Thank you for this, Shoren. It touched me because I had a similar experience just last year. One afternoon I was calling our cat Butters, to come inside from his “kingdom” the back yard. When I spotted him, he had a baby-almost juvenile Mocking bird in his mouth!! I scolded him and he immediately dropped the still-live bird from his mouth. The bird was now hiding somewhere in the jade plants on the side yard. I had to attempt to save it. There was no way for it to be returned to its parents now, even though they were just above on the neighbor’s roofing calling for it. Oh the grief!!! I got an old bird cage from the garage, cleaned it, put water and a live worm in a feeder, caught the bird and placed the cage on top of the trash bins, off the ground. This way the parents could communicate and see it. I covered the cage with a towel that night, and planned to take it to the Silicon Valley animal sanctuary nearby the next morning. When I got up in the morning to see the baby, I found it dead in the cage. It hadn’t been wounded by the cat, but possibly it died from lack of food or water (it didn’t eat the worm). I was so sad!! I gathered her limp body, wrapped her in a cloth and buried her in the garden. A placed a stone atop the grave with “Baby” written on it. Almost daily I save insects, spiders, etc. To me, the acts are the Dharma. As with the bird, and our cat Mama that had to be suddenly euthanized last week, impermanence too finds me everywhere all the time. There in lies the glistening of Indra’s net. 🙏🙏🙏
This story is beautiful on many levels. Know that you, my dear friend, are and always will be more than a name on a plaque. Sometimes, I think I was that fuzzy baby hawk and you saved me. 😘
Hi Tina, thanks for reading and for your sweet comment. We saved each other 🥰 I hope we see each other before we turn the big 60! Yowza. Love from the Left Coast
Oh, so grateful that your story had a maybe-happy ending. Which of course does not much alleviate the pain you feel/felt for what might be named "unskillful action." May your compassion for all beings - born of walking the Buddha path, waking up for those who choose it - rain lightly down upon you and heal your heart. When you next see a fully fledged hawk flying above the trees or the telephone poles you can say, "Hi buddy! So glad to see you!"
Indeed! You saved each other. In a different way I saved a beautiful juvenile Cooper's Hawk last year, found dead but otherwise untouched, at the base of a tree in a city park. I thought I would keep the feathers for art but in the end, I could not remove a single feather. I kept it in the freezer for a year. Then a few weeks ago I decided to return it to nature while - hopefully - respecting its spirit. I built a wood box out of scrap plywood, sanded and oiled the box, wrapped the bird in clean burlap, fixed it into the box with chicken wire, and put it up in a big tree in my back yard. I say hello each morning.
Dear shoren-bodhisattva - it is the beings that I am not aware of abandoning that troubles me. Your deep, tender practice of not knowing, of action taken with ambiguous results, of acknowledging the pain of being a person whose heart opens with the dharma practice where something is missing, felt complete and encouraging. This is our way. Deep gratitude laurie hogetsu
Such a good quote about self-pity. Such a vivid picture of your experience. Thank you.
Thank you for this, Shoren. It touched me because I had a similar experience just last year. One afternoon I was calling our cat Butters, to come inside from his “kingdom” the back yard. When I spotted him, he had a baby-almost juvenile Mocking bird in his mouth!! I scolded him and he immediately dropped the still-live bird from his mouth. The bird was now hiding somewhere in the jade plants on the side yard. I had to attempt to save it. There was no way for it to be returned to its parents now, even though they were just above on the neighbor’s roofing calling for it. Oh the grief!!! I got an old bird cage from the garage, cleaned it, put water and a live worm in a feeder, caught the bird and placed the cage on top of the trash bins, off the ground. This way the parents could communicate and see it. I covered the cage with a towel that night, and planned to take it to the Silicon Valley animal sanctuary nearby the next morning. When I got up in the morning to see the baby, I found it dead in the cage. It hadn’t been wounded by the cat, but possibly it died from lack of food or water (it didn’t eat the worm). I was so sad!! I gathered her limp body, wrapped her in a cloth and buried her in the garden. A placed a stone atop the grave with “Baby” written on it. Almost daily I save insects, spiders, etc. To me, the acts are the Dharma. As with the bird, and our cat Mama that had to be suddenly euthanized last week, impermanence too finds me everywhere all the time. There in lies the glistening of Indra’s net. 🙏🙏🙏
Hi Don,
Thanks for your comment and for your effort to save the baby mockingbird. We can only do our best to help wild beings. 🙏🏼
This story is beautiful on many levels. Know that you, my dear friend, are and always will be more than a name on a plaque. Sometimes, I think I was that fuzzy baby hawk and you saved me. 😘
Hi Tina, thanks for reading and for your sweet comment. We saved each other 🥰 I hope we see each other before we turn the big 60! Yowza. Love from the Left Coast
Oh, so grateful that your story had a maybe-happy ending. Which of course does not much alleviate the pain you feel/felt for what might be named "unskillful action." May your compassion for all beings - born of walking the Buddha path, waking up for those who choose it - rain lightly down upon you and heal your heart. When you next see a fully fledged hawk flying above the trees or the telephone poles you can say, "Hi buddy! So glad to see you!"
Thanks Laurie! I’ e already seen and heard a few hawks since I wrote this post. Fortunately, unlike we humans, they don’t take death personally. 🙏🏼
Hello! Th ask for your sweet comment. I think we saved each other—the corvids of college be damned!
Indeed! You saved each other. In a different way I saved a beautiful juvenile Cooper's Hawk last year, found dead but otherwise untouched, at the base of a tree in a city park. I thought I would keep the feathers for art but in the end, I could not remove a single feather. I kept it in the freezer for a year. Then a few weeks ago I decided to return it to nature while - hopefully - respecting its spirit. I built a wood box out of scrap plywood, sanded and oiled the box, wrapped the bird in clean burlap, fixed it into the box with chicken wire, and put it up in a big tree in my back yard. I say hello each morning.
Dear shoren-bodhisattva - it is the beings that I am not aware of abandoning that troubles me. Your deep, tender practice of not knowing, of action taken with ambiguous results, of acknowledging the pain of being a person whose heart opens with the dharma practice where something is missing, felt complete and encouraging. This is our way. Deep gratitude laurie hogetsu