In Search of Consistency: Ethics and Animals [Human–Animal Studies] Part 7 pdf

320 chapter six in peace with one another: “[H]ave no fear of any serpent but think—Serpents of good fortune, live in peace here with our dear ones” (Mahabharata 14). The Mahabharata also carries a spiritual message of oneness: all that exists is God (Dwivedi 5). This message is heightened in the most famous portion of the Mahabharata, the Bhagavad Gita, where Krishna (one form of the god Vishnu) reveals himself to a worthy and needy human being, saying “I am the life of all living beings All beings have their rest in me In all living beings I am the light of consciousness” (Bhagavad 74, 80, 86). The Bhagavad Gita reminds Hindus: “I am not lost to one who sees me in all things and sees all things in me,” and those who love God must have “love for all creation” (6.30, L. Nelson 95). God is the life of all that exists—not just the life of humanity, and Hindus are instructed to extend the same love to a human being, or a cow, “or an elephant, or a dog” (L. Nelson 67). A holy person (assumed to be a man in most reli- gious literature) sees himself in the heart of all beings and he sees all beings in his heart And when he sees me in all and he sees all in me, then I never leave him and he never leaves me. He who in this oneness of love, loves me in whatever he sees, wherever this man may live, in truth this man lives in me. And he is the greatest Yogi he whose vision is ever one: when the pleasure and pain of others is his own pleasure and pain. (Bhagavad 71–72) In the Bhagavad Gita, by definition, a pundit is one who “treats a cow, an elephant, a dog, and an outcaste” with the same high regard because God is all, and those who are spiritually advanced, those who are true devotees, find “in all creation the presence of God” (Dwivedi 5). The Hindu religious tradition contains much in its philosophy that is protectionist, including the philosophies and spiritual teachings of transmigration, karma, oneness, and ahimsa. Additionally, Hindu sacred literature provides a wealth of anymal characters that bring these many species to the forefront of spiritual consciousness—often as equals. Many stories exemplify ahimsa, encouraging Hindus to show compassion for all living beings. consistency across religious traditions 321 3. Buddhism The name of the organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is most often identified by the acronym PETA. A friend and colleague of mine, Dr. Fred Porta, notes that the Pali word “peta” means “souls of the dead.” Did the founders choose this name knowing something of Pali? Not likely, but it does seem fitting that this group fights for the lives of those commonly slaughtered, those frequently viewed as expendable. It is yet more significant that this acknowledgment be through the language of Pali, the ancient Indic language of Theravada Buddhism. Porta commented, “[I]t is fitting that an animal rights group, on behalf of the most defenseless beings in society—the animals—use a Buddhist term. Buddhism emerged on the outskirts of the Hindu world, in north- eastern India, in the sixth century BCE (Embree, Hindu 132). Buddhism inherited key concepts from the dominant Hindu tradition, such as karma, reincarnation, ahimsa, and oneness. Buddhism, like Hinduism, associates wild places with spiritual bless- ings and insights. Practitioners from India to China often turn to the wild places in search of a deeper, more spiritual vision of life, shunning places frequented by humanity (Yu-Lan 65). Traditionally, Buddhists wishing to gain spiritual wisdom lived simple lives far from population centers. In the seventh century, the Buddhist poet Shantideva wrote: Trees do not show disdain, and they demand no toilsome wooing; Fain would I now consort with them as my companions. Fain would I dwell in a deserted sanctuary, beneath a tree, or in a cave Fain would I dwell in spacious regions owned by no one, And there, a homeless wanderer, follow my own mind. (Conze 102) One of the most famous Tibetan Buddhist saints, Milarepa, is some- times depicted as an ascetic harboring a deer in the presence of a passing hunter, who pauses to show his respects to the great ascetic, honoring and respecting the deer’s protector. Many lesser-known Buddhists have also turned to wild places in search of enlighten- ment, and their writings reveal “delight in the wooded and moun- tain heights” and in the wild anymals who share their secluded dwellings (Burtt 73). 322 chapter six Those upland glades delightful to the soul, Where kareri [tree] spreads its wildering wreaths, Where sound the trumpet-calls of elephants: Those are the braes wherein my soul delights. Those rocky heights with hue of dark blue clouds, Where lies embosomed many a shining tarn Of crystal-clear, cool waters Free from the crowds of citizens below, But thronged with flocks of many winged things, The home of herding creatures of the wild Crags where clear waters lie, a rocky world, Haunted by black-faced apes and timid deer, Where ’neath bright blossoms run the silver streams: Such are the braes wherein my soul delights. (Burtt 75–76) Many contemporary Buddhists carry on this spiritual tradition of retreating to the wilderness, or at least to secluded places, to prac- tice their religion. Buddhism arose “during a time and in a place where the bound- aries between humans and animals were far more fluid than in con- temporary industrialized societies” (Chapple 143). Like the Hindu tradition, the Buddhist religion does not envision a strict boundary between humans and anymals; “Buddhism recognizes no essential distinction between humans and animals” (Phelps, Great 33). Even today Buddhists view species more as a semipermeable membrane, due at least in part, to the philosophy of reincarnation. Eons of transmigrating souls witness that today’s anymals are our relatives from former lives (D. Williams 151). The Lankavatara Sutra states: In the long course of samsara [the cyclical process of life, death, and rebirth], there is not one among living beings with form who has not been mother, father, brother, sister, son, or daughter, or some other relative. Being connected with the process of taking birth, one is kin to all wild and domestic animals, birds, and beings born from the womb Repeated birth generates an interconnected web of life which, according to the Buddhist precept of harmlessness, must be respected. (Chapple 143) Buddhist philosophy holds that other species “are subject to the same process” that human beings experience, living the effects of karma from one birth to the next (Waldau 140). Anymals, “like ourselves, make choices that govern both this immediate life and future expe- riences” (Chapple 144). Just as we wish for “peace, happiness, and joy for ourselves, we know that all beings wish for these qualities” consistency across religious traditions 323 (Phelps, Great 44). Karma can no more be avoided by a Persian cat than it can by an avahi (woolly lemur). The Sutta Pitaka notes that one’s actions determine one’s future as surely as “the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the carriage” (Burtt 52). Some Buddhist schools teach of radical identification with all liv- ing beings—with all other entities: “It is not just that ‘we are all in it’ together. We all are it, rising and falling as one living body” (Cook 229). The words of a contemporary Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, reflect this view of species and the Indian concept of “oneness”: I am one with the wonderful pattern of life which radiates out in all directions I am the frog swimming in the pond and I am also the snake who needs the body of the frog to nourish its own body I am the forest which is being cut down. I am the rivers and air which are being polluted. (Allendorf 43–44) Oneness teaches that no entity is “other”; we are not separate from anyone or anything else. Thich Nhat Hanh writes of the intercon- nectedness of all beings, and encourages people to apply this under- standing in daily life. A human being is an animal, a part of nature. But we single ourselves out from the rest of nature. We classify other animals and living beings as nature, as if we ourselves are not part of it. Then we pose the ques- tion, “How should I deal with Nature?” We should deal with nature the way we deal with ourselves . . .! Harming nature is harming our- selves, and vice versa. (Hanh 41) Philosophical ideas that have their roots in the Hindu tradition, such as reincarnation and oneness, led Buddhist philosophers to conclude that there really is no independent “self ” (Robinson 38). Many Buddhists view individuals and species as mere name and form— outward vestiges wrapped around something less tangible but more enduring, more fundamental, that transcends individual bodies and biological categories. In this view individual human existence is a mirage: we are only matter in human form, soon to be disbanded and recreated according to our actions in this and past lives. The Buddhist concept of “codependent arising” also encourages a view of radical interdependence. Codependent arising holds that no individual or action can be separated from any other individual or action (Robinson 23–29). Radical Buddhist interdependence does not allow for an independent entity, action, word, or thought; all things influence all other things—each being or act is critical to every 324 chapter six other. The idea of radical interdependence led some Buddhists to conclude that all things are one another in their very essence. In the words of a contemporary Thai Buddhist monk: “The entire cosmos is a cooperative. The sun, the moon and the stars live together as a cooperative. The same is true for humans and animals, trees and the Earth [T]he world is a mutual, interdependent, coopera- tive enterprise” (Swearer 5). When Buddhism traveled to China, it combined with Daoism to form some extraordinarily nature-friendly spiritual teachings. One of the most nature-friendly extant religious philosophies, Hua-yen, is a school of Chinese Buddhism formed around 600 CE. Hua-yen car- ried “codependent arising” to its logical extreme. In the Hua-yen worldview all things are reflected in all other things, as in an infinitely regressing mirror that encompasses the entire universe in “simulta- neous mutual identity and mutual intercausality” (Cook 214). Nothing is independent in this “vast web of interdependencies in which if one strand is disturbed, the whole web is shaken” (Cook 213). For exam- ple, we know that without the sun we could not live as we currently live. Similarly, but on a different scale, neither can we live as we now live if a small flea is knocked from the side of a kitten in a village in northern Malaysia. All is changed by any slight change; the rip- ple effect is unending and all encompassing because all things are interconnected. If a roadrunner is squashed under the tires of a truck carrying the breast milk of cattle to Phoenix, Arizona, this event affects all other living entities. Radical Buddhist interdependence indi- cates that cruelty and exploitation are counterproductive because harming one entity harms all that exists, including oneself. Also in China, the influential T’ien T’ai Buddhist school teaches that all things are contained in one moment and one moment con- tains all things. This combination of single and universal in one unity culminated in the concept of “Buddha-Nature” (deBary 156–57). “Buddha-Nature” is nirvana in samsara—it is the mundane in per- fection, the Buddha in each of us and in every living thing. “Buddha- Nature” is the inherent perfection of each thing as it naturally is. All things have “Buddha-Nature,” and to acknowledge this quality in all things is to realize that all things are perfect in their essence, just as they are. The T’ien T’ai spiritual seeker is encouraged to understand that each thing—everything—has inherent value, and that one can learn spiritual truths from every aspect of the physical world, the mighty Western red cedar and the little winter polypore, the exquis- consistency across religious traditions 325 ite tamandua, and the now-extinct (but once-exquisite) tarpan (who had the misfortune of depending on grazing lands that were much coveted by human beings). When Chinese Buddhism reached Japan, anymal and nature- friendly teachings were accepted, fostered, and enhanced. The great Japanese Buddhist philosopher, Dogen (1200–1253), taught that the splendors of nature hold the essence of enlightenment, and that spir- itual ideas themselves are “the entire universe, mountains and rivers, and the great wide earth, plants and trees” (Curtin, “Dogen” 198; Swearer 15). The Buddhist tradition, as it traveled across cultures, viewed the entire physical world as holding spiritual significance. Teachings such as that of Buddha-Nature and radical interdepen- dence encourage people to view anymals as important rather than as lesser or “other.” Simultaneously, these teachings deflate human pride by denying the existence of the individual self. Buddhist phi- losophy elevated nature while diminishing the worldly importance of the individual Buddhist practitioner. Buddhism also teaches ahimsa, including uniquely Buddhist expres- sions of this universal moral ideal, such as metta (loving-kindness) and karuna (compassion). Anymal rights activist and Buddhist Norm Phelps writes, “Compassion becomes real when it becomes active in the world” (Great 162). Buddhist literature features prominent injunctions not to kill anymals (Waldau 136). Given the Buddhist understand- ing of oneness, no creature lies outside of Buddhist morality or beyond the concern of a practicing Buddhist (Martin 99). Buddhist moral conduct is “built on the vast conception of universal love and compassion for all living beings” (Rahula 46). Nonviolence, loving- kindness, and compassion are applied to human beings and anymals alike (Kraft 277). The Bodhicharyavatara of Shantideva (circa 600 CE), encourages Buddhist practitioners to recognize that “fellow-creatures are the same as him[or her]self. ‘All have the same sorrows, the same joys as I, and I must guard them like myself ’” (Burtt 139). “There is never a hint in Buddhist teachings that intellectual abil- ity, a sophisticated sense of self, or any characteristic beyond the ability to suffer is relevant to moral standing” (Phelps, Great 40). The Dhammapada, a popular and important text in the Buddhist canon, teaches that those who follow the Buddha will, “ever by night and day,” “find joy in love for all beings” (78). The practitioner does not just find joy for self, or love for other people but for “all beings.” For a Buddhist practitioner, compassion is a “feeling that suffers all 326 chapter six the agonies and torments” of every sentient creature, and an under- standing that harm done to others is harm done to oneself, for we are all one, and we are bound by karma (Kushner 148f ). The Buddha instructed followers to exhibit “an unlimited self- giving compassion flowing freely toward all creatures that live” (Burtt 46). “Indeed, Buddhists see this orientation to the suffering of oth- ers as a sine qua non of ethical life” (Waldau 138). The virtue of compassion is “one of the indispensable conditions for deliverance” (Kushner 148f ); the Dali Lama has often stated that loving-kind- ness is his religion (Gyatso 8). The Dhammapada plainly states that it is those who “hurt no living being” who will reach nirvana (Dhammapada 68), and that a truly great person is not one who succeeds in worldly matters, but one who “hurts not any living being” (74). Similarly, the Buddhist Sutta-Nipata includes the following, often translated as the hymn of love: may all be blessed with peace always; all creatures weak or strong, all creatures great and small; creatures unseen or seen dwelling afar or near, born or awaiting birth, —may all be blessed with peace! . . . as with her own life a mother shields from hurt her own, her only, child,— let all-embracing thoughts for all that lives be thine, —an all-embracing love for all the universe. (Burtt 46–47) These high moral ideals are not expected only of monks and saints. “For Buddhists, ahimsa, or noninjury, is an ethical goal for monks and laypersons alike” (Shinn 219). Buddhists are encouraged to choose their livelihood so as to avoid any harm to living beings (Rahula 47). It would be unthinkable for most Buddhists to capitalize on fac- tory farming of any kind, as it would be unthinkable for them to run a business exploiting the cheap labor of poor children or to earn their living as soldiers. Even keeping anymals in captivity is recog- nized in the Dhammapada as contrary to teachings of loving-kindness, for the captive elephant “remembers the elephant grove” (81). Those consistency across religious traditions 327 who successfully travel the Buddhist path will be filled with mercy, living a life that is “compassionate and kind to all creatures that have life” (Burtt 104). Buddhist writings also warn that “meat-eating in any form or man- ner and in any circumstances is prohibited, unconditionally and once and for all” (deBary 91–92). While many contemporary Buddhists eat meat today, it is clear from Buddhist teachings that the moral ideal is to reduce suffering—flesh eating (as well as drinking the nursing milk of factory-farmed anymals) fosters massive amounts of misery amongst millions of anymals. “If we are fully and genuinely mindful in our eating, we will not allow our choice of foods to bring needless suffering and death to living beings The correct ques- tion is not, ‘Should I be a vegetarian?’ but ‘Should I participate in the unnecessary killing of sentient beings?’ It is not about us; it is about the animals. A vegan lifestyle is not a dogma, it is an essential element of Buddhist compassion” (Phelps, Great 127, 137, 141). For the Buddhist, good conduct requires “putting away the killing of liv- ing things” and holding “aloof from the destruction of life” (Burtt 104). In the Dhammapada it is written: All beings tremble before danger, all fear death. When a man con- siders this, he does not kill or cause to kill. All beings fear before danger, life is dear to all. When a man con- siders this, he does not kill or cause to kill. He who for the sake of happiness hurts others who also want hap- piness, shall not hereafter find happiness. He who for the sake of happiness does not hurt others who also want happiness, shall hereafter find happiness. (Dhammapada 54) Those who take on the Buddhist life turn to love made infinite, vow- ing, “With all am I a friend, comrade to all/And to all creatures kind and merciful” (Burtt 79). Amongst the important and early Buddhist writings that form the Sutta Pitaka, our moral responsibil- ity not to cause anymals to be slaughtered is acknowledged by the Buddha. He is said to have described a worthy and enlightened human not by caste, but by actions, more specifically, one who does not hurt any creatures, “whether feeble or strong, does not kill nor cause slaughter” (Burtt 71). To cause another to be harmed is spir- itually problematic in the Buddhist tradition. It matters little who kills the turkey; the one who buys the dead bird causes another to be raised and killed and has therefore caused unnecessary suffering. 328 chapter six Buddhist philosophy teaches that a flesh eater can no more avoid the karma that results from such unnecessarily harmful actions than one can escape the dirtying effects of dust they have thrown into the wind. Those who seek happiness in this life but cause misery to other beings “will not find happiness after death” (Burtt 59). In a restaurant in Dharmsala, India, a Tibetan Buddhist restau- rant owner carried a live-trapped rat from his restaurant, away to a new life in the thick forests of northern India while I was eating my breakfast. The first, and most fundamental Buddhist precept warns followers “to refrain from killing living beings”—not just human beings, but all living beings (Robinson 77). This proscription against harming anymals “is central to the Buddhist tradition. Indeed, it is in fact one of the few common features across the vast Buddhist tra- dition and its many sects, strands, and branches” (Waldau 143). The Buddhist moral obligation to show concern for other life forms is “a significant, indeed a radical, message,” particularly given that Buddhist lands included anymals who posed a threat to human beings (Waldau 123). Whether a cow or a viper, Buddhist morality teaches practi- tioners not to harm other sentient beings. Buddhism is often divided into major schools of thought, includ- ing Mahayana and Theravada traditions. Practitioners and spiritual beings of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition, called bodhisattvas, com- mit themselves to the task of saving all creatures from the suffering entailed in life, death, and rebirth (deBary 81–82). [C]ompassion is given an especially prominent place in the Mahayana branch of the Buddhist tradition by virtue of its association with the central ideal of the bodhisattva, although concern for living things is conceptually no less central in the Theravadin branch. The bodhisattva is known, and even defined, by his or her commitment to the salva- tion of other beings. (Waldau 138) Bodhisattvas vow to return to the earth again and again through reincarnation, rather than disappear into nirvana. They come back to suffer the trials and tribulations of life in order to help every indi- vidual of every species to escape from ongoing suffering and rebirth (deBary 81). As the sun illuminates the entire earth, while a glow- worm offers only a tiny spot of light, so the bodhisattva is able to light the way to nirvana for “countless beings” (Burtt 130–31). A bodhisattva thinks: “As many beings as there are in the universe of beings,” with or without form, with or without perception, “all these consistency across religious traditions 329 I must lead to Nirvana” (Conze 164). Buddhist sutras explain a bod- hisattva’s commitment: A Bodhisattva resolves: I take upon myself the burden of all suffering, I am resolved to do so, I will endure it. I do not turn or run away, do not tremble, am not terrified, nor afraid, do not turn back or despond. And why? At all costs I must bear the burdens of all beings. In that I do not follow my own inclinations. I have made the vow to save all beings. All beings I must set free. The whole world of living beings I must rescue, from the terrors of birth, of old age, of sickness, of death and rebirth, of all kinds of moral offence, of all states of woe, of the whole cycle of birth-and-death from all these terrors I must rescue all beings I must rescue all these beings from the stream of Samsara, which is so difficult to cross; I must pull them back from the great precipice, I must free them from all calamities, I must ferry them across the stream of Samsara. I myself must grapple with the whole mass of suffering of all beings. (Burtt 133) Anymals have a high profile in the ancient and foundational Buddhist Pali Canon, as well as in extracanonical writings (Waldau 149). Buddhist animal tales “illustrate and underscore the position that life from one form to the next is continuous,” through rein- carnation (Chapple 143). For example, the Buddhist Jataka is in many ways similar to the Hindu Pancatantra; both collections stem from the same ancient sources. Jataka tales tell of the Buddha’s past incarna- tions. These entertaining stories feature animals of every kind, includ- ing humans. Anymals are not incidental to Jataka story lines; they are primary, and are “presented with remarkable detail and accu- racy” (Chapple 143). This menagerie of stories includes such diverse creatures as a crow, jackal, snake, swan, quail, horse, goose, tortoise, boar, cuckoo, pigeon, woodpecker, chameleon, chicken, mongoose, mosquito, otter, shrew, beetle, osprey, and many more. Numerically, the most important anymals in these tales are monkeys, who appear in twenty-seven stories, followed by elephants (twenty-four), jackals (twenty), lions (nineteen), and crows (seventeen). In all there are sev- enty different anymals in the Jataka, many acting as central charac- ters in the stories in which they appear (Chapple 134, 145–46). Jataka stories reveal “the essence of the Buddhist attitude brought to life—the attitude of universal compassion flowing from the knowledge of inner oneness” (Martin 98). In many Jataka tales any- mals are cast as the Buddha in past lives, each one demonstrating [...]... and all opinions” (Chan 177 ) Nothing lies outside of this Daoist continuum, and so “the chain of being is never broken,” and a link can “always be found between any given pair of things in the universe,” whether gaur and mongoose, or mongoose and human being (Tu 70 ) Furthermore, every link in the web of life is critical to one’s own existence; everything that exists in the universe is “intrinsically... of human beings (Haq 1 47) Hadith reveal Mohammed wiping the mouth of his horse with his own personal cloth Portions of Hadith containing the life and words of Mohammed teach against using the skins of wild animals, against target practice on living creatures, and against inciting animals to fight for human entertainment A well-known Hadith story about a woman condemned for confining and starving a cat... but a small part of one unity The cosmos, and all parts of this great cosmos, interact and participate in what the Chinese view as a spontaneous selfgenerating process of life (Tu 67) Everything that exists is part of this ongoing transformation, providing the Chinese people with a sense of self as an intimate part of a larger whole to which they belong, but in which they are not of any greater importance... destroy Nature.” (Chan 2 07) Chuang Tzu instructs that training an animal is inherently harmful and cruel; human interference harms other creatures In his view, training horses turns happy equines into “brigands” (Mair, Wandering 82) Even when we imagine that we improve the lives of anymals, our interference is harmful The Daode jing also notes: “Racing and hunting cause one’s mind to be mad” (#12); “Fish... attachments And sit with me among the white clouds? (Sommer 1 67) Mountains and rivers have long been sacred in China, as in India, and have even played an important role in official religion and the governing of the nation (L Thompson, Chinese Way 29) In fact, Chinese mountains are divinities (L Thompson, Chinese Way 179 ) Until recently, every Chinese village had “a temple dedicated to the local mountain god”... integral part of a larger whole, along with all other beings (Tu 74 75 ) In short, human beings “experience nature from within” (Tu 77 ) Daoists generally think it obvious that Dao exists, that it “operates wisely and reliably, without human assistance,” and that “any interventional activity by humans will inevitably interfere” with the proper functioning of the Dao and will result in tragedy (Kirkland... nature, never interfering or imposing personal will (Chan 177 ) Nor are anymals neglected in the One Hundred and Eighty Precepts Daoist moral teachings are very clear about killing anymals, even for food: “You should not fish or hunt and thereby harm and kill living beings You should not in winter dig up hibernating animals and insects You should not use cages to trap birds and [other] animals (Schipper... world” of materialism and human strife for the deity, Allah “makes himself present in the world for man” (Schuon 57) By tending to the world, people come to see the world as part of the divine, and they find “something of God” in the world around them (Schuon 57) Islam recognizes and accentuates the interdependence of humankind and creation, and their mutual dependence upon God These relationships of interdependence... Way of Heaven is to benefit others and not to injure” (Chan 176 ) The virtue of compassion is prominent in other writings as well, such as in the novel, Monkey At one point in this tale of adventure, a man releases a fish back into the river, and his aging mother comments, “To release living things is an act of piety I am very glad you did it” (Monkey 87) Daoist literature “abounds in stories of exemplary... extraneous action on the part of humans can logically only cause further disturbance” (Kirkland 2 97) Daoist philosophy represents all things as part of one great fluctuating whole in which Daoists are encouraged to live lives of tranquility and harmony, and to regard nature, and what is natural, as ideal: Attain complete vacuity, Maintain steadfast quietude All things come into being, And I see thereby their . of living beings I must rescue, from the terrors of birth, of old age, of sickness, of death and rebirth, of all kinds of moral offence, of all states of woe, of the whole cycle of birth -and- death. things into one, equalizing all things and all opinions” (Chan 177 ). Nothing lies outside of this Daoist continuum, and so “the chain of being is never broken,” and a link can “always be found. all parts of this great cosmos, inter- act and participate in what the Chinese view as a spontaneous self- generating process of life (Tu 67) . Everything that exists is part of this ongoing transformation,