Am I being ridiculous?

A lot of people think so!

It's just as I've started to meditate more and more and progress with it and read lots of dharma I find that when i'm gardening i'm really really conscious of accidently killing any insects!
It's gotten so 'bad' that I actually check the ground when i'm moving plant pots or trimming the hedge or mowing the lawn and if I see any snails or anything I carefully move them out of the way!
Also if there is a fly in the room or a wasp or bee instead of killing it I try to catch it and let it out without resorting to killing it.

Obviously my friends and family find this highly amusing and sometimes annoying, but actually I find it slightly upsets me and just doesn't feel right when they go around with a fly squatter saying "Quick! Quick! Kill it! Kill it!"

Am I taking karma too seriously? Surely there must be such a thing as too much compassion!

No this thread isn't a joke!

 

I think you are finally in touch with all of nature as a whole. What makes one creation better than another. I am assuming you are also vegan, right?

 

hah well actually i'm not a vegan but recently decided to become veggie again...But to be honest i'm not a veggie for the 'ethical' reasons as ive expalined over on the veggie forum. Its because I just prefer a veg diet I think its healthier for me, the 'animal ethics' is a 2nd reason...I hold this view because animals suffer or are killed to create food, worms are killed in harvesting, then we have pesticides and I could go on with more examples but I wont. If you want to eat then other beings will have to suffer for it...Obviously being a vegan will help somewhat but not completely.

I'm totally with you on what makes one creation better than another though...Just because another consciousness has lower intelligence does that make it's suffering and feeling of less significance to beings with higher intelligence? How so? Shouldn't all life be viewed equally?
Yes it should but in reality its impossible to treat all beings equally isn't it? Because if we did then we couldn't ever eat anything! Obviously a line has to be drawn somewhere, like to kill in self-defence to protect others from suffering..Or in my case to squat the fly with the rolled up newspaper!
Also what about mosquitos? Let them bite you in malaria zones and run the risk of getting a mosquito borne life threatening infection or squat it in self-defence?
When can it be justified? Can it ever be justified?

 

From vegan to veggie -- you should give it a try sometime!

Peterness:

Is it so ridiculous to value the lives of sentient beings? =)

Are your friends and family ridiculous for not?

 

No, you are just wrong about death being bad. There is a right time for things to die. If they are destined to be reborn as something else, they must die. There is even a right time to feel pain, so just have faith in your actions, stay them if you feel better about letting something live, if you feel like setting a fly or spider free- do so joyfully.

No, but there is compassion that is not necessary.

Until we kill it.

 

Lol!

 

Man!!! You are starting to feel RIGHT now!!!
keep the peace alive!

 

"No, you are just wrong about death being bad. There is a right time for things to die. If they are destined to be reborn as something else, they must die. There is even a right time to feel pain, so just have faith in your actions, stay them if you feel better about letting something live, if you feel like setting a fly or spider free- do so joyfully."

Um, if you got into the habbit of killing something simply because you feel like it wouldn't this cause you to have higher tendencies to do this in the future? I think so. Is this a really shitty way to act? I think so. Will it have negative consequences? I think so.

And destiny?

I dont think so.

 

I shouldve seen that coming....

 

And I never said death is 'bad'. To kill is 'bad'.

 

Yes.

Depends on why you feel like killing something.

No.

Which is precisely why you have a problem with fulfilling it.

 

there is only karma for killing of mammals but not for insects because they are meant to be food for birds

 

I think intent is the ultimate determinant of whether an action is right or wrong. I have killed many things in my life, a vast majority of them unintentionally. The only problem comes when you intend to kill something for malicious reasons.

 

plants taste good so animals will eat them, and spread their seeds by pooping. meat tastes good because we sprinkle plants on it. so eating plants is ethical, because the plants want to be eaten.

i almost cry every time i kill a bug. but i have about five mosquito bites on my face, and i'm not going to count the ones in my hands and arms.

 

I agree that why you kill something is more important than the fact that you killed it. Killing an insect because it annoys you, or because you were careless and it happened to be in the way just seems bestial to me. but hey, that's my opinion so think of it what you will.

 

"I think intent is the ultimate determinant of whether an action is right or wrong. I have killed many things in my life, a vast majority of them unintentionally. The only problem comes when you intend to kill something for malicious reasons."

Yeah like what i'm saying..."Snail on the ground, should I pick him up and put him in a safe place or shall I just step on him because I can't be bothered? Besides it's only a snail..." *stamp* *squish* dead <<To me that's bad intention thus that'll plant negative karmic seeds.

"Killing an insect because it annoys you, or because you were careless and it happened to be in the way just seems bestial to me."

Me too.
If you go around killing other beings because they annoy or displease you then I think thats a reflection on the negative qualities you have...Impatience and a lack of tolerance...If you kill insects for fun or torture them then that's obviously much worse and wil lead to some pretty serious negative karma.

 

that's ridiculous

 

The Jains eat nothing but the fruit and veggies that have fallen from the tree. Thats in tune.

 

wow.

 

I can sort of see where the jainists are coming from but they go around with those masks on incase they breathe in tiny insects and kill them and they brush a path infront of them to sweep away all the insects...silly though because you're bound to step on things by accident quite frqeuently.