"I know every rock and tree and creature
has a life, has a spirit, has a name."
Buddhism teaches that there is no such thing as a changeless soul (Trainor, 2004). Thus, although Buddhists would disagree with the notion of everything having a spirit, as the five components that make up beings (skandhas) consist of the physical body made of the four elements (rupa), feelings that arise from the five senses (vedana), perceptions which attach good/evil/ neutral to sensory inputs (samjna), habitual mental dispositions (samskaras), and consciousness when the mind and body connect with the external world (vijnana) (Trainor, 2004), I think they would agree with the rest of the statement in a metaphorical sense. Recognizing that every animate and even inanimate object has a "life" and a "name" gives it a purpose. Whatever the purpose is, regardless of how big or small, it contributes to a greater purpose of maintaining the balance of the world.
"The rainstorm and the river are my brothers
the heron and the otter are my friends.
And we are all connected to each other
in a circle, in a hoop that never ends."
Rather than killing these animals and destroying the balance of nature for self-gain as Smith and the settlers intend to do, Pocahontas offers an alternative perspective on the wildlife that entails a vision of it as being a part of oneself. By equating such elements and beings of nature to personal relationships that are usually associated with human beings, especially those who are related or close to us, Pocahontas is putting a great deal of importance on these other beings and objects to demonstrate just how equally fragile and essential these other relationships are to maintain.
"Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned?"
I'm sure most of us have not. Why would we? They are simply instinctual animals that are of lesser intelligence and have no great impact on our lives, right? Why does it matter why a wolf howls or why a bobcat grins? I didn't even know they grinned. That's kind of creepy. Perhaps answering these specific questions will not augment our understanding of our world by much. But Pocahontas encourages Smith to see the lives and actions of these other beings as significant and purposeful.
Every religion advises us to love our fellow humans. Some even teach us to love them more if they belong to the same religion. But Buddhism is unique in that it teaches us to show equal care and compassion for each and every creature in the universe. The Buddha was very clear in his teachings against any form of cruelty to any living being. Buddhism prescribes the practice of metta, "loving-kindness" towards all creatures of all quarters without restrictions. The Karaniyametta Sutta enjoins the cultivation of loving-kindness towards all creatures "timid and steady, long and short, big and small, minute and great, visible and invisible, near and far, born and awaiting birth," (de Silva, 2005). Just as one's own life is precious to oneself, so is the life of the other precious to himself. Therefore, a reverential attitude must be cultivated towards all forms of life. In fact, in terms of Buddhist teachings of morality, inflicting harm onto animals is considered a demerit, or papa, a regression from attaining ultimate insight and a fall into the trap of ignorance (Trainor, 2004). I think that man's cruelty towards animals is another expression of his uncontrolled greed which can be attributed to the false notion of a dichotomy of "self" versus "others," an unwholesome view of the universe according to Buddhist teachings (Lopez, 2004). Today we destroy animals and their habitats and deprive them of their natural rights so that we can expand our environment for our convenience. As a result, we are already beginning to pay the price for this selfish and cruel act. Our environment is threatened and if we do not take stern measures for the survival of other creatures, our own existence on this earth may not be guaranteed.
A metaphor that perfectly depicts this delicate nature of interdependence can be found in the Avatamsuka Sutra within the story of Indra's Net:
"Far away in the heavenly abode of the great god Indra, there is a wonderful net which has been hung by some cunning artificer in such a manner that it stretches out infinitely in all directions. In accordance with the extravagant tastes of deities, the artificer has hung a single glittering jewel in each eye of the net, and since the net itself is infinite in dimension, the jewels are infinite in number. There hang the jewels, glittering like stars in the first magnitude, a wonderful sight to behold. If we now look closely at any one of the jewels for inspection, we will discover that in its polished surface are reflected all the other jewels in the net, infinite in number. Not only that, but each of the jewels reflected in this one jewel is reflecting all the other jewels, so that there is an infinite reflection process occurring."
(Quotations, 2009).
This beautiful metaphor of a bejeweled net speaks for itself in terms of how its jewels are symbols for all of the beings in the world and how within each one is a reflection of every other being and interactions between them all. If even one jewel is removed from this great web of interactions, we will no longer be able to view a large quantity of other jewels and their interactions because of the precise position of that single jewel. Similarly, Pocahontas teaches Smith about such interactions throughout the song as she leads him on a walk through the forest. Taking this metaphor one step further, I love that the symbols for each being is a jewel because although jewels such as diamonds are clear and technically "colorless," the refraction of light that is reflected from one jewel to another creates a multicolored ray of light which further adds to the prior discussion of the title itself: "Colors of the Wind." It is through this understanding of the multitude of interactions in the net represented by the colors that would be refracted and reflected from jewel to jewel or through the ability to "paint with all the colors of the wind" that we can have a view of the universe that is kusala.
