[MaugleeRobins]

Hello everyone,

As a buddhist beginner (less than a year), I have been focussing on my daily actions and meditation rather than getting bogged down in some of the discussions between the subtle differences between buddhist traditions etc. Along this line, one of the fundamental buddhist beliefs is to prevent harm to sentient beings, including bugs, ants and worms etc.

I spend time gardening and obviously the purpose of growing up seedlings is to nurture them until fully grown.. there are many bugs that would also like to feast on my vegetables.. do they deserve to eat my vegetables (and kill the plant, thus preventing me from eating it) or should I apply various means to prevent the bugs from eating them. Often, many of these measures may bring harm to the bugs. I do not inherently wish harm to the bugs, but by adding chemicals to the plants, would I indirectly be wishing harm to the bugs?

Secondly, I wanted to find out about peoples thoughts on incidental harm inflicted on creatures. When walking about, there is a great potential to step on bugs and ants crawling on the ground or when driving along highways, there is also the chance of hitting animals and flying insects that splat on the windscreen. Are these incidental deaths, merely a part of my human existence and physical nature. How should I think about this harm?

Thank you for any answers you may have to help solve my practical problems!

Warmest regards,
Nick