Karma goes mainstream

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Karma goes mainstream

 

International Wildlife

Sept/Oct 1998

 

RESURRECTION IN THE WIND

by Rick Steiner; photographs by Hiroshi Hasegawa

 

Nearly wiped out by feather harvesters, the short-tailed albatross is

now poised for what may be the recovery of all time

 

[excerpt:]

 

The albatrosses [on Torishima Island off Japan] were easy to harvest, as

they had never known predators. As Hattori reported in 1889, "at the

approach of men, they only clack their bills with anger but never leave

the nest. We could not make them quit their nests even by lighting a

fire in the nearby grasses and they remained even though their plumage

took fire."

 

The hunters used wooden clubs to bludgeon thousands to death each day.

In 1899 alone, 39.2 tons of feathers left the island - the equivalent of

more than 260,000 individual albatrosses. Exports form japan in some

subsequent years totaled more than 350 tons. Ornithologist Yoshimaro

Yamashina estimated that from 1887 to 1902, at least 5 million

albatrosses had been killed.

 

By 1902, things seemed to be going well for the feather hunters. But to

the Buddhist way of thinking, they had been accruing a great karmic

debt. In August, while the birds were at sea, the debt came due: The

volcanic island exploded, and all 125 villagers were buried in their

sleep - the "revenge of the albatross," as it is known today.

 

The next year, other feather harvesters built another small village, but

when the killing resumed, it was at a much reduced level. By then, the

preceding 15-year slaughter had taken its toll. In 1932, only a remnant

bird population remained, and in December of that year, malicious

villagers killed the last 3,000 or so albatrosses on learning the

government was designating the island a sanctuary. This became known as

"the last great massacre."

 

As if in response, the volcano erupted again in 1939. While all but two

villagers escaped this time, the village itself was completely destroyed

by the lava flows, and the only remaining protected anchorage filled

with rock and debris. When American ornithologist Oliver Austin circled

Torishima in April 1949, unable to land due to rough seas, he reported

that "the island was birdless" and sadly concluded that the "once

fabulous colony of Stellar's Albatrosses may be considered to have

vanished forever"....

 

[Editorial inside front cover:]

 

"The Bird that Made the Breeze to Blow"

In Buddhist teaching, there is a strong interest in causality and the

consequences of every action. This idea shows up in a classic tale of

atonement and resurrection that starts on page 12 of this issue - our

coverage of the breathtaking comeback from near extinction of the

short-tailed albatross (photo, left).

 

As our article by marine expert Rick Steiner outlines, the demise of the

largest seabird in the Northern Hemisphere at the hand of feather

harvesters was followed by a karmic payback: a series of volcanic

eruptions that buried the feather harvesters in a natural tomb. In

helping to bring the species back in more recent years, the hero of

Steiner's story - Japanese ornithologist Hiroshi Hasegawa - turns to his

Buddhist tradition to come to terms with both the birds killed and the

people who killed them.

 

Almost hauntingly, the message in these actions mirrors the theme in

*Rime of the Ancient Mariner*, the eighteenth century epic of the West

by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Having taken the life of an innocent

albatross following his ship, the mariner is becalmed along with his

fellow seafarers. Suffering without food or water and facing death,

they hang the dead albatross around the mariner's neck as a burden of

penitence. Not until the mariner realizes and accepts the utter beauty

and sacredness of "all things great and small" is he reborn into

reverence of life and saved. His revelation affords him a second

chance.

 

Today, thanks in large measure to a quarter century of help from

Hasegawa, the short-tail, too, has a second chance. It s population now

numbers about 1,000 birds. If all goes well, the species will slowly

build back to its historic numbers, thought to exceed three million.

Only then will a tale of horror, paybacks - and forgiveness - have come

full circle as a master of the winds returns to the endless

sea. - The Editors

 

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Hare Krsna dasi comments:

 

 

It is interesting to see how the idea of karma has now become accepted

in a magazine like International Wildlife, which is read by many

upper-class, mainstream Americans. Especially, if you re-read the

editorial carefully, you will note that the editors do not dismiss the

idea of karma as mere superstition.