Fwd: Article by Frank Tedesco (professor)

[Guest guest]

Subject:

Companions in Life

 

What do Westerners talk about who stay in Korea for more than a few

days? The ubiquity of kimch'i? The ugly neon crosses which spoil the

Seoul skyline like bloody red chicken tracks? The beautiful women and

children in every nook and cranny of the country? Yes, for sure. And

there is also one other predictable comment or question which arises

shortly after a few days. Why are pets mistreated so badly here? Why

the utter disregard for the suffering of dogs and cats who are

chained all day long on short leashes and who are consequently forced

to eat and sleep in their own excrement. And to my shame as a long

term resident of Korea, visitors usually discover that dogs which

have been raised at home for years are sold to restaurants or even

killed and eaten by their owners. Outsiders to Korea consider this

practice ghastly and unbelievable. I live on the edge of Mt. Pukhan

National Park. Unfortunately, we are visited by a middle-aged man

shouting for dogs and cats to buy few times a month. Recently I read

an article on a Korean daily newspaper about a group of legislators

trying to legalize the sales of dog meat!

 

The common mistreatment of dogs and cats in Korea elicits a

lot of sympathy for animals from sensitive people, while it inspires

the exact opposite feeling for the human residents of this country.

We are not talking about the mistreatment of " pocket pets " like the

overbred toy poodles and terriers that are so small they fit in Gucci

bags. These pitiful creatures are pampered mercilessly by

the " emotionally challenged " all over the (middle class) world.

Visitors to Korea anguish over common mongrels and alley cats which

are treated cruelly as if they no feelings (heart/mind) or sense of

pain. Pet lovers accuse people who mistreat animals in this way as

emotionally frigid or retarded, or more generously, as ethically

bankrupt. It seems as if many Koreans are numb to the cries of the

weak and the disabled. They maintain a very non-Buddhist and

unscientific mindset which strictly separates human and animal life

as unbridgeable spheres. It is sad to think this is so.

 

I myself can't help thinking that a person's or a society's

level of spiritual development is directly proportionate to their

sensitivity to the suffering and welfare of all forms of life around

them, animals and the " differently abled. " Actions to alleviate

sufferings in our personal " ecosystem " lead to spiritual evolution.

Inaction because of ignorance of suffering and refusal to open the

narrow heart leads to greater pain for everyone. We are part of the

whole and inextricably inter-penetrated with it. We need to awaken to

this fact. Our life is an " academy for ecological awakening " to use

the English title of the Korean Buddhist environmental education

association. It is a school for " ecological awakening " because we

must learn how interdependent we are with evolving and vibrating life

forms all around us. We all share pain and change and we are subject

to life and death with plants and animals upon we depend for food and

oxygen. The faster we learn and act upon this " great issue of life

and death, " the faster we will create a world of peace for our

ourselves and our children.

 

How people treat animals reflects how they treat themselves

and their own families on mental and emotional levels. The mind is

one. Thought is reflected on all planes of action when you are clear

enough in yourself to see it. For instance, there are many wives feel

tied by invisible chains of duty to inconsiderate husbands. They

disguise their frustrations at home and release their energies on the

care of their children. What are the results of over-protecting

children from early age? One is fear of the unknown and fear of

spontaneity. Why do so many Koreans young and old jump in fear at

the faintest barking of a little mutt? Are they really afraid of

innocuous little beasts or are they afraid of facing something a

little bit wild and natural in themselves?

 

Many Korean dogs seem to have lost all in trust themselves

too. It is startling how timid and witless Korean dogs in my

neighborhood seem to be. It is as if they do not know how to be dogs.

Yet most people they meet jump away from them in fear for no good

reason except family programming. Neither party seems to know what to

do with the other. The dogs have been chained, mishandled, scolded

and beaten into whimpering and whiny shadows of themselves.

Overcrowded, overhandled and then ignored on short leashes, they do

not know how to run free when they are given the chance. They

are " beside themselves, " out of touch with their deeper natures.

 

And so, too, the children. How many children have had

creativity squeezed out of them by rigid school policies and parents

who acquiesce to them? Meekness and passivity is so commonplace among

older children in Korea who are burdened with school assignments and

after-school classes which leave no time for simple fun. I see it

everyday in the classroom. Are they much different than dogs kept on

short chains who can't stretch their legs and run freely for a while?

Isn't it about time that we relax and loosen our chains and return to

our basic creaturely senses, our true self? The creation of a

Buddhist Society for Compassion to Animals (BSCA) is long overdue.