Bear in the Neighborhood

www.heartwoodpress.blogspot.com

After 30 years, a bear found and destroyed my neighbor's black plastic compost bin. We found 3 piles of bear scat here in our yard, but our open compost pile was not touched. Another neighbor saw a bear as she was taking a walk in the woods around dusk--a small bear, she said.

As cute as they are, we are talking about a life and death situation--for the bear. If a bear becomes habituated to people food, then the game warden will remove it.

If we become habituated to unskillful actions, then we too are talking about a life and death situation: our own. These habits--good ones or bad ones--are called karma. I'm not asking you to "believe" in karma. I'm asking you to look at karma, at your own habits very directly, with clear seeing.

Many of our habits are quite ordinary: brushing our teeth or driving a car. Many of our habits are skillful--anytime our heart reaches out to someone in need, anytime we do a good deed. And some of our habits are unskillful: you already know what yours are.

It's time to clean up our act--even though our friends may continue to practice unskillful acts of drinking a bit too much, expressing hurtful opinions. We clean up our act because, really, it's our life at stake here.

And it looks like i better clean up my compost act too.