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Insects and Buddha killing for beginners
lobster
Crusty Veteran
Kill the Buddha? I though Buddhists were a non violent folk?
Buddha dies.
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/670
Insects killed.
http://www.existentialbuddhist.com/2010/09/on-not-killing/
Now what? Anyone for Buddhism?
Fair warning - may contain death, killing and talking meals
May contain alternatives to killing cycle
0
Comments
Great comments on the first link.
I do admit to being an insect murderer. Recently had to perform a massive kill of termites, otherwise my home would have disappeared! Other bugs I will usually try to save, but there is something about roaches that I can't or won't deal with. So they get killed as well. I have a capture and release program for bugs, but roaches are usually too fast and cagey for that. Spiders are slower moving and easier to relocate into the wild (the bush by the front door) where they probably get eaten by lizards, so my "saving" them may not actually be working so well.
In the goat video, the guy says "war became more like a management practice". That is one of the most evil things I have ever heard in my life. And yet, if I were a termite in my home, wouldn't I feel exactly the same way towards me? That I was nothing but a mass murderer of their kin folk? But termites don't feel. Do they?
We kill bugs when needed too. Catch and release whenever possible, and I figure even if they get eaten by bats, birds, snakes etc I can't control that cycle of life and nature, and we all depend on other beings to remain alive. So it still helps somewhere, as the bird gets a meal.
That said, my understanding is that all beings have the potential for Buddhahood and thus we treat them that way regardless of whether science says they feel pain or dread or fear the same way we do. Because any of us could end up a roach in our next lives, depending how things go, we are supposed to observe that that roach we are about to kill could have been our grandmother.
I had a lot of beautiful cauliflowers growing in the allotment, I had to think about what to do with the aphids. Never having grown anything before I was unfamiliar with what to do. I searched Google and all it said was either chemical (in a spray) or organic (dishwashing liquid). Either way, it's murder. I went with pomegranate flavoured dishwashing liquid. I still feel uneasy about it though.
Plastic is made from oil and oil is the biggest polluter of the oceans, and it's behind 95% of our consumables, not to mention petrol and other fuels. Clothes involve pesticides, computers are made of a number of elements, mining for the elements for chips in phones etc etc etc.
Basically, if you're human in this day in age, you can't avoid being a murderer. There's just no way out of the cycle.
My ex used to put plates of beer out in the garden to kill the slugs and snails. I couldn't condone it but I guess at least they were happy!
My house spiders come out to watch TV sometimes...there's a joke in there somewhere.