Previous Comics: #512452

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Frame 1:

King Flower: What do you think about animals? Apriori Flower: They are predatory, cruel, and the kill without thinking.

Frame 2:

King Flower: So, as flowers, we are better than animals? Apriori Flower: I never killed anyone!

Frame 3:

King Flower: Before you were a bud and planted seed, you were flying in the wind. Apriori Flower: I never Killed anyone.

Frame 4:

King Flower: You landed on this ground where another flower lived. Apriori Flower: I never killed anyone.

Frame 5:

King Flower: You grew roots in the ground from seed to bud to now. Apriori Flower: I never killed anyone.

Frame 6:

King Flower: You grew strong with time and the other flower died. Apriori Flower: I don't remember this.

Frame 7:

King Flower: Even as the animals we take life, property, sex, truth and mind. Apriori Flower: How then do I fix this. I'm ashamed.

Even the flowers kill, take property, abuse sex, tell lies and lose their mind! The flowers are just like animals. Of course Apriori and King represent our minds. There is a solution to this realization.

As humans we are just like animals because we are born eating other life forces to facilitate our growth. We take up space that previously belonged to someone else. We learn about sex by grasping, pulling, chasing, craving and manipulating. We tell lies to cover our actions because we are ashamed. We attempt to alter our minds by careless intoxication by following the examples of others. Fortunately the clues to our potential lie in the lies we tell and our desire to hide our consciousness.

We realize that we are wrong or more importantly not wrong but we are causing suffering. Shame rolls into our minds because we have compassion. We are killers. We are thieves. We are sexual predators. We lie to hide this. We chase intoxicants or drugs for euphoric carelessness.

The answer is not that we are hopeless or evil or born into sin. The answer is to begin upon realization to focus our practice. We can at this moment begin to respect life, respect property, respect sex, respect truth and respect sober mind.

Monks strive to achieve good practice. As our teachers, we see they eat what we offer them or they engage in agriculture to minimize their impact on others. We as lay people try to minimize our impact as well.

Monks and lay people try not to harm others. We also try not to cause suffering to our own bodies. This is what it means to protect our own happiness. We still do things that effect others but we do so at the very minimum of what we need. We strive not to be greedy.

When we respect life we eat only what we need. When we respect property we take care of our own things and those of others. When we respect sex we honor our partners or we practice celibacy. When we respect truth we speak positively and only when we need to. When we respect the mind we avoid intoxicants, drugs, or stimuli that make us careless.

Each subject above is for deep contemplation and observation. You begin your mindful practice now and you start working positively with focus and mindfulness. We can not judge others. We only see causes and effects. We allow everyone to teach us by example. We carve our own paths. We help when we can.