What Do You Think?
Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/RatAbuse.mp4
This video was on my Facebook newsfeed and suffice to say, it disturbed me. It disturbed me because it was basically senseless pain being inflicted on another being. Not to say inflicting pain on anyone is excusable or justifiable under any circumstances, but in this case it was totally and entirely without utility.
What was being accomplished from whipping the rat? What was the point of the abuse? Someone caught a rat, strung it up against a fence and whipped it. What kind of mind plans all of that?
It also reminded me how discriminatory we are. While most people view rats as vermin, I have also heard of people who view them as pets. The treatment of the object (the rat) differs based on how they are labelled.
We put labels on animals – pets, vermin, food, transport, entertainment – which are all false. They are false because from culture to culture, from country to country, and even from household to household, the same species can be treated differently. For example, a guinea pig in the U.K. (pet) will be viewed differently to a guinea pig in Ecuador (food).
So while classifying animals based on purpose may be convenient for us because it simplifies how we can relate to them, at the same time simplifying them in this manner also becomes dangerous. It leads us to treat them on the basis of an imputed value and falsely applied label. It leads us to treat them as objects and that is where we start to think it is okay to harm, abuse and exploit animals because they have become something to be used.
Over time, this something-ness in the way we treat animals can become ingrained. The deeper it is ingrained in our psyche, the less empathetic we are and the colder we become. It explains why some people will never be able to stomach what goes on in an abattoir, while others have no problems and think nothing of participating in the slaughter of thousands. It explains why childhood abuse of animals is used as a predictor of sociopathy and psychopathy; a child that lacks empathy and treats living beings as things is at greater risk of growing up without empathy towards ‘larger’ living beings (i.e. humans) and treating them as things to be used.
Is living in and nurturing this lack of empathy and coldness what we desire as travelers on the spiritual path?
Developing compassion towards animals, regardless of their utility (and independent of their benefit to us!), is therefore imperative to our spiritual training. Once we have recognised the value of this, the next question then is how? One way we can develop compassion for animals is by remembering they are just like us. Just like humans, they feel pain, love, happiness, sadness, disgust, amusement.
We extend the discriminatory attitude that we apply to animals, to ourselves as humans. Just like we label animals, we give ourselves labels too – mother, daughter, girlfriend, wife, Dharma student – but when you strip away all of the labels, the fundamental core is this… just like animals, none of us want to feel pain and none of us want to suffer, and all of us want happiness. We take on these labels thinking it will make it easier for us to relate to the world but in reality, they limit us.
When you deal with someone on the basis of a single label, it limits how you can interact with them (“I deal with you this way because I am your mother”). And how you interact with that person may not necessarily be the most beneficial method for them, since you are interacting with them from the basis of yourself and your relationship with them, as opposed to interacting with them on the basis of what’s good for them.
Thus in this way, removing the labels you set for yourself and others logically becomes a much more liberating way to live. Our discriminatory attitude towards sentient beings will be the stumbling block for the development of compassion in our mindstreams. Removing the labels we project onto one another is essential to develop compassion for one another, by opening our minds to the empathy most of us naturally have.
But back to the rat video – animals don’t exist to be cute for us. They don’t exist to entertain us, accompany us, feed us or work for us. So as long as we keep thinking about animals in relations to ourselves, animal cruelty and suffering in this world will never stop.
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Very distressing to see any being that is being hurt, even one that is a rat. There is no real benefit for the person, no utility no gain in what so ever manner, except having full control over the rat what else is there?
Rats are pets in certain parts of the world and some rats are even beneficial in land mines clearing. http://www.bfm.my/giant-rats-turned-heroes.html
坦白说，本人对一些害虫或动物并没有特别的好感。但是，看到此短片里的老鼠被吊起来和虐打时，我的头皮立刻发麻，心里觉得如果我是“他”，那是多么的痛。
从小就相信这句话“众生皆能成佛”。接触与学习佛法后，这信念就更强。因为佛法让我明白，一切有情众生是非常有可能是我们前世的父母。只是因为个人业力的关系，而造成今生要转世为动物。当我们真正的明白这因果论，相信今天会有很多人会选择吃素和不再虐待动物。
非常赞同一句启发语“如果你不能帮助他们，至少不要伤害他们。”
愿一切有情众生得到文殊菩萨的加持，去除无明，智慧增长，早日脱离苦海。
Dear Pastor Jean Ai,
Thank you for sharing this thought with us. The perpetrator in the video is totally inhuman. How could someone ever thought about abusing the rat using such/a cruel way. Although they might had caused us some troubles, that does not justify our cruel acts. We can just capture them alive and release them away far from our premise.
The cartoon bears a message that is very deep. Why do we choose to eat one animals and pet the other. We are just a bunch of hypocrites when we say we love animals and yet we are still consuming meat. Being compassionate means that we don’t get to choose who we love and who we don’t.
Chris
It is unbearable to sit still and watch the poor rodent being abused.
Due to our ignorance, we are quick to place our projections and judgement onto others. We stereotype and put labels for our own convenience because it is much easier to say that, for example, all Chinese are greedy rather than to get to know and find out how 1 Chinese is different from the other. As much as we find stereotyping and labeling unfair, we are doing worse on animals. The labels that animals carry determined their fate; i.e. being hunted, butchered, slaughtered, abused, caged or… heaven knows what else human is capable of doing.
The longer we let our discriminatory thinking prevail in our day to day life, the stronger it will be ingrained and harder for us to develop compassion. When we strip away the labels that we project onto one another, we will be able to treat everyone in equality, and open up our mind to a more empathetic approach. The interaction will not be limited on the basis of relationship but shift to the basis on what is best for the other party. It applies to how we treat human as well as other sentient beings, including animals too.
Thank You Rinpoche and Pastor Jean Ai for this teaching to guide us on generating compassion.
Humbly, bowing down,
Stella Cheang