In the previous article, I have written about the 5 main precepts in Buddhism, as known as Pancasila, the most basic things that a lay Buddhist should know. One of the precepts is I undertake the precepts to refrain from killing, as it is the first precepts. So in this article, I want to cultivate the precept deeply for lay Buddhists in order to understand and practice it rightly.

Pāṇātipātā veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi

Panatipata is derived from the word ‘pana’ and ‘atipata’. ‘Pana’ means ‘being or life’ and ‘atipata’ means ‘end rapidly’. So, Panatipata means ‘cause an end to a being or life rapidly’ and shortly means ‘killing’.

Generally, a being is a living creature. For example, human, animal, plant, and microorganism. They have their own life. However, in Buddhism, a being has the following characteristics:

It has mind and sentient It needs nutrition It can move to anywhere It can do an activity It can be seen by naked eye.

According to the 5 points above, plant and microorganism don’t fulfill those points because plant doesn’t have mind and sentient and it can’t move to anywhere and microorganism like bacteria can’t be seen by naked eye. They surely can’t be called as ‘being’, only in Buddhism related to the first precept. The being here are only human and animal because they have mind and sentient, can move to anywhere, and can be seen by naked eye. So, we can call human and animal as sentient being.

If you kill a sentient being, then your action is called a killing. However, your action can’t always be said as violating the first precept. There are 5 factors that ensure whether you violated the first precept or not. They are:

There is a sentient being You knew that the sentient being was still alive You have the intention to kill that sentient being You struggled to kill that sentient being The sentient being has been killed

If you killed a sentient being with the 5 points above fulfilled, you have officially violated the precept. If only one of the 5 points above not fulfilled, you can’t be said to violate the precept. For example, if you killed a sentient being without having any intention to kill it or you don’t deliberately kill it, then you don’t violate the precept.

Talking about killing, in Buddhism, is parallel to talking about karma. Karma is an action/work/deed you did based on intention/desire. Every action you did has a karma. If you did something right or good, you have a good karma. If you did something wrong or bad, you have a bad karma.

Killing Human

Human is the supreme sentient beings in the world. They have a good developing mind, moral sentient, and great spirituality than animal. Killing a human is a big crime and big fault in one’s life. Killing a human deserves a big effect of bad karma. Someone who did killing of a human should be punished by the law of the country like jailed for a long time or even executed for the end of his/her life. The effect of the bad karma is not only the punishment from the country but also determines your condition in the next life or afterlife. This is the law of cause and effect.

The measure of the effect of bad karma is depend on the virtues of the killed, the relationship between the killer and the killed, and the effort from the killer to kill.

If someone killed a person that has made many virtues in his life, the killer will get bigger effect of bad karma because beside killing the person, the killer also destroyed the noble/virtue behaviours of the person. The effect is much heavier than killing a person that has made many evils in his life (i.e. a terrorist, a thief, etc). Killing an evil person with the intention to save other people’s life both generates good karma and bad karma.

Someone who killed a person that has close relationship will also get bigger effect of bad karma. For example, killing mother, killing father, killing brother/sister. This action will most likely make the killer to be born in hell for his/her next life. There are 5 bad actions that will take someone to the AVICI hell such as killing father, killing mother, killing an Arahat, injure a Buddha, and segregate the Sangha.

Killing can be done with direct effort and indirect effort. You have known the direct effort. Indirect effort of killing has a middleman. Someone want to kill a person without having contact with the person needs another person as a middleman to kill the targeted person. This action, beside generates a bad karma for the killer (middleman), also generates for the commander because he/she already has the bad intention to end the targeted person’s life and bestow his/her action to the middleman that initially didn’t have any intention to kill the targeted person. Don’t make a false action as a true action.

Killing Animal

If you treated other humans well, you must also treated animals well, regardless the size of an animal. We know that there are animals that give advantages, disadvantages, or neither both of them to humans. However, as human, we must treat them equally. This also comes from the intention.

The measure of the effect of bad karma depends on one’s reason to kill an animal. Someone will get heavier effect of bad karma if he/she killed an animal without any reason (for fun) than killing an animal for protecting himself/herself or other people, to survive, or to conduct an experiment for the growth of science and for other people’s behalf.