[Buddha-l] Re: Buddhist pacifism

[Mike Austin]

In message <002b01c5d2a0$8cea68e0$6900a8c0 at vic.bigpond.net.au>, Kate 
<marshallarts at bigpond.com> writes

>>If you were to kill them to eat, that would be attachment.
>
>We aren't supposed to eat?!  I thought the Buddha warned against such
>austerities.  How can eating be considered an attachment considering the
>Buddha recommended it?

Hi Kate,

The Buddha recommended eating but warned against killing. Eating meat is 
not bad karma - because there is no harmful mind, no harmful word and no 
harmful action. Killing to eat or ordering others to kill to eat, is bad 
karma.


>> The affliction that takes the termites as an object is the deciding
>> factor.
>
>In this example the termites aren't the object.  It is their action of
>destroying the house that is.

But the action of killing the termites has the termites as an object.


> > I had a similar situation many years ago when I had some major roof work
>> done. The builders discovered a wasps nest and could not safely continue
>> their work. Reluctantly, I had to call in pest control.

>But what are the workable alternatives?  Replacing a house isn't usually a
>financial possibility, especially if the first one isn't fully paid for.

I could have waited until winter when the wasps would have been gone. It 
would have cost me - financially. What the cost will be in karma-vipaka, 
Buddha only knows.

-- 
Metta
Mike Austin