Is it considered killing living beings for humans to send chickens and ducks to eliminate locusts?

Inciting others to commit killing is an even graver offense than committing killing oneself. Why is this said? Because when you kill living beings yourself, you alone create the evil karma and form evil karmic bonds with sentient beings. But when you incite others to kill on your behalf, the killing karma they create also has a share belonging to you—your intention to kill still remains—and moreover you cause others to form evil karmic bonds, create evil karma, and become defiled. This is a double evil karma. Letting chickens and ducks kill locusts on behalf of humans—the locusts die because of humans, so it counts as killing by humans; the chickens and ducks are merely tools used by humans to kill the locusts. At the same time, the chickens and ducks also form evil karmic bonds with the locusts and will suffer evil retribution in future lives, and this is caused by humans. Therefore, sending chickens and ducks to exterminate locusts carries even greater evil karma than exterminating the locusts oneself.

But when faced with such a great locust disaster, should one exterminate the locusts or not? If the locusts threaten human survival, then of course extermination is necessary, because human life is, after all, countless times more precious than that of locusts. Comparing the two, human survival should be safeguarded first. Humans are suitable vessels for the Path, capable of performing a great deal of wholesome karma, which benefits the sentient beings of the three evil destinies as well. As long as a person is alive, everything else can be managed. There will merely be some evil retribution in later lives, which is far better than losing one's life to locusts now, or being trapped by disaster.

Every sentient being, over beginningless kalpas, has created far too much killing karma—countless deeds great and small. Therefore every sentient being's karmic obstructions are deep and heavy, and their evil karmic bonds are numerous. No matter how good you are, there will still be those who want to kill you, those who beat and scold you, those who insult and frame you, those who slander you, and those who look down on you—there are many adversaries who speak ill of you.

Encountering adverse conditions and disasters that force one to create killing karma is itself a manifestation of lacking merit, and is also a karmic obstruction, the retributive result of evil karma. If there were no karmic obstructions, one would not encounter situations where one must create killing karma in order to solve the problem of one's own survival. The Buddhas and Bodhisattvas have all eradicated the seeds of evil karma, so they will not attract such adverse conditions, nor will they be forced to create killing karma. Even if they encounter evil conditions, they can turn danger into safety and transform calamity into good fortune, and they will use their immeasurable merit to compensate for and deliver their adversaries.