What was I thinking, he's part beagle!! lol! But as others have already said, this is just how these animals are, and best to give a bow of respect to both the cat and the mouse.

Gassho,
Joyo
sat today

[Tairin]

I don't know where this Koan comes from. It was given to me as one of a handful of beginner Koans at the local Zen centre. It seems apropos to this topic.

Only For Your Benefit

One day when Dongshan was washing his bowls, he saw two crows fighting over a frog. A monk who was with him asked "Why does it come to that?" Dongshan replied "It is only for your benefit, honoured one"

Btw if anyone knows where this Koan came from I'd appreciate the pointer.

Gassho
Warren
Sat today

[Jundo]

I don't know where this Koan comes from. It was given to me as one of a handful of beginner Koans at the local Zen centre. It seems apropos to this topic.



Btw if anyone knows where this Koan came from I'd appreciate the pointer.

Gassho
Warren
Sat today

Hmmm. Beyond John Tarrant, I found a longer version in Chinese language in a book of Zen stories by the noted Chan Master Hsing Yun. Taigen Dan Leighton's book on Dongshan, which is pretty comprehensive, doesn't have it.

But good story anyway! Thank you.

Maybe Sekishi will come and tell a story he recently told me? I will ask him.

Gassho, J

SatToday

[alan.r]

I don't know where this Koan comes from. It was given to me as one of a handful of beginner Koans at the local Zen centre. It seems apropos to this topic.

Only For Your Benefit

One day when Dongshan was washing his bowls, he saw two crows fighting over a frog. A monk who was with him asked "Why does it come to that?" Dongshan replied "It is only for your benefit, honoured one"

Btw if anyone knows where this Koan came from I'd appreciate the pointer.

Gassho
Warren
Sat today

That is a beautiful Koan. Thank you so much for sharing.

Gassho,
Alan
sat today

[Sekishi]

I know we're supposed to help all sentient beings, but should I be interfering with the natural order of things? I can't stop Titus the Cat from hunting, but I feel a bit conflicted about the whole thing.

Hi Kirk,

As Jundo alludes to, a while back I was struggling with this realm of Samsara in a very similar way. I'm afraid it isn't a very straight-forward story, but I'll give it a go.

On a local river I watched an osprey catch a huge catfish. It was too big to carry and he had to "swim" to shore with the fish. Shortly afterwards, a bald eagle showed up and started fighting with the osprey while the fish flopped around on the beach, bleeding into the sand. Eventually the osprey lost the battle and retreated. But, before the eagle even made it back to the fish, multiple eagles showed up. Before long there were eagles fighting with each other on the beach and on a nearby dock, all for the prize of the fish (who still wasn't quite dead yet).

It was brutal. Life and death played out viscerally in front of me, and like you I was left quite conflicted about the whole thing.

I shared the following story with Jundo at the time:

When Erin and I were working on our licenses for wildlife rehabilitation (a many year apprenticeship here in the US), we would run into this often. One of our common jobs as apprentices was to stabilize a difficult case and then transport the animal to an experienced specialist. This lead to situations where we would spend hours in the car driving a red shouldered hawk to a raptor specialist, who is caring for multiple birds and feeding them rabbits, rats, etc. Then on the way home, we would stop and pick up an injured rabbit and drop it off with the rabbit specialist.

To save one raptor is to accept the deaths of many rabbits (over the life of the bird). If we were to try to save all the rabbits, we would have to accept the deaths of all the raptors. No-win situation: damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Literally the day after our conversation, I watched two eagles perform their amazing courtship ritual. I've only seen it once before. They fly up high in the sky and lunge at each other to lock talons and then they fall. With wings partially extended they begin a high speed spin on the way to earth. They let go only at the last minute, centrifugal force flinging them apart.

Cheesy music, but it captures the dance:

Life and death in balance, compelled by a force as old as the rivers and sky, beyond any possible comprehension.

Titus is a good cat, and he follows the rules completely.
Kirk is a good guy, and he does the best he can.
This is Samsara, the realm of birth and death. Words simply do not help - we cannot square this particular circle.

In Zazen, both the positive and the negative can be released, the existent and non-existent put down. There is no hawk or eagle or rabbit to save. That taste of freedom from distinction (no matter how fleeting) is unparalleled.

And after Zazen, I believe we help those in need directly in front of us, as best we can. If I can, I will save the hawk or the eagle, and I will heal the rabbit (or at least take them to someone who can).

Deep bows,
Sekishi #sat

P.S. I also think we should keep our cats indoors or put bells on them because for most of us they are a non-native species and are hugely damaging to local wildlife populations. But that is just me.

[Jundo]

I often feel that Buddhist Practice is not about our becoming "one with nature" in the sense of celebrating and returning to the most violent and territorial aspects of our animal nature. It is not about encouraging the most animalistic parts of our humanity.

Rather, it is about rising above all the hunger and violence, and becoming something better than the animals.

Remember that in traditional Buddhism, an animal is something that one may be reborn as in punishment for our greedy, angry Karmic acts, somewhere a little better than hell but worse than hungry ghosts. Animals are a punishing, ignorant existence which is not to be desired as our goal.

Four bad destinations
(4) Host of asuras
(3) Domain of ghosts
(2) Animal realm
(1) Hell realms

The early Buddhist texts envisage a universe with three principal tiers subdivided into numerous planes. The lowest tier is the sense-sphere realm (kāmadhātu), so called because the driving force within this realm is sensual desire. The sense-sphere realm (in the oldest cosmology) contains ten planes: the hells (niraya), planes of extreme torment; the animal realm (tiracchānayoni); the domain of petas or ghosts (pettivisaya), shade-like spirits subject to various kinds of misery ...
[url]http://www.wisdompubs.org/book/connected-discourses-buddha/selections/connected-discourses-part-i-introduction

...
It is not difficult to see the reason why Buddhism regards animal birth as a state of life included in the plane of misery.
First of all, there is no morality in the animal kingdom; animals live according to the wild law of
nature. Among animals, the strongest is the survivor; the bigger eats the smaller. Danger to life is the
crucial problem for them; it may come at any moment from animals themselves as well as from
human beings. They have to struggle hard for their survival, especially for food which is not always
certain. Sometimes they have enough to eat, but sometimes they have to starve for many days.
Moreover, they have to bear nakedly the hot and cold, the wet and dry seasons of the year without
proper protection. With all these difficulties, animal life, although it is not as much suffering as that of
the beings in hell, is rationally included as one of the miserable existences.

Another reason why Buddhism includes animal birth in the apāya-bhūmi is that whosoever, because
of his evil kamma; attains the birth of animal is naturally obstructed from realising the ultimate truth,
from following the path of virtue which leads to emancipation. This is because animal existence is the
negation of such realisation and practice. Lacking the capacity for realising the ultimate truth is
considered critical since such realisation is the prime aim of life that we struggle for.
http://www.bps.lk/olib/wh/wh462.pdf

The best realm in which to be reborn for Practice is as a human, with a chance to transcend all that.

Maybe seeing the cat or crow's hunger and violence is our chance to go beyond that, one possible meaning of the Koan's "It is only for your benefit" that this is seen.

I believe that Buddhist Practice can help us honor nature, protect nature, respect nature, preserve and live in harmony with nature. But nature is also sometimes cruel and primitive and greedy and unforgiving. I believe that people are "basically good", but I also believe that in all of us we are also simultaneously "basically beasts." So, Buddhist Practice also means that we can rise above our inner natures.

(Although, as a cat lover too, I do recognize that they have some lovely and beautiful qualities too that we humans should learn from. My cat is certainly much more "in the moment" than I ever shall be.)

Gassho, J

SatToday

[Ryumon]

Sekishi,

Thank you for your story. This isn't the place for this discussion - which is not an uncommon one - but if there were no cats around, the mice would run rampant. I live next to a farm - technically between parts of a farm - and there are a number of small mammals that benefit from the abundant food. As for bells on cats necks, that's not recommended here, because cats can get strangled getting the collars caught on branches. Oh, and windows kill more birds than cats, but you already know that. :-) (I'm not sure how you can call them a non-native species; they have lived in Europe for millennia.)

My broader point is that all these forms of life are part of a vast web. With the exception of, say, kudzu or starlings (https://www.scientificamerican.com/a...f-the-reviled/), these animals are simply sharing a natural habitat they have shared for centuries, if not millennia. I feel pain for the mouse, but I recognize that Titus is simply doing what is in his nature. And the mouse was doing what was in his or her nature.

Gassho,

Kirk

#sattoday

[Sekishi]

This isn't the place for this discussion - which is not an uncommon one - but if there were no cats around, the mice would run rampant. I live next to a farm - technically between parts of a farm - and there are a number of small mammals that benefit from the abundant food. As for bells on cats necks, that's not recommended here, because cats can get strangled getting the collars caught on branches. Oh, and windows kill more birds than cats, but you already know that. :-) (I'm not sure how you can call them a non-native species; they have lived in Europe for millennia.)

Here in the United States, cats are considered an invasive species. Not so for Europe.

I am not trying to tell anyone what to do. My wife and I choose to keep our domestic cats indoors for their safety and the safety of wildlife. I also live across the street from a large working farm. They currently have (last I talked to them) eighteen barn cats. As you say, without them they would likely be overrun without cats. There is no blanket "right" or "wrong" here.

According to a study published in 2013, in the United States, cats are responsible for the deaths of as many as 3.7 billion birds and 20.7 billion smaller animals, including mice, voles and chipmunks. The study also concludes that cats are likely the largest killer of birds and small mammals in the US. "This magnitude of mortality is far greater than previous estimates of cat predation on wildlife and may exceed all other sources of anthropogenic mortality of US birds and mammals."

http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms2380

An earlier study (using cameras attached to domestic cats) found:
- About 30 percent of the sampled cats were successful in capturing and killing prey
- The cats averaged about one kill for every 17 hours outdoors, or 2.1 kills per week.
- The cats only brought 23 percent of their kills back to a residence.

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/blogs/outdoor-cats-are-prolific-killers-study-finds

The cats themselves were also in danger in some cases:
- 45% of project cats were witnessed crossing two lane roads
- 20% explored the storm drain system
- 20% entered crawlspaces

Website for the camera project:

http://www.kittycams.uga.edu/

Anyhow, that is all I have to say. I will say nothing further on the topic (e.g. I have no wish to have an argument about it).

Metta to cats, mice, birds, and all sentient beings.

Gassho,
Sekishi #sat