tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27072566.post5930091011466597607..comments2024-03-14T03:16:23.482-05:00Comments on Everyone Needs Therapy: Not Very Zentherapydochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05088184676439578876noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27072566.post-82161875708491791032014-10-26T19:18:05.343-05:002014-10-26T19:18:05.343-05:00Totally with u on wanna bee lady bugs & yellow...Totally with u on wanna bee lady bugs & yellow jackets. U r a hero!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27072566.post-82498146795412848662014-10-24T08:26:23.526-05:002014-10-24T08:26:23.526-05:00I think there is a continuum of violence. There is...I think there is a continuum of violence. There is no way to entirely escape violence as living beings. My immune system attacks intruding organisms (virus or bacterial, allergens, too). Those organisms are driven to survive. Every time a person gets sick a war is waged within that person's body. If it's happening in my body, I want me to win and to do that it means other organisms have to die. I can't even control that level of violence. <br /><br />When I started thinking some years ago about this continuum of violence, I realized that I had completely distanced myself from the fact that meat that I eat is from something that died. I didn't think of myself as handling dead things, yet several times a week I prepare chicken or beef and handle something that died in order for me to live. <br /><br />I think of honey bees as relatively docile. I learned that I can sit in my garden among blooming flowers with the bees happily going from flower to flower and they have zero interest in me unless I directly attack them. Yellow jackets are something else entirely. The are aggressive even in the absence of provocation. I kill them using poisons. <br /><br />I don't mind killing mosquitoes, either. I dispatch large cockroaches, as well. <br /><br />I like other bugs... butterflies, regular ladybugs (as opposed to the ones you described), dragonflies, fireflies, for instance. I would avoid trying to kill them. It's not entirely logical, why some bugs are okay and others aren't. <br /><br />I was first made aware of thinking about this continuum of violence when taking yoga and my teacher introduced the concept of 'ahimsa', non-violence. When I thought of the range of things from smallest to largest that may have to die in order for me to live, I realized that I do tolerate a certain amount of it and I do so without much internal anguish. <br /><br />I remember learning from Tibetans (who are, interestingly, not usually vegetarian because their country was not one that allowed them to grow much food, but rather instead to produce meat) that they do consider it an equal loss of life, whether it is a chicken or a yak. And because a life is a life, they generally opt to kill a large animal, because it can feed many people, rather than a small animal like a chicken because that will feed only a few. <br /><br />I've practiced yoga for 27 years now. I think of myself as nonviolent overall. I certainly strive not to harm others emotionally, psychologically, nor physically. But I still kill intruding cockroaches and can feel positively ruthless about ridding my yard of unwelcome nests of yellow jackets. I rejoice that my neighbors are having their yard treated to kill mosquitoes. Somebody is going to win and I guess I'm selfish enough to prefer that it is me. Mound Buildernoreply@blogger.com