Working With The Precept Of Not Killing

I vow to refrain from killing.

I vow to refrain from stealing.

I vow to refrain from being greedy.

I vow to refrain from telling lies.

I vow to refrain from being intoxicated and ignorant.

I vow to refrain from talking about others errors and faults.

I vow to refrain from elevating myself and blaming others.

I vow to refrain from being stingy, especially with the Dharma.

I vow to refrain from indulging in anger and hatred. 

I vow to refrain from speaking ill of the Buddha , Dharma and Sangha.

As a Zen Buddhist, these are the Ten Grave Precepts that we receive at Jukai ( Lay Ordination ) and at Shukke Tokudo ( Priest Ordination ). We live them to our core and allow them to BE our core. If we break one then we break them all.

As a Gardener I have always had a problem with the first Precept. For most of my life I have lived as a vegetarian ( with vegan tendencies ) and so I feel the heart of living creatures. I find it really painful and hard to understand what we do to our animal friends all in the name of food production. Yet while at work, eating my sandwich at lunchtime, I ponder on the harm and suffering that I have caused to happen to produce my meal. The cheese ( I Love Cheese ) comes from the dairy industry that produces young calves for the meat industry. The lettuce is born, has its life and then is hacked off at the root and killed for the pleasure of my sandwich.
I once heard a story about a Buddhist monastery in Tibet. The monks were building an extension and were just starting to dig the ground ready for the foundations, when they came across a big problem. For as they were digging, lots of earthworms and insects were being chopped in half by their spades. The monks were so horrified and filled with compassion that they halted all work on the extension. For years I viewed the actions of the monks as an over reaction but then the First Precept became my bones and I now understand.

In my garden there are no sprays to massacre aphids or weevils, it is their garden as much as mine. Who owns your garden ? You or the song thrush defending its territory ? I now work with nature not against it.
But the koan of the first precept is still there. We are human, and as human beings we kill. The very act of breathing kills countless microbes. When we eat, always something is killed, there is no escape from this fact. So how do we square the circle ?

Well for me the answer is to do the least possible harm that I can, and always with the heart of love.
The Perfection of Zen is to be found in the two words 'Human' and 'Being'. We are not OK, but that's Ok.