Last night I told my friends I have been called crazy and fanatical by some people and that I should join the crazy people of Peta.
What happened?
I criticized Barack Obama for killing a fly. Not because the fly disrupting the interview, but because Obama obviously enjoyed the act of killing the fly.
We all kill small living beings, including the Dalai Lama and me. We may accidentally step or sit on one, we may crush an insect deliberately because it is bothering us. We may even destroy entire ant colonies with toxic spays, but to enjoy the act of killing and smiling and giggling after killing another sentient being is not done. As a Buddhist I vowed not to kill. It’s the first precept of the first 5 vows. Not to kill any sentient being. Why not? Would you enjoy being killed because someone else thinks your bothering him, you are a pest, you don’t look right in his eyes? No sentient beings enjoys suffering or dying, including flies and mosquitoes. Oh, can we kill malaria mosquitoes?Yes, is my answer. They may kill a more precious sentient being and we will prevent a malaria mosquito from killing another sentient being, thus preventing her from creating bad merit, upon which the soul of the malaria mosquito may be reborn in a more precious sentient being.
A few days ago, I was having breakfast in a Chinese restaurant. I fly landed into my coffee. I took the fly out of the coffee with the teaspoon, and dried it off with a napkin. Five minutes later, he flew off, probably being very happy. The staff was baffled by my compassion and offered me a free coffee.
Conclusion, sometimes we save flies, sometimes we kill, sometimes it’s even a good thing, but don’t take pleasure out of killing.
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perhaps you ahould bear in mind that Barack Obama has not had the advantage you have. Namely, tht he hasn't be awakened to the teachings you have heard and taken to heart. Karma always seems to me a balancing act, trying to incur less bad for grater good. Considering his predecesssor killed thousands of his own countrymen in a questionable war, I can tolerate a fly.
ReplyDeleteAre you saying my friends are right and I should join PETA?
ReplyDeleteYou should have seen the look on the faces of my Tibetan friends when I crush a mosquito with a book of the Dalai Lama after just moving to the Himalayas. I was still a Catholic back then. I put the book on the floor after the killing. Two wrongs.
However, I think it would be great if no human being would take pleasure in killing anything alive, but at least show some kind of remorse.
If I remember correctly, you had an ant problem that bothered you, didn't you?
True, the world would most definitely be far better if there were no killing of any sort. Obama,obviously, was not raised with a Buddhist background and may very well have been taught to treat insects that way.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the ants: the weather has been too chilly for them to come about. What I saw 6 weeks ago may have been the spring breeding swarm. THe weather was quite warm then.