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Plants are not sentient?

sovasova delocalized fractyllic harmonizing Veteran
edited April 2011 in Buddhism Basics
Hello, I am a new embracer of Buddhism. A friend asked me some basic questions and then asked me why animals are considered sentient and plants are not. My view was mainly that plants are a part of the environment, and have no free-will, but then I remembered the sunflower and how it stretches itself toward the sun: has he no will?

Are plants not sentient? And what would you have told my friend?

By the way, I am very happy to join this online community =)

Comments

  • compassionate_warriorcompassionate_warrior Veteran
    edited April 2011
    We had a very long thread on exactly this topic a few months ago. Look it up on Google if the "search" function here doesn't take you to it. The title of the thread was: "Plants-Sentient???"
  • MountainsMountains Veteran
    In short, no, they're not. Plants don't have even a rudimentary nervous system, and thus are not self-aware (the definition of sentience). It is argued by some that "lower" animals are not self-aware either, but I disagree with that presumption.
  • sovasova delocalized fractyllic harmonizing Veteran
    Thank you for the link to the other thread, it is available at
    http://newbuddhist.com/discussion/8849/plants-sentientsssss/p1

    (for other curious travelers)
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    The sunflowers follow the sun due to photosynthesis, not because they want to.
  • vinlynvinlyn Colorado...for now Veteran
    So let's say plants are sentient. Would you stop eating altogether?
  • sovasova delocalized fractyllic harmonizing Veteran
    @vinlyn: If there were alternatives, perhaps? If I could eat rocks and live then I would I think, but I believe there is no other form of nutrition than at least the plants.

    And I am not threatening a hunger strike, or anything of the sort, I just wonder how the eating of (small) sentience reflects karmatically. I am really just trying to get to the bottom of the question of plants in the precept of "abstaining from killing," as the halting of life is the invocation of death, no?
  • vinlynvinlyn Colorado...for now Veteran
    @vinlyn: If there were alternatives, perhaps? If I could eat rocks and live then I would I think, but I believe there is no other form of nutrition than at least the plants.

    And I am not threatening a hunger strike, or anything of the sort, I just wonder how the eating of (small) sentience reflects karmatically. I am really just trying to get to the bottom of the question of plants in the precept of "abstaining from killing," as the halting of life is the invocation of death, no?
    I just think people get weird about this.

    I lived with a Thai roommate for a while back years ago. You should have seen the Thais go batty tried to save a wasp that got in the living room.

    In Bangkok there are guys who pretend they save the cobra that gets into your house...except later they cook it.

    And what about antibiotics...could be bad...you could be killing the bacteria.

  • compassionate_warriorcompassionate_warrior Veteran
    So let's say plants are sentient. Would you stop eating altogether?
    Vinlyn's question wasn't meant to be taken seriously, sova. Did you look up that old thread? There's pages of discussion and information there. Plus Mountains gave a good explanation here of why plants aren't sentient.
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