Reflections on ‘The Cove’; Reconciling Anger & Hate with Love & Compassion

Today is September 1^st. For many dolphin and animal lovers around the world, today is a dark day, for today the dolphin hunting season in Japan officially opens.

Soon the sea will run red with the blood of dolphins captured and herded into the ‘killing cove’, to be either enslaved into the marine park trade or killed for food.

How many times will I feel the flush of grief and anger over these acts? How many times will I feel my own heart harden towards those whose cultures, beliefs and actions are different than my own?

I am tired of being angry, and it hurts to hate. I am unwilling to pay the price for the righteousness to judge another.

What would the dolphins do? They do not fight the fishermen as they wade between them, separating mothers from babies, driving metal stakes into the blowholes of the scarred or marked dolphins. How easily they could lash out and hurt their killers standing upright between them.

But they do not retaliate. Who is the more evolved, who is the more conscious?

Love is, for me, the higher path. When I feel my heart hardening, I bow before love’s open arms, invite the greater, wiser me to help me see from love’s eyes.

I went to the cove myself, to face the unacceptable. Amidst the capturing of dolphins, I was introduced to one of the leaders of the Fisherman’s Union. While a part of me wanted to condemn him, I didn’t have the heart for it.

I asked the dolphins, help me see this as you do, and I continue to be both humbled and inspired by their reply…

“Just as you are spiritual beings having a human experience, we are spiritual beings having a dolphin experience. Our spirit, our essence is the same as your own. And while you take on certain veils in the process of being born human, we too have our own veils and filters, to enhance our individual journeys.

We do not fear death as you do. We see death as a small step between experiences. This moment we are dolphins, another moment, who knows? So while our biological bodies struggle in the confinement of the fishermen’s nets, while our physical forms thrash upon the rocks to escape, our spirits are unencumbered, knowing that this is just another moment in our journey through infinity.

We send love to you, our human brothers and sisters. We honor that you have chosen a brave journey much more deeply into the game of forgetting. For our brief incarnation as dolphins, we play in the moment of joy that life and the sea offers us, and it gives us great joy to extend that exuberance to you. Even in our death, we invite you to see us as playful fleeting spirits leaping in and out of form.

What you see as violence we see as yet one of many forms of transition. Life is eternal, and the journey on this earth is short and blessed. It is a joy to share this message and this journey with you. We invite you to remember, even in the face of death, yours or anothers, that all is infinite and eternal and well. Thank you for your love, and know that we are joyously celebrating our return in and out of form.”

When I find myself upset at the many atrocities in this world, I remember this message. It gives me the perspective and the inspiration I need to embrace and hold within this human heart all the polarities of our world.

I know the energy of one loving person to be infinitely more powerful than a million people in fear, and so again and again I chose love.  I chose love for myself, for the dolphins, and for all people and all beings, regardless of their culture, actions or beliefs. This is, for me, the message of The Cove.

© Joebaby www.DolphinWhisperer.org

Joebaby is a shamanic wilderness guide and leads multiday retreats swimming with wild dolphins and whales.

PS: We are all able to receiving communication from the dolphins, from any living thing. We need not be trained, it is innate to us all. It is important to me to remember that what we receive is filtered through our own humanness; it is impossible to receive anything without it being influenced by our personal orientations, thoughts and beliefs.

Doing a Ho’oponopono Ceremony at The Cove in Taiji, asking for forgiveness and healing for (and from) everyone involved; the dolphins, fishermen, protesters and Japanese people.

Tagged as: dolphin hunters, dolphin whisperer, dolphins, japan, joe noonan, joebaby, killing, myhomepod, save japan dolphin, taiji, the cove, wild dolphins