Question
Not harming the integrity of sentient beings: I admit I agree in principle; in fact, I stopped combat sports. But what exactly defines a sentient being? A virus, a tapeworm, an aspergillus, a tomato plant, a mosquito, a tree, a tiger—in short, should everything that lives and reproduces be classified as sentient? How can we drive in summer without causing a massacre of mosquitoes and butterflies stuck to the windshield? If I pick a zucchini, its seeds contain little beings in the making that will end up in the trash. I get vaccinated against all sorts of diseases; again, microorganisms are exterminated for my benefit. I wash the floor: another disaster. I won’t even mention gardening, which destroys earthworms, insects, and weeds. I can perhaps avoid foie gras at the next holiday dinner, but the bird will still have been slaughtered in anticipation. Am I allowed oysters, snails…? At least I can avoid beating my dog, or my wife, and calmly let the mosquito harassing me in the middle of the night escape! But can the precept “Do not kill” really be applied by a human being, even a nonviolent one? Aren’t suffering and causing suffering indispensable conditions of our presence in this world? I suspect this world was created to generate suffering… and that so-called awakening is a delusion. Claude Lecoeur.
Claude Lecoeur
Master Kosen’s answer
Everything is alive, even stones.
Kosen