Confessions of a burdened conscience
person
Don't believe everything you thinkThe liminal space Veteran
Ok, the title is a bit on the hyperbolic side. For many years I have been brushing or blowing mosquitoes off of me, saving earthworms drying out after a rain, rescuing frogs from window wells, etc. Fairly regularly I have to deal with wasps while working outside, I've come to a compromise position of knocking their nests down with a long pole rather than blasting them with wasp spray. This past week there was a large nest a few feet away from where I was working such that I could just let it be, but a big bully wasp was having none of it and was out for blood (maybe he heard what I did to the bee's nunnery). Anyway he was preventing me from doing what I needed to do and it would have been fairly time consuming to come back later, so for the first time in a long time I very intentionally killed something. I'm not burdened by guilt or anything (wasps and I are not on speaking terms) but the effect taking such an action immediately had on my mind was noticeable and was a good demonstration of the important effect practicing the precepts has for ones practice.
Comments
I know that feeling. But sometimes especially with insects it’s hard to avoid, I had a plague of little flies in my kitchen last year and in the end I deployed the vacuum cleaner and sucked them all up, which probably led to them dying in the dust inside. I offered my sincere regrets and hopes for a good rebirth for them, but I couldn’t stand having them in the place where I prepare food.
I go out of my way to avoid killing anything (I’ve swerved a car at 70 mph to avoid a dragonfly) and regret killing any living creature but can also remain quite philosophical about it, if it poses a real risk to me or mine then the risk is neutralised if need be.
When I was working as an undertaker I used to get upset about the roadkill I would see driving to the funeral and give my respectful thoughts to those poor creatures as well as the deceased I had in the coffin in the back of my hearse.
Luckily I never had to swerve the hearse for a random insect as that would look awful and take some explaining to the family of the deceased. (Well, there was one occasion and I nearly lost the coffin out the back/side but there was nobody but me and my colleague and we managed to catch hold of it just as it started to slip?).
I like wasps. I am learning to speak fly. They are beginning to respond to my requests to leave an area.
Extreme Jain level ahimsa is admirable but drive realistically ...
Nonviolence to self is a lifetime practice of which there are ever more subtle levels to discover. The more you are able to be with yourself in a nonviolent way, the less harm you will do to another. Be gentle with the body and mind; refuse to get caught in believing that things have to be a certain way in order for you to be happy.
http://dharmawisdom.org/teachings/articles/practicing-nonviolence-toward-self
as a landscaper,ive mowed over bugs .in the morning,moths stranded on lawns.it forces my practice to mow around or move them.def test my patience.but bees we cool. they get out of the way when they detech the roaring machine.long live their queen be.amazing creature they are!totally fond of them.
I am sorry - not- sorry to say that I treat flies, mosquitoes and thunder-flies in exactly the same way I treat malevolent and intrusive spammers and flamers.
You eat them for breakfast?
An spit 'em out with disdain....