The Buddhist stand on Life -releasing
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sometimes we can be in a challenging spot when observing the precepts. like in this case, i have kid, dog and other family members at home. i have to think for their comfort before i think for my benefits. what benefits me may not benefit them and vice versa. at times i realise i have to so-call sacrifice my cultivation to some faults to benefit others. well i am aware of the consequences...... but i realised they are just passing..... what has to be done has to be done and when done you see that nothing is done.......
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yeah..... hopefully those tiny little ones could benefit something before they perished. it is hard on them to be in such low suffering conditions. hope all of them had heard the bodhisattva's name and heard clear enough of the sutra songs. let them be reborn faster in a better higher realm so that they have a chance to be with the dharma closer...... good that more beings able to have a chance to be liberatedOriginally posted by An Eternal Now:
but not good for me because i kill them...... but it is ok, i'm ready to bear the fruits....
so in reality now, i just had to think of the present condition of other beings such as my family and of cos the building..... no choice.... "each house has it's own needs and problems......"
it's not easy.... it is tough yeah.......
it's so itching on the skin too..... -
anyway after said this, i ain't any good practitioner. i don't really see i have helped anything or anyone and i don't see i have achieved anythng either. i just see everything equally as me who needs to be free from suffering. there are many ways to give freedom to others; it may be beneficial to them but it may not be beneficial to oneself. its wise to cultivate whats beneficial for oneself and others. it needs mindfulness and wisdom to be aware of the different choices the life-string can fetch.
what is freedom....?
what i see now......? (pause)......
present blankness...... all lives in "present" is as such.......
isn't now the carefree moment? -
Yes.. we must do what is beneficial to oneself and others..Originally posted by paperflower:anyway after said this, i ain't any good practitioner. i don't really see i have helped anything or anyone and i don't see i have achieved anythng either. i just see everything equally as me who needs to be free from suffering. there are many ways to give freedom to others; it may be beneficial to them but it may not be beneficial to oneself. its wise to cultivate whats beneficial for oneself and others. it needs mindfulness and wisdom to be aware of the different choices the life-string can fetch.
what is freedom....?
what i see now......? (pause)......
present blankness...... all lives in "present" is as such.......
isn't now the carefree moment?
I am also not a good practitioner and lack wisdom. -
Ehhh i must confessed i had killed some insects before. =X
I have noticed the state of mind i had during the eliminating insects. My mind was in a state of aversion @ the moment when i aiming the pesticide @ the insects with the pesticide ( especially when focus on the killing moment ).. Does this cause a kind of karmic imprint on the mind?
I don't feel much peace seeing insects withering in pain infront of me. Using Pesticide to kill is brutal cos the insects suffer in pain and desperately trying to crawl back on their four/eight legs to live on. It touches me when i see these insects having the will to survive.. even though they are small living things.. we shouldn't ignore their right to life too.
I admire the immeasurable compassion of the sages who forget themselves and sometime sacrifice themselves to save life. I still every much lack the courage to use my hand to gently lift these insects ( Big bugs like roaches ) away. yah i have a phobia for insects. Irrational fears.
Sometime. insects buzzing around me are especially annoying. i feel peaceful when i refrain from killing and letting them go, partly i am controlling my annoyment with them.. Sometime that particular annoying feeling of Bug-bothering will just disappear soon after. suddenly the bugs disppear.. probably fly away.. like frustration, aversion etc..
The above account is based on isis daily life encounter with bugs. The main point is that one can also learn to practise compassionate living on a everyday basis -
I remembered one venerable once throw one challenging question to me, what if one dengue mozzie sits on my hand? I couldn't reply this question cos this is relevant. She advice, that it's okie to kill the mozzie, so that it won't go round creating more dengue patients. I think I remembered there's one story whereby Buddha killed one bandit so that he will not go on harming the innocents. If the intention is for the better of the rest and not for self comfort, I think it's okie to commit the kill. Just remember to dedicate the merits to those you've killed, wither in past life or this life.Originally posted by paperflower:sometimes we can be in a challenging spot when observing the precepts. like in this case, i have kid, dog and other family members at home. i have to think for their comfort before i think for my benefits. what benefits me may not benefit them and vice versa. at times i realise i have to so-call sacrifice my cultivation to some faults to benefit others. well i am aware of the consequences...... but i realised they are just passing..... what has to be done has to be done and when done you see that nothing is done....... -
I also kill mosquitoes. When doing that it's best NOT to have any thought of aversion - in fact do not even have any thoughts. And later do chant and dedicate merits for the insect. The only one who I know doesnt kill mosquitoes is my dharma teacher. She got dengue fever (not from her house but somewhere outdoors she believes) about a year ago.. but when she came back, she still does not kill mosquitoes. I think there was even once she sprayed insecticide on herself because she didnt want to kill the mosquitoes. Her maid think she's gone crazy. Cant remember exactly what happened.
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For the action of killing to occur full force there have to be four factors present:
a) The motivation or intention to kill a sentient being
b) A sentient being that is the object of the action
c) You have to commit the action of killing of that being
d) The being must die as a result of your action
If all four conditions are met the full karma of killing is incurred. Insects are considered sentient beings so there is the karma of killing involved in taking their life.
We have to remember SOME killing IS inevitable in the whole scheme of things. Even if we are vegetarians, the rice we eat, or the grains or veggies and fruits often have insects/worms on them. They get killed by pesticides, harvesting, etc. Furthermore, we also cannot avoid using animal products such as leather shoes, leather belts and even some furnitures like sofa also made of bull's leather etc.
In order to be innocent of ANY killing, we would indeed have to starve ourselves and getting rid of all these daily products. Even then, we would be commiting killing (of ourselves.)
In Buddha's time, many buddha's disciples attained Arhatship. They achieved highly spiritual clarivoyance who able to see microscopic organism with naked eyes within the drinking water. Many arhats realised there are millions of living organisms within so they avoid drinking water. As u know we human body cannot survive without water for a day, thus Buddha prohibited his arhat disciples from using their special ability magnifying into the water as they are drinking it.
What is the morale of the story implies? Indeed there are too many living creatures living around us so certain unintentional killing is unavoidable.
Talking about absolute abtrain from killing, if we skip our meals and starve ourselves for every minutes, countless living creatures such as ring worms and other biological organisms will died within our body organs.
Isn't it we commit killing acts? Buddha Himself gave discourse about this truth in some sutras when his disciples questioned about killing karma.
Hence, our thoughts and intention counts, certain pests at home, we unintentionally killing it is unavoidable. Killing karma will ripen if the above 4 conditions fullfilled.
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Originally posted by rahula25:For the action of killing to occur full force there have to be four factors present:
a) The motivation or intention to kill a sentient being
b) A sentient being that is the object of the action
c) You have to commit the action of killing of that being
d) The being must die as a result of your action
If all four conditions are met the full karma of killing is incurred. Insects are considered sentient beings so there is the karma of killing involved in taking their life.
We have to remember SOME killing IS inevitable in the whole scheme of things. Even if we are vegetarians, the rice we eat, or the grains or veggies and fruits often have insects/worms on them. They get killed by pesticides, harvesting, etc. Furthermore, we also cannot avoid using animal products such as leather shoes, leather belts and even some furnitures like sofa also made of bull's leather etc.
In order to be innocent of ANY killing, we would indeed have to starve ourselves and getting rid of all these daily products. Even then, we would be commiting killing (of ourselves.)
In Buddha's time, many buddha's disciples attained Arhatship. They achieved highly spiritual clarivoyance who able to see microscopic organism with naked eyes within the drinking water. Many arhats realised there are millions of living organisms within so they avoid drinking water. As u know we human body cannot survive without water for a day, thus Buddha prohibited his arhat disciples from using their special ability magnifying into the water as they are drinking it.
What is the morale of the story implies? Are we going to create a paranoid in ourselves after we become a buddhist? Are we not going to capture all the pests one by one in our house or work place and bring it out to throw them away?
Indeed there are too many living creatures living around us so certain unintentional killing is unavoidable.
Talking about absolute abtrain from killing, if we skip our meals and starve ourselves for every minutes, countless living creatures such as ring worms and other biological organisms will died within our body organs.
Isn't it we commit killing acts? Buddha Himself gave several discourses about this truth in some sutras when his disciples questioned about killing karma. Whatever we can do as a living entity in this world is to protect living creatures from sufferings and minimise killing acts to our very best.
Hence, our thoughts and intention counts, as long as our conciousness is focusing in doing our daily routine activities and have mindfulness of living beings existence, this sincerity do counts.