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DARE I KILL THE SNAKE?
BY DAVID ROTHENBERG
IFE THRIVES ON LIFE. It may not be to
non-violence but we can begin by becoming mindful of the violence we inflict on the Earth.
MOHANDAS GANDHI, in 1984 asked the following question in a letter to Srimad Racjchandra, the famous Jain teacher: "If a snake is about to bite me, should I kill it, supposing that there is no other way in which I can save myself?". This is the classic question to test the firmness of a person's environmental ethics. After having expressed our deepest concern for the equal rights of all species to flourish, when push comes to shove, will we not always chose selfinterest if we are mortally in danger?
This sort of challenge is used to put down environmental ethics into the rubbish heap of high and mighty ideals that no one in real conflicts could hope to adhere to. But the Jains have a profound perspective on this matter.
Padmanabh Jaini writes that "Himsa has ordinarily been understood in India as harm done to others; for Jainas, however, it refers primarily to injuring oneself." Harming animals is wrong because it demands passion that grips us in the bondage of everyday life. Killing of other beings is shunned as part of the path to the most profound kind of non-violence, learning to see the full realm of yourself as a place where the hurting of others becomes impossible to conceive of.
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Jain Spirit July September 1999
Jain Education International
This is compatible with the notion of animal rights, but it requires a wider and fuller concern for all of us as a part of a universal ecology.
SO, WHAT DID Raychandbai reply to Gandhi? "I hesitate to advise that you should let the snake bite you. Nevertheless, how can it be right for you, if you have realized that your own body is perishable, to kill a creature which clings to its own life with great attachment?... Anyone who desires spiritual welfare should let their own perish in such circumstances. If a person lacks a noble character, I might advise them to kill the snake, but we should wish that neither you nor I will even dream of being such a person."
What would I do in that situation myself? Kill the snake if I could and not feel it was yet my time to die. Perhaps that reveals me as someone who has not yet achieved noble character, a lifetime practice of aspiration.
Or: think of American desert ranger Edward Abbey, discovering that his house caravan in Arches National Monument is infested with rattle-snakes. What does he do? Trap a gopher snake, sworn enemy of rattlers across the sagebrush, and train it to keep guard over his home. If there is to be killing of snakes, let other snakes do it. An ecological way to watch death? There is no way to avoid the death of ourselves and of others here on this earth. But we must be mindful of it, not let it go by without taking a stand.
I still want to save this place while I am here, and that means I can continue to consider the vision of Jains stepping smoothly in and around nature as a virtuous ideal. This is so important because for most of us it will always be out of
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reach, like the idea that a single self can encompass the cares of ar imperilled planet. The challenge i to be able to act with conviction once these pure, seeming!! inaccessible thoughts are inside us
We wish to tread lightly on thi planet, but we still leave a trace much harder to erase than mos species. Humanity has become species that needs to leave a marl to realise our selves and ideals Whatever we wish, that mark wil
still be left. There will be killing some will live, some will die. It' not always the best who survive.
Should we all retreat from death kill nothing but vegetables, ris morally into vegetarianism? It is fine and noble path, but I would not insist that all follow it. As long as we do kill each other to survive we who feel a part of the more-than-human world as mucl as the human realm, we must no shun regret, but instead learn to take it most seriously, and share in the suffering that we inflict. It i part of being human, an inevitable part, to suffer and to cause suffering. Dare I kill the snake Dare identify with the snake Dare I take the life of the snake a: seriously as I take my own?
We thrive on life. We will have to take some other lives to continue our own. I do not know if it is righ to say we should apologise before pulling peppers off plants o wrenching carrots out of the earth It may be enough to begin by becoming mindful of the violence humanity inflicts on the Earth, such that we may see through the tunnel of tragedy to the bright ligh of peace, available to those who are truly ready to be attentive toward the world and all the riches it offers.
PAPERCUT: ELISA TRIMBY
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