PadmaVonSamba wrote: ↑Sun Apr 18, 2021 11:32 am
Aemilius wrote: ↑Sun Apr 18, 2021 7:00 am
Malcolm wrote: ↑Sat Apr 17, 2021 4:40 pm
Animals, etc., the beings of the five lokas apart from humans, generally, cannot practice a path.
I don't buy that, in terms of Buddhism or in terms of modern knowledge of animal consciousness. All beings in the five or six lokas have all the members of the 12 Nidanas (of Conditioned arising) governing their existence, not only humans. Why would the Buddhist tradition say "all beings", if it didn't mean it?
1. As Malcolm said,
Generally this is the case. There can be rare exceptions. Considering just the the billions of types of non-mammal types of beings, it would be rare if not impossible to find one who could intentionally engage in a practice to free itself from samsaric rebirth. Among mammals, that’s pretty much limited to humans. And out of the 7 or 8 billion humans, maybe only 500 million technically. Out of that number, how many are really serious about it?
2. “Beings” is a construct referring to the beginningless stream of mental formations which takes rebirth again and again over many lifetimes. Yes, the true nature of the original mind of each
being is unobstructed, clear, and without craving. It’s the same as a Buddha. The ability to realize that, however, is severely restricted to those who can practice a method for realizing it.
It’s somewhat like the roulette wheel at a casino. Sure, you can place your chips on any number, and the spinning ball can land on any number. Having both numbers be the same, that’s the tricky part. But the odds are much better for that to happen than they are for one to be born into a life where one can practice Dharma.
You are being prejudiced against non-mammals, in the Jatakas the Buddha-to-be is born several times as a serpent or a naga. The theme here seems to be that serpents or nagas can keep precepts and observe the Uposatha days. (Similarly in other Jataka stories with some other animals, like the hare and jackal.)
32. “And while he was the royal nága (serpent) Bhúridatta, when he had undertaken the Uposatha precepts and was lying on the top of a termite-mound, though he was [caught and] sprinkled with medicinal charms resembling the fire that ushers in the end of an aeon, and was put into a box and treated as a plaything throughout the whole of Jambudìpa, yet he had no trace of hate for that brahman, according as it is said: ‘While being put into the coffer/ And being crushed down with his hand/ I had no hate for Álambána/ Lest I should break my precept vow’
33. “And when he was the royal nága Campeyya he let no hate spring up in his mind while he was being cruelly treated by a snake charmer, according as itis said: “While I was living in the Law/ Observing the Uposatha/A snake charmer took me away/ To play with at the royal gate./Whatever hue he might conceive,/ Blue and yellow, and red as well,/ So in accordance with his thought/ I would become what he had wished;/I would turn dry land into water,/ And water into land likewise./ Now, had I given way to wrath/ I could have seared him into ash,/ Had I relaxed mind-mastery/ I should have let my virtue lapse;/ And one who lets his virtue lapse/ Cannot attain the highest goal”.
34. “And when he was the royal nága Sankhapála, while he was being carried along on a carrying pole by the sixteen village boys after they had wounded him in eight places with sharp spears and inserted thorn creepers into thewounds’ orifices, and while, after threading a strong rope through his nose,they were causing him great agony by dragging him along bumping his body on the surface of the ground, though he was capable of turning those village boys to cinders with a mere glance, yet he did not even show the least trace ofhate on opening his eyes, according as it is said: ‘On the fourteenth and the fifteenth too,/Álára, I regularly kept the Holy Day,/ Until there came those sixteen village boys/ Bearing a rope and a stout spear as well./The hunters cleft my nose, and through the slit/ They passed a rope and dragged me off like that./ But though I felt such poignant agony,/ I let no hate disturb my Holy Day” (J-a V 172).
Awakening does not exist substantially in any being anywhere.
So you must only cease your notions of seeing other beings as unawakened.
There is no self or a being that possesses "awakening" after "having awakened" to the truth or reality.