Sunday, December 18, 2005


Killing a Living Being

In buddhism, killing of a living being is sinful, if
  • The party will be killed is a living being
  • The person who is killing should be aware the party which will be killed is a living being
  • The killer should intentionally do the killing
  • Eventually, the object should be killed.

See how logical it is , in law also almost all the above conditions should be met in order to sue him against a first degree murder. Buddhist think all leaving beings are equal, and animals are not "introduced" to the world in order to serve human, and sacrifice their lives whenever humans need. I may not be correct in that way. You can argue. Again think of a case where a person goes to the butcher and buy meat. Will that not be a SIN then?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well.. From your explanation one might think "trees" as living beings and try not cut them. what will be the reult :O

Buddhist said...

Regarding the comment on trees..
Well simply buddhism doesn't take trees as living beings. Although there is nosuch definition for a "living being" ( afaik ), I don't think its a problem if we take trees as "non - livingg beings". In buddhism, a SIN is happened when you violate the below sickhas ( for laymen ). But, for all those sins, the mind is the leading factor. So, one can say cutting down trees is not a sin, simply because we don't treat them as animals or living beings. When you go into deep you may see for good or bad its mind after all, how we logically think about an issue. Its upto you..

Unknown said...

I came across this blog as I was searching about Sri Lankan Buddhism.

I'm a European, and I have lived in Sri Lanka for 17 years.
To be honest, I've left SL in disgust, even after so many years.

Can somebody "enlighten" me(pun intended), how it is possible that the most hawkish, racist, war-inciting people in Sri Lanka, are the Buddhist monks?

Amila said...

Consider this as a reply to Leo.
Who says Sri Lankan people are racist and war-inciting?. It is merely a campaign launched by a group of terrorists in Sri Lanka. As a person currently living in Sri Lanka, I know that Sinhalese people are living living peacefully and friendly with Tamils. Its a war to end terrorism, not to end a race. So as Buddhists, people don't like killing each other, but again people would like to end the terrorism to end killings of innocent people.

Anonymous said...

To Amila,

You are quoting me wrong.
I never mentioned the Sinhalese people. I am talking about the Buddhist MONKS.
Leo