"Miscellaneous
Treasure Sutra" Chapter 4,
The Example of the Buddhist Novice Who Gained Longevity from Saving Ants
There once was a spiritual cultivator who had the fruition of an Arhat, that had a novice monk as his disciple. One day, this Arhat master acknowledged his disciple had only seven days to live, so he gave the young monk a vacation to go home and see his parents and family; but he specifically instructed him to return on the morning of the seventh day.
The young disciple faithfully kept his master's words at heart, bid farewell and started on his way home. While on his journey, he came across an army of ants stranded in water, they were bobbing up and down and on the verge of drowning! Seeing that these ants would any moment lose their lives, he became overcome with compassion, he took off his robe and filled it with soil to stop the flowing water and then moved the ants to higher grounds that were dry, thus all of the ants were kept alive.
On the morning of the seventh day, the novice monk returned to his monastery safe and sound. His Arhat master was much surprised to see him, so he went into deep meditation, and used his divine eye to understand what has happened. It was clear that the young monk had no other contributing factors to extend his lifespan. His compassion for the army of ants and by saving their lives, was the sole reason he lived past the seventh day and will also acquire longevity in the future to come!
From the Buddhist story above, we come to understand that: Saving and protecting sentient beings can actually prolong a previous short lifespan. To save and protect sentient beings is to preserve their lives, by saving their lives we can help steer them away from fear and even death; therefore, when we see that the lives of sentient beings are in jeopardy, we should go forward to save and protect them. Every Buddhist disciple knows, whether it be the Five Precepts, the Ten Precepts, the Bhiksu Precepts, the Bhiksuni Precepts, and the Bodhisattva Precepts, etc., all forbid killing.
This is because all sentient beings dearly treasure their own lives, none is willing to have his entity terminated by others. If they are slaughtered, in their future lives when the fruit of cause and effect ripens, the killer becomes the slaughtered, and the slaughtered becomes the killer. As a result, the roles of aggressor and victim interchange ceaselessly, thus the phenomenon of kill and be killed will never come to an end.
When the Buddha established the precepts, the first precept is not to kill in order to stop the persistent phenomena of killing, for that is how the fruit of cause and effect ripens and continues unfailingly.
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