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The Buddha Animal
lobster
Crusty Veteran
in Philosophy
As we know being ahimsa level kind to sentients will save animals. We assume that animals with limited sentience are not quantum entangled with our karma. What does that mean?
Well ... for me it increasingly means that animals and even trees and rocks have Buddha Nature.
Do we live in a living universe, a nihilist deadening, some other complexity hard to fathom?
3
Comments
Perhaps our myopic or expansive definitions of life
are a simple reflection of
how myopic or expansive our comprehension is
of time/being & flow.
Its an important question I wish I had an answer for. In general better safe than sorry, but would we not take antibiotics for all the "beings" that would kill? Where is the line? Is there a line?
I feel there is a moving washing line ...
or perhaps a rotary drier.
In other words we experience a changing flowing vortex of potential.
For example empathy is low level normality that develops active involvement. Those who have little animal compassion are left with possible awakening or pet sleep overs.
This is why pet rocks are not edible.
As part of non invasive alien conservation and observation of the hairless ape (that is us) we must expect incomprehensible awakenings.
Abductions not at all.
👽🤔🖖🏼
My intuition tells me that the universe is alive, and that we should be kind to pigeons, crows and seagulls even when they try to steal our herring sandwiches (making threatening gestures and chasing them away is obviously allowed).
Living in harmony with nature is a beautiful goal for all of us.
As part of my future tasking, I will be using quantum entanglement with past (that would be our present) to:
Bow to Buddha.
We are Buddha. Eventually ...
In the ultimate sense, even rocks posess the potential for Buddha, as do plants, grass, trees... But while the potential for Buddha is universal, human beings, in our world, posess the ability to manifest that ptential directly. Though not necessarily is our potential to do so exclusive to us.
The important thing, in regard to enlightenment (Buddha) for us as human beings is to make the effort each day to move toward that manifestation without denying the potential of other sentient beings to also come to their own awakening. While human beings are unique animals, we are as still bound to our environment, our Earth, our home, our space ship as the wolf and rabbit, as the eagle and the mouse. They are our brethren with whom we are irrevocably interconnected.
Honor all your brothers and sisters.
Peace to all
I have no idea.
I agree. Although some have to possibility to realise it instead of merely living it. I don't think rocks or even simple plant life like a blade of grass can distinguish between itself and the rest. For that we need to suffer/have the ability to use duality. Or it feels that way to me at least.
Morality may not have existed except through the increasing awareness of beings such as we but once we see it, it cannot be unseen.
Many try to obscure it still.
Does a chocolate bean have Buddha nature?
Does that mean I cannot eat chocolate anymore?!?
Yes. Stop that right away.
Hope that helps!
I'm not sure Buddha nature equates to the ability to distinguish or to feel as an individual.
Not just every blade of grass but every hair... every cell and every atom... what about when atoms are smashed? Every sub atomic particle?
I think sentience and the user experience that comes with it requires a certain complexity of form but I'm not sure where that line can be drawn exactly.
With beings like humans, dolphins, elephants, cows, pigs and such, it can be seen in their eyes, noises and even action so that seems easy.
With plant life being as simple as a blade of grass or as complex as a community of trees it gets harder to ponder.
Some levels of sentience we can relate to and some are beyond our ken to know.
Just give due respect to everything and avoid tiring out the mind trying to screen out what is deserving of it and what is wasted.
Some tiring of the mind is worth minimizing the suffering that goes into our food.
That's how I've been seeing this thread at any rate. It relates exactly to the 1st Precept.
@David
One of the surprising causes of suffering in my last 40+ years of being a vegetarian was of the identity and attachment that I had developed for this food choice.
Now I am not going to bring out a balancing weight set to try to measure one form of suffering against another but if you do find yourself with a tiring of the mind over your food sourcing, then possibly you might also be subject to the same attachments & suffering that I have been caught up in.
I think Buddhist practitioners should embrace what ever degree of harmlessness they can manage in their own lives but should also look no less deeply at their own attachments around it and at why the Buddha did not mandate vegetarianism for his own disciples considering that 1st precept?
Bodhi ken
... my type of extra ordinary zennith ...
Nothing is beyond the Ken-can
Dammit @how , you're such a guru, dude!
I get this...!
I think he basically did. I'm not sure how one could eat anyone without killing them...
I do recall a loophole about whether or not the animal is killed just for us but in this day and age, the animal is killed for whoever puts the money down. I can see eating it if it would go to waste otherwise, but that's still not the healthy choice these days with all that we know.
If we know what we are doing is wrong but do it anyways, we are in the wrong and that's a personal thing. Like I said, I don't even know where the line of sentience can be found in plant life.
If the cessation of suffering includes being careless or unconcerned with the suffering of others then I'll suffer instead. Seems Buddha got around that one by teaching others. All I can do is be as useful as I can.
You did bold the "tiring of the mind" part so please don't think I missed it. I am not going to sit here and pretend that you are not wise even if I see things differently. Don't kid yourself or give yourself too much of a pat on the back but you were missed when you weren't around.
Anyways, it is up to the individual to figure what is right, draw the line in the sand and then not cross it.
A friend of a very good friend and a leader of animal rights was killed a few weeks ago getting run over by a pig truck. She was trying to save them. So this is a heavy topic for me right now. Always has been, really.
And it can be tiring sometimes and I am far from perfect. I understand we are not supposed to let the water into the raft but it just happens sometimes and we can get world weary.
I am happy with less material possessions and can appreciate impermanence and have infected those around me in that light but I am very world weary right now. My heart is full of gratitude and sinking in the waters of the worlds suffering at the same time.
Metta hurts so beautifully sometimes.
Thank you.
Nice perspective. I don't know if this is what you are saying but what it made me think of was the Mahayana emphasis on combining the wings of compassion and wisdom in order for spiritual practice to really fly. We can extend our respect and concern out to ever increasing circles in our heart without necessarily giving up our ability to discern this from that with our mind.