Zenhunting

This is a hunting journal. It will be about hunting, but not about the size of the antlers or the number of ducks in the bag. Rather, my aim is to capture the majesty of days in the field or on the pond with friends and family. It will acknowledge that hunting is perhaps the only place where joy at a well-placed shot dwells side by side with sadness at a beautiful animal’s death.

But that is hunting. And hunting that is honest and challenging, inclusive rather than exclusive, where the competition is with oneself and not others, and no legal method or motivation for hunting is deemed better than another, is something I call “zenhunting.” And those who strive to practice it are zenhunters.

So join me in the story of my very first hunt, below, just six years ago. Then be sure to check back often as the season unfolds for more stories and accounts of our travels.

Neil Zenhunter Beltran

~ by SpeakingZenaphorically on October 6, 2007.

Posted in hunting
Tags: boar, hunting, zen