Me, Myself & Ants

Posted in Buddhism by amituofo on March 23, 2008

Today I would like to share with you something out of my, well, life experience.

It happened when we moved into our new apartment a couple of months ago. Everything seemed to be fine and usual in the first few beginning weeks.

I had my first swim on the olympic-size pool and taught her the proper way to stay a float. Yes, she doesn’t know how to swim but, puzzling enough is that she like to swim. My first attempt at the gym lasted only 10 minutes, I didn’t know why I went there in the first place. I guess the euphoria of being in “our new apartment” led me to do all the things that I usually don’t. But at least the sauna experience was good enough.

Then one day out of the blue we had an unexpected guests to our apartment. Lots of them, as if we were the guests and they were the host. Our privacy was compromised with them roaming our place and stealing our foods. I did not understand why they were here, where they came from and what they were talking about but I could somehow feel that they were protesting over their (wait, isn’t this ours?) territory. I guessed they were saying something like, “hi there, this is our place but at least you should have the courtesy to inform us that you are coming to stay here….”

I thought so. How could I be sure? We speak different languages, OK? How could I communicate with an army of ants..

Did I say ants? Yes, they were ants…an army of ants and the female queens in our kitchen. I wonder why the queens are always bigger than the male.

Of course being a buddhist, I did not kill them then though it was rather convenient to do so. I let it be thinking that they only made an impromptu visit and would leave the next day. I did not want to create unnecessary bad karma. You kill them today, you owe them their lives and you have to pay your debts, maybe not in this lifetime, maybe next and the cycle is very, very difficult to break. Sensing that I had no intention to kill them and even let them stay, I woke up one morning to discover that they had already invited their relatives, parents, brothers and sisters and not forgetting their neighbours too to make a major conquest of our kitchen. And this is already too much. But then again, these tiny creatures just do not possess the wisdom we human has. They are just being ignorant.

My girlfriend asked me what to do about it. Seriously we had no problem with them sharing our kitchen but because they were too tiny that sometimes we may accidentally harm them which we did. And since the kitchen as always is lady’s territory and under her command, I suggested her to talk to them.

…YES, TALK TO THEM AS IF THEY WERE OUR FRIENDS..

She did it! I could overheard her talking to them though with a disbelief voice and it goes something like this…

(edited version)

Dear ants,

We understand your predicament as we are now occupying your place by building a kitchen here. Don’t look at us as your enemies as we are not, we are your friends.

But may we just suggest to you that you stay in your allocated place anywhere that we can’t see you? and if you are hungry and there is a leftover food, just assign some ants to collect it on behalf and don’t just roam the place as if there are no one in the kitchen.

We do not wish to cause any harm to anyone of you? We are big and you are too tiny. We sometimes may accidentally kill you and/or your beloved ones while cleaning the kicthen. So please be more concern about your precious life and may Buddha blesses you all.

Amituofo.

Funny, isn’t it? No, it is not.. we even do that now to beings of other creatures.

I know some of you may think why we actually bother to care or even attempt to talk to them; they are just ants you may say. Yes, these ants are tiny and helpless in our eyes so are we in the eye of the Buddha.

If Buddha has shown great compassion, love and care towards us, why not we learn to be one like him? After all, we are just like tiny and helpless creatures too in the eyes of Buddha.

…..and now those ants have disappeared and I do miss them sometimes.

Read more articles tag with buddhist story, compassion.