QUESTION
Hi Ven. Robina,
I’ve been thinking about you a lot since your birthday and the change of year.
I hope you are well.
I have one question:
I have historically gone elk hunting. It is time to apply again for a permit.
How does this work with the vow of not killing?
Do I let someone else do it, and just help with the process?
Do I let go of hunting all together? It is a challenge as I feel the meat is the best quality when I have participated in the process. Instead of the grocery store.
This question keeps coming around in my meditations.
Take care,
R
ANSWER
Happy to hear from you, R.
Okay, how to think about the elk.
First approach: It seems that it’s attachment to eating the elk’s flesh that drives the whole process for you. So maybe give that up and then you won’t need to kill. Two problems solved!
Attachment is certainly what drives hunters, fishermen, and so forth. Deal with that one, then you won’t need to kill.
Second: Let’s discuss the action of killing itself.
One reason to not want to kill is for one’s own sake. This is the first thing to consider, which is initially surprising; in our society we don’t tend to factor that in.
But given that everything we think, do, and say programs us – for the Buddha this is the natural law that runs the universe; the natural law within which our lives run, if you like – you’ll be programming your mind with the intention to kill and the action of killing itself.
Everything we think, do, and say can ripen in four ways. So for killing: 1. being born in the lower realms, 2. having the tendency to keep killing, 3. getting killed or dying young, and 4. living in a polluted environment, getting sick, and so forth.
Remember, of course, that this law of karma is not punishment, not reward; there’s no concept in Buddhism.
If you want those results for yourself, then fine, kill the elk.
Another reason to not want to kill is that the elk is a living being who, like you, would prefer to live in peace and not be harmed.
This law of karma underlies the entire Buddhist path, all the way up to the most advanced practices.
Not having the fundamentals in order, how can you succeed at the advanced levels?
This is why you have taken vows: the first level, not to kill; the second, the bodhisattva vows, to want to help others; and you’ve taken the tantric vows, too, the most advanced.
It’s all a very integrated, logical process.
This is what you need to think about.
Rxx
QUESTION
Good morning Ven. Robina,
Thank you for your words. I can release the attachment to eating the flesh of the elk.
When you explain it this way, it feels easy. I can let go of this. Thank you for your clarity and explanation.
The thought that arises next: if I am eating meat at all, someone had to do the killing. So am I an accessory to the killing?
Thank you, Robina. I appreciate you.
Love,
R
ANSWER
Dear R:
To understand how we program our minds – “create karma” – we first have to label the action.
So, eating meat: that’s one action. The key factor in every action we do, whether it’s negative or positive, is the mind involved in it: two things: one is the thought that drives it, the very intention: I will, volition; two is the motivation for doing it.
Clearly, the main motivation for eating – eating anything! – is attachment.
The extra component in eating the flesh of a sentient being, of course, is just that.
Nevertheless, eating is one thing and killing is another: they’re two different actions. Think about it! If intention, “I will,” is the first step in anything we do, then “I will eat” is a very different thought from “I will kill”: that’s logic.
But this doesn’t mean, oh good, someone else can kill it and I’ll eat it! No.
Motivation is huge: You could argue that the karma created by a person killing an animal out of compassion for the animal is less heavy than the karma created by a person sitting next to the fisherman as he catches the fish and delighting in its being killed and then eating the fish with attachment.
Also, the closer we are to the action, the stronger the karmic imprints on our mind — so asking someone to kill the elk is even heavier than you killing it yourself, because you’re getting someone else to create the negative karma of killing.
But way down the track, you getting some leftovers — buying a piece of elk in the store — that’s a weaker karmic imprint. Again, that doesn’t mean oh, it’s okay, I didn’t kill it. And it doesn’t mean we don’t create karma. It’s all very interdependent.
Every tiny thing we do: so many factors involved.
The key thing is: what thoughts are there: it’s thoughts that leave imprints in the mind; and then the body and speech follow up on the thoughts.
Food for thought.
Robina