A Buddhist
perspective on animal rights
Ronald Epstein
Dharma Realm Buddhist University and San Francisco State University
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Based on a Paper Presented at the Conference
"Animal Rights and Our Human Relationship to the Biosphere," San Francisco State
University, March 29-April 1, 1990, NEWS
I want to relate to you two striking examples of
animals acting with more humanity than most humans. My point is not that animals are more
humane than humans, but that there is dramatic evidence that animals can act in ways that
do not support certain Western stereotypes about their capacities.
About fifteen years ago there was an Associated
Press article with a dateline from a northern Japanese fishing village. Several people
from a fishing vessel were washed overboard in a storm far at sea. One of the women was
found still alive on a beach near her village three days later. At the time a giant sea
turtle was briefly seen swimming just offshore. The woman said that when she was about to
drown the turtle had come to rescue her and had carried her on its back for three days to
the place where she was found.
In February of this year, also according to the
Associated Press a man lost at sea was saved by a giant stingray:
A man claims he rode 450 miles on the back of a
stingray to safety after his boat capsized three weeks ago, a radio station reported
yesterday.
Radio Vanuatu said 18-year-old Lottie Stevens washed
up Wednesday in New Caladonia. It said Stevens' boat capsized January 15 while he and a
friend were on a fishing trip.
The friend died and after four days spent drifting
with the overturned boat, Stevens decided to try to swim to safety, Radio vanuatu
reported. There were sharks in the area, but a stingray came to Steven's rescue and
carried him on its back for 13 days and nights to New Caladonia, the radio said. (AP, San
Francisco Chroncicle, Feb. 8, 1990)
BASIC BUDDHIST PRINCIPLES
Unlike the Judeo-Christian tradition, Buddhism
affirms the unity of all living beings, all equally posses the Buddha-nature, and all have
the potential to become Buddhas, that is, to become fully and perfectly enlightened. Among
the sentient, there are no second-class citizens. According to Buddhist teaching, human
beings do not have a privileged, special place above and beyond that of the rest of life.
The world is not a creation specifically for the benefit and pleasure of human beings.
Furthermore, in some circumstances according with their karma, humans can be reborn as
humans and animals can be reborn as humans. In Buddhism the most fundamental guideline for
conduct is ahimsa-the prohibition against the bringing of harm and/or death to any living
being. Why should one refrain from killing? It is because all beings have lives; they love
their lives and do not wish to die. Even one of the smallest creatures, the mosquito, when
it approaches to bite you, will fly away if you make the slightest motion. Why does it fly
away? Because it fears death. It figures that if it drinks your blood, you will take its
life. . . . We should nurture compassionate thought. Since we wish to live, we should not
kill any other living being. Furthermore, the karma of killing is understood as the root
of all suffering and the fundamental cause of sickness and war, and the forces of killing
are explicitly identified with the demonic. The highest and most universal ideal of
Buddhism is to work unceasingly for permanent end to the suffering of all living beings,
not just humans.
EXAMPLES
The Buddha in a former life was reborn as a
Deer-king. He offers to substitute his own life for that of a pregnant doe who is about to
give birth. In another previous lifetime, the Buddha sacrificed his own life to feed a
starving tiger and her two cubs, who were trapped in the snow. He reasoned that it would
be better to save three lives than to merely preserve his own. It is better to lose one's
own life than to kill another being.
The following selections are from the Ta Chih Tu
Lun:
The Relative Value of One's Life and the Precepts
Question: If it is not a case of my being attacked,
then the thought of killing may be put to rest. If, however, one has been attacked,
overcome by force, and is then being coerced [by imminent peril], what should one do then?
Reply: One should weigh the relative gravity [of the
alternatives]. If someone is about to take one's life, one [should] first consider whether
the benefit from preserving the precept is more important or whether the benefit from
preserving one's physical life is more important and whether breaking the precept
constitutes a loss or whether physical demise constitutes a loss.
After having reflected in this manner one realizes
that maintaining the precept is momentous and that preserving one's physical life is
[relatively] unimportant. If in avoiding [such peril] one is only [able to succeed in]
preserving one's body, [then] what [advantage]is gained with the body? This body is the
swamp of senescence, disease and death. It will inevitably deteriorate and decay. If,
[however], for the sake of upholding the precept, one loses one's body, the benefit of it
is extremely consequential.
Furthermore, one [should] consider [thus]:
"From the past on up to the present, I have lost my life an innumerable number of
times. At times I have incarnated as a malevolent brigand, as a bird, or as a beast where
I have lived merely for the sake of wealth or profit or all manner of unworthy pursuits.
Now I have encountered [a situation where I might perish] on account of preserving the
pure precepts. To not spare this body and sacrifice my life to uphold the precepts would
be a billion times better than and [in fact] incomparable to safeguarding my body [at the
expense of] violating the prohibitions." In this manner one decides that one should
foresake the body in order to protect [the integrity] of the pure precepts.
The Butcher's Son and the Killing Precept
For example, there once was a man who was a srota-
aapanna born into the family of a butcher. He was on the threshhold of adulthood. Although
he was expected to pursue his household occupation, he was unable to kill animals. His
father and mother gave him a knife and a sheep and shut him up in a room, telling him,
"If you do not kill the sheep, we will not allow you to come out and see the sun or
the moon or to have the food and drink to survive."
The son thought to himself, "If I kill this
sheep, then I will[be compelled to] pursue this occupation my entire life. How could I
commit this great crime [simply] for the sake of this body?" Then he took up the
knife and killed himself. The father and mother opened the door to look. The sheep was
standing to one side whereas the son was [laying there], already expired.
At that time, when he killed himself, he was born in
the heavens. If one is like this, then this amounts to not sparing [even one's own] life
in safeguarding [the integrity of] the pure precepts.
End Notes: A srota-aapanna is a first- stage arhat,
otherwise known as a "stream-winner."
(Translation and copyright by Dharmamitra)
PRACTICES
I. The Rite of Liberating Living Beings is a
Buddhist practice of rescuing animals, birds, fish and so forth that are destined for
slaughter or that are permanently caged. They are released to a new physical and spiritual
life. The practice exemplifies the fundamental Buddhist teaching of compassion for all
living beings.
A disciple of the Buddha must maintain a mind of
kindness and cultivate the practice of liberating beings. He should reflect thus: 'All
male beings have been my father and all females have been my mother. There is not a single
being who has not given birth to me during my previous lives, hence all beings of the Six
Destinies are my parents. Therefore, when a person kills and eats any of these beings, he
thereby slaughters my parents. Furthermore, he kills a body that was once my own, for all
elemental earth and water previously served as part of my body and all elemental fire and
wind have served as my basic substance. Therefore, I shall always cultivate the practice
of liberating beings and in every life be reborn in the eternallyabiding Dharma and
teach other to liberate beings as well.' Whenever a Bodhisattva sees a person preparing to
kill an animal, he should devise a skilful method to rescue and protect it, freeing it
from its suffering and difficulties... (Brahma Net Sutra I 162)
In China the Rite of Liberating Living Beings was
very popular and has continued to be so to the present day. It also is practiced in the
United States at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas in Mendocino County and at other
Buddhist centers.
II. Vegetarianism
All beings-human or beast-
Love life and hate to die.
They fear most the butcher's knife
Which slices and chops them piece-by-piece.
Instead of being cruel and mean,
Why not stop killing and cherish life?
(Cherishing Life, I, 83)
In Buddhism adhering to a completely vegetarian diet
is a natural and logical ramification of the moral precept against the taking of life. The
Bodhisattva Precepts also explicitly forbid the eating of non-vegetarian food.
Student: "...when you eat one bowl of rice, you
take the life of all the grains of rice, whereas eating meat you take only one animal's
life."
The [Venerable] Master [Hua] replied: "On the
body of one single animal are a hundred thousand, in fact, several million little
organisms. These organisms are fragments of what was once an animal. The soul of a human
being at death may split up to become many animals. One person can become about ten
animals. That's why animals are so stupid. The soul of an animal can split up and become,
in its smallest division, an organism or plant. The feelings which plants have, then, are
what separated from the animal's soul when it split up at death. Although the life force
of a large number of plants may appear sizable, it is not as great as that of a single
animal or a single mouthful of meat. Take, for example, rice: tens of billions of grains
of rice do not contain as much life force as a single piece of meat. If you open your Five
Eyes you can know this at a glance. If you haven't opened your eyes, no matter how one
tries to explain it to you, you won't understand. No matter how it's explained, you won't
believe it, because you haven't been a plant!
"Another example is the mosquitoes. The
millions of mosquitoes on this mountain may be simply the soul of one person who has been
transformed into all those bugs. It is not the case that a single human soul turns into a
single mosquito. One person can turn into countless numbers of mosquitoes.
At death the nature changes, the soul scatters, and
its smallest fragments become plants. Thus, there is a difference between eating plants
and eating animals. What is more, plants have very short life-spans. The grass, for
example, is born in the spring and dies within months. Animals live a long time. If you
don't kill them, they will live for many years. Rice, regardless of conditions, will only
live a short time. And so, if you really look into it, there are many factors to consider,
and even science hasn't got it all straight." (Buddha Root Farm, 64)]
Mahakashyapa asked the Buddha, "Why is it that
the Thus Come One does not allow eating meat?' The Buddha replied, "It is because
meat-eating cuts off the seeds of great compassion." (Cherishing Life, II 5)
CURRENT ANIMAL RIGHTS ISSUES FROM A BUDDHIST
PERSPECTIVE
Although the following guidelines for working on
animal rights issues follow clearly from fundamental Buddhist teachings, they are by no
means exclusively Buddhist. My hope for this conference is that many of the participants,
regardless of their religious views, will wholeheartedly embrace them in their future work
for animal rights.
1) We should reduce the fear, hate, and thoughts of
revenge generated by the torturing and killing of animals.
2) We should not be prey to negative emotions or
violence. They compound the problem. Real solutions come from changing people's minds
rather than from creating confrontation and friction.
3) We should not limit our compassion to the animals
and to those of like mind, but extend it to all living beings, even if we feel that some
are clearly in the wrong. Compassion should be the basis of all our interactions with
others, regardless of their views and actions in the area of animal rights.
Source: http://online.sfsu.edu/
Update : 01-12-2001
