About those pesky mosquitoes

ECM

I just figured out how to get back in to the forum after a month plus, and discovered all your many answers to my mosquito query. Thank you all. Your answers were varied and thoughtful, and I am thinking about it.

During the time you were answering and I was away, my father-in-law almost died from mosquito borne encephalitis. The good news is that he has almost completely recovered.

Perhaps doing "fang sheng" -- letting the fishes and snails go -- which I did last week will take care of the mosquitoes I have killed! I will never be as good as the Dalai Lama.

A lotus for all of you,
ECM

Simonthepilgrim

Welcome back ECM,

Good to hear that your FIL is recovering. It does serve to remind us that human beings (and other species) are at war against that which will, without malice but as part of their nature, kill us:

Let us sing the small-pox germ
Living lonely in Atlanta,
last of its kind.

How its perfect symmetry
betrays God's hand.

And now,
imprisoning and condemning it to die,
for obeying its genetic orders,
memento mori,
humanity debates viral genocide,
without compunction,
while drooling over dolphins.

I have no answer but the questions reduce me to tears!

ajani_mgo

There's a bad fever of dengue fever in my country... Man, it's gonna be real bad for me the whole month. MOSQUITOES MOSQUITOES MOSQUITOES! But I'd never kill any...

Simonthepilgrim

And if, Heavens forbid, you should get ill, Ajano, would you take the medecine that would kill the infection?

buddhafoot

You know, that's a good point Simon.

I was just sitting here thinking about skeeters and infection and such...

I wonder if some precepts that were defined in Buddhas time were made without the knowledge of science that we have now.

I mean, if we go back to 17th/18th century England. A popular concept was to keep doors and windows locked - to keep all the germs outside of the house. Never realizing that maybe some fresh air would have probably cleared out some of the airborne germs within a dwelling.
Or never realizing that the Thames is what was causing the spread of cholera and killing hundredes, if not thousands.

Germs were really realized until a couple of centuries ago.

But, germs a living entities. They have a life cycle and purpose not unlike humans. I think we've infected just about every part of the "host" that we're living in.

I wonder if sometimes we're taking things a little too far. Does cholera, ebola, TB, cancer, etc. have the right to live and thrive at the cost of a human life? Is not human life and consciousness more precious? No? Maybe?

-bf

Simonthepilgrim

I have a deep distrust for all the 'right to life' stuff. Indeed, the whole subject of 'rights' causes me a pain in the philosophical ass.

Within Buddhism, there is a distinction made around the different 'realms' into which life manifests. The most auspicious of these is to be born a human being. It is, of course, skillful to avoid taking any life but there is greater or lesser negative karma depending on the victim's place in a hierarchy.

I think that we can question this anthropocentrism, having recognised that the Wheel of Existence can be read as a key to our own life, day-by-day, just as much as to stories of rebirth. Indeed, I believe that we need to be asking ourselves these questions with some urgency.

buddhafoot

Simonthepilgrim wrote:

I think that we can question this anthropocentrism, having recognised that the Wheel of Existence can be read as a key to our own life, day-by-day, just as much as to stories of rebirth. Indeed, I believe that we need to be asking ourselves these questions with some urgency.

In the words of Mr. Taggert from Blazing Saddle...

You use yer tongue perttier than a $20 whore, sir!"

Now, do you care to explain what you meant in your last paragraph for those of us that had to take the 3rd grade 4 times?

-bf

Abraham

Thank you BF, for some time now, I have wanted to pose exactly the same question, it goes without saying hopefully, that I wish to cause no offence, but why do people have to be so cryptic in their replies?

While I take nothing away from the obvious education of some of the people who post here, it appears that the acronymn K.I.S.S ( Keep it simple Stupid) is in most cases not adhered to. For me the simplicity of Buddhism it what I have found most appealing, given that in order for the majority of people to follow this philosophy it needs to be transmitted in the very way Buddha taught-according to the simplicityof the people who are listening. While I agree that the study, knowledge and understanding of the Sutras and Scriptures are necessary for some, the majority of contributors to this site need basic guidance and instruction couched in terms they understand. The danger for me is that this fundamentally simple philosophy/Religion will be left entirely for the erudite intellectuals and fail in its supposed aims to be an all embracing set of guidelines for the Common Man.

The use of cut and paste of huge rafts of Sutras and texts IMO should be limited, far better to share your understanding of all you have learnt, in your own words.

"I weary of Man's gluttony for diatribe - bring me the diet of precious Brevity!" :rant:

buddhafoot

You're quite welcome, Abe.

Hopefully you've realized that I have a rectum with an IQ of 172. Thus, I'm much more disposed, than one like yourself, to attend to these delicate issues in the surgeon-like manner that I do.

Now, I have to leave - there is a China Shop with my name on it somewhere in town...

-bf

Abraham

Crash, Smash, Bang....found it then :winkc:

Abraham

BTW, B/F.... I notice that we appear to be on 'name-abbreviation' terms.... don't go thinking this means we're going to take long, hot macho showers together..... :wow:

buddhafoot

Well, only say it if you mean it.

I'm dead-sexy, my friend...

You just PM me if you like what you see...

Abraham

Seriously BF, you are spending too long on this forum and neglecting to eat! and stop skipping those dance classes.....they will pay off in the end. :bigclap:

Simonthepilgrim

Thank you all for sending me back to my last paragraph. Dreadful, isn't it! Sorry about that.

To deconstruct it, as I am doing in a notebook on my desk, is just too long and boring to add after the image of the showers!