(Minghui.org) Master said in “The Issue of Killing” that,
“For practitioners, we have set the strict requirement that they cannot kill lives.”
“Killing does not only bring about a lot of karma, it also involves the issue of compassion.” (Lecture Seven, Zhuan Falun)
The Minghui article “The 18 Levels of Hell” talks about people who slaughter animals at will or for fun. After they die, their souls will be cast into “The Hell of the Cattle Pit” and trampled and gored by herds of wild oxen. This article reminded me of practitioners who suffered after taking lives.
My daughter ordered some fruit and vegetables and a bag of shrimp for me online. The shrimp weighed about a pound, and came in a sealed plastic bag with water and air. Most of the shrimp were alive. I wasn’t sure what to do with them: I couldn’t return them, and I didn’t know where to release them. I put them in a basin and said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t make the purchase. Perhaps we have a predestined relation, and I wish you all have a wonderful future.” I left them there, thinking that I’d cook them after they die.
I forgot about the shrimp until the morning of the third day. By the time they were all dead, so I quickly cooked them. I remembered the night before, which was the time the shrimp died, my back ached so badly that I could barely turn over—something that never happened before. I looked within for my attachments and found a deeply hidden one: a desire for revenge, a strong wish for those who persecute practitioners be punished. This showed that I lacked compassion. After I found my attachment, the pain lessened considerably. I also understood another reason my back hurt was because I had to bear the karma from the shrimps’ death. Although I didn’t kill them, I still needed to shoulder some of the karma.
My mother listened to Falun Dafa lectures, but she has not been strict with herself regarding the issue of killing—even though I repeatedly reminded her. We live in a coastal area, and my father sometimes bought her crabs, which she loved to eat. This year, he bought her live crabs twice. Her back hurt terribly right after she cooked and ate them. After the same thing happened twice, she said she would never eat crabs again, and she began taking the issue of killing seriously.
A local practitioner used to buy and cook live clams, even after she started practicing Falun Dafa years ago. She said when she went to a seafood market, as soon as she walked up to the clam stall, she heard the clams crying out, “Save me, save me.” She no longer bought clams, and has been paying attention to the issue of killing.
I know that some practitioners in my area are unaware of the seriousness of killing. Their families buy live seafood and cook it, and they eat it. Only when a practitioner truly recognizes the severity of killing and the amount of karma it generates, will they encourage their family to stop doing this. An elderly practitioner who is very diligent suffered severe illness several times in recent years. This may have something to do with her not handling the issue of killing properly. Her children often visited her, and they sometimes brought her live seafood and cooked it for her. Not wanting to offend them, she ate some.
We live among everyday people, and sometimes situations like this are hard to handle. During the holidays, when families or friends gather at restaurants, it’s inevitable that someone orders a dish made with live seafood. How should a practitioner handle this situation? In the past I wasn’t strict with myself and I ate it, thinking that I wasn’t the one who killed it. I’ve begun taking this issue seriously, and I avoid eating those dishes—I just eat other food. When I thought of the pain Master has suffered for us, it was easy for me to skip the supposedly delicious food and let go of that desire.
A while ago my arms hurt and couldn’t lift heavy objects. This lasted a long time. I looked within and discovered I had resentment, jealousy, and a competitive mentality. The pain eased somewhat, but it didn’t go away. One day, I listened to Master’s lecture, and he sounded very serious when he talked about the issue of killing. I began memorizing the corresponding section in Zhuan Falun. The more I memorized, the more I sensed that killing creates tremendous karma. I thought about whether I made mistakes in this regard. The moment I remembered two incidents of killing in recent years, my arms felt much better.
A few years ago I ran over a dog on the street when I was driving. It ran out suddenly, and I didn’t have time to slam on the brakes. Around that time a coworker was transferred to another office. She insisted that I take care of her Christmas cactus because her new office was too small, and no one wanted it. I had no choice but to help her—so I watered it occasionally. Last summer I moved it to a shady spot, and every day I gave it the water or tea that I couldn’t finish. I heard that it was good for the plant, and I was too lazy to go all the way to the bathroom to dump it. After a while the leaves started to fall off. I had a bad feeling and moved it to a sunny location. The plant died eventually.
A cactus and a dog died because of me, a practitioner. It wasn’t my intention, but I was still responsible and I needed to shoulder some karma. We know from the teachings that in the divine’s eyes, organic and inorganic subjects are all lives, and we need to be very careful.
Traditional Chinese culture holds that human life is of paramount importance. Falun Dafa practitioners are not so timid as to fear stepping on an ant, but we must respect the principles of the universe and be strict with ourselves on the issue of killing.
This is my current understanding. Please kindly point out anything that in not in line with the Fa (teachings).
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Category: Improving Oneself
