Meggo Mu Mu:
for me: problem = problem with an emotion. there seems to be no problem which isn't an emotional problem, or no problem outside emotions.
so
hazardous to practice = emotional problem
bad health = emotional problem
i agree
Meggo Mu Mu:
but you seem to imply that guilt and/or sadness which could arise by killing insects are self-evidently less important than the emotions which are created by health problems or bad practice. why?
hmm, i didn't mean to say that.
there are two potential emotional problems here: insects causing stress, and killing insects causing stress. something has to change, otherwise you are stressed either way.
you can change the beliefs that cause insects to cause stress, and thus not have stress caused by insects, or you can chance the beliefs that cause killing insects to cause stress, and thus not have stress cause by killing insects.
about insects themselves causing stress, this happens because they do seem to cause a dirty atmosphere, a dirty environment, a physically-diseased atmosphere.
about killing insects causing stress, this happens because of taking up a belief, that the precept against killing any living thing be upheld at any cost. but that belief was taken up precisely to prevent causing stress.
i guess it is a personal choice. to me the latter seems sillier than the former.
but in any case, calling in an exterminator, or buying an animal to take care of the problem for you, seems like just rationalizing around the issue, like irrational thinking which just perpetuates the belief, though i suppose if that causes the least amount of stress you could do that.