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Killing, an English term that describe taking one's life or ending a living-being's life physically and mercilessly.

Whereas in Taoist Context, views & concepts on Killing will not be the same as what we know and understand from the English Term of Killing.

In Taoist Context, Killing can easily or summarize into 3 forms.

Each of the form is being clearly describe and examples are being stated in-order for the disciples & students to easily understand and also, to impart the culture to the others in a more easy & careful mode.

In here, I will do a quick & brief intro on these 3 forms of Killing.

First, Killing Upon the Uprightness

Upon looking and reading at the sentence: Killing Upon the Uprightness, many people may start to scratch their head, thinking of why is Uprightness got to involve in Killing?

Here are the explanation:

Uprightness, does not Only imply to Accurate, Correct or Orthodox, but also applies to Loyal & Big Love. When amn Uprightness Killing happened or occurred, usually one self wll not have a chance of not to kill, but, do performed the necessary Killing.

So when this Killing will take place? During War between 2 Countries or 2 Empires.

In-order to show the Loyalty-ness to the Country/Empire and saving the Commoners from Prolonging-suffering due to the War, Uprightness Killing will need or Must be carried out without delaying.

As everyone knows that, War is something that is Cruel, Scary and Cold-Blooded, even though certain Wars can be prevented, but due to the Changing of the Fate of a Country/Empire and the Transition Period of the Universe taking-place, it will have to happen or needed to happen and so, those who involved in such Killing will not be considered as Sinful or Debt-burden-carrier (unless the one or the group started the War for No-reason, etc).

So who or which Deity, in the past, did ever involved in such Killing?

Usually are those Marshals & Generals that being honoured as Deities now, such as Guan Yun Chang aka Guan Gong, Zhang Xun, Xie An, Zhu Ge Kong Ming, Yue Fei, etc.

Second, Killing with a Valid Reason

Killing with a Valid Reason, but still certain Reasons will be considered as Not-Valid.

As everyone knows that, in certain Laws, a Grey-sided will be allowed or accepted, but in certain issues, only Black & White are accepted, this is why, till today, certain Laws ar still not able to sentence a Big Baddy to death and yet, certain innocent people can be sentence to horrible death.

In here, we will take about Filial Piety, Compassionate & Bonding-Love.

Filial Piety Killing, not to kill the parent, but to kill certain living stocks to feed on the parent whenever is needed and possible.

In the past, in-order for a family to consume a living stock, such as fish or chicken & etc, is as difficult as making a Rooster to lay an egg and so, whenever is possible or needed, the children will try their best to fulfill the wish of letting the parent to have a good meal by eating such energy-giving food.

Unlike certain Religions, Killing of Living Stock is a definitely NO NO, even if the parent is going to die on the Bed, but for Taoism, No such Rules or Regulations, cos in Taoism, we are the Only Religion that promote the Upright Culture & the True Teaching of what is Filial Piety.

By killing a living stock in-order to assist the parent to have a good meal and energy replenishing, the parent will be blessed with Good Luck & Healthy, the Children will be blessed with Credits & Merits of Filial Piety and last, the Living Stock will be blessed with a Good Chance of Returning to this Mortal World with a better Manifestation Form.

Compassionate Killing, quite similar to the example mentioned above, just that, this applied to a bigger group, such as Killing Disease-infected Living Stocks to end Disease-spreading, etc.

Bonding-Love Killing, a form of Human-killing involved. This may sounds a bit scary, but this is one of the 3 Killings that till today, it is being practiced under the Law of All Countries. So what is this? This is to sentence the Baddies to death. In order to bring Peace to the larger Society, such Killing is not able to avoid or prevented. By sentening a Murderer to death, this will bring Peace and Stress-ceasing to an end. And so, the one who make this decision wont be put to blame or added-sins, but instead, gaining the possible credits & merits.

Due to the influences of those Non-Taoist-Religions that imported in China, alot of the Folks are being scared-off by the Retribution & Debts saying, which end up, making the whole Nature-Cycle to go chaotic.

In-order to allow this Mortal World to return to it's Initial Form or Stage, one self shall look into the deeper meaning of each Teaching before making comments or blindly-followed, this wont bring Happiness but instead, fastening the Disappearing of this Mortal World.

Last, No Un-necessary Killing

Why this Killing is being put at the end? Cos, whatever is not mentioned in the 2 Killings above will be included here.

This Killing is also to remind one self that, do not get Hot-temper easily, before making any form of decision, one self must make certain consideration 1st, if not, fatal result will occured, etc.

But, do killing an Ant consider as Un-necessary Killing? In other Religions, this may take in account, but in Taoist Context, this may not be a very Bad thing to happen on one self.

Then how to repay the killed Ant? If you are compassionate enough, bring the died Ant's body to a grassland and then cover it up with a little pile of sand or mud, if not, just leave it there allowing the other Ants to carry the body back to their Home to allow the other infants to feed on it - by doing so, one self killed an Ant, but actually, one self does help in feeding more than an Ant.

This is how our Taoism work, Yin with Yang & Yang with Yin, Never an End and will Never End.

For a Good & Cultivated Taoist, one self shall always remind one self to follow the above 3 Forms of Killing, due to different Rules & Regulations and influences from the other Imported Religions in different Eras, different Taoist Schools will have different set of Teaching on such Killing Concepts, so do not get too bothered about the differences, as long as one self is Upright and have strong Faith in Taoism, one self will be blessed with the necessary blessing.

Can we refer to nature as the answer to killing? As the Buddha observed, life, ageing, sickness and death are the 4 noble truths. Life - every species want to survive but because of scarce resources we have survival of the fittest which sadly involves killing. Ageing - every species know that they cannot live forever and reproduce to pass down their genes before Sickness and Death catch up with them. If one does not wish to continue this cycle of birth and death, killing should be eliminated. If we talk about the Yin-Yang balance of life and death to ensure the survival of most, or if not all, species, then killing is not that "bad" or "good" but just the antithesis of living, all part of Tao (universe).