Is It Considered Killing Living Beings to Send Chickens and Ducks to Eliminate Locusts?

Instigating others to commit killing carries heavier negative karma than committing the act oneself. Why is this so? When one kills personally, it is only oneself creating negative karma and forming negative affinities with sentient beings. However, by inciting others to kill on one's behalf, the killing committed by others also implicates oneself—one's own intention to kill remains, while simultaneously causing others to form negative affinities, create negative karma, and become defiled. This constitutes a double burden of negative karma. Using chickens and ducks to kill locusts on behalf of humans means the locusts die because of humans; it is humans who kill them, while the chickens and ducks are merely tools employed by humans. Simultaneously, the chickens and ducks form negative affinities with the locusts and will suffer retribution in future lives—a consequence caused by humans. Therefore, deploying chickens and ducks to eliminate locusts generates greater negative karma than eliminating the locusts oneself.

But should locusts be eliminated when faced with such a severe locust disaster? If locusts threaten human survival, elimination is necessary, for human life is immeasurably more precious than that of locusts. When comparing the two, protecting human survival must take precedence. Humans are vessels of the Way, capable of performing vast amounts of virtuous deeds that benefit beings in the three lower realms. As long as humans survive, other matters can be resolved. There may be some negative retribution in future lives, but this is far preferable to being killed by locusts now or being trapped by disaster.

Since beginningless time, every sentient being has accumulated an immeasurable amount of killing karma, both great and small, beyond counting. Thus, every sentient being bears heavy karmic obstacles and has numerous negative affinities. No matter how virtuous one may be, there will always be those who seek to kill, beat, insult, frame, slander, or look down upon them; there are many adversaries who speak ill of them.

Encountering adverse conditions and disasters that force one to commit killing is itself a manifestation of lack of merit, a karmic obstacle, and the fruition of negative karma. Without karmic obstacles, one would never encounter a situation where killing is necessary to resolve one's survival. Buddhas and Bodhisattvas have eradicated all seeds of negative karma; thus, they do not attract such adverse conditions and are never compelled to commit killing. Even when encountering negative conditions, they transform danger into safety, turn calamity into blessing, and use their immeasurable merit to remedy and deliver their adversaries.