Ho'oponopono Ceremony at The Cove in Taiji, Japan, with holy water from sacred springs around the world.
I love dolphins and am involved in a number of projects to help them. (Do the dolphins really need our help, or is it the other way around….)
Right now the annual dolphin hunting season has resumed in Japan, and emotions are running high for animal lovers around the world.
Its easy to be angry at someone who kills something you love, and having been to ‘The Cove’ and seen the waters run red with the blood of dolphins, I know firsthand the initial flush of rage and righteousness.
But this righteousness comes with a price…
This blog post is not just about dolphins…. as the dolphins dying in the cove have shown me, this is about our judgment of the actions of others, how quick we are to condemn those who break our hearts or our rules of how things should be…
The dolphins showed me something that I did not expect; they showed me compassion, compassion for all people, even those who kill them.
That’s a rather saintly attitude to me, even more evidence of their elevated spiritual stature. Yup, I place dolphins above humans when it comes to awareness, wisdom, playfulness and loving compassion. They inspire me, they are my heroes.
So much so that, last January, as I watched the dolphin hunters drive pods of dolphins into the cove for sale and for slaughter, I opened my heart to the pain and sadness and anger and let it break…
It hurt…
I cried, felt the riotous confusion of feelings we all feel when faced with the death of that which we love…
And in those moments of broken-heartedness, something happened…
As I gave myself fully to the pain and anger and sorrow, let them run havoc through me, tearing and hurting and destroying, I became aware of something else, something quiet and subtle in the background, something bigger than the destruction happening within and around me…
It was not a conscious act, it was not something I could summon or evoke, it was something that I could simply notice, and in the noticing, allow…
It was compassion, and its love encompassed me and the hunters and the dolphins, and it showed me that we are all actors upon the same stage. Different costumes for sure, but undeniably the same cast.
It showed me that we are all one, and the drama playing out before me was the blink of an eye in creation, each actor playing their part so fully they believed them to be true…
Except for the dolphins. They remembered, they knew the greater truth… That they and all of this is but a moment in infinity, and they are free and eternal as is all life…
I came to understand how the dolphins could both struggle to be free of the nets at the same time they surrender into the arms of the fishermen who kill them…
They know what we have forgotten…
Total aliveness, total compassion, complete surrender.
My humanness stood in awe, and in that moment I remembered that we are all eternal, all actors, spiritual beings having human (and dolphin) experiences…
The hatred melted in the warm flood of compassion, my righteousness along with it. Yes it still hurts to see the death of those I love, and my tears are just as real as before. But they are tempered with a greater knowing, a knowing that I once again thank my cetacean friends for helping reveal within me…
∞
Visit DolphinWhisperer.org
For info on our September 23 – 27th trip , Wild Dolphins, Yoga, Meditation & Joy
And our November 9 – 13th trip, Celebrating 11:11:11 with the Dolphins
Join our email list for upcoming trips, workshops & events –
Joe Noonan, Dolphin Whisperer
An author, speaker, life coach and spiritual guide, Joe leads retreats around the world and facilitates self awareness programs for those on the path of awakening.
A guest on National Geographic, Fox TV and Oprah, Joe reflects back to people that this world is already a Heaven on Earth, and that the tools to find joy in the moment are around and within us. That harmony is inevitable and that innately we all just love each other and sometimes we forget — he is here to help us remember.
Planetary Partners advocates, educates and celebrates conscious co-creation on an individual, local and global level. We offer workshops, meditations, events and trips that awaken our divine connection with Nature.
“Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God” Tielhard de Chardin
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Beautiful article. Thank you for having the courage to open your heart so wide and for being willing to transmute your feelings of anger into feelings of compassion. Bless your heart for all you do.
Gigi
Thank You Joe for Your Love for these Wonderful Spiritual Beings. May The Love in All Our Hearts ~ Those who Respect and Honor the Dolphins/Whales ~ Flush out Hate and Apathy, of the Fishermen’s Hardened Hearts Filling them with Understanding and Good Intent.
Hi, just popping in to say how much I enjoy reading your posts on FB. Hugs and blessings,
Ewalina
A blessing and an honour to read you!
Thank-you Joe for that wonderful post. Now that dolphin hunting season is in full swing in Taiji I don’t know whether to cry or breaks something. I send emails and make phone calls but still feel that frustration. The dolphins have so much to teach us. I don’t know if I am quite ready to send love the way of the dolphin hunters but I can hope the compassion will come. I only hope we can see an end to this in our lifetime for the sake of the dolphins. Forever Free….
Dear Kirsten,
All i can recommend is that you breath…. and relax, for life is filled with polarities, life and death being the big one.
Whats taking place in the Cove is a drama that is unfolding in every moment everywhere… as Hafiz so poetically says, the body’s destination is the graveyard.
As we accept this truth, we can finally LIVE!
With Love & Peace,
Joe
Thank you Gene! Its a joy to share! :)
Hello Ewalina, thanks for your message! It always inspires me to know these posts are appreciated! :)
The beautiful thing about love is, every expression of it is blessing everyone everywhere! Including softening the anger and bitterness in our own hearts. The hunters are divine too, and took on a difficult job of receiving so much anger… Their job/karma is a heavy one and I bow to them!
Thanks Gigi, and i appreciate your facebook comments too… Transmuting everything into joy is our collective destiny!
This is so great as I can not forgive when the government lies all the time. There was not to be a whale *hunt*, slaughter when billions of dollars were given to Japan after the tsunami. The Government has warehouses filled wih whale meat yet they never gave it to feed their own people. Other countries gave the billions of dollars and the poor and those injured only got 2 percent of the money given. Now they is when the sea turns red in Taiji again. They are gearing up for the whale slaughter. I give money each month to help these mammals and I can’t just accept the killing when change can happen when we all say enough is enough. Petition, stay informed through Sea Shepherd and Ric O’Berry who are on the ground in Taiji now watching and documenting the dolphin killing. We are killing the Oceans and when Planet Ocean dies so do we. I can’t be as elevated as you are and I wish this didn’t haunt me as it does. I work for all animals. Yes, I am a total Vegan and I will stop the salons here from carrying fur which is a horrible crime also. I am in the FBI terrorist list for saving lives. I don’t care. They can put me on lists yet I saved thousands of animals. If I have to go to jail I will. No problem. I want this earth and all beings to live and we can show compassion to all beings.
So sorry for writing so much yet this bother me. I will never accept the horrible deaths as some take 45 minutes to die and I have seen the uncaring while other sentient beings are suffering. It is wrong and I will continue to fight.
Thank you for sharing,
Vicki
Hi Vicki…
Julia Butterfly Hill, the woman who lived in an old growth redwood for two years to protect it from logging, tells a beautiful story where she came to recognize that she and her fellow protesters were embodying the same sense of anger and bitterness as their ‘opponents’… and she ultimately chose the path of loving compassion… After years of poisoning myself with anger and bitterness and polarization over the actions of others, I’ve come to the understanding that this beautiful creation of Earth is for souls on many varying levels of loving awareness, and sometimes those who have yet to recognize/choose the power of love are here to inspire and motivate those of us who are here specifically to (finally!) make that choice!
May the upsetting and painful actions of others ever inspire you to choose love again and again…
Blessings,
Joe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfC00l6-tks