Non-Violence 35
slightest degree, through your mind, speech and actions.
The five-sensory living beings such as cows, chickens, goats etc., come next. You do not have to worry about these as much as you should about humans, nevertheless you should be careful and not harm them in any way.
The two or more sensory living organisms are next. Any food that comprises one-sensory organisms is the best kind of food to eat. Those who desire liberation should not eat foods composed of two or more sensory life-forms. The more senses in the life-forms in your food, the more your merit karma is used up. You should not take on the liability for violence against lives with two or more senses.
We humans must eat to survive, but when we consume food, we incur a liability because the food we eat is made up of at least one-sensory life-forms. When we eat this food, we are responsible for the violence that arises in the act of eating. But the Lord has allowed us the freedom to eat because of our high merit karma balance. In the act of eating these life-forms, although you incur a liability, the benefits you gain are much greater. The nourishment sustains you and keeps you alive and because you do good deeds, you earn merit karma. For example, if you earn hundred points from your good deeds, in destroying these lifeforms, you lose ten points. The ten points you lose is credited to the life-forms you kill, which will earn them a higher birth. This progression into higher life-forms is a natural process in the universe. They will progress from a single-sensory organism to a two-sensory organism and so on. This is how the evolutionary process takes place. In providing benefits to humans, these lifeforms also reap benefits for themselves. But people do not understand this science.
So, you must not interfere with the violence that occurs as a result of eating single-sensory life-forms. To do so involves ego. The single-sensory life-forms do not run away from you in fear,