I notice birds visiting my balcony garden recently. In my egoistic euphoric moment I thought,” Ah, my metta meditation must be attracting birds. Like Snow White in walt disney animation….”
Then I discovered they were actually attracted by food. Fat juicy caterpillars! The crawlers must be offsprings of visiting butterflies. 🙄
I bought some flowering plants lately. So one karma of buying plants, leads to another karma of butterfly laying eggs.
That leads to caterpillar and then the karma of visiting birds.
Then my egoistic ignorance made me believe I had achieved metta power! (Just kidding)
Thank Buddha that I found the caterpillar in times. That must have saved me from becoming another Buddhist cult leader…..
Anyway, I can squash the crawlers for putting holes to my beautiful plants, but I shouldn’t harm other living beings. Or throw them out (but that will be a long way down from the balcony…)
In the end, I decided to give them safe refuge! Away from the fear of birds.
It is amazing how much the caterpillar can eat and poop. Then it is amazing at how they “coughed” out so much slimy liquid that I thought they must have ingested pesticides! (wait a minute I don’t use pesticides) Yah I got worried about vomiting caterpillars. 😅
Then they shrunk into hardened larvae! But they can still move a bit when disturbed.
Fascinating. I hope they become butterfly soon. “Non self”
May the merit of this act benefit all beings. May all be protected and be free from fear.
May all be well and happy.
P.S. Small acts of kindness counts too. In Buddhism, all acts of kindness are equally important.
