[Buddha-l] Re: Buddhist pacifism

[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.

I remember hearing this, Mike.  It's ok to eat meat if the animal died of an
accident, or you didn't see it killed and you don't know or suspect it was
killed especially for you.  At first I thought you were saying that eating
is an attachment.  My mistake!

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

I'll have to think about this one for awhile.

> >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.

Must admit, I was still thinking about termites when I asked this question.
Waiting doesn't help with those.

This brings up another question - do animals attract karma-vipaka?  If a
human can be reborn as an animal, wouldn't s/he have to accumulate enough
'positive' karma-vipaka to be able to leave that realm?

Thanks
Kate