Sylvester wrote:From Ajahn Thanissaro's notes on the Vinaya -
A bhikkhu who kills a "non-human being" — a yakkha, nāga, or peta — or a devatā (this last is in the Commentary) incurs a thullaccaya. According to the Commentary, when a spirit possesses a human being or an animal, it can be exorcised in either of two ways. The first is to command it to leave: This causes no injury to the spirit and results in no offense.
so I repeatedly and somewhat forcefully, said something along the lines of "If there are any demons/asuras/ghosts in my presence, or in my being, or in my mind, body, soul, or in my life at all, or in my family's presence, or in my house, I'm firmly telling you to leave right now... leave... leave...leave". I repeated this multiple times, because at first I was saying it with a mental intention as if I was mentally talking to them as well, but I then worried that if by doing this I was creating a mental connection with them, so I then repeated saying this without the sense that I was also mentally talking to them. I said this all in a very low voice, because the rest of my family was sleeping, and I didn't want to sound crazy. Anyways, I eventually stopped doing this, but I worried if I had been too harsh with the way I had said it, and that I could've possibly created bad blood. I worried that if there were demons/asuras or ghosts present, they would want to hurt me since I was harsh with them, or if there weren't any demons/asuras or ghosts present, then other demons/asuras or ghosts could've picked up with what I was doing and would want to hurt me. It's giving me a lot of anxiety, so I'd like definitely appreciate advice on how you think I should deal with this.
*Note: There was no sense of any demons present, this was just all anxiety.