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Plants
misecmisc1
I am a HinduIndia Veteran
Hi All,
a question on rebirth - are plants considered a realm in which rebirth can happen, like human realm, animal realm etc? is there any sutta in which it is said that rebirth can happen as plants and trees?
are plants considered alive? does plucking away a leaf from a tree causes some hurt to plants?
any information on plants, which any sutta says something said by Buddha about plants over the above topic? Please suggest. Thanks in advance.
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Comments
No.
Yes they are alive. No they are not sentient.
Not that I know of.
Just eat your cabbage, and don't worry.
Read this discussion.
Sometimes I feel plants are enlighten beings because most of them, does not react violently and react pleasantly unlike animals.
In my view a brain or something similar is needed to experience the illusion of separation and to distinguish between one form and the next.
No brain, no pain.
A plant may have consciousness in it, but it is not conscious. It is intelligence but not intelligent. Alive but not sentient.
They are an expression of the same thing we are an expression of and react to the environment but perceive no difference between what reacts and what causes reaction.
To be reborn as a plant would probably be no different than the far shore.
Actually there are quite a few studies out now that plants do react (whether you can call it pain the way we do or not, I guess that depends on semantics) when their branches are cut and so on. And they have communicative network with other plants. I love trees and plants and find them utterly fascinating. I don't think they are sentient in the way people and at least some animals are. But I think there is a lot more to them than we thought not long ago.
We have to eat, so I think people hesitate to look at plants the same they look at animals because then what?? It's easy for vegetarians to have the high road but that changes if our view of plants change. We have to kill things to eat, there's just no way around it either way. But I don't find my lovely pea tendrils that climb up my finger when I train them onto their trestle to be any more or less alive or "sentient" than a wood tick. Yet we are cautioned from killing ticks and biting insects.
For me, I just treat all nature with respect whether I eat it or not. I live in an extremely plant and tree dense area and the value plants add to our lives is incalcuable for me. I treat them with the same respect I do the turtles I shuttle across the highway. And I feel the same sadness in seeing felled trees as I do seeing turtles hit by cars.