Panatipata veramani sikkapadam samadiyami: "I undertake to observe the training rule to abstain from taking the life of living beings."Depriving someone of life -- whether an insect, animal, or even yourself -- is an unskillful act with painful results. The immediate result, because of the state of mind during the act, tends to be immediate rebirth in the Peta Loka (realm of hungry-ghosts). Taking a life, particularly a human life, and particularly when motivated by disgust or revulsion, is an unskillful response to unbearable pain or sudden change in fortune. The negative mental states that act as the volition and motivation to kill (oneself or someone else) spell trouble karmically. Suicide is a permanent reaction to what is only a temporary problem.
Some people may find suicide acceptable, as with the modern notion of a right to choose euthanasia. It may be acceptable to turn down artificial life support. However, asking for euthanasia goes a step further. In moving away from "prolonging the agony" or experiencing pain, one may enter a bargain not realizing the postmortem results. If life ended here then there would be no need to concern oneself with anything but here. Since life is not limited to just this, concern with Samsara (the wheel of life and death) and repeated birth in various planes of existence, however difficult they may be to believe in, is a wise consideration.
The world of hungry-ghosts (petas) is more or less aware of the human realm but is a painful existence. There is deprivation. There is weakness. There generally a lack of an ability to help oneself or communicate the need for help. There is a literal hunger and many other privations. There is a metaphorical hunger, a longing and lamenting. Details of this existence and its descent into the Great Waste are chronicled in the Pali Canon (Khuddaka Nikāya) in a portion known as the Petavatthu.
TOP PHOTO
HUNGRY GHOSTS: Characterized by greed, insatiable cravings, addictions. "I want this, I need this, I have to have this." This is the realm of intense craving. Hungry ghosts are shown with enormous stomachs and tiny necks. They want to cat, but cannot swallow; when they try to drink, the liquid turns to fire, intensifying their thirst. The torment of a hungry ghost is not so much the frustration of not being able to get what it wants. Rather, it is clinging to those things mistakenly thought to bring satisfaction and relief...(Buddha Mind).
No comments:
Post a Comment