My question is about the resultant Karma at full maturity and the resultant Karma that conditions the environment. The context of my question: around our house, in the countryside, animals such as deer come to graze freely during the day, and at night wild boars and foxes come to roam our land around the house. Pheasants, released by hunters at the start of the season, come to seek food and hide under the fir trees. During the hunting season, these same animals are tracked by hunters and their dogs; we can see them running past our house as they are being chased. Apart from preventing hunters from crossing our land and talking to them to “save time”, nothing more can be done to protect these hunted animals. The rifle shots accompanied by the barking of dogs in packs, as well as the sight of hunters (specific outfits with their weapons) and their dogs, cause me real suffering. Also, the thought of the suffering that animals are exposed to really hurts me, as does my powerlessness to protect them. In these conditions, I find it very difficult to stay relaxed and to feel good, it agitates me a lot, especially when I have to run brutally towards the hunters to prevent them from approaching. However, I managed to manage my irritation by trying to practice patience with hunters and their dogs, thanks to the reflections that Dagpo Rinpoche regularly taught. So I always address the hunters in a polite way, without aggressiveness, but very firm. My question: I would like to know if the pain I feel during these experiences (recurring during the many months of the hunting season) is directly related to the Karma which conditions the environment or is it a fully matured Karma, since it is obvious that I have, in all my lives, killed many beings
Venerable Dagpo Rinpoche: Residing in a hunting area is a result of karma conditioning the environment. Feeling discomfort is not in itself bad, because it allows the purification of negative karmas and feeling compassion allows accumulation of positive karmas. The fact that a being (animal, etc.) is a prey results from its negative karmas.