Buddhism stand on parasites like mosquitoes?

nightzip SG

E.g. mosquitoes, cockroaches, etc..

e.g. mosquitoes, they suck blood and spread diseases, so let's say you dont want to kill it, but it suck your blood....then you got malaria? but if you dont kill it, it will spread malaria?

similar to cockroaches? if you dont kill it, they multiply and spread diseases through contaminated food, etc? Rolling Eyes

killstyle SG

eh. actullay buddhists dont believe in causing unneccessary pains and sufferings whenever they go. be it to animals or humans.]

from wat i see. those straight laced one i mean.

i dont know about 'others'

laurence82 SG

first time i see u uttering something sensible

give me four numbers pls

Mr. Green

justdoit77 SG

My friend asked similar question to a monk. The monk reply that if you keep your precepts and practise well, your karma will naturally make you born in an environment where you don't have such dilemma and difficult situation.

For example, wherever an Arahan walk, those insects will automatically walk away from under his foot, so they won't be stepped by the Arahan.

An Eternal Now SG

No clear cut answers.

Sometimes having a little wisdom will help. See forum's previous topic: Ways to get rid of Pests/Insects

For instance: my dharma teacher even after having a horrible dengue fever and having to stay in hospital, after coming back she still never kills a single mosquito. When there are many mosquitoes in her house, she also never kill them... if memory recall she did something crazy before like spraying insecticide on herself bcos her maid wanted to use it to spray on the insects. Maybe not exactly that but I recall she did something like spraying insecticide on herself. Razz

But on another instance she also mentioned before, if for example, the dharma centre has a lot of mosquitoes (but anyway our dharma centre doesnt have a single insect and is on the 5th floor), she is willing to take up the karma to call the control pests or something, for the better good. If you want to kill the mosquito, you need to know that no matter for what reason, there will stil be negative karma involved.

An Eternal Now SG

Hello, my master Ven. Shen Kai offered a solution to Ants and Co-ckroaches (avoiding filter). He also mentioned about mosquitoes (but I can't remember well for that one). I will summarise a few points below.

Ants - put some Mei2 You2 near their home, they dislike the Mei2 You2 and will definitely move away from their home to somewhere else. To give the ants a sense of direction where to go you may put some food nearby, and they will go and live there. But don't put the food too far as it may be difficult for them to travel that far distance.

Co-ckroach - get some empty Wu3 Jia1 Pi2 Jiu3 (a type of Chinese traditional beer?). Co-ckroaches love to have a beer and will all go inside. Then you can throw the cans into a dirty place i.e trash can and let them live in their paradise. I don't know about other beers, you all could experiment yourself.

Mosquitoes - I can remember only he mentioend two ways - burning that mosquito 'incense', or using some kind of electronic device that could make them sterilised and not be able to reproduce babies.

So we do not necessarily need to kill them to get rid of the pests. Wisdom will be of good use.

My Master taught - to develope Great Compassion one must start by not harming, and protecting animals no matter how tiny they are.

Even though these animals may be tiny - if you can kill small animals, one day you might kill bigger animals, then killing humans no longer seem a difficult task to do.

by the way, found out that co-ckroaches also like staled beer and wines. so other alcoholic drinks should work

nightzip SG

Let's say you are not Arahan but a human...

If you dun kill the mosquitoes, then you actually committing a sin that it will go and suck other people's blood and spread malaria?

Its equivalent to ancient china, where let's say you see a crocodile snapping off a 8 year old boy and crawling back to a lake....

do you go and help the kid cuz he is still alive and there a distance before the crocodile will reach the lake....or do you just close an eye, say that its just karma, and not your business?

What if in the process of rescuing the kid, you inevitably have to kill the crocodile? is it fair to the crocodile who is actually do its daily find for food...? Rolling Eyes

oxford mushroom SG

If you kill the mosquitoes, it's bad karma for you. But if you don't and the mosquitoes cause fatal dengue infections to your neighbours or children, it cannot be good karma, can it?

nightzip SG

which means that as long as we are in this 6-tao cycle, we will always be subjected to the balance of karma? whatever we do, will always influence others.... Rolling Eyes Idea

nightzip SG

Then, what is buddhist's stand on meat eating? versus vegetarian?

Cuz when we eat meat, there is a demand, so there is a need for people to catch, to kill and to supply the meat...

But why is it that some tibetian monks are allowed to eat meat then? are they also contributing to the demand? Rolling Eyes But ofcourse, by eat the meat, they help to chao-du the animal? by reversing the karma balance, and perhaps distribute some good karma which the monk had accumulated, to the animal that is slaughtered and eaten by the monk?

How about normal people like us? This karma reversal also occurs? So that's why its better for us to eat vegetables, as we do not have so much good karma to distributed to the slaughtered animals in the meat we eat? Rolling Eyes

justdoit77 SG

As I don't have the ability to see whether is it the child's karma to be eaten.
I will try my best to save him, even if in the process I have to kill the crocodile because the child life is more valuable than a crocodile in many aspects for example the child can cultivate dharma but the crocodile can't, how about the relatives of the child.
If let's say it is the child's karma to be eaten, even if someone use physic power, it will still of no avail.

Mosquito is relatively easier to handle. I don't kill mosquito partly bcoz I seldom got bite by them. Anyway, it is not difficult to apply repellent on your skin. If you avoid from killing mosquito, gradually over time, less mosquito will come and bite you.

So in short, whether to kill one to save others, it should be base on case by case basis using your own judgement on different situations.

casino_king SG

Buddha said not to treat his teaching as dogma; fixed, inflexible and to be applied in a stupid way.

Use your own brains and don't be ridiculous....

sinweiy SG

u can look at the mental energy in that area. it's it very negative or positive? try generating loving kindness or great compassion or bodhicitta toward them..pureify the mental energy field. they do can sense it, since they also have a mind. when they sense that u do not wish to harm them, they will all NATURALY retreat.

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sinweiy SG

the more u kill the more they come back.
it's like the US trying to rid the terrorists with force. the more u appy force the more they retaliate. such vengeance can only be solve by love, not hatred.
u also can see our government trying to get rid of the mosquitoes, by killing. the number didn't go down. but when they use prevention, the number than go down a bit. if can use prevention than ok use prevention, at least better than killing.

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An Eternal Now SG

Yes, practising Loving Kindness will definitely help. We often hear that the Thai Forest monks don't get into trouble with wild animals because they practised metta. The animals were even friendly to them.

I am a friend of the footless,
I am a friend of the bipeds;
I am a friend of those with four feet,
I am a friend of the many-footed.
May not the footless harm me,
may not the bipeds harm me,
may not those with four feet harm me,
and may not those with many feet harm me.

AN II 72

Among tigers, lions, leopards & bears I lived on the wood.
No one was frightened of me, nor did I fear anyone.
Uplifted by such universal friendliness, I enjoyed the forest.
Finding great solace in such silent solitude.

Suvanna-sama Jataka 540

There is also a real account of a drunk elephant set loose by Devadatta to kill the Buddha, his disciples and others are all witnessing it, they ran away but Buddha remained there radiating loving-kindness to the elephant. The elephant stopped and knelt down before the Buddha - the third failed attempt by Devadatta to kill the Buddha.

On the other hand, we need to use a little wisdom. It is not that we have no ways to get rid of the insects without harming them. As from my previous post:

by the way, found out that co-ckroaches also like staled beer and wines. so other alcoholic drinks should work

And lastly, if there is no choice but to kill the mosquitoes, it should be done out of wisdom as a skillful means, But on another instance she also mentioned before, if for example, the dharma centre has a lot of mosquitoes (but anyway our dharma centre doesnt have a single insect and is on the 5th floor), she is willing to take up the karma to call the control pests or something, for the better good. If you want to kill the mosquito, you need to know that no matter for what reason, there will stil be negative karma involved.. As Buddhists we also do chant for these beings.

casino_king SG

I was staying at an apartment and there were tiny small ants that you can hardly see crawling around. It was really irritating. Sometimes I wake up and find them crawling on my bed and I wonder if they crawled into my nose.

I bought those poison food (Baygon) and it didn't help. Then I bought some no name ants poison (cheap and good) and soon no more ants.

If people steal my money, i will difinately report them to the police.... ants invade my house I will definately feed them poison.

Middle way my friends... don't be extremists.

If you see a Tiger going after your wife and children and you have a riffle, shoot it.

sinweiy SG

The true purpose of precept is to cease all acts of unwholesomeness. hence called, 'jin4 jie1' (precept/discipline of purity).
For example if a country ordered that Buddhism be elininated. What should you do? Such incident took place in China thrice. Look at the history, did any Buddhists be it Ordain and Lay, rebelled. Nope! Why? Buddhists abide by the Vinaya. Forever no hatred to the country. This is truly protecting the Dharma. Why/how? Let the World's people see that Buddhist is the best residents. Will the next governor want Buddhism to recover. YES! But if the Buddhists rebel and take revenge in the beginning. And other countries see this. It will leave a bad impression. And criticize Buddhism and forever reject Buddhism. For that you truely eliminate Buddhism. So how Buddhism flourish depend on how Buddhists uphold the Vinaya. If Vinaya ends, Buddhism ends. This idea is very profound according to cause and effect.

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An Eternal Now SG

Originally posted by casino_king:
I was staying at an apartment and there were tiny small ants that you can hardly see crawling around. It was really irritating. Sometimes I wake up and find them crawling on my bed and I wonder if they crawled into my nose.

I bought those poison food (Baygon) and it didn't help. Then I bought some no name ants poison (cheap and good) and soon no more ants.

If people steal my money, i will difinately report them to the police.... ants invade my house I will definately feed them poison.

Middle way my friends... don't be extremists.

Before we kill them, we can exercise alternative non-violent ways.

If you see a Tiger going after your wife and children and you have a riffle, shoot it.

Yes - if there is no alternatives.

In buddhism in terms of karma, there is karma for killing, but also virtuous karma for saving both your wife and your child.

An Eternal Now SG

Good point Smile

casino_king SG

What I am trying to say is, you don't kill needlessly. Like if you have a garden and there are ants living in the trees, then let them be. Don't kill them just because they happened to be living in a tree in your garden. Don't kill for the sake of killing. Even if they are just ants.

On the other hand, if there are good reasons, kill them rather then suffer the consequences of being irritated with ants crawling all over.

I was walking along under some tress with my sister a long time ago and on the path was a big worm. I took a leaf and scooped it up and then throw it back among the bushes.

My sister looked at me and said. People will just step on it and get it over with. Why did you do that?

I did not say anything. I am not a Buddhist but I have no wish to kill anything needlessly. If I did not scoop it up then I will walk around it. There is no way I was going to step on the worm.