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The Holistic Mystic: |
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Spiritual Pest Control
by Lonny Brown, HHc. |
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Non-violence is a noble sentiment with a history of distinguished proponents from Buddha and Christ to Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. In garden ecology, proactive non-violence engenders companion planting and natural predators in lieu of toxic chemical pesticides. (From a holistic point of view, it is not surprising that such cooperative agriculture yields the healthiest and most delicious produce.) The rights of animals, and even those of trees have become public issues, as we continue to question our aggressive heritage and destructive tendencies.
But where do we draw the line in the spirit of cooperation with the wild kingdoms? For most of us it's at our front door. We may be assimilating some eastern attitudes, but it's highly unlikely that many Americans will develop the kind of total passive acceptance that has made cows in the streets of Calcutta as omnipresent as people. Reverence for life is fine, but co-habitation with bovines, insects and rodents? No thanks.
How then to be spiritually/environmentally correct, when the doctrine of harmlessness (Sanskrit: Ahimsa) is at odds with good hygiene?
It was just this kind of conflict that led the residents of the Minneapolis Zen Center to ask their teacher, Katagiri Roshi, for advice. Their (meditation hall) had become over-run with cockroaches, and the odious little critters were disturbing meditators and discouraging visitors to the center. Since, in Buddhism the very first precept is the rule against killing, they were caught in a classic moral dilemma. After silently considering the problem, the Roshi - in true Zen fashion - refused to tell his perplexed students what to do.
Moral Dilemmas
Spiritual literature and lore are full of paradoxes in reference to the taking of life. Most Tibetan Buddhists, for example, have taken the vow of non-killing, and dedicate their spiritual practices to the well-being of all sentient beings, yet they are also meat-eaters. The enlightened figure Chen Re Zig, the very ideal and embodiment of perfect compassion, is depicted with a full antelope pelt draped over his shoulder.
In the Essene Gospel of Peace, (a transcription from the Dead Sea Scrolls), after instructing his listeners to refrain from meat-eating, Christ addresses the killing of animals:
“I tell you truly, of all the creatures living upon the earth, God created only Man after His image. Wherefore, beasts are for man, and not man for beasts. You do not, therefore, transgress the law if you kill the wild beast to save your brother's life. For I tell you truly, man is more than the beast. But he who kills a beast without cause, though the beast attack him not, through lust for slaughter or for its flesh, or for its hide, or yet for its tusks, evil is the deed which he does, for he is turned into a wild beast himself. Wherefore is his end also as the end of wild beasts.”
For fifteen years I lived in a modest cabin in the woods in New England, with plenty of opportunity to reflect on the man-versus-nature conundrum. My little country home was besieged in turn by black flies, mosquitoes, wasps, mice, spiders, moths by the millions, and an insidious microscopic biting gnat locally dubbed “no-see-ums” that easily cruised right through my tightest screens. For 15 consecutive springtimes this army of invaders offered me their perennial challenge: capitulate or fight.. mayhem or murder. After much consideration and experimentation with a wide variety of tactics, both defensive and offensive, a certain philosophy of pest-control has emerged.
What do the Ants Think?
First, we must adopt the enlightened native-American view of the other living creatures as kindred spirits. In truth they are neither enemy nor dispensable in the great scheme of things. All life is sacred and important within Creation’s matrix.
Next, acknowledge that the presence of household pests may be telling us something about our households. The ants in my kitchen, for instance, were informing me that my tidiness left something to be desired. They wouldn't be there if my crumbs were not. In fact, I needed to thank them for teaching me to keep a clean house!
Mr. Charles Hapgood, author of Voices of Spirit, tells of how, when dealing with a colony of ants in his home, he tried convincing them with reason. For several days he would patiently explain his position to the ants, recalling the liabilities of their continued residence, and the mutual benefits of a speedy departure. Much to his amazement, the friendly persuasion worked, and the insects departed.
Having used it myself, I can vouch for the effectiveness of this approach. Here are a few helpful hints for communicating with ants and other swarming, colonial critters.
As with many species, individual ants are relentlessly stupid, but when functioning as a group they often exhibit a remarkable degree of intelligence. One explanation for this is that the "lower" life-forms have not yet evolved to the soul-stage of individuation, but participate instead as a collective over-entity, often called the "deva" of that colony (hive, nest, den..) It is this trans-corporeal deva which receives the information relayed automatically from its many exploring members, and which in turn responds with group behavioral modifications.
For this reason, one should address the colony as a whole, as if it were one being to whom any single insects are more or less replaceable parts. Then, for example, if a few individuals are inadvertently extinguished during your clean-up operations you can view this as an unfortunate but temporary loss of a minor regenerative appendage of the colony. Keep talking to the clony deva. Say you are sorry, but you are only doing what you must, and that you hope it will soon cooperate and depart. In this way, the group consciousness will eventually learn the necessary consequences of trespassing on your territory.
Aside from direct confrontation with pests, other means of dissuasion and diversion can be considered, such as pet/predators and off-site compost piles. Animals and insects invariably take the path of least resistance.
But then of course there are the varieties of air-born carnivores such as mosquitoes that are after your blood, not your leftovers. What can you do after you've cleaned, screened, ignored and implored, and still the little suckers refuse to allow you a decent night's rest?
Killing with Kindness
Before getting down to last resorts, this might be the time to mention one of the least used means of natural pest control, “spiritual-etheric immunity.” In the East, there are numerous accounts of saintly beings using their higher powers to ward off threatening creatures of every description. The phenomenon has been observed often enough to be accepted as common knowledge in many cultures. Thousands once witnessed one of India's dreaded king cobra snakes glide through a quickly-parting crowd directly to the feet of Mahatma Gandhi, only to pause and bask in his esteemed presence, then retreat back to its forest habitat. And in his classic Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda recalls being tormented by a swarm of bloodthirsty mosquitoes while only a few feet away sat his Guru, Sri Yukteswar, unmolested, in peaceful meditation.
It is not clear whether such masters accomplish these feats by generating some kind of electromagnetic animal repellent, or through direct telepathy with the creatures, but even making the effort is fruitful.
Intruding pests can reveal much about our habitual conditioning, our attachments and fears, and sometimes about the greater powers of the mind. In any case, a certain sensitivity may be in order during our encounters with non-human "nuisances." The animals, our evolutionary juniors, provide us with the opportunity to practice compassion, a much-needed commodity in this world. The insects are especially appreciable as survival artists of the highest ingenuity. They demonstrate co-evolution with other species, bio-chemical and sonar-communications, geo-navigation, and many other technical achievements worth our study and imitation.
Only after all these possible lessons have been appreciated, and after all other means of pest control have been tried, can killing be justified. This decision should be conscious and considered as often as necessary to keep from developing a callous attitude toward the taking of life. (In colonial times, butchers were routinely excluded from juries, because they were felt to be hardened by killing.)
In such matters it would do us well to take a lesson from Native American wisdom. The Indians and Eskimos, like almost all pre-industrial cultures that live in intimate harmony with nature, teach a proper respect for all life, even - or perhaps especially - during the act of taking it. At that moment (and it matters little whether we're sacrificing a buffalo or a bug), we can kill with compassion or we can kill with a vengeance. Both the choice and the consequences are ours. One experience opens the heart, the other poisons it.
To properly spiritualize a sacrifice, deliberate invocative incantations are sometimes chanted at the moment of death. In Tibetan Buddhism, it is said that any creature that so much as hears the sacred phrase Om Mani Padme Hum is assured of a rebirth in a higher realm. By reciting the mantra with this selfless intent, you can turn a mere extermination into a charitable act that hopefully benefits both you and your victim!
Can one then literally "kill with kindness"? The late Isabel Hickey, the grandmother of modern American esoteric astrology, used to provide a convincing example at her New Hampshire summer home. With a twinkle in her eye Mrs. Hickey - who was on a strictly first-name basis with the Creator - would always utter the injunction "Go to God," just before smashing a mosquito!
But there can be no one correct formula for the taking of life. Wise persons of every tradition have agreed that there is a Truth higher than conventional morality, but to be in tune with it, we must be totally awake to the uniqueness of every situation, and the sacredness of each living thing.
Life necessitates death. Every day millions of microbes, insects, plants and animals die so that you may continue to live and breathe on this planet. This constant sacrifice is not trivial. Small and dumb as these beings are, they still give completely the only thing they have, their life. If we are to be worthy of the gift, and continue to grow spiritually, we must knowingly accept the implications of all our actions, and create out of the life and death struggle a meaning that is redeeming in purpose, transcendent in scope and vision. Only then will the knowing of what must be done be in perfect union with the doing.
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Lonny Brown,
HHC.
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Lonny J. Brown, HHC is the author of "Self-Actuated Healing" (Naturegraph, Publ.), and "Enlightenment In Our Time," (BookLocker.com/
LonnyBrown).
His writings on holistic health have appeared on AOL's Alternative Medicine Forum and in Alternative Health Practitioner, Yoga Journal, and many other progressive publications.
Lonny Brown teaches holistic health, mind/body healing, and stress reduction courses at hospitals, schools and businesses throughout the US. His Web site also features essays, tapes, books, and links to a variety of integrative health sources.
holistic.com/lonny
lonny@holistic.com
lonnybrown@aol.com
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