The Hunter & The Hunted

This morning a friend of mine showed me pictures of a family of deer in her backyard. Beautiful garden and trees. In one picture, a small deer was jumping. Another picture had two deer sitting by the tree.

“Beautiful”, I thought and put the pictures down.

While some feed them, some enjoy killing them — not even for food, but simply for the sake of killing and for fun (some call it recreational sport). Some argue that this deer hunting is good for deer and for humans since it helps control the deer population, and guarantee there is enough food for them. Really? I had always thought that nature is intelligent enough to do that. It is difficult to believe that man needs to regulate and control everything, making decisions who will live and who will die.

The fact is hunting animals is plain cruel and barbaric. Man just finds justification for everything that he wants to do.

We desire peace and good life for ourselves and our dear ones. So do these animals. One of our wishes is peace on this earth, isn’t it? But how can we achieve it? To achieve peace we ourselves should be at peace first. If we are at peace within ourselves, we cannot think of hurting others — including animals.

Not so long ago, in some TV program, I saw a handicapped man on a wheelchair — assisted by these hunting professionals — pointing his gun at a deer. The deer was not even moving. Just sitting there enjoying his day. Then there was this sound and the deer was dead. The so called hunters jumped with joy, congratulated each others as if they just returned from the moon. It was actually funny to watch these people. What were they thinking? I guess they got a boost of their little egos by this crazy act. And I wonder how long did it last?

We talk about the Universal brotherhood, and human rights. We go to churches and temples. But inside, the world that we live in is the world of hate, selfishness and ignorance. We gulp down chunks of meat— telling others how juicy and tasty it is. And then we open our book of knowledge and start a prayer, wishing our loved ones well, proclaiming our devotion to God and make some promises. So much love for our dear ones, even our pets — so much attachment — but nothing for these innocent animals. If we were mindful enough, in that piece of meat that our fork holds, we would see the suffering of the animal that was slaughtered — the pain and agony it went through. As long as we hurt others, does it even make sense to talk about religion and spirituality? The foundation of all religion is compassion. Sometimes it feels that an honest atheist is better than such a person of faith. At least he doesn’t pretend.

Now the question is: will all this cruelty and anger come back to us one day? In the form of disease, sickness, pain and suffering — will it all be paid back with interest? And that day we will realize how the hunters become the hunted.