Q & A with Robina

QUESTION

Dear Venerable Robina

With the gardening season starting, I'm becoming much more aware of how much killing karma I have. My hazelnut bushes are leafing out and all I can think of is how to keep the Japanese beetles from eating them. Usually, I spray insecticide on the beetles, but this year I'm trying to feed the bushes more and spray the bushes before the beetles arrive with the wish that a well-fed hazelnut bush coated with a smelly spray will keep the beetles away.

I was feeling pretty good about that experiment and now ants are appearing in force all over the yard near the raised bed. I am filled with fear that they'll take over and I'm trying to "see" how to deal with them without killing them.

Then wasps started appearing in my bedroom almost daily (I've become very allergic to their stings). I take them outside one by one, but then my partner spotted a wasps nest right under the eave outside my bedroom. He said he'd knock it down with either water or a long pole.

What to do?

Wishing you a long, healthy, happy life of teaching those of us transmigratory beings.

F

ANSWER

Dearest F,

It must be difficult being a gardener and a Buddhist! You seem to be doing well, with your attitude.

There are two things: one is the attitude, which you have nicely. And the other is purification. Because everything happens as a result of past karma, by purifying every day – regretting killing, regretting throwing beings out of their home, regretting taking over someone’s else home, and in the fourth step vowing not to do again, all these things that are involved in dealing with insects – you change the karma. They might go away, might not come where you are, etc. etc.

So do that every day. And blow mantras on them whenever you can. Some gardeners even have recordings of mantras playing quietly for the creatures in the garden!

Again: one thing is our own mind, our wish not to harm, our wish to benefit. And then there are practices such as purification to help shift the karma. And, third, there are the practices we can do to actively bless the creatures, which brings benefit to their minds. And fourth, just as you’re doing, is the practical things that help avoid killing.

As for your partner, you can intervene if you like, out of kindness to the creatures, not out of bossing him around!

The world is pervaded by beings. Just by existing we harm them! So all we can do is do our best! What else?

Love and courage!

Robina