ความกลัวที่ฝังใจต่อสัตว์เล็กๆ ที่ทำร้ายเราไม่ได้ เกี่ยวเนื่องกับทั้งกฎไตรลักษณ์และกฎแห่งกรรม ยิ่งถ้าลงมือทำลายสัตว์นั้นด้วยความขัดเคือง ก็จะเหนี่ยวนำบาปเข้ามาสร้างวิบัติในชีวิตA deep-rooted fear of small creatures that can't actually harm us ties into both the law of the three characteristics and the law of karma — and if that fear leads us to kill or harm the creature out of aversion, it draws in demerit that later brings misfortune.
Someone asked: does the deep aversion some people feel toward insects or certain animals — not wanting to even look at them, even though the creature is too small to hurt us — have anything to do with karma from a past life?
It's connected, because everything ties back to two laws: and the law of karma. Where our aversion comes from in the past — some people fear worms, earthworms, or cockroaches — usually traces back to childhood, when parents and siblings instilled a wrong view, teaching us to fear and to deal with the creature whenever we encountered it. What lies behind this conditioning is , operating according to the law of the three characteristics — nature, the unwholesome nature, and the neutral nature. The unwholesome guides us into aversion toward living beings, even harmless ones, and once that's embedded in childhood, whenever we meet what we're averse to, what arises is domanassa — mental suffering, distinct from physical suffering. When that mental suffering arises, the unwholesome urges us: kill it, deal with it — because of the irritation and displeasure.
When we act on that unwholesome guidance, demerit arises for us. In the act of dealing with the creature, we draw in demerit together with misfortune. Once it's done, the result is sealed into our sphere of demerit, stored on the timeline of our life — both the near future in this life and the distant future in lives to come. When that result comes due, we must receive it: suffering that must be endured and is hard to bear. The misfortune bound up in that demerit will destroy our material wealth, our good qualities, our circle of dependents, our fame, praise, and . If it went as far as killing the creature, it will eventually destroy our own life too — causing the heart to falter, our life force drawn away by the demerit's result, shortening our lifespan. But if it stopped short of killing — only injuring — we still receive that result in the form of falling ill easily and being prone to accidents.