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Do Animals Incur Negative Karma?
AllbuddhaBound
Veteran
Some animals just by their nature can inflict as much pain and suffering as possible. From paralyzing the victim and scaring them to death, to toying with them as they are dying, animals can be particularly nasty with their prey. Is there a karmic penalty to be paid for this?
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A lion cant decide to be a vegetarian, AFAIK.
http://www.amazon.com/Little-Tyke-gentle-vegetarian-lioness/dp/0835606058
However, you are correct in that most animals are driven by instinct. I'm sure there is karma to be experienced in the animal kingdom, but it is their own to work out. I'm pretty sure it isnt very discernible for most us humans. After all, it's hard enough working with my own karma - let alone wondering about another animals!
This is why we have a rare human birth and shouldn't waste time.
However, there are obviously occasions where an animal does display a form of intention. For example, my dog knows she's not supposed to take food from the garbage. But she will specifically wait until I am not around or not watching and then start stealing food from the garbage. If I even mention her name while she is doing this, she immediately goes to her crate because she knows she has intentionally done something naughty.
Animals cannot easily perform negative or positive intentional actions. It is extremely difficult to assend to a human birth from that of the lower realms.
they are pure. animals kill for survival and necessity. not to say all animals are like this, but almost all of them are.
look at humans though, we kill based on ideology and symbols.
if anything the whole notion of karma is speaking about our mental states. when we are more animal like, our consciousness is manifesting the lower chakras so that we might only be interested in sex, power, hunger, survival.
when focusing primarily on these lower centers, we may not have the time nor willingness to study the dharma or to even come across it. thus when we slow down these processes or rather question them we can move upwards to the higher centers. there is no hierarchy to the various centers, it is just a matter of function and practicality in the moment.
Within that mythology of greater and lesser beings, what benevolent/praise-worthy activities would move an animal into human form ... assuming human form is an upward step? Does a dog have to kiss a cat or a cat let a mouse pass by without pouncing? If an animal is stuck in instinct, how, according to this mythology, does it escape ... assuming escape is a good idea?
you are correct that an animal is in an unfortunate position to overcome ignorance. That is why there are more beings in the lower realms by far than in the upper. Its thermodynamics sorta.
A lion cant decide to be a vegetarian, AFAIK. ''
A lot of animals make choices, for example orca whales or dolphins, yet they have to kill as they cannot exactly stroll down to the store and purchase food. Some animals kill through defense, like humans, some kill through curiosity like hipos for example. They have no arms and I once saw one kill an antelope and just play with it in it's mouth, they are herbivores so it had no reason to. If it has a conscious it creates karma.
A dog does not behave wrongly by following its instincts and certainly does not create karma by doing what humans have taught and bred it to do. A vicious dog raised and bred to violence that kills a baby is not responsible. No good karma, no bad karma, no karma. Just nature doing what it does.
"And what is the cause by which kamma comes into play? Contact is the cause by which kamma comes into play.
"And what is the diversity in kamma? There is kamma to be experienced in hell, kamma to be experienced in the realm of common animals, kamma to be experienced in the realm of the hungry shades, kamma to be experienced in the human world, kamma to be experienced in the world of the devas. This is called the diversity in kamma.
"And what is the result of kamma? The result of kamma is of three sorts, I tell you: that which arises right here & now, that which arises later [in this lifetime], and that which arises following that. This is called the result of kamma.
"And what is the cessation of kamma? From the cessation of contact is the cessation of kamma; and just this noble eightfold path — right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration — is the path of practice leading to the cessation of kamma." - AN 6.63
Esoteric beliefs in Gods, demons, and various realms of punishment are of course part of the early teachings and sutras. They all have the same problem. They all treat "you" like there is an eternal, unchanging, permanent "you" wandering from life to life. So, a different type of Buddhism eventually evolved, one that stresses no-self and sees this list of realms as metaphorical and an expedient teaching because people absolutely, positively, will not give up their desire to live forever.
Heaven. In Buddhism there are 37 different levels of heaven where beings experience peace and long lasting happiness without suffering in the heavenly environment.
Human life. In Buddhism we can be reborn into human life over and over, either wealthy or poor, beautiful or not so, and every state between and both as it it is served up to us. Anything can happen, as is found in human life and society all around us as we are familiar with in the day to day human world in is myriad of possibilities. What we get is a result of our Karma of what we have dragged with us from previous existences and how it manifests in our temporary present lives.
Asura. A spiritual state of Demi-Gods but not the happy state experienced by the gods in the heavens above this state. The Demi-Gods are consumed with jealousy, because unlike humans, they can clearly see the superior situation of the gods in the heavens above them. They constantly compete and struggle with the gods due to their dissatisfaction with their desires from the others.
Hungry Ghost. This spiritual realm of those who committed excessive amounts of evil deeds and who are obsessed with finding food and drink which they cannot experience and thus remain unsatisfied and tortured by the experience. They exhaust themselves in the constant fruitless searching.
Animals. This realm is visible to humans and it is where spirits of humans are reborn if they have killed animals or have committed a lot of other evil acts. Animals do not have the freedom that humans would experience due to being a subject constantly hunted by humans, farmed and used in farming, also as beasts for entertainment.
Hell. This realm is not visible to humans. It is a place where beings born there experience a constant state of searing pain and the various types of hell realms reads like a variety of horrific torture chambers. Those with a great deal of negative Karma can remain in such places for eons of time.
If the earth shakes and a landslide buries a village, did the earth generate karma?
I'm just wondering how much karma as "cause and effect" and karma as "action taken" can merge.
But really, I don't think it matters, except for what makes sense in your own mind. Something either is or it isn't. Our beliefs about reality and what reality is, are not the same thing, but that's just me slipping into my Zen robes. Never mind.
Really, I'm just talking about the concept of responsibility. We understand that even certain humans aren't responsible for what they do, because of diminished capacity to understand right from wrong. What does a rooster know of right from wrong?
The whole problem with being in the lower realms is that you don't know right from wrong. That is why it is very rare for an animal to escape. Hell beings don't have ability to do right because they are suffering so much. Gods do right by some things but don't practice the dharma due to too much positivity.
Everything that is a sentient being creates karma through its sentience. Karma is not morality.
It may be psychology and symbolism..
I do believe sentient beings could be understood with karma. There are less and more agressive dogs. If you can entertain karma for humans then you can entertain it for animals, its not so much a stretch.
I also believe that karma is only an appearance. Like the sun rises in the east. On the basis of my teacher stating that.. I have had times when I had some idea of that but I just ate dinner and my blood is not in my brain. :buck:
Your question however, is rooted in your aversion to suffering which is in turn creating your confusion. When present fully in the Truth, suffering still occurs but it no longer has any power. The state of disruption, fear, and pain which you associate with suffering no longer exists and the mind-body complex remains at peace regardless.