Does sending chickens and ducks to eliminate locusts count as killing living beings?

Inciting others to commit killing is an even graver offense than committing killing oneself. Why is this said? Because when you kill living beings yourself, it is you alone who commits the evil deed and forms evil karmic bonds with sentient beings. But when you incite others to kill on your behalf, the killing they commit also counts as your own share—your intent to kill still remains—and moreover you cause others to form evil karmic bonds and commit evil deeds, defiling others. This is a double evil karma.

Having chickens and ducks kill locusts on behalf of humans means the locusts die because of humans; the killing belongs to humans, and the chickens and ducks are merely tools by which humans kill the locusts. At the same time, the chickens and ducks also form evil karmic bonds with the locusts and will suffer evil retribution in future lives—and this is caused by humans. Therefore, dispatching chickens and ducks to exterminate locusts carries greater evil karma than exterminating them oneself.

But when faced with such a great locust disaster, should one exterminate the locusts or not? If the locusts threaten human survival, then of course they must be exterminated, because human life is countless times more precious than that of locusts; comparing the two, one should first ensure human survival. Humans are suitable vessels for the Path, capable of performing a great many wholesome deeds that benefit all beings of the three evil destinies. As long as a person is alive, everything else can be managed. There will only be some evil retribution in later lives, which is far better than having one's life taken by locusts now, or being trapped by disaster.

Every sentient being, over beginningless kalpas, has committed far too many acts of killing—countless, great and small. Therefore every sentient being's karmic obstructions are deep and heavy, and their evil karmic bonds are many. No matter how good you are, there will still be those who want to kill you, those who beat and scold you, those who insult and frame you, those who slander you, those who look down on you and speak ill of you—adversaries are numerous.

Encountering adverse conditions and disasters and being forced to commit acts of killing is itself a manifestation of lacking merit; it is a karmic obstruction, the retributive result of evil karma. If there were no karmic obstructions, one would not encounter situations where one must commit killing in order to solve one's own problem of survival. When the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas have extinguished their evil karma, they will not attract such adverse conditions and will not be forced to commit acts of killing. Even if they encounter evil conditions, they can turn peril into safety and transform misfortune into good fortune, and they will use their immeasurable merit to compensate for and deliver their adversaries.