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Ants in the car
I try my hardest to refrain from taking any life... a mosquito's, an ant's, anything. But I'm wondering would be acceptable in situations where the creature is impossible to remove unless it is killed. For example, let's say my car became covered in ants (in some way that I couldn't prevent). I would need my car, but it's unaccessible because of the ants. Are there any ways to remove the ants other than extermination?
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I was going to suggest a leaf blower but that might be catastrophic. A bunch of philosophy students might do the trick, they're often full of hot air. But then you have a problem with an infestation of students!
But for the responses, I would like to say I've come from a background that the way out of these situations has nearly always been, 'kill it'. I just needed insight out of this mindset.
My dog had to be wormed, and that meant killing the worms inside him. Was it good or bad for me to do so? After all, isn't all life sacred? Termites have been getting into the basement lately and either I spray bug killer all around the foundation or move out. So, should I let them have the house? Isn't killing bugs bad?
Stop and think about your own example. If you've got a bunch of ants inside your car, and you refuse to kill them, what to you tell the family of the man you kill in the car accident when ants crawl up your legs while driving down the highway? You really need to think more in terms of correct response to a situation, instead of "killing bad, Buddhists don't kill, no matter what". So in traditional cultures, since killing fish is "bad" they buy the fish from the market after someone else has killed it and pretend that somehow makes it different. Wildly missing the point.
You're not a monk wandering the sterile halls of a temple. You're a lay person trying to get by in life. I don't kill bugs when I can help it, prefering to let them alone to do what nature intends when possible, but I don't pretend there's any special good karma being racked up by letting a no killing rule interfere with a normal life.
There is a balance to life, the same way there is a balance in nature if you understand that death is necessary and not some evil. The thoughtless and unnecessary taking of life is the problem, but it's the other extreme in an unbalanced life. Each day might bring a life and death choice. The choice might be between two lives. Sometimes, the correct choice is death. If you're standing around debating the precepts instead of doing the right thing, then you are not dealing with the correct situation.
The examples you provided, cinorjer, are alternatives that can roughly apply, though. But the fish one I must disagree with. It is different that way. They didn't kill the fish themselves/no direct involvement with the killing of the fish. But to stay on point, I know killing can't always be avoided. I'm more thinking should something we see as a pest be killed because it is almost hardly interfering with our daily lives.
And I agree there is absolutely a balance, but my whole point is that we don't need to accept/precipitate as much death as we do. There is already enough death in the world for me to try and abstain.
This is called mind training. Trungpa Rinpoche wrote a book I want to read about training the mind. Its about the tonglen slogans. You could do tonglen and breath in the pain of the ants. Breath out wishes of wholeness and wellness. See the spaciousness of existence in that both sources come and go can spring eternal and be put to rest.