The pier at Yannawa temple is a favourite place for many local people who would come to enjoy the evening by the river. This is also a popular place for people to do good karma by giving food to those big hungry fish at the pier. There’s a stall selling fish pellets at the pier. Sometimes visitors just bought the whole sag of fish food to sprinkle at the river. These people believed that doing ‘Dana’ or offering food to hungry fish would wash away all the bad luck and help them to accumulate good karma.
So, the temple could make some money to pay for electricity and water bills without having to ask for donations. Very often the fish food would spilled on the ground so pigeons were waiting for their chance for some free food. These birds have lost their capability of finding food by themselves so they huddled together around the pier. These pigeons caused a lot of problems for the monks as the pier and surrounding buildings became covered with birds’ droppings. They staff and novices had to scrub the ground and pier almost everyday. But the whole place became dirty very quickly.
Some visitors came specifically to feed pigeons with leftover rice. They liked to take photos with flying birds; they just clapped their hands to frighten these birds to get their photos surrounded by flying birds. The monks and staff were left speechless as there’s a sign prohibiting people from feeding birds. The stray cats were very helpful as they didn’t hunt or like to eat pigeons. Perhaps if someone made barbecued pigeons, cats could be interested.
I remembered people in Europe liked to shoot pigeons and cook them for food. May be one day, when the famine hit the country all pigeons would be roasted or fried for snacks! That’s a slim probability. In some countries, cats and dogs wouldn’t be safe from hunters either. God forbid! I hope people here would never be reduced to catching cats and dogs for survival. But these pigeons would have to fly faster to escape from hungry predators in the future.
However, I did ask some staff whether some big fish around the pier had been stolen. He told me that during the long lockdown, there wasn’t anyone looking after the pier so some people in rowing boats had captured some fish. I did notice a reduction of fish in the river after the lockdown has just lifted. These big fish would fetch a good price in wet markets. But it’s very bad karma to steal fish at the temple. Double whammy of bad karma!
I did asked some hungry malls cats a long time ago why they didn’t hunt those pigeons for food. I saw one hungry cat climbing up the tree just to try to catch a tiny squirrel that jumped to the next tree in an instant. The poor cat was left high and dry on the tall tree feeling more hungry than ever. I told him to come down for some cat food. Luckily, he didn’t faint on his way down from twenty feet height! He wouldn’t let me get near him but he ate all the food. That’s the beginning of my consideration about feeding a few poor stray cats at the temple a few times per week until they got a bit healthier. I had never stopped going to feed these stray cats for over a year by now. Even the pigeons recognised me and they asked me why I wouldn’t feed them!
I told them that they didn’t look skinny as they were very good at capturing fish food in mid-air. They were capable of picking up spilled pellets on the ground and around the pier. Some visitors still came to feed pigeons on a regular basis. I told them that they should be ashamed of themselves as they had lost the knowledge of how to make their own nests. So they perched around buildings and roofs making dirty dropping’s everywhere. They were bored with my arguments and left me peacefully at the pier. Some tried to snatch the cat food from spotty stray cat by the river. They had the audacity to follow me around with their eyes focusing on the cat’s dish. These were rude pigeons that I had to chase away.
Some pigeons stood out as loners and introverts. They would quietly observe their surroundings and enjoy some quiet moments on their own during sunset. I supplied these were the outsiders that would progress to a higher level of bird consciousness so that they wouldn’t have to be reincarnated as pigeons again in their next lives. There were many Chinese stories and legends on how some animals could live for hundreds of years while practicing ‘meditation’ and some virtuous teaching’. Some could become capable of human speech while other could transform into human forms at certain times.
So, I hoped that some stray cats in this temple could appreciate the prayers and Buddhist teachings so that they could reincarnate as humans in their next lives. Those pigeons would have to work very hard to go up the ladder of higher consciousness so that they could hope of being reincarnated as humans one day. Buddhists believe that people who committed lots of seriously bad karma would be reincarnating as some kinds of animals in their next lives. So, to be on the safe side, I have to keep up my good karma scores to develop my higher state of consciousness and a new reincarnation with better chance for enlightenment.
Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.
Stay strong and cheerful.