Pearls of Wisdom

Spoken by Supreme Master Ching Hai, New York, USA,
June 20, 1994 (originally in English) Videotape No. 436

The precept of non-violence is a reminder for us to always try to avoid harming other living beings' lives as much as we possibly can; so that we don’t intentionally harm them or have the intention of violence in our hearts.

Wanting to kill and accidentally killing are two different things. Killing and “killing” are different: It's not the killing that’s bad; it’s our conscience wanting to kill that’s bad. It’s bad for us, not for the killed. So keeping the non-violence precept is good for you, not for any other being. Because if we lose a physical body, we can get it back again; so those who kill are the ones who become damaged, not those who are killed.

Thus the precept of non-violence is actually meant to remind us to keep a very compassionate, loving heart. We don't want to harm things intentionally because our intention is what kills. It kills those things and also kills us, which is very bad.