A Murder of Crows
No matter what degree of suffering is inflicted upon us, we, like the Buddha, can refuse to accept it.
Having arrived home after running some errands one afternoon, I heard a racket downstairs. I live on the fifth floor, but my windows are always open, so I could hear the crows as if they were right outside.
I poked my head out the window and saw there were about twenty of them, and they were fighting. Some were going at it wing and claw, while others stood on the sidelines flapping their wings and yelling. I couldn’t tell what it was that had them in such a tizzy, but their ruckus set off a couple of the neighborhood dogs, adding to the mayhem. After a minute or two, when the conflict was at its loudest, an approaching car scattered the mob—appropriately, one of the names for a flock of crows—and the birds took off and settled on nearby trees. Except one. He was lying on his side in the middle of the road, and as soon as the car went around him, all the other crows gathered near and began cawing again.
Some of the birds seemed to be trying to help. They hopped close, poked the downed bird with their beaks, and made what I interpreted as encouraging noises. Others didn’t seem so empathetic. They were the ones who, in my estimation, were trying to finish off the vulnerable bird. That’s why a flock of crows is called a mob, or a parliament, or, more sinisterly, a murder. Stories say they form tribunals to judge the behavior of an errant bird—even if their “crime” is simply to be a bit weaker than the rest—and if they find the defendant guilty, it’s killed by the flock.
I watched the birds arguing, and suddenly thought of junior high. Back in the eighties, my class was a run-of-the-mill, middle-/upper-middle-class flock. We had grown up together, and we generally liked and even loved one another. Then puberty hit and it was as if we’d turned into the characters in Lord of the Flies. For one long year in seventh grade my class turned against me for reasons I don’t fully understand to this day. Up until that point I’d been reasonably popular; I didn’t belong to cliques or interfere with the other kids. My crime seemed to be that I enjoyed studying, had good grades, and was therefore liked by the teachers. And although by today’s standards the bullying was nothing to speak of, it sent me home in tears every single day.
My mother, who had a fighting spirit, encouraged me to stand up for myself, but I stubbornly refused to fight back, for no other reason than pride. I told myself I “didn’t want to be like them,” yet I was too thin-skinned to truly not care about what they said either. So every day I pretended to be unaffected—an act they clearly saw through—while inside I died a little at a time. Like the crows outside my building, it took one boy in particular to bring me to my knees with his jabs, then the others swooped in, taking advantage of the fact that I was down. Sometimes I wonder whether they would have finished me off, except we moved cities at the end of the year and I didn’t get a chance to find out.
The world is filled with people whose insecurity drives them to belittle or even destroy others in order to advance themselves. Or maybe it’s simply that in moments when we have a hard time coping with ourselves, our impulse is to turn on someone else. It’s one of the oldest mechanisms of self-defense, and whether the “self” is an individual, a group, or a nation, the movement toward violence is always movement away from oneself.
I wish I’d known this at thirteen. It might have helped me ignore all those taunts. I wish, too, that I’d known I could refuse what I was being offered, just as the Buddha refused to accept the “gift” of another man’s curses and harsh words.
In a sutra called Akkosa, “The Insult,” a brahman, displeased by the fact that one of his group has chosen to become the Buddha’s disciple, goes to see the teacher and lets loose a string of curses and insults.
“What do you think, brahman,” the Buddha says to the man in response, “do friends and colleagues, relatives, and kin come to visit you?”
“Yes, Master Gotama,” the brahman answers. “They do come to visit me.”
“And do you offer them food and snacks?”
“Yes, sometimes.” Which makes you wonder, what happens those other times? Does he ignore his guests? Does he pretend he doesn’t have anything to offer? Does he turn them away?
“But suppose that they don’t accept the food and snacks you offer them, brahman. Whose are they then?”
“They are mine.”
“In the same way, brahman,” the Buddha says with the kind of irrefutable logic that cuts through self-deception, “I do not accept your insults, your taunts, your curses. I am not insulting, not taunting, not cursing, so they are not mine. They’re all yours, brahman. Whoever returns an insult or a taunt or a curse is said to be sharing food and company with that person. But I’m neither eating with you nor sharing your company, brahman. It’s all yours. It’s all yours.”
Likewise, in the Sallekha Sutta, “The Discourse on Effacement,” the Buddha says to Cunda, Shariputra’s disciple: “Others will be harmful; we shall not be harmful here. Others will kill living beings; we shall abstain from killing living beings here,” and so on, working his way through forty-four unskillful actions that the Buddha’s sangha will refrain from.
What, to me, is telling, is that the Buddha is not only refusing to harm another, he’s also vowing to refrain from harm even when another is harming him, or to act unskillfully even though those around him may fall prey to their confusion or their pain. He’s essentially saying, I refuse to participate in your delusion. Samsara may be ubiquitous, but I do not accept it as my lot.
I find this teaching to be one of the most challenging yet most rewarding. For myself, I frame it as: “When harmed, I will not harm. I won’t resort to what will only and always create more suffering.” It’s a teaching that requires us to refrain from reacting to various degrees of harm with impatience, jealousy, anger, or violence. It doesn’t mean to condone the harm. It means not compounding it.
Perhaps in some fundamental way I understood that responding to the bullying with something akin to it would not help me or my classmates. But I wish I’d also realized that I could refuse what they were dishing out.
“I don’t accept your insults,” I could have said to them or to myself. “I’m not insulting you, I’m not bullying you, so they’re all yours.” So is your violence, we could say to the bullies and predators of our world—your gaslighting, your blame, your control. No matter what degree of suffering you choose to inflict upon me, I do not accept it. Your harmful karma is all yours. It’s all yours.
And the crows? They left the wounded bird behind. Torn as to whether I should intervene and go downstairs to try to save him, I moved from the window for a moment, and when I returned, he was gone. I hope he got a chance to heal. I hope he found a better flock.
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juvenoia
The feeling that entertainment, social practices, fashion, etc was superior in one's past when compared with how these are practiced by younger generations in modern times.
Bob: "Jim, I'm afraid you're suffering from what's commonly known as juvenoia."
any scriptures or beliefs in any of the Buddhist schools regarding rebirth of animals?
Yeah, in general the animal realm is part of the Three Lower Realms due to general level of suffering associated with being an animal.
A Sutra that discusses this in detail is the [Shurangama Sutra.] (http://cttbusa.org/shurangama/shurangama31.asp.html)
”Moreover, Ananda, if while repaying his past debts by undergoing rebirth as an animal, such a living being pays back more than he owed, he will then be reborn as a human to rectify the excess. 7:185
”If he is a person with strength, blessings, and virtue, then once he is in the human realm, he will not have to lose his human rebirth after what is owed him is restored. But if he lacks blessings, then he will return to the animal realm to continue repaying his debts. 7:185
”Ananda, you should know that once the debt is paid, whether with money, material goods, or manual labor, the process of repayment naturally comes to an end. 7:186
”But if in the process he took the lives of other beings or ate their flesh, then he continues in the same way, passing through kalpas as many as motes of fine dust, taking turns devouring and being slaughtered in a cycle that sends him up and down endlessly. 7:186
”There is no way to put a stop to it, except through Shamatha or through a Buddha’s coming to the world. 7:187
”You should know that when owls and their kind have paid back their debts, they regain their original form and are born as people, but among those who are corrupt and obstinate. 7:187
”When creatures that are inauspicious have paid back their debts, they regain their original form and are born as people, but among those who are abnormal. 7:188
”When foxes have paid back their debts, they regain their original forms and are born as people, but among those who are simpletons. 7:189
”When creatures of the venomous category have paid back their debts, they regain their original form and are born as people, but among those who are hateful. 7:189
”When tapeworms and their like have paid back their debts, they regain their original form and are born as people, but among those who are lowly. 7:190
”When the edible types of creatures have paid back their debts, they regain their original form and are reborn as people, but among those who are weak. 7:190
”When creatures that are used for clothing or service have paid back their debts, they regain their original form and are reborn as people, but among those who do hard labor. 7:191
”When creatures that migrate have paid back their debts, they regain their original form and are reborn as people among those who are literate. 7:191
”When auspicious creatures have paid back their debts, they regain their original form and are reborn as people among those who are intelligent. 7:192
”When domestic animals have paid back their debts, they regain their original form and are reborn as people among those who are well-informed. 7:192
”Ananda, these are all beings that have finished paying back former debts and are born again in the human realm. They are involved in a beginningless scheme of karma and being upside-down in which their lives are spent killing one another and being killed by one another. They do not get to meet the Thus Come One or hear the Proper Dharma. They just abide in the wearisome dust, passing through a repetitive cycle. Such people can truly be called pitiful. 7:192
Shurangama Sutra Chapter 7
reciting various suttas for your pets can have a favorable impact on their future births.
Yes, some mantras can do that, like the Pure Land Rebirth Dharani. In general, you can do Transferance of Merit to any and all sentient beings as per the Tenth Vow of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva - Universally Transfer All Merits (Shi Ze Pu Jie Hui Xiang) u
The Tenth Vow: To Universally Transfer All Merit and Virtue
“Moreover, Good Man, to universally transfer all merit and virtue is explained like this: All of the merit and virtue, from the first vow, to worship and respect, up to and including the vow to constantly accord, I universally transfer to all living beings throughout the Dharma Realm and to the limits of empty space. I vow that all living beings will be constantly peaceful and happy, without sickness or suffering. I vow that no one will succeed in doing any evil, but that all will quickly perfect their cultivation of good karma. I vow to close the doors to the evil destinies and open the right paths of humans, gods, and Nirvana. I will stand in for beings and receive all the extremely severe fruits of suffering which they bring on with their evil karma. I will liberate all these beings and ultimately bring them to accomplish Unsurpassed Bodhi. The Bodhisattva cultivates transference in this way.
“Even when the realm of empty space is exhausted, the realms of living beings are exhausted, the karma of living beings is exhausted, and the afflictions of living beings are exhausted, I will still transfer all merit and virtue endlessly, continuously, in thought after thought without cease. My body, mouth, and mind never weary of these deeds.
Avatamsaka Sutra Chapter 40
A simple thing called inner peace is thousand times more beneficial than talking and debating on useless things.
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Let's suppose that you were able every night to dream any dream that you wanted to dream. Finally, you would dream ... where you are now.
— Alan Watts
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The desire for more positive experience is itself a negative experience. And, paradoxically, the acceptance of one’s negative experience is itself a positive experience.
• THE ART OF NOT GIVING A F*CK
• Mark Manson
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Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.
- SOREN KIERKEGAARD
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