An Evil Act

When a woman cut off the penis of a man, it would not always be a case of adultery, or so I found out from this report about a California woman, Catherine Kieu who reportedly was accused of cutting off a man's penis whom she had tied to a bed. There had been an argument between the woman and the 60-year-old victim earlier over a future house guest's visit. As in the case of the first of the five Buddhist precepts, Pāṇātipātā veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi where taking the life of a living being, man and animal included, is not encouraged, the act probably stems from a thought. To break the first precept, there ought to be a being and a thought to kill that precede the act of killing. Obviously, the California woman had prior to cutting off the being' s penis, been ruffled in her thoughts. The mind, Buddha said, is the forerunner of an action and when there is anger in the mind, there is a high possibilty that an evil act may follow. Not necessarily, killing.