Vandals hit P.E.I. Buddhist restaurant after lobster release
Digital Reporter
Monday, July 11, 2016, 2:22 PM - Six hundred pounds of lobster were spared a dinner-plate fate on Saturday, all thanks to a group of Buddhist monks on Prince Edward Island.
But it seems no good deed goes unpunished: Hours later, vandals attacked a Buddhist restaurant in Charlottetown, uprooting flowers and damaging a railing, according to Global News.
Geoffrey Yang, spokesman for the Little Sands' Great Enlightenment Buddhist Institute Society and who Global News says helped establish the Splendid Essence restaurant, told the station he would not speculate on whether the attack was linked to the release on Saturday.
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Prior to the release of the lobsters on Saturday, the monks led a 20-minute prayer and chant ceremony to the Buddha of compassion.
"We respect everyone's dietary choice, so we're not doing this to convert everybody to be vegetarians or vegans," institute spokesman Venerable Dan told the CBC Saturday. "This whole purpose for us is to cultivate this compassion toward others. It doesn't have to be lobsters, it can be worms, flies, any animals, drive slower so we don't run over little critters on the street."
Their goal was to find a place where no cages awaited the lobsters, so the monks made the release off the coast of Wood Islands.
Islanders -- including fishermen -- were supportive of the cause, the CBC reports. The fishermen even helped the monks find the ideal spot for release.
Buddhism and ceremonies aren't requisites for compassion, Dan told the CBC.It just takes empathy.
"If your loved ones were in this situation, what would they like you to do? ...To give them a helping hand and put them back to where they feel comfortable, and we believe if everybody's able to do that, it will become a better place, a more harmonic place."
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SOURCE: CBC | Global News
With files from Daniel Martins
