Fishing!

When you are a Buddhist, you take a vow to do no harm.  This can be in varying degrees depending.  

I was standing at the mouth of a river here in the mountains with this beautiful rushing white water crashing down the rocks from up in the mountains pulling one sucker fish after another out of the deep pool at the end of it.  Each one I pull in, I carefully as possible pull out the hook and set it free since it is no good to eat which is generally why I fish, to eat it.  I don't catch and release, I catch my limit (or less) and go home, my job is done.

I remember telling a person in my Sangha (the people I meet with to practice with) I was looking forward to a feed of lobster since I was back on the east coast.  He was appalled saying how could I kill it to eat it!  So I asked him if he ate lobster. He said yes, so I asked what was the difference, and he said someone else cooked it.

So, I thought to myself.  Which is worse, killing the lobster myself to eat, or allowing my desire for a feed of lobster add to someone else's negative karma?

Well, I am part native. I grew up on a coast with forests and followed trails my ancestors used to walk. I went with my brother out in the boat checking gill nets and bringing in all sorts of fish, I set eel traps with him (what fun having all those big ole slipper eels sliding around on the bottom of your boat!) as well as setting snares getting rabbits, We dug clams in the mud flats when they are out and frankly, killing things was part of life.  It was not done with intent to be sport or for pleasure, it wasn't done out of malice. It was done because I come from a large family and just like having a large garden and pulling weeds and harvesting things, it was part of life.  So, from a Buddhist perspective, am I doing harm?

Last night I was sitting out alone on a lovely still lake in the mountains of BC with only half a moon fishing for ling co which is legal to fish after dark...they are so deep, day or night, what do they care?!?.  Ugly little critters but man, do they taste good!  And of course, I kill them with what they call here, a bonker.  And I do wack them hard. I don't want them to suffer!

I am DEFINATELY doing harm.  No doubt about this, however the very premise of Buddhism is to follow the middle path.  I do not catch more than what is allowed, and often much less. I don't try fishing where the fish are spawning and I do my best to put the fish out of the misery as soon as possible.  Do I stop completely so the vow of doing no harm is met?  Do I justify it or rationalize it, or intellectualize it?  Frankly, what is the point.  People do harm to each other all the time as well as their brothers and sisters, or as original peoples would say, little brothers and sisters, meaning animals.

I don't think, if you breath and are on this earth, you can avoid doing harm.  Just as in Christianity you repent or take communion so that you can start anew, absolved of your sins, there is something similar in Buddhism.  Usually twice a month you examine how you have been and release after reflection or contemplation and put it behind you.  This is normal if you have taken any sort of vow. You can share it with another, or you can just share it with yourself on a conscious level, either way, you carry on.

I remember an old quote "you cannot drive your car looking always in your review mirror, and likewise you cannot live in the past beating yourself up for what you have done. Likewise, if you know you are doing major harm repent and do it again, then why bother even going to confession or whatever

I am not going to stop fishing and therefore I am not going to ask for forgiveness about it or resolve not to it.  It is part of my life and that is that.  I will however for every fish whose life I take, I give thanks to it.  I acknowledge what I am doing and the right or wrong of it. I don't lay the karma on someone else's doorstep.  I have decided if I was a monk or nun and I was in a sheltered environment where I could fine tune and perfect this attitude I would, however I know when I drive a car I kill things, when I even walk this earth things are dying under my feet.  I don't justify saying at least I am not murdering anyone.  That would be to place more significance on one life over another.  I will not do that.  All life is sacred to me and I hold each with equal regard.  As soon as the rain lets up I am going to go see if I can catch fish for supper.  If not, so be it, if so, then fish, thank you and Yum!