Expert: Justin Choo - 2/26/2010

Question
QUESTION: Dear sir,

  accidentally killed a cockroach or mosquito, they were born as them by karma. if i killed them accidentally do i create bad karma towards me ? or do i help them to reborn which creates good karma towards me ?

ANSWER: Hi Udayan,

In the Buddhist context, a person is fully responsible for the act of killing only if the following 5 conditions are fulfilled:

1.The victim of the killing must be a living being.
2.The killer must know the victim is a living being.
3.The killer must have the volition to kill the victim.
4.The killer personally act on the killing.
5.The victim dies as a result of this action.

If you accidentally killed them, then not all the above 5 conditions are fulfilled. In this sense you have not created 100% bad kamma, maybe none at all.  How could you claim merits if you have committed killing, not withstanding whether the victim could have a better rebirth.

Hope this helps.

Justin Choo

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Sir thanks for answering.actually i m from INDIA (buddha birth place)and i m very interested in Buddhism and a lay buddhist. I want to know more about karma.
1. once i saw a TV program, there one guy went to deep forest.he was starving then.he did not have veg to eat or any fruit around but a white rabbit. he killed that rabbit and cooked and ate away and he said we should be starving whatever we see that is suitable to eat , have it.
in this case. where karma lies. if i don't want to kill that rabbit then i must be starving and dying. If i killed that rabbit, i might fulfill my thirst or hunger. So what is dharma here
Should i anyway kill the rabbit to eat in order not to be starving ?
or
should i be starving even if i see rabbit that can be eaten ?

I heard that buddha said we should eat to keep dharma (physically).

Answer
Hi Udayan,

I know where you are coming from.

First you must remember that Kamma is one topic that you will never be satisfied with the answers.  We will never know exactly how Kamma works.  So let's just say Kamma works in mysterious ways.

Another aspect in Buddhism is that the Budhha encouraged us to use our common sense and human intelligence to solve problems by ourselves.  Should you starve or should you eat the poor rabbit?  This you can answer yourself.  You asked a good question : "So what is dharma here?"  The dhamma here is not the question of whether you should eat the rabbit or not.  The Dhamma is this.  In this world there is dukkha, the unbearable, the unsatisfactoriness.  We need to eat to survive, and even if we only eat vegetables, some lives have to be killed in order the vegetables can grow healthily.  So are many things in life. This is the first Noble Truth the Buddha was referring to. So long as we exist, we will be subjected to face this Dukkha.   

Think about it, deeply.

Justin Choo.