crabs for dinner.......

A place to discuss casual topics amongst spiritual friends.
User avatar
altar
Posts: 297
Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2009 6:24 pm
Location: Great Barrington, MA

crabs for dinner.......

Post by altar »

i opened the refrigerator, saw a box of food, pulled it out, and opened it, and ... live crabs!.
i have no idea what to do...
my options are:
- just forget about it.
- look forward to eating crabs
- put them in the river across the street.

obviously the crabs are not "mine,"
but i feel kind of lost, because to fry them seems weird...
and to return them the river seems presumptuous in the sense that it is assuming that i know best and i should just go freeing all the animals despite the fact that we must eat.
meh so i'm just forgetting about it and they'll be dead and for dinner later tonight...
User avatar
Sam Vara
Site Admin
Posts: 13482
Joined: Sun Jun 05, 2011 5:42 pm
Location: Portsmouth, U.K.

Re: crabs for dinner.......

Post by Sam Vara »

altar wrote: Sun May 27, 2018 6:08 pm i opened the refrigerator, saw a box of food, pulled it out, and opened it, and ... live crabs!.
i have no idea what to do...

obviously the crabs are not "mine,"
I'm a bit confused. You seem surprised about them being there. Are they a purchase, or an infestation?!
User avatar
altar
Posts: 297
Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2009 6:24 pm
Location: Great Barrington, MA

Re: crabs for dinner.......

Post by altar »

they are a purchase but my mom bought them! we have different standards for cooking so i eat meat etc. when she buys it (i buy it but not as much as her) but now that its something live i'm not sure what to do... but i've basically realized that im not doing anything wrong by just leaving them there...
User avatar
Sam Vara
Site Admin
Posts: 13482
Joined: Sun Jun 05, 2011 5:42 pm
Location: Portsmouth, U.K.

Re: crabs for dinner.......

Post by Sam Vara »

altar wrote: Sun May 27, 2018 6:31 pm they are a purchase but my mom bought them! we have different standards for cooking so i eat meat etc. when she buys it (i buy it but not as much as her) but now that its something live i'm not sure what to do... but i've basically realized that im not doing anything wrong by just leaving them there...
Ah! I see now! Yes, I don't think you are doing anything wrong by leaving them there. Killing them would, I think, be worse than leaving them there or even eating them if someone else kills them.
User1249x
Posts: 2749
Joined: Mon Jan 01, 2018 8:50 pm

Re: crabs for dinner.......

Post by User1249x »

altar wrote: Sun May 27, 2018 6:08 pm i opened the refrigerator...
talk to mom since they are her crabs, advocate for river across the street and dont eat if they are killed for you. Also teach mom not to murder living beings.
User avatar
altar
Posts: 297
Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2009 6:24 pm
Location: Great Barrington, MA

Re: crabs for dinner.......

Post by altar »

rightview,
instead of teaching my mom not to kill living beings i am teaching myself that these things are out of my power.
User1249x
Posts: 2749
Joined: Mon Jan 01, 2018 8:50 pm

Re: crabs for dinner.......

Post by User1249x »

altar wrote: Sun May 27, 2018 6:52 pm rightview,
instead of teaching my mom not to kill living beings i am teaching myself that these things are out of my power.
Kataññu Suttas: Gratitude

"Monks, I will teach you the level of a person of no integrity and the level of a person of integrity. Listen & pay close attention. I will speak."

"As you say, lord," the monks responded.

The Blessed One said, "Now what is the level of a person of no integrity? A person of no integrity is ungrateful & unthankful. This ingratitude, this lack of thankfulness, is advocated by rude people. It is entirely on the level of people of no integrity. A person of integrity is grateful & thankful. This gratitude, this thankfulness, is advocated by civil people. It is entirely on the level of people of integrity."

{II,iv,2} "I tell you, monks, there are two people who are not easy to repay. Which two? Your mother & father. Even if you were to carry your mother on one shoulder & your father on the other shoulder for 100 years, and were to look after them by anointing, massaging, bathing, & rubbing their limbs, and they were to defecate & urinate right there [on your shoulders], you would not in that way pay or repay your parents. If you were to establish your mother & father in absolute sovereignty over this great earth, abounding in the seven treasures, you would not in that way pay or repay your parents. Why is that? Mother & father do much for their children. They care for them, they nourish them, they introduce them to this world. But anyone who rouses his unbelieving mother & father, settles & establishes them in conviction; rouses his unvirtuous mother & father, settles & establishes them in virtue; rouses his stingy mother & father, settles & establishes them in generosity; rouses his foolish mother & father, settles & establishes them in discernment: To this extent one pays & repays one's mother & father."
User avatar
Pseudobabble
Posts: 938
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2017 11:11 am
Location: London

Re: crabs for dinner.......

Post by Pseudobabble »

Plus you know full well those crabs are going to be killed specifically for you (and others). Which means your only option is the river.
"Does Master Gotama have any position at all?"

"A 'position,' Vaccha, is something that a Tathagata has done away with. What a Tathagata sees is this: 'Such is form, such its origination, such its disappearance; such is feeling, such its origination, such its disappearance; such is perception...such are fabrications...such is consciousness, such its origination, such its disappearance.'" - Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta


'Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return.' - Genesis 3:19

'Some fart freely, some try to hide and silence it. Which one is correct?' - Saegnapha
santa100
Posts: 6811
Joined: Fri Jun 10, 2011 10:55 pm

Re: crabs for dinner.......

Post by santa100 »

altar wrote:and to return them the river seems presumptuous in the sense that it is assuming that i know best and i should just go freeing all the animals despite the fact that we must eat.
Nothing presumptuous about that situation. Try seeing it the other way around, say, you yourself is in a situation where you're facing a 100% chance of being killed, you'd certainly appreciate someone who can get you out of that situation and put you anywhere with a slightly better chance of survival. About whether to say something to your mom or not, apply similar logic: without saying anything, those crabs' fate is 100% certain; by saying something, there's still some chance. And even if the outcome is the same, at least you've made a conscious choice, and so does your mom.
SarathW
Posts: 21227
Joined: Mon Sep 10, 2012 2:49 am

Re: crabs for dinner.......

Post by SarathW »

Will you have the same compassion for ants and mosquitos?
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
sentinel
Posts: 3236
Joined: Sun Jun 04, 2017 1:26 pm

Re: crabs for dinner.......

Post by sentinel »

Please release them while you can .
Save them even they can survive a little longer .
Tell your mom you release them .
Don't over worry or think too much .
You always gain by giving
User avatar
Dhammarakkhito
Posts: 1115
Joined: Tue Jun 27, 2017 7:31 am
Contact:

Re: crabs for dinner.......

Post by Dhammarakkhito »

+1 [name redacted by admin]. teaching your mother not to kill, not supporting killing, practicing for yourself and others https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitak ... .than.html

is it stealing to release a being from captivity? well, if it is then don't but otherwise that would be quite upstanding, regardless of what disputes arose
"Just as a firebrand from a funeral pyre — burning at both ends, covered with excrement in the middle — is used as fuel neither in a village nor in the wilderness: I tell you that this is a simile for the individual who practices neither for his/her own benefit nor for that of others. The individual who practices for the benefit of others but not for his/her own is the higher & more refined of these two. The individual who practices for his/her own benefit but not for that of others is the highest & most refined of these three. The individual who practices for his/her own benefit and for that of others is, of these four, the foremost, the chief, the most outstanding, the highest, & supreme. Just as from a cow comes milk; from milk, curds; from curds, butter; from butter, ghee; from ghee, the skimmings of ghee; and of these, the skimmings of ghee are reckoned the foremost — in the same way, of these four, the individual who practices for his/her own benefit and for that of others is the foremost, the chief, the most outstanding, the highest, & supreme.
the least you would do is not eat the crabs if they are killed specifically for you.
"Just as the ocean has a single taste — that of salt — in the same way, this Dhamma-Vinaya has a single taste: that of release."
— Ud 5.5

https://www.facebook.com/noblebuddhadha ... 34/?type=3

http://seeingthroughthenet.net/
https://sites.google.com/site/santipada ... allytaught
denise
Posts: 659
Joined: Sun Sep 07, 2014 4:56 pm
Location: U.S.A.

Re: crabs for dinner.......

Post by denise »

the river....couldn't rest knowing their slow sad death in the frig....and wondering "are they dead yet?" some people would say that's silly....have always had this heart when something like this comes up...... :heart:
User avatar
altar
Posts: 297
Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2009 6:24 pm
Location: Great Barrington, MA

Re: crabs for dinner.......

Post by altar »

Well in the end she understood me not wanting to eat them but would not allow for them to go in the river...
User avatar
Dhammarakkhito
Posts: 1115
Joined: Tue Jun 27, 2017 7:31 am
Contact:

Re: crabs for dinner.......

Post by Dhammarakkhito »

good
"Just as the ocean has a single taste — that of salt — in the same way, this Dhamma-Vinaya has a single taste: that of release."
— Ud 5.5

https://www.facebook.com/noblebuddhadha ... 34/?type=3

http://seeingthroughthenet.net/
https://sites.google.com/site/santipada ... allytaught
Post Reply