Releasing Life Across the Ocean

We have been releasing life here at Tampa, under the able management of Yu Huei. Then an opportunity presented itself for an overseas endeavor when Bhante Dhammawansha made a trip back to Sri Lanka recently.

While this remains a vicarious experience, the compassion it engendered and the Dharma bliss it imparted, are no less contagious. It also marks the first time that the release life activity has involved a large animal, and not the usual petite beneficiaries that are only larger in number.

This time, it's a baby cow, released to be in the care of a farmer caretaker. And here are some photos, courtesy of Bhante, to commemorate the occasion.

The farmer, palms joined, was thankful for being bestowed the opportunity to do a wholesome deed. And the baby cow, with a touch of white mane on its forhead, seemed to be bowing its head in gratitude for the freedom to roam the rural landscape.

Bhante Dhammawansha, second from right, sitting atop a huge rock, eyes gazing into the distance, the luxuriant green as the backdrop, with his fellow Sangha members.

Scanning, Release, Smart and Pumpkins, All in a Day's Work

We woke up even earlier today, for an early morning Release Life activity that Yu Huei has arranged, the very first following her participation at the First Annual Asia Pacific Rim Festival held two saturdays ago. The meeting time and place were 8am and the parking lots of Best Buy along Dale Mabry Highway, respectively.

The morning air was crisp, and the sun was hovering just below the roofline of Best Buy when we reached the rendezvous venue just before 8am. Several employees of Best Buy were seen driving into the parking lots, ready to report for duty. Birds were circling the air space above, two of them making a pit stop on top of the crests of the ubiquitous M, of MacDonald's that is.

The sun peeking over the roof of Best Buy, while several doors of our car were opened as a universal symbol of waiting and invitation to climb aboard, to participants of the Release Life activity that is. (More on the pinkish hue later)

We stand on the giant shoulders of Ronald so that we could ...

While waiting for another 15 minutes for any late comer to join us on this cool morning for this meritorious expedition, I did an environmental scanning, my faithful Canon Powershot A75 in hand, ready to capture any Kodak moment that would present itself, including those described above.

I have always wanted to capture the high wire act of a squirrel as it darts across a hanging power line. And my wish was answered today, a lesson for the acrophobia-stricken amongst us. In layman's parlance, that's the fear of heights, rational or pathological.

Yes, stick it to the air, Alvin dude ...

At the conclusion of the 15-minute extension, we drove to Ballast Point that overlooks Hillsborough Bay, the same number of people as we had started in the car. A strong breeze greeted us there. And the scenery was a nice change, from the terrestrial, or more like urban landscape, to a watery one. Anglers were spaced along the wooden jetty. On the land side, children, under the watchful eyes of the parents, were enjoying themselves at the playground. Further afield across the road, equestrians-to-be with jockey caps were astride horses, strutting around the track.

The hazy outline of the Tampa downtown across from us. The pinkish sky is an artifact of my camera lense malfunctioning, momentarily. But it does add to the panorama, don't you think?

A straight shot to the end of the wooden jetty taken before the pink intrusion was fixed, by a simple off-on operation.

Yu Huei went into a bait shop to purchase two bucketfuls of juveniles fish and shrimps. And the trio proceeded to the end of a short jetty next to the boat launch, me carrying two pails. Palms joined, Yu Huei and Wify started the usual Buddhist chant while I retreated landward to several vantage points to record the proceeding, pictorially. The small animals released soon blended into the Bay water, spending their remaining days free from captivity in accordance with nature.

The small animals saved today ...

Releasing life over water.

By way of Bayshore Boulevard, we stopped by the Old Hyde Park, reliving the old memories while we were South Tampa residents until April this year. It was not surprising that pumpkins were the main attraction at the fountain area since Halloween was just around the corner (on October 31). But the Smart fortwo, with the tagline "Open Your Mind", was. See for yourself.

The nimble 3-cylinder road "buggy" that starts at just under $12,000/= ...

Fountain, pumpkins, and the early birds.

A Family-centric Release Life Outing

Seizing upon the concurrent presence of our three children here in Tampa this weekend (the fourth is in Florida too but away at Gainesville), we decided to organize a family-oriented Release Life activity at the behest of Yu Huei. The venue: Veteran Memorial Park by the Tampa Bypass.

We knew from our last visit there that the Park opens at 10.00am. So we timed our visit accordingly. We first bought five kinds of small animals (minnows, juvenile shrimps, medium-sized fish, crickets, and earthworms) from a nearby fish and tackle shop. Before that wify and Yu Huei led the sutra chanting in the shop as a blessing to all sentient lives therein. Yu Huei also offered an apology to those remaining behind due to the limited capacity of our release effort.

Arriving at the Park, wify first lowered the fish and shrimps contained in three plastic pails into the stream. They soon swam away, perhaps acclimatizing to the realm of nature free from captivity. Next the earthworms were delivered into shallow hand-dug pits around the root region of several trees on the river bank. The rain in the past few days has softened the soil enough for easy digging. Once released, the earthworms were seen slithering bubbly about, seemingly overjoyed at the embrace of Mother Earth.

Wify seemed to be emerging from the stream, a spade in hand, while remaining dry ...
Wify releasing the earthworms while Yu Huei was delivering the blessed water, with the two sisters watching from a safe distance, mindful of the wriggly critters.

The last, but not the least, to taste freedom were the crickets when the paper bags containing and confining them were unstapled. Thus concluded a simple and meaningful family-based Release Life activity, on a sunny morning.

We then adjourned to lunch at a Thai Buddhist Temple at Palms River Drive, located at a tree-lined picturesque site next to the Tampa Bypass. It was breezy, the wind and the tree shade at the open-air picnic tables combining to engender a comfortable outdoor eating experience. But CY, long used to the low humidity that characterizes the Pacific NorthWest (Oregon to be more specific), could not wait to get home or a shopping mall to savor the cool comfort of air-conditioning. In her words, it was suffocating. Guess she still has a long way to go in taming the mind so as not be influenced by the external environment.

The wind-perturbed waves gently lapping against the low river bank next to our table ...
The sibling ready to partake of the lunch offering, momentarily disregarding the high humidity as evident from the flashy smiles ...

Mom and son standing erect next to the portrait of the Buddha ...

Life in Its Many Forms and Realms: Release, the Departed, the Buddha, and Contemplation

My wife and her Buddhist friends held a release life activity this morning next to the Veteran Memorial Park just off the bank of the Tampa Bypass Channel. This is the first time we entered the park ground as unbeknownst to us, the opening hour of the park coincided with our time of arrival, 10.00am. Before that, we stopped by a bait and tackle shop to buy juvenile fish and earthworms.

Instead of chanting the sutra at the river side, Yu Huei decided to hold the chanting session at the shop there and then on two considerations. Firstly, some of the small animals may not survive the trip from the shop to the river side. So this would ensure that they would get the good merits transferred to them while alive. Secondly, this would benefit the entire animal collection within the shop.

Indoor chanting amidst the angling gear and the entire collection of small animals.

While at the shop, a curious onlooker’s interest was piqued by the chanting. I explained to him the gist of the release life as an act of compassion toward all sentient beings. “Not pity, but compassion,” I corrected him. “God moves us in many ways,” he replied, radiating sincerity.

On the drive to the Veteran Memorial Park, I almost ran over a squirrel dashing across the road, my sudden reflexive braking motion scuttling some stuff around me. But no harm done.

At first, we were worried that the steep descent down the earth slope from the bridge to the river side may prove to be a slippery, and hence, dicey operation. But the park was just opened, and we were able to park inside the park. And the good thing is the slope to the river edge is very gentle here, at the bottom of which are scattered rock pieces to provide a firm foothold. Those must be the remnants of a rudimentary bank protection measure against erosion: rock slope. The other meritorious aspect of this particular site is the absence of preying birds that are known to swish down on the small released animals as we have learned painfully from our experience at other sites. The fish fries were released into the stream, and the earthworm, into hand-dug holes by the river side.

The outdoor release life activity, first the aquatic kind and then the burrowing kind, momentarily confined within the two brown bags in the hands of Sister Annie.

Then something else happened. A group of ducks were swaggering toward us while we were about to drive off. So the ladies alighted again, palms joined, and started chanting away at the approaching ducks, presumably sensing food from their past treatments. The merits thus transferred so that in their (the ducks') next life they would be reborn in the human realm, the realm at which Buddhahood is most reliably attained, the ladies thanked the ducks and we were soon on our way to our next destination, a Thai temple along Palm River Drive.

Transferring merits to the swaggering kind

But not before we made a slow drive around the park. It being a Veteran Memorial Park, there are many displays of war paraphernalia: helicopters, and artillery equipment. A small plot in the back was stacked full with miniature American flags, in memoriam of the many casualties of wars. The apparent irony of holding a release life activity in a park dedicated to the many soldiers perished in wars was not lost on me. But in a way, what we did could also be considered as a way of transferring merits to the departed consecrated in the park.

The Thai temple is a sprawling complex amidst the tree-lined river bank, with timber boardwalk over some of the soft ground. The temple’s inside is both regal and solemn. Next to the temple is the canteen where temple helpers were busying packing up the food orders for the expanding crowd of visitors.

Top left: A painting of a Young Buddha teaching to the Five disciples on the foreground.
Top Right: A view of the temple from the river bank.
Bottom right: the Buddha statue inside the Temple.
Bottom left: A view of the river bank from the front of the Temple.

We did the same and adjourned to one of the many tables dotting the river bank to partake of the food offering. A point to note is that the food served is a mix of vegetarian and non-vegetarian, a departure from the norm at Chinese temples where only vegetarian food is served. The rates charged for the food were very reasonable indeed and would only be possible due to the unfaltering show of volunteerism from the local Thai community, at the same time providing a steady source of revenue to maintain the temple to contribute to the well-being of all sentient beings.

A serene view from our table of feast, and contemplative too.

Complementing Compassion with Wisdom

My wife received an email from a friend, inviting us to visit the Chinese Phoenix TV website. While surfing the website, I came upon an article that admonishes us to complement compassion with wisdom, via the example of a noble act, releasing life. I find it worthwhile to translate it into English to share in this blog. So here it is.

Releasing Life: We Must Complement Compassion with Wisdom
July 11, 2007 09:28 Life Forum

“Hey, boss, how much for the birds?”

“Three bucks each,” replied the pet shop owner. And when I pointed to another cage with a larger bird, the owner said, “Sorry, that’s not for sale. It has been reserved.”

“How come business is so good?”

“Because next week is the celebration of the birthday of Guang Yin [the Goddess of Mercy]. A lot of people have made their bookings, numbering in the thousands. So business is brisk indeed.”

My heart sank upon hearing the mass booking of live birdies. I and my friend bought some cicadas, small birds, and small frogs. Then we adjourned to the isolated riverside to release them. Small frogs are favored by anglers while fish aficionados feed crickets to their prized aquatic collections. The released crickets jumped onto the trees, incessantly devouring the leaves, a testimony to their famished state. The emaciated frogs frolic by hopping around, immensely enjoying their new-found liberation in a free environment they have been denied to for so long.

As a matter of fact, whenever the birthday of Guang Yin, or the First and the Fifteen of the lunar month is pending, those with vested interests are always busy hunting for these so-called hot items, the animals and the birds, for releasing life activities. Then they congregate at temples to sell their catches for quick profits. They always drive truck loads of these captured items and place them on parade at the temples nearby my house, their owners peddling to a captive market. Obviously some of these do not survive the trip. In this regard, both the sellers and the buyers are equally ignorant, and it is sad that both groups would have to shoulder some of the blame for the misdeed, and hence, suffer the karmic retribution.

A purely compassionate approach to releasing life is inadequate. It needs to be supplemented by wisdom. Then only then can any potential post-event harm be diminished. Making bookings for animals from pet shops for releasing life activities lacks wisdom. And compassion without wisdom is wasteful compassion. Just think about it. Pet shop operators will do their best to source for all kinds of animals to satisfy the demands and hence, maximize their profits. Thus, those doing the booking of these animals, albeit for a noble cause of releasing life, are indirectly abetting those performing the actual capturing. Would you consider this kind of releasing life as generating good merits? Maybe the birds are all screaming in their hearts: we all have to lose our freedom simply for people to act out their hypocritical rites of releasing life, and if such an expedient behavior is rewarded with good merits, where then is the natural justice in all this charade?

This is precisely why Venerable Master Lian Chi always stressed that we have to change the time, the place, and the animals in releasing life activities regularly, expressly to prevent those with vested interests from going on a catching spree in order to satisfy the demand. Those who subscribe to eating the three kinds of kosher meats (not killed because of me, the killing not seen by me, nor heard by me) are not supposed to make the booking. Instead, they should only buy those off the shelf, i..e, those already dead.

Of course, provided we adhere to the principles as laid down by Venerable Master Lian Chi, any untoward consequence after the event is clearly beyond our control. Regardless of whether there is any ready buyer, those who catch animals for a living will still engage in their daily business, the only difference being in the quantity. If there is a seasonal demand, and the market for certain animals is good, they will definitely catch more.

The targets of the releasing life activities are those fish, frog, turtles, cows, goats, chicken, duck, etc. destined for immediate consumption; and the juvenile fish, worms, cicadas, lizards, and small frogs in the pet shops. Then there are the birds caged in captivity. We buy these animals to be released into the wild precisely to eliminate their doomed fate because all animals and human beings are equal, endowed with Buddha nature, and hence have the potential to achieve buddhahood. They all can feel pain and are fearful of dying just like we all are.

We must always be mindful of the fact that just because they have their backs skyward, animals are not God’s gift to us as food. If such is the case, then animals should feel happy to serve our gastronomic needs. But the truth is worlds apart. There are reports of cows shedding their tears come slaughtering time, as if they could sense their immediate demise and are begging for mercy. In the wee hours of the morning, the shrill cries from pigs in a abattoir can make you stop eating pork for the rest of your life. As Confucius put it succinctly, hearing the sound alone is enough to move you to not eating the meat.

We can go to any pet shop, an aquarium, or a market, to buy animals for the purpose of releasing life. But we should not set our sight on a particular shop for that purpose, nor should we request for a particular kind of animals. All we have to do is to look at the quantity and assess our capacity to pay. Never place a booking. Otherwise we will bring suffering upon the animals, and upon ourselves (through the tenet of causality).

Carpe Diem! And They Did, In Style

Wify (that’s an endearing term for my wife, in the same vein as hubby) called me in the office yesterday morning regarding her planned outing to the Bay waters with Sister Yu Huei, Sister Connie, Venerable Hwei Chen’s Mom, and Mama Soon. It was a treat for Venerable Hwei Chen’s Mom on the occasion of her visit to the Tampa area. Included in the road/boat trip, a short one from where we are across the Bay, was a Releasing Life activity.

Chauffeured by Sis Yu Huei, the entourage braved the hazy condition and arrived at Clearwater around 3pm. Then they immediately boarded a launch boat for a leisure cruise around the Bay. There was another lovely couple from Ohio (wify always manages to strike up a conversation with almost anybody) and that’s it.

It’s not very often that wify gets to be around places in my absence. But I have learned to let go through the years. Not that I’m possessive and not able to trust her instincts (one can never be too careful), but rather I always get worried for her safety when she is out of my sight. But she promised to keep me posted through mobile telecommunication. And I have learned to suppress negative thoughts, at first consciously. Now the negativity only visits sporadically and fleetingly.

The cruise took them scything through the calm Bay waters, kicking up regular trains of boat waves and wakes emanating from the moving boat from both sides. The boat spots a leaping dolphin on its top, and they did catch some glimpses of dolphins swimming not too far away (but perhaps too far to be shot, with a camera that is). Wify was also not able to catch the lovely sounds that the dolphins are known to make either. Just the droning of the boat engine and the serene sight of the dolphins going about their business in their natural habitat, broken perhaps by the occasional verbal exchanges among the spectators.

The cruise made a brief stop on what looks like a sandbank in the middle of the bay. Like lost souls marooned on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere (use your imagination), the ladies frolicked at the water edge, were perched on top of washed up tree stumps, and just generally enjoyed the piece of heaven on earth, away from the hustle and bustle of city life (actually that only becomes a backdrop and out of earshot only).

Then it was back to the shore for the Releasing Life activity, followed by a vegetarian dinner at a Vietnamese Chinese restaurant not too far away. Do you know that many Vietnamese Chinese speak Cantonese? And the lady proprietor of this restaurant is no different. And it so happened that wify can speak a smattering of Cantonese (she is Hokkien/Fujian, similar to the Taiwanese/Mingnan dialect but perhaps her Cantonese was honed by interacting with my late Mom who only spoke Cantonese, and also the old lady helper around the school where she lived while young, come to think of it). And the two talked like two long lost friends who have just found each other, aided by a common thread revealed during the conversation.

The lady proprietor had spent a year on a transit camp when she left Vietnam in 1978, and that transit camp was Pulau Bidong, an island offshore of the State of Terengganu, Malaysia that was designated a refugee island by United Nations during the height of the Vietnamese exodus. So that’s the common link. She was first dispatched to Holland and later wound up in US following her husband. It’s a small, small world, the famous refrain made popular by the DisneyWorld people.

Wify reached home about 10pm, still in high spirits nary a trace of fatigue. That’s what a good company does to you. Thus concluded a memorable outing, a lady's day of sort, the moments, many, caught in the pictorial journal that follows, the befitting manifestation of the spirit of Carpe Diem!

Yummy! Nothing beats having some delicious chinese dumplings
to start the day, or in this intant, evening (Mama Soon to the left
and Venerable Hwei Chen's Mom to the right).

Nice breeze! The four lady friends at stern (Wify to extreme left and
Sis Connie to extreme right). Obviously the 5th member of the entourage,
Sis Yu Huei, is the photographer.

Staking a claim on the sandbank, with a solitary tree and a
rather extensive grass meadow to boot.

Instead of Tom Hanks in Castaway, we have four graceful ladies smilingly in distress.
But the backdrop is a dead giveaway.

What's with the boat captain? It seems a cruise would not be complete
without a picture with the captain. Perhaps for safely delivering
the entourage back to the shore? But I feel assured at the sight
of the stacks of life jackets at the ceiling. Shouldn't they be wearing them?

Life begetting life, the Buddhist Way.

Releasing Life and Passion for Chinese Martial Arts

After a brief hiatus as we had to attend to several matters over the weekends, we are back to the activity of releasing life, one that is meant to instill compassion in us, again. So last Saturday, at the behest of our able and indefatigable organizer, Sister Yu Huei, we met again at MacDonald’s along Dale Mabry Highway, our usual place of rendezvous.

This time, though, we had some new faces. Two of them are a couple who has recently moved from Utah to the Sunshine State, Steve and Claudia. Then Yu Huei brought along her former boss, Mary, and Jim, who is the son of Mary.

The queue at our usual bait shop was unusually long, so we decided to move on to a neighboring one. And bought three pails of juvenile prawns there. The destination was the east end of Gandy Bridge, a couple of hundred meters from the bait shop.

It was low tide, a beautiful morning, a quiet place by the water’ s edge, the serenity broken only by the occasional swishing action of sea gulls, which alternately strutted on the shallow shoals not far offshore, or glided gracefully in air.

As usual, the activity started with the chanting of the Great Compassion Mantra and Heart Sutra, with Steve, Mary, and Jim standing in attention, evincing piousness in heart. That was followed by pouring of water over the juvenile prawns who were about to be in communion with Nature.









Because of the shallow depth near the water’s edge, Claudia, Jim and my wife trudged further into the bay to effect the life release. However, just when we said the last prayer and were about to leave, the circling sea gulls made a beeline for the release spot. And Yu Huei had to practically jump into the water to fend off their feeding frenzy. Such is the cycle of food chain in Nature and we could only do the best we could.

At the conclusion of the activity, we drove across Gandy Bridge to enjoy the coffee and bagels at Einstein Bros Bagels. [This image of rodeo but on a bagel is shot in a room in the establishment.] It was there that Jim shared his passion for Shaolin martial arts and film directing with us. He has graduated from UCF, Orlando two years ago and is into his directing debut.

On his foray into the realm of traditional Chinese martial arts, he told us that he started in the Wah Lum Kung Fu of USA headquartered in Orlando and has also learned Lion dance, a two-men team under the cloak of a beautifully embellished replica of a lion's head and its posterior extension that mimics the movement and steps of a stalking lion to an accompanying drumbeat.

While I’m ethnic Chinese, I have not found the time nor inclination to really immerse myself in learning this aspect of Chinese culture. But my fascination with the Chinese martial arts did translate into my liking for Chinese martial arts novels and movies. This movie genre has been made popular by such martial arts exponents as the late Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and Jet Li. The proliferation of kung fu schools in Europe and US attests to the popularity of this mode of self-defense arts, which invariably involves training of the mind as well.

However, all is not lost as my eldest son back in Malaysia has taken up Shaolin Kung Fu and Qi Kung from the world renowned Sifu Wong Kiew Kit’s Shaolin Wahnam Institute based in Sg. Petani, Kedah, Malaysia. The picture below shows the international group training session he participated last October in Kedah, Malaysia where he is at the front center with Sifu directly behind him. Good job, son.

Dharma Lessons Through Practice

Today's release life activity bore a special significance: it's the very first time we had Bhante Dhammawansha to grace the occasion. Bhante Dhammawansha is a Buddhist monk from Sri Lanka based in Clearwater. He has been delivering Buddhist teaching in the Bay area for the past 5-6 years, including giving Buddhist talks and participating in inter-faith dailog in area churches and synagogues. The first Annual Robe Offering Celebration of the Dhamma Wheel Meditation Society that we have participated on Nov 12, 2006 and that I have blogged here was held at his residence.

As usual, seven of us first assembled at our usual place, the 24-hour McDonald's Restaurant along North Dale Mabry just north of the I-275 flyover (or viaduct as is called here). All seated in my car (an 8-seater Minivan), we crossed the Bay via State Road 60 over the Courtney Campbell Bridge and picked up the 8th passenger, Bhante Dhammawansha, at his residence. Then it was off to the Clearwater Beach for the release life activity.

This is a revisit for many of us, Clearwater Beach being a popular site of choice for our activity. En-route, Bhante and us warmed up mutually pretty fast and he started sharing his experience with us, including the contrast of the condition now and the time when he first came to the area 5-6 years ago.

He was in an eminent position to do that because he had resided in one of the ocean front condo units along Clearwater Beach for a period of about seven months, thanks to an Indian lady who housed him in her own condo.

Now so many high rise condominiums are sprouting up along the ocean frontage in the Clearwater Beach Area like young shoots after a nourishing rain that the ocean view is no more like before, unbroken vista of the beach expanse and the distant horizon. I replied matter-of-factly that that's the price we pay for development, but knowing deep down inside me that it doesn't have to be that way.

While cruising over the newly opened bridge that leads us to the Clearwater Beach, we saw what Bhante meant: closely spaced condominiums, some still under construction, rising like a curtain at the water's edge to crowd out the ocean view.

We first bought the fish and shrimp juveniles from the bait shop and placed them in pails to be carried over to the site, which is the wooden jetty next to the bait shop. We also brought along a battery operated aerator (the yellow instrument attached to the top of the pail in the image) to keep the juveniles in a healthy condition while on transit to the jetty as well as during the mantra chanting session.

We then proceeded to the wooden jetty behind the bait shop where, led by Bhante, the party chanted Buddhist mantras in Pali amidst Bhante's explanation of the significance of releasing life. Above all, the act of releasing life fosters compassion, nurtures virtue and perpetuates love for all sentient beings. The resulting purification of the mind is akin to cleaning us of the rust that have encrusted us, thereby facilitating us coming into closer contact with our true self on the route to attaining buddhahood. Buddhist teaching emphasizes the humanistic approach, and upholds adherence to precepts through practice.

I find Bhante to be a resourceful teacher: employing a captivating story telling style, citing analogies and using simple language, wearing a perennial smile, adopting an approachable stance, and displaying great listening skills. These he evinced comfortably in his interaction with us, both in the car while waiting for one of us to run an errand at the local post office, and during lunch at the Thai House at the Largo Shopping Mall.

A case in point is the notion of rebirth, as distinct from reincarnation. While the latter entails wandering spirits in a limbo for a period of 7 days, the former is instant and occurs the moment the present life ends. Also, in biological terms, there are only two essential ingredient for a human birth to occur: a fertilized egg, and a womb for the gestation. But Buddhism adds one more element: the best attempt at an English translation is the sub-consciousness. And the rapt attention on my wife's face says it all.

The Thai House is frequented by Bhante, while it's the first visit for the rest of us. Other than the symbols of Thai Buddhism, the wall is also adorned with the names of regular patrons, which I thought is a novel move and is likely to entice repeat business. At the end of it all, the courteous waitress was kind enough to offer to take our group picture, with the Smiling Buddha standing guard behind. The delicious lunch was an early Christmas gift from Susie, the lady in pink standing to the right of Bhante.

Thanks to Yu Huai Chen, again, for organizing the activity, all participants for taking time to display compassion, and Bhante Dhammawansha for both gracing the occasion, and for enlightening us on some of the important lessons of the Buddhist teachings within such a short span of time.

All Things Avian

From the botanical finds of yesterday, I would like to move on to the zoological beings, the avian kind to be precise.

Unlike plants and trees, which are immotile, shooting birds, with a camera that is, is a chancy undertaking. The subject is unpredictable, unless it is the captured variety, but at the expense of a sense of carefree splendor.

Birds are prone to taking flight at the slightest disturbance. But when the random encounter is frozen in time, the elation, the emotional uplift, and the wonderment are priceless, to borrow from a popular commercial for a major credit card.

Here they are, in no particular chronological order.

The first image is that of a white crane (at least that’s what I thought it is), perched on a iron-pipe railing next to a bait shop. I think this is near the Clearwater Beach, one of our favorite places for the release of life activity, until the risk of harmful algal bloom (aka red tide) forced us to look for bluer waters (a play on greener pasture). Hence, the Tampa Bypass Canal blogged here. It was early in the morning, and the birdie must be preserving energy for target shooting for sustenance. I guess this is one of its favorite haunts as it does not appear to be perturbed by the throng of fishing enthusiasts walking past. Or maybe it was eyeing, in an askance way, at the guy shaking up his net, waiting for the off-chance that some morsels of fish remains caught in the net would just suddenly be flung into the air. Fat chance.

The next image is at another bait shop, this time at the Madeira Beach, St. Pete. Another crane was strutting on the timber gangway next to a smaller bird, apparently on a food hunt, kind of out of its usual territory. The close proximity of the two birds, disparate in size, both going about the same business of keeping fed, without nary a sign of belligerence, is a poignant contrast to the dog-eat-dog world that we have found ourselves fenced in. Whatever happened to live and let live, prosper thy neighbor, and common heritage that are the cherished dreams of the down trodden? But I digress. On reflection, could it be the same crane as above? What is a typical size of the hunting ground for a preying bird? Does it practice a kind of orchard farming, i.e., confined to a particular habitat, or shifting cultivation aka slash and burn, seldom revisiting the same location twice? I wonder.

The shot is taken near a lotus-filled pond in the Largo Botanical Garden, which boasts of many varieties of plants and flowers. Seldom do I see a duck (or is it not?) spreading its span like an eagle. Perhaps it was unfolding its wings after a dip, or was it trying to impress a female gender as part of the mating routine? But it was alone from what I could gather of the surrounding. That the creature knowing a nature lover like me was itching for a nature shot of the day sounds too far-fetched. Anyway the timing was uncanny, and I’m glad that the duck was able to maintain its pose since that is definitely not the natural wing position when “grounded”.

The next threesome is a different kind of duck, more domesticated than wild. Effortlessly maneuvering with their paddling feet, they were looking for floating bread crumbs that my party has thrown from the road bridge (yes, this is the Tampa Bypass Canal trip again). I did not notice the near perfect reflection on the water surface until it was on my computer screen after uploading from the camera. This is a testimony to the water clarity of the canal flow, at least during that particular instant.

Then there is the foursome, two in front, the other two bringing up the rear, and moving in unison. I suspect this is not my creation, as sometimes my daughter over at Oregon emails some of her photo shoots our way too. She too is a photography enthusiast, having taken up a formal course in digital photography in college. Unlike me, everything is by trial and error; the advent of digital cameras partly to blame because snipping of unwanted or unsuccessful scenes is so easy.

The last image of the day is a gem, more so because the bird is a rarity. See for yourself. Unfortunately I did not have the patience to wait for it to unravel its magnificent wings. The setting is at the Largo Botanical Garden as before, but on a different trip. I believe this was at the end of an earth track that was still under some form of construction, hence the earth mounds. Obviously, the bird is wild, and has claimed the clearing for roosting, drawn in by the quiet save for the rubbing leaves ruffled by a gentle breeze. And we were also tenacious enough to savor all the exhibits, without bypassing a single path in our coverage. All conspired to yield a golden moment that translated into the most pleasant surprise of them all.