麻豆社

There鈥檚 been a sad prelude to today鈥檚 Olympics opening ceremony: the video of Dressage Champion Charlotte Dujardin whipping a horse鈥檚 legs. It鈥檚 a tough watch: the horse backs away, plainly distressed. The rider says she鈥檚 ashamed and has withdrawn from the competition.
The magic of dressage is creating equine ballet that harmoniously aligns horse and rider, but the footage has raised questions about practices behind the scenes. In training, some riders may use reins, bits and whips more gently, to guide a horse, others rely on weight and balance. But what constitutes undue control? When does discipline become abuse?
Every collaboration between humans and animals prompts ethical questions, and although I鈥檓 a dog owner, some of my friends would never even own a pet on the grounds that domestication means imposing our will on other beings. In this view, the natural way is the good way. There鈥檚 something in that, but I also reflect that Buddhist practice is called a training and the guiding principle is the middle way.
One story describes a disciple of the Buddha鈥檚 who was so determined to become Enlightened that he practiced walking meditation until the soles of his feet were bleeding. Before becoming a monk he鈥檇 been a musician, and the Buddha reminded him how he鈥檇 tuned a lute. If the strings were too taut or too loose, the instrument was unplayable, but tuned to the right pitch it resonated harmoniously.
This is the middle way. It means balance and harmony, not bending things to our will to achieve an imagined perfection. As a mindfulness teacher I see the psychological strain that comes from our tendency to judge ourselves according to how we think things should be. Many of us dwell on what we need to do to be good enough and how we lack discipline, but research links attitudes like these to stress, anxiety and depression.
The alternative isn鈥檛 ceasing to make any effort at all. There鈥檚 a place for training. Buddhism regards ethics as a skill we develop through patient effort, and the Buddhist path is sometimes called the three trainings of ethics, meditation and wisdom, all of which are undertaken with a careful balanced effort.
Psychological violence towards ourselves is bad enough, but physical force directed to other beings prompts instinctive revulsion. Of course it will bring obedience. The animal will bend to our will. But there鈥檚 a moral cost. The alternative involves collaboration, communication, respect and, as Buddhism suggests, the middle way.