‘Beyond priceless’: how a halt to dredging saved the seas of Scotland’s Summer Isles as reflected on by Sensei Michael Jinpa
Early this morning, before the zendo bell sounded, I walked along Harborview Point’s lower marina. Fog hung low over the tide pools, blurring the line between saltwater and sky. Local crabbers loaded traps under dim dock lights, moving with the quiet rhythm of their water-dependent lives. In a harbor town, people often forget water is more than scenery; it is an intricate web of breathing life. This fragile, interdependent system sustains us, even as we take its gifts for granted. The Summer Isles victory reminds us to honor this truth.
Honoring the Sea’s Sacred Depths
News of a community gathering in a small Scottish bothy reached our study group. This celebration, overlooking the Summer Isles, felt deeply familiar. Neighbors, storytellers, and small-scale fishers marked a crucial milestone: they halted heavy industrial dredgers. These machines had torn through coastal waters. Scallop dredging does not just gather food; it strips the ocean floor bare. It obliterates delicate sea meadows and ancient nurseries in minutes, all for quick profit. The residents of Achiltibuie understood a vital truth: when the seafloor dies, the whole community inevitably follows.
In Zen practice, we frequently return to dependent origination, or pratityasamutpada. Nothing in this universe exists in isolation. The kelp forest, the sand eel, the harbor seal, and the fisherman at breakfast all share a single continuous body. Industrial dredging claws through the seabed. This action stems from the illusion of separation. It reflects the mistaken belief that human enterprise sits outside the living world, free to consume without consequence. In our ignorance, we mistake extraction for prosperity. We remain blind to the slow violence unfolding out of sight.
Cultivating Courage and Stewardship
During my years as a hospice chaplain, I often sat with people surveying their lives. In those quiet final hours, no one spoke of extraction or conquest. Instead, they mourned missed connections, neglected relationships, and moments they failed to pay attention to what was sacred. True healing, both personal and collective, begins when we stop grasping. Just as in meditation, the first step toward clarity involves radical courage: we must stop causing harm.
The Summer Isles victory shows us that stopping harm is not passive. It required years of sustained, steadfast vigilance from ordinary citizens. They declared that corporations cannot sacrifice the commons for their appetite. This patience reflects the Buddhist virtue of virya, or joyful, energetic perseverance. It is the steady dedication of monks sweeping stone paths daily. Likewise, small coastal neighbors refused to let their heritage be plowed into silt. They chose stewardship over exploitation, understanding the sea’s health is truly beyond price.
Now, with the heavy machinery gone, north-west Scotland’s seabed slowly regenerates. Life returns when human beings humbly step back. They create a sanctuary of non-interference. As evening lanterns sway in our harbor breeze, I hold that bothy celebration in mind. May we cultivate that same tender, resolute commitment in our own coastal neighborhoods. Furthermore, we remember that honoring the quiet depths beneath the tide ultimately honors ourselves.
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