Did the Buddha endorse Animal Cruelty?

A discussion on all aspects of Theravāda Buddhism
Post Reply
User avatar
Pondera
Posts: 3072
Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2011 10:02 pm

Did the Buddha endorse Animal Cruelty?

Post by Pondera »

For lay people, in particular - the Buddha seems to say it’s okay to give an ox a thrashing if it wanders into one’s crops?
Suppose the crops have ripened, and the caretaker is diligent. If an ox fond of crops invades the crops the caretaker would grab them firmly by the muzzle. Then they’d grab them above the hump and hold them fast there. Then they’d give them a good thrashing before driving them away. For a second time, and even a third time, the same thing might happen. As a result, no matter how long they stand or sit in a village or wilderness, that ox fond of crops would never invade that crop again, remembering the beating they got earlier.
In the same way, when a mendicant’s mind is subdued, well subdued when it comes to the six fields of contact, becomes stilled internally; it settles, unifies, and becomes immersed in samādhi.
:jumping: :rofl:

(I’m in a good mood. It’s FRIDAY!).
Like the three marks of conditioned existence, this world in itself is filthy, hostile, and crowded
User avatar
bodom
Posts: 7216
Joined: Fri Jan 09, 2009 6:18 pm
Location: San Antonio, Texas

Re: Did the Buddha endorse Animal Cruelty?

Post by bodom »

To me it sounds like he's just describing what the farmers already do when the oxen wanders into the crop. :shrug:

:anjali:
Liberation is the inevitable fruit of the path and is bound to blossom forth when there is steady and persistent practice. The only requirements for reaching the final goal are two: to start and to continue. If these requirements are met there is no doubt the goal will be attained. This is the Dhamma, the undeviating law.

- BB
User avatar
Sam Vara
Site Admin
Posts: 13482
Joined: Sun Jun 05, 2011 5:42 pm
Location: Portsmouth, U.K.

Re: Did the Buddha endorse Animal Cruelty?

Post by Sam Vara »

bodom wrote: Sat May 08, 2021 2:28 am To me it sounds like he's just describing what the farmers already do when the oxen wanders into the crop. :shrug:

:anjali:
Agreed. It's just a simile, not an endorsement. There's also this one:
Just as a strong man, seizing a weaker man by the head or the throat or the shoulders, would beat him down, constrain, and crush him; in the same way, if evil, unskillful thoughts — imbued with desire, aversion or delusion — still arise in the monk while he is attending to the relaxing of thought-fabrication with regard to those thoughts, then — with his teeth clenched and his tongue pressed against the roof of his mouth — he should beat down, constrain, and crush his mind with his awareness.
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitak ... .than.html
Post Reply