[obedm]

Gorgeous.

I'm a strong atheist but Buddhism has always been the religion I've respected the most. At least the philosophical aspect of it.

I used to struggle with this too. To this day I use a box to pick up spiders or mosquitoes and take then outside instead of killing them. But I wouldn't doubt killing termites to save my plants.

We kill everyday. When we walk, or drive the car. We're powerful giants. But we can be respectful giants.

It doesn't absolve us from our "sins", but it's far better than nothing.

I think it can be narrowed down to "be respectful". Letting your rats die would be disrespectful to them. Killing a spider that isn't harming you is disrespectful to them. Walking on top of ants you know are there is disrespectful to them.

[mping]

This is correct; the "no kill" rule is something you aim for, it doesn't mean you necessarily achieve it. In Mahayana Buddhism there's a story about the Buddha's prior lives, where he decided to kill someone out of compassion: the victim wanted to murder a lot of people, but the future-Buddha killed him to avoid his suffering [1]. Likewise, the Buddhist precepts are training rules, not necessarily commandments that will take you to hell if you break them.

[1] http://venyifa.blogspot.com/2008/09/story-of-compassionate-s...