The Labrinth of the Sacred

Remember this: What I write now is my perspective on this at the moment. My ideals on differing situations, pondering or conclusions are not set in stone but change given the circumstance. What may be true here could be completely different elsewhere depending on perspective, frame of mind, input, and what I exchange but is left as ‘open-ended’. It’s not meant to brain wash you but give you something to think about and help you. Just think ‘messages’.

 
I was the chauffeur for my mother Wednesday. She had an appointment at a specialist in North Charleston. I told her that if I were to drive her I wanted to make a side trip to this place called Mepkin Abbey. It’s a sect of Trappist monks living in Monck’s Corner. Due to my pass history of working for a resort hotel I usually take care to plan even a road trip well. I want to enjoy myself but not be rushed. I also thought my mother could do with getting out somewhere that wasn’t stressful and enjoy a walk. That was my stab at being daughterly. I try the same thing with my dad but it always turns into an epic fail. The Abbey was only twenty minutes from the doctor’s office although it was really off the beaten path down this long country highway. She agreed with it but she is not one to want to do anything adventurous unless it is with other people. Not me. I do not have a viable relationship with her regardless of all the things I have done to help her. It has always been that way. I figured the time and left where we would have two hours to gawk or get lost driving then be found again.
On the way up to the Abbey I was driving along listening to the radio and thinking about landscapes. It’s odd how you can be listening to music and it mirrors your train of thought. I had been on this discovery mission about sacredness, life, and what the universe is trying to tell me. I was listening to Stairway to Heaven and Dust in the Wind. Then Hotel California came on the radio twice. I had to think of what the songs were about and if there was some way that I could weave them into Angelia’s Cosmology as it pertained to my personal universe. I was pretty calm because my mother had put the seat back to fall asleep. Dust in the Wind was about the circle of life. Stairway to Heaven was about greed on society. Hotel California is about hedonism, self-destruction, and greed.
I pondered how greed, self-destruction and hedonism (which is pleasure being the only intrinsically good) had affected my life thus far. I do not consider myself a greedy person unless chocolate is handy. I have had lots of money and very little money while learning to live on air; feast or famine. I have been abandoned by several people for material things. After a while that messes with your self-esteem because a kitchen knife has more value than you do and they sale them all the time at Wal-Mart. It’s worse when it comes from people that you think should value you but don’t. It would seem that it is other peoples’ greed for money, land, and any possession they can steal, hoard, or plot to gain. It’s a sad note to report that when the choice is between a speck of dirt and your own flesh and blood; the speck of dirt wins because it’s more important. It’s so important that the land monger would pull a Moses and walk their child up to the rock on the mountain and sacrifice them under the knife so they can retain it all for the greater good. That would sound like madness but there are people that live by those beliefs. When you have parents that consider the existence of their children as ‘options’ or ‘other options’ you really have to wonder exactly how secure are you in this life? How can you form any close bond with a human being that is not blood if your very blood relatives see you as expendable? You then start grading your own value because everything has strings attached. There is no unconditional love. Everything comes with legal fine print (or a price tag to which some sale their souls) that will burn you in the next couple of lives.
I pondered self-destruction. I am probably guilty of this because I feel some days like I did a great wrong in life. Surely all the muck you get comes from deserving it but that is not always the case. A lot of people don’t deserve it for good or bad but who is the judge and jury on that one? One to which I can’t remember and feel like I do not deserve certain things so it’s like rotating self-punishment for failures. In my family you only present the emotion that makes others feel good. Any emotion contrary to that is to be suppressed, internalized until it becomes much like a poison or a cancer. You either have to vomit it out, cut it out, or die from it. If you die you will be completely eradicated from the family memory. . I have found myself at times tearing things that I build down because I am frustrated with how things are going and decide to start over rather than pick a spot and work from there. Salvaging workable information is probably better than pouring gas on the pile and striking a match to watch it burn.
I passed through Andrews which was a sleepy little town with one red light and a very pastel green church on the corner of the center of town. I was driving down this corridor of green pine trees towards Charleston where a couple of the towns were really not very scenic. I got closer to one of the parts of Francis Marion Forest which cut through a town called Macedonia. I saw a sign that said Macedonia Home of the Foxes. I laughed to myself because as the fox is a shape-shifter showed up on the sign. I assumed I was on the right path and train of thought. I finally got on the road to the abbey. It was about a fifteen minute drive which will end you at the gates leading up a long gravel drive lined with oak trees probably from early man. Old oak trees do lend a certain amount of creepiness or loneliness to a landscape but they are still beautiful. I got out and took a couple of photos where a sign with a monk on it pointed to the reception area. I drove up the drive and parked in the visitor center/store parking lot. We went inside to look around. There was all manner of religious paraphernalia with ceramic pots, soaps, and cooking spices. The abbey is self-sufficient by selling artisan products. The back part of the store which leads to the church was closed. After buying some soap my mother was sitting on a bench. She kept making comments about leaving. I wondered at this. I informed her that we were two hours early but not to worry. We got in the SUV. I decided to drive down this white sandy lane at the angry insistence of my mother that I was doing wrong, going to get caught, and should be ashamed of myself. She told me I was not supposed to go back there because it was off limits. I gave her the crazy eye then drove right back there. This little road leads to the garden section of the property. I went all the way to the back. The garden had a few religious sculptures but not a lot. It was also only landscaped with evergreens or medium sized trees and shrubs. I came to a stop and got out. I started walking around taking pictures when I looked back at the vehicle to see my mother sitting there. I walked back and asked her didn’t she want to get out the SUV and walk around. She bluntly told me no. She then saw a couple sitting on a bench and declared there was people back there like we were intruding on them or they were the abbey police. I told her it was a place to walk around. She still refused so I left her in the SUV. I was well beyond having my feelings hurt by anything she does other than trying to actively get me killed because it ‘amuses her’. I walked down to the water’s edge. The back of the garden is located on Lake Moultrie. Lake Moultrie is also connected to Santee so there are plenty of fish and alligators along with waterfowl. It was a really beautiful day. I figured I would take my time so I spent an hour meandering down by the lake. I did walk by this one reservoir pond that had a sign warning about the alligators. I could hear in the trees something moving around. It got me to thinking of things that are unseen but there. An elderly man came up to sit on a bench. He pulled out a book and began to read. The couple disappeared over the hill. As I walked along I began to think of paths. This place had a lot of paths. Some paths lead upward along a non-linear walkway. Other paths lead upstairs to another ‘floor’ even though they might only be just a set of stone steps that seemed to be there more for looks rather than leading to anywhere important.
At one point I was annoyed with my mother because I had tried to do her a nice turn to only be snubbed. She didn’t want to spend time with me or walk around. I realized that here was a beautiful sacred place where one could enjoy the day, spend time working out issues or aligning one’s self for the better, and getting something from a minuscule moment. I then realized I was just a tool to drive her to a doctor’s office. She had absolutely no interest in me or the place. I had to accept that. It was like rejection. I felt rejection. This might fall under the category of questions people ask when they say, “Why doesn’t that person want to be with me?” You don’t get an answer. Even though it bothered me I didn’t dwell on it because it would only put me in a foul mood. I finished up and walked back to the SUV. She was sitting there. I got in and she was pushing for us to leave. I turned around to head out then just to be funny I asked her, “Are you afraid to get out on consecrated ground because you have Satan in you?” She gave me an angry look. She said, “I walked on the ground when I got out at the store.” I eye balled her seriously, “Open the door, remove that croc on your foot and touch it with a bare toe. Or are you afraid you’ll burst into flames?” She huffed at me like a bantam chicken. I laughed and said seriously, “Satan.” My mother then goes on this twenty minute verbal tirade on how I was trying to convert her to religion when she didn’t want any, didn’t believe in God, and that she had joined the Church of Lord Calvert at work. I shook my head. Before we had left the house I told her that getting out of the house would do her some good. She needed to be doing something to preoccupy her mind off of revenge or vengeful thoughts and acts.
We stopped in to get a bite then went to the appointment which she inadvertently made me miss the exit by declaring that we weren’t supposed to be going to Savannah. I told her I was but missed it in the argument. I then circled like a buzzard until I got back on the right road. We stayed at the doctor’s office for a while, she got seen, and we left to get her home because she had to work. On the way home out of the blue she tells me that she doesn’t want me driving her to the next appointment. I didn’t say a word. I guess she really thought I was trying to pull an intervention and convert her to a higher power. I think she needs something .What? I don’t know but something.
I was just glad to be home.
I remember picking up a pamphlet in the abbey store that explained the place. There was one part in it that I thought was worth note. It mentioned a labyrinth. A labyrinth is a path that is one way. It leads in to a place and that same path leads you right back out. Just to be clear a maze has alternating paths with decisions that can lead you to multiple places depending on which one you choose. The outcome will be more randomized.
I googled the cultural meanings of labyrinths to find it could be a clear definable path to go with one entrance, a form of pilgrimage, to contain benevolent spirits, or to morph into a contemplative state by distraction. I did think of how a labyrinth reminded me of a medicine wheel that one sees outside. It too has an entry way that leads into the sacred area where you can ‘get right with the sacred’.
This concept of a labyrinth also reminded me of a story my philosophy teacher once told his class about his spiritual beliefs. It would seem that Professor Blackwell was a pastor that worked in the military. He had gone to seminary which was the cause of questioning his beliefs. He finished there but then fell into this atheist funk years later. He said he was dead against it but after examining all the major religions he wasn’t satisfied that any of them were the one true religion. He then found himself right back at the beginning where he started from with his religious beliefs.
When you are at a starting point to any endeavor you would probably be more inclined to believe you are following a maze but if you find yourself back where you started then you were in a labyrinth. You were never lost to start with it just seemed that way because all you had to do was back track to find your way out. If you feel you are lost then stop where you are. Assess your situation, find your bearings and listen to your intuition. You can guide yourself if you believe enough in yourself to find it in you to be the person you are and not the one the world is trying to traumatize into a mold that wasn’t you to start with. You can also try to warp yourself in a feeble attempt at becoming a desired component for other people’s consumption. That will only lead to your unhappiness because it is not you then again maybe it is you and you’re just finding your way. The interpretation is left up to you. If it makes you feel happy then you’re on your way. Then again sometimes you have to hit rock bottom be completely miserable before things can change for the better. If it does not then find your way back out onto another path that is the right one for you.

Written by: W Harley Bloodworth

~Courtesy of the AOFH~

The Power of a Feather

Remember this: Some birds are for hunting and some are not. Either way the bird represents a little more than what is dead in your hand or on your plate. It gives you wisdom and nourishment. Treat it accordingly.


Feathers, in regards to structure and function, can be considered for thermal insulation, waterproofing, flight (or so gliding) and coloration but just as equally for protection and at times shelter. The last months of 2012, I was on this path to follow feathers left behind on the aptly called trail. Everywhere I went there was a feather of some kind. 

Feathers have been symbols of positive things. To know you were receiving information from a virtuous person, a wax sealed letter bearing three feathers was commissioned to the receiver. These three feathers represented charity, hope, and faith. In dreams, it could mean truth, speed, lightness, flight, ascension, enlightened message, prayer, the ethereal realm and protection. In some cultures it was a symbol representing the judgments of the soul after death.

A feather is important. A feather could be considered by realists as evolutionary growth coming out the skin of a bird. Life has meaning. If you value something for what it represents then it takes on a whole new life even when it is seemingly lifeless. The feather’s meaning is the force of positivity that is supporting it. The feather becomes a light in what seems like the dark. Along the path, it could be considered an indicator to seek spiritual wisdom or in other words come to know yourself, where you stand in the world, how you act accordingly, and the effect you have on the ecosystem of reality in daily life.

You can also get feathers by doing a brave deed which in my case there are a lot of naked birds as my wall can attest. You have to earn feathers in the right context. If you go shoot something out the sky that is cheating. Feathers can be given as a symbol between people but it’s the feathers that you randomly find that the universe lays in your path. It boosts your life and reminds you that there is a great mystery out there and you have a purpose. It’s your personal perspective and how you carry through with your ideals.

Little birds are always overlooked as messengers with important gifts. Most people just stare at them. They are hours of staring fascination. We could learn a lot from the meager little songbird. These little birds are not eagles or hawks but scratch about looking for insects or landing on a twig near your face in a curious almost accusatory fashion of "I see you there. What are you doing?" This is the understanding I get from songbirds. They leave feathers but almost always are accompanied by a song. Songbirds also tell you the importance of communication because they are talking amongst themselves all the time. Singing their little songs.

When the mother bird sits abreast her nest she fluffs her downy under feathers to plop down on her eggs she has laid. This gives the eggs warmth along with rolling them to help the not-yet formed birdie inside a chance at life. As shelter for another life this gives it value. Once the little birds are hatched again the feathers must spread out to shelter them from the rain. This gives it the meaning of protection.

Once the baby bird grows up, it has to have blind courage to leave its nest to learn to fly and become productive. That gives the feather faith. As the bird becomes adept at maneuvering life, there will be times that arise when the feathers are used to combat other creatures that would take the birds life. This is a measure of strength, protection, and a bigger than life sense (as it is a form of bluffing). Trickery can save the bird’s life if the bird knows how to stay alive and defend itself. That takes guts. This gives it valor. In the military you will hear of medals called the Wings of Valor.

There is reproduction to consider. Feathers could represent bright displays of a proper mate. There are also different shapes, colors, and sizes of feathers but usage is closely the same. This gives the feather distinction, variety, beauty, and uniqueness.

In consideration of the bird taking flight, feathers are made to raise the bird up to varying heights and give them the ability to coast in order to move from place to place and find food. The feather is hollow, but each small strand that is stuck together and performs as a whole, can lift a bird up on an air current to a height that benefits the bird, if she is willing to just let go and have the wind carry her. Once she is there, all things can be seen. This gives the feather fearlessness, humbleness, and the ability to just be the feather doing its work. With this action there can be no thought of flight, only the moving forward as one would dive into rivers of water that is air and become one with the motion of an unseen force that moves all things. This gives the feather fluidity like water (for water can cut through the mountain), flotation (to rise above all things heavy), letting go to relax into the natural unrestricted world, and seeming defy gravity and the known way of the world in which heaviness/restrictions are defined. Feathers define transcendence from one spiritual place to another and travel in different realms.

I recently was doing some reading on this place out in Texas. In one of the drawings on the cave wall, there was an image of what looked to be a person accompanied by a spirit and laid across the form was what looked to be a feather. Feathers can also in some cultures mean moving in and out what is called the spirit world be it a very dangerous thing to do. That was during the time of archaic man. Even then archaic man understood the representation of what a feather could hold. Feathers hold unseen power and it is up to the receiver to discover what that power is. This power might be subtle or boisterous.

Either way, the weight of a feather in your hand as you hold it up will signify that you are on the path or the journey to somewhere, or someone important. Stay on the path, you will not be lead astray. Shelter yourself and others as the mother bird. Know when to spread your wings in defense. Take the leap of faith to dip forward as you take to flight. Rise up and feel the greatness around you and all you survey below. Be the unique individual that your outer feathers exhibit as you dance around with colors flashing. Be proud, but humble. Be the virtuous person that people will receive and let people know that you are brave. Pass your feathers on as they fall out and replace themselves to encourage others that they are chosen for a path as well, even if it is undefined or hidden from them until the right moment. When you see a feather found, think of the message you are to receive and pass on. Overall, a feather is a message of survival with the struggle of birth, life, and to death. 

Don't make life meaningless.

Written by: W Harley Bloodworth

~Courtesy of the AOFH~

Finding Feathers.

Remember this: The smallest seemingly non-valuable object can speak volumes to you if you only listen to what it says to your heart of hearts.

**I wrote this Nov. 27, 2012. I thought of sharing it because it's interesting. Trust me...it leads to somewhere else.**

Last night. I was canning some broccoli leaves in wide mouth mason jars. I was thinking about this website I had read about finding a feather. it says you are put on the path. I can't lie, I feel like I have fallen off the path hard, or maybe it's my righteous indignation and blatant unwillingness to move forward. For the past year, I fell like deja vu is eating me up and I am looping back around in some weird Groundhog Day event.

As I was canning, I had a bright green stink bug fly up onto the white piece of plastic I was using for a cutting board. I thought that rather strange, it being November, and stink bugs are suppose to be gone. Here it was. The nature of the stink bug is to mind its own business. When something comes along and tries to mess up the stink bug's life it puts off this rather smelly odor akin to the taste of an unripe persimmon. Then again, it could be that smell from the chemicals put on tobacco in a curing barn.


This morning, I decided to go to the park for a morning walk. I stopped and spoke to my son as he waited for the bus because it was late. I walked on. As I was going up the dirt road to the short cut, I was mentally in the crapper. I looked down in the ditch I was crossing over and there was this black feather. It looked like a crow feather. I picked it up. It was really pathetic let me tell you. The shaft of it was all torn and stripped. It kind of repulsed me that it wasn't beautiful. Then I thought.....that feather is just like my attitude: all battered and uncomely. I pondered this. I decided I just needed to change my attitude. I could change that if not the feather. I didn't want to carry the feather with me because it was all out of juju but laid it on the fence to remind me before I leave that my bad attitude needed to stay with that out of sort feather.

I walked around the park and saw this really bright red bunch of leaves from a faux pear tree. The leaves were flaming red. I would later draw them to pass the time. I at least created something. I walked on to see the water tower covered with crows. Crows really run their mouths. They never shut up, run in packs, and menace society. They can remember your face. Yet they have their place in life. They moved to a tree. Eventually the crows disappeared.

I finally decided as I walked that I felt like I was shrinking into the ground. It really felt like under my feet was a strong magnet pulling me downward into the Earth. I thought about sitting under a tree but everyone had ant hills. I wondered if I were to have a sacred place to get right with the world that this wasn't it. Later it wouldn't leave my mind that I should take spray paint that glows in the dark and make a medicine wheel around my deer stand in the pine woods. I know that sounds weird but that was what my mind is tell me to do. I was looking for stuff to make a pipe because it would seem someone thinks that is needed but that's Sioux. I am not Sioux. Not everyone has Sioux blood.

I know how that whale feels. The one called Hertz 52. I feel like there is something I have to do, but I am not sure what it is. As I was walking home, I was traveling down the road that I was still on the right path, even though I had a moment of bad space in my head. I also feel like someone, or something has left me, and I don't know what it is, but believe that it should come back to me, but I am not sure that it left? How confusing is that? Without guidance, I am going to do all this ritual and ceremonial stuff to get to the bottom of what the universe is actually trying to tell me that I am to inept to decipher. I have felt like this past year has been one looping deja vu trip. There was one person that I really did want to connect to but other people just have to butt in when they should butt out.

I was sitting shaving a gourd to make a rattle or something else. I scrapped it and all I could thing of was this person. I don't even know them that is the strange part. Maybe there is something about this person that is like me? After I shaved the second one down to the hard part like deer horns, I finally looked at the sky and said, "I give up on this." I then went in the house. I figured that this being some illustrious mystery placed on me to let it go and see how it turns out. I thought as no one is here to glare at me with stern eyes to say anything about what I am doing, I am going to write about it. Besides it's supposed to help you heal and the people. As far as I am concerned my small wad of friends are my people so learn something from it. If it gives you something you best take it with a smile and be glad you got 'the message'.

~Written by: W Harley Bloodworth

~Courtesy of the AOFH~

Buddhist Belief of No Harm and Spiritual Ruminant Pelts.

Mrigadava means "deer-park".

Remember this: Austerities only confuse the mind. In the exhaustion and mental stupor to which they lead, one can no longer understand the ordinary things of life, still less the truth that lies beyond the senses. I have given up extremes of either luxury or asceticism. I have discovered the Middle Way. ~Buddha~

Disclaimer: This diatribe is not meant to attack Buddhism in any of its forms. Think of it as a train of thought.

I was pondering the spiritual aspects of animal symbology as it pertained to a female hunter and the creatures she hunts in my readings. I wondered if I could find a contrasting scenario that I could parallel some portion of the act of hunting with to show a sort of irony to the symbology of an animal, the regard that is held for a particular animal, its particular use and my Sherlockian deduction of what the information meant, or appeared to be. I thought of one my favorite animals, the deer.

Enter the Buddha and his discourse entitled,  "Dhammackkappavattana Sutta".  

“The Buddhist emblem of a golden eight-spoked wheel flanked by two deer represents in Buddha’s first discourse, which he gave in the Deer Park at Sarnath, near Varanasi. This discourse is known as the ‘first turning of the wheel of dharma’, when the Buddha taught the doctrines of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Noble Path to five Indian mendicants. As a symbol of the Buddha’s teachings a gilded three-dimensional wheel and deer emblem is traditionally placed at the front of the monastery and temple roofs, from where it shines as a crowning symbol of the Buddhadharma.” (Beer 59)

As I quoted the Buddha above, it would seem that the Buddha was noted to give a discourse at the Deer Park of Sarnath in India (a long time ago).  I thought this novel for the time that there existed a deer park and what its particular use was. While there the Buddha gave his commentary on his Enlightenment and its applications to his Sangha, who were dispersed out into the world to spread the meaning and interpretation of Dharma. What are the Four Noble Truths and the Eight-fold path?

The Buddha preached the Four Noble Truths which are as follows:

• There is suffering


• Suffering has a cause


• Cause is removable

• There are ways to remove the cause

To address these Four Noble Truths, the Buddha extended the Eight-fold Path which is as follows:

• Right Speech


• Right Action


• Right Livelihood


• Right Effort


• Right Mindfulness

• Right Concentration


• Right Attitude


• Right View

Seems pretty straightforward; avoid inflicting suffering on self and others by positive mores.

The Buddha is sitting in this deer park in Sarnath, India with noted five men and a crowd of golden Ruru deer where he says that he is turning the wheel of Dharma. This wheel represents samsara (the world) and the eternal existence which goes forward through cycles of reincarnation because of worldly cravings and the inability to tell one’s self no to things that cause suffering. 

If the basic precept of Buddhism is non-harm, because you don’t want to incur suffering in the self or other sentient beings, then there is no way to survive life. 

I was reading one snippet on a white rabbit sacrificing itself out of compassion to other animals as nourishment; of its own accord. One would have to do as the white rabbit and selflessly give up life to avoid inflicting suffering on self, or others by ingestation, or death at other living sentient beings monkey hands, mouths, claws, etc. These same sentient beings, who do not feel the same as you, are going to devour you. Otherwise, it would be Jim Jones Kool-Aid 24-7.  Even if you decided eating fruits and vegetables was the way to go, you are still stopping life in order to eat as plants are life. To eat them you have to pull them up from their happy home and cook them or eat them raw. 

If a plant could decide if it wanted to sacrifice itself for human consumption I would dare say it would reply, “No”. This sacrificial rabbit reminded me of indigent tribes of North America interpreting a lone animal giving itself over to a hunter as a sacrifice as a show of compassion to the people for food because the animal’s kind could spare them.  

With this being said let us visit the deer in this little drama of to kill or not to kill; which is really the question. Why the deer? Why a female and male deer?

The deer being male and female could signify the human element of sexual desire in people. This desire is at the heart of suffering for it is brought about by lust, longing, loving, and attachment through emotion onto some article, animal, place, or person.

I also wondered on the interpretation of the male being on the right and the female being on the left. It would seem direction wise this was in reference to how each sex is percieved. To be male and on the right meant acrion and solar existance. Right sided maleness in the deer emblem harkened to being the conscious side, nobility, and wisdom. 

The left female side interpreted means to be weak, unconsious , lunar, and sinister. Why am I surprised at that?

If we reflect on Jung's idea of the female form in left direction he thought this was flowing from the heart and might I add......all the evil thoughts connected with it.

Buddha’s observation of deer in the wild, or at the park, may have brought him to the conclusion that we should strive not to be as humans but as animals. I would think the Buddha distanced himself from predators as they were instigators of suffering. The Buddha did not have a lot of people as his friends, it would seem.  As one reading the story of his approaching the mendicants to give the discourse, they had planned to shun him altogether but changed their mind based on his glow. 

One can see why he may have been against suffering for it was also social suffering and not physical suffering. Suffering of the mind can be just as great to the soul as an actual bullet to the heart.   

In regards to deer, there is the idea of domination through ownership or power. Marpa the Translator cited, “The Dharma is owner-less, like deer in a meadow.”  

When I pondered this, I thought it could be a sign of not wanting to strap oneself to the responsibilities of the world that humans have generated such as capitalism, jobs we hate, or governments that rule out laws that bind us daily for insensible reasons. Either way, we are caged canaries singing right along to our sad, sad songs. Buddha always ran from the expectations that were placed upon him. He ran from his wife, his son, his court duty as Prince. He ran from the prisons other people had made that were waiting on him to enter dutifully. Strange way about saying no but everyone has their quirks.  

Let us look to the emblem (ridag choekor) because this is significant to show the location of where the discourse took place. Humans have long referenced the character of deer as human. These deer symbolized a significant place, conscious state, and also sensual desire.

“However, the wheel and deer emblem eventually became the enduring symbol of an establishment where the Buddha’s teachings are transmitted, and where the endless wheel of the dharma continues to turn.

The two deer peacefully rest in attentive obedience on either side of the golden wheel, with the male deer to the right and the female to the left. The male deer is sometimes depicted with the single horn of the seru deer (unicorn) or rhinoceros, and on gilded bronze sculptures the sexual organs of the two deer may be shown. The gentleness and grace of the deer represent the qualities of the true Buddhist mendicant.” (Beer 59)

“The deer is the vehicle of Shou-lao, and he is traditionally represented riding upon a stag with mature antlers. Deer were believed to live to a great age, and were credited with being the only creatures capable of locating the ‘fungus of immortality’ (Ch. Ling-chih). The deer of longevity may be depicted with a piece of this fungus in its mouth. Chinese legends describe the Islands of the Immortals’ as being located in the eastern ocean. Here the immortals consumed the divine food of the ling-chih, and drank from the eternal waves of the jade fountain. In Buddhism the deer is an auspicious symbol of tranquility, harmony, non-violence, and particularly of renunciation, because like a homeless mendicant the deer is believed to rest in a different place each night.” (Beer 55)

Enter Irony.

Irony consists in stating the contrary of what is meant; the surface meaning and the underlying meaning of what is said are not the same. Irony is a form of utterance that postulates a double audience, consisting of one party that hearing shall hear and shall not understand, and another party that, when more is meant than meets the ear, is aware both of that more and of the outsiders' incomprehension.

Enter Disparity.

Disparity is most often used when the author causes a character to speak or act erroneously, out of ignorance of some portion of the truth of which the audience is aware.

After this I guess you are wondering what does this have to do with hunting.  I was researching how followers of the Buddha’s discourse where using animal by-products in the form of relics for spiritual, symbolic attire and functional uses. How many times have you seen a hunter take a part of an animal carcass and use it for a trophy head, belt, seat cover, or in a spiritual rite? No matter what even if you kill the animal humanely, it dies abruptly or slowly of natural causes, or some other animal kills it; there is going to be some length of suffering. 

Yet Buddhist followers were acquiring pelts either directly or indirectly. Let us face reality. Once you kill an animal if there is an essence of soul or life inside that body it is gone once the animal is killed. It’s no more than an empty sausage casing once you remove the meat, bones, and organs. That is a rude way to put it with indifference to its suffering. Only if you are generating a pseudo emotion of calm in your mind by believing you are absorbing energy from a sausage casing should be scrutinized but still you have its symbolic meaning. In rituals, the symbolic meaning is what helps the person transgress over into a spiritual realm even though humans can’t see spiritual realms. Otherwise, we could have that profane question, “Is there a God?” answered.

This reminds me of a question posed by a philosophy professor of mine. We drew a circle. Inside the circle was the Natural World and outside the circle was the Supernatural World. Professor Black asked, “How to you transpose from one place to another?” I replied, “Why do we think there is a barrier? I believe it is a semipermeable membrane of sorts that can interchange things from side to side in equal measure. We just can’t see it.” 

Here I found documentation:

“Deer or antelope skins serve as meditation seats (Skt. Asana) for Buddhist yogins or siddhas, such as Milarepa, rechungpa, or Thangtong Gyalpo. As an asana the deer-skin is believed to enhance the solitary tranquility and awareness required by as ascetic, with the pure or sattvic energy of the deer being absorbed by the practitioner. In wrathful deity practices a tiger-skin asana is more commonly used, denoting rajas or dynamic energy.

Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of compassion, wears the turquoise skin of a magical deer or antelope draped over his left shoulder and heart. This skin is known as a krishmasara or krishnajina, meaning ‘black antelope skin’, and is a symbol of the deity’s love, compassion, and tenderness. The black antelope skin was originally an emblem of Shiva in his forms as Lokanath or Lokeshvara, the ‘Lord of the Worlds’. “(Beer 63)

Maybe this is the difference minus the fact someone skinned that ruminant and tanned the hide for the magical deer drape? The skin was a symbol of the deity's (Buddha was not a God) love, compassion and tenderness versus the present day huntress's animal hide throw being an object of horrific cruel death, ego enhancing relic to top predator status, and objectified taxidermy of animal suffering. Why can this present day hide not mean the same thing? If you humanely kill an animal with minimal suffering, and preserve its hide because you want to remember the hunt, and show tenderness at its numbers while caring for it in the off season, why not? Then again I thought its not just enough for some to kill one when it means food and there is no spiritual value granted to the prey. It's all in the mentality and the perception of each individual huntress and hunter. Those buddhist probably just showed up with it one day swung over their shoulder and no one bothered to be obsessive over where the pelt was acquired, in what way, and how the animal died to get the pelt. Maybe the new hunting reply should be, "It's not against my religions?"

Here it has been documented in stories how renunciates who give up worldly life wander around with a deer or antelope pelt over their upper body (usually the left) or as a garment. One reasonsing for hanging a pelt over the left side is this is the location of the heart which is the abode of the mind. This is the symbolic skin of the Sil-snyen deer of legend who feels heart felt compassion towards all sentient beings.  This Sil-snyen deer lives between snow and rock on a mountain, with strength and compassion for nature. Hunters trying to gain access to the Sil-snyen deer’s land pretend to fight amongst themselves.  The Sil-snyen deer becomes impatient with compassion and goes out to mediate, where its life is assaulted. Touching the skin of the Sil-snyen calms the mind and endows bliss. Here is another story where Hunters are crafty evil-doers. Even though this pelt is a by-product of a dead animal it still is removed from the judgments of society as being a bad thing, not an object of past suffering if you regard that moment before death or death itself as suffering.

I thought in Western culture if you had such a pelt or animal article mounted, worn as clothing, petrified or taxidermy there could be backlash as it is seen as an object of suffering inflicted by cruelty. Then again, it’s the interpretation it has or its significant use. The monks pelts were used as symbols of spiritual Enlightenment towards compassion.  These pelts symbolized sacrifice on the part of the deer through stories.

Thinking about this pelt over the heart gives the heart a dual reality of being the actual heart beating in your chest pumping blood and in another non-physical reality where the heart is a decision maker and a memory keeper.  I refer to this second matter when you hear someone tell you to listen to your heart for decisions as they put their hand over your actual heart. This could also be when you have a dead relative you cared about and someone refers to you carrying that relative’s memory in your heart. At all times the actual brain is ignored.

Given all this the truth here is that in order to address suffering one can only alleviate the degree of suffering and not eradicate it. As far as Buddha’s Middle Way of dealing with suffering, it was directly aimed at people not animals even though he thought animals could attain Dharma. Even though deer can represent all those terms contrary to suffering they are always seen living in a realm absent of fear. 

The irony of the use of an animal pelt on behalf of Buddhism is very interesting to regard when faced with the onslaught of people against hunting when you consider the history of animal by-products used in tenets that were defined to cause no harm, or suffering. I guess the act of wearing the pelt was showing reverence for the symbolic meaning of the deer but today groups are repulsed by wearing animal by-products unless you are a shaman or the article has a spiritual meaning. When in regards to hunting and the animal suffering there is a belief that you do it as humanely as possible, otherwise suffering itself can hardly be avoided even on the minute levels. That animal had to die for that Buddhist pelt........

"Om mani padme hum'.

Written by: W Harley Bloodworth

~Courtesy of the AOFH~

Literature Cited:

Beer, Roberts. Handbook of Tibetan Buddhist Symbols. Chicago, Ill: Serindia Publications, Inc. 2003. Print, pgs: 53-59.

Other links to enjoy:

http://www.sakya.com.au/clearmind/95/dharmawheelbuckdoe/

http://world.time.com/2012/11/10/as-tibetans-burn-themselves-to-protest-chinese-rule-communists-in-beijing-stress-happiness-in-tibet/

http://buddhism.about.com/od/sacredbuddhisttexts/a/The-Golden-Deer.htm