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The Buddha, represented by the Bodhi tree, attended by animals, Sanchi vihara. The position and treatment of animals in Buddhism is important for the light it sheds on Buddhists' perception of their own relation to the natural world, on Buddhist humanitarian concerns in general, and on the relationship between Buddhist theory and Buddhist practice.
The status of life as a human, at first is seen as very important. In the hierarchy of Buddhist cosmology it is low but not entirely at the bottom. It is not intrinsically marked by extremes of happiness or suffering, but all the states of consciousness in the universe, from hellish suffering to divine joy to serene tranquility can be experienced within the human world.
This causes the deva eventual suffering. Being situated in the human world exposes one to disease, impurities, exposure to impermanence and a non-self (anātman). The animal realm is a place for those who have tormented animals and will receive the same treatment. The asura are in this realm as well and wage war against the deva.
Saṃsāra in Buddhism, states Jeff Wilson, is the "suffering-laden cycle of life, death, and rebirth, without beginning or end". [111] Also referred to as the wheel of existence ( Bhavacakra ), it is often mentioned in Buddhist texts with the term punarbhava (rebirth, re-becoming); the liberation from this cycle of existence, Nirvāṇa , is ...
Samsara is considered to be dukkha, suffering, and in general unsatisfactory and painful, [2] perpetuated by desire and avidya (ignorance), and the resulting karma and sensuousness. [3] [4] [5] Rebirths occur in six realms of existence, namely three good realms (heavenly, demi-god, human) and three evil realms (animal, ghosts, hellish).
The "naturalized Buddhism", according to Gowans, is a radical revision to traditional Buddhist thought and practice, and it attacks the structure behind the hopes, needs and rationalization of the realities of human life to traditional Buddhists in East, Southeast and South Asia. [226]
The concept of sorrow and suffering, and self-knowledge as a means to overcome it, appears extensively with other terms in the pre-Buddhist Upanishads. [34] The term Duhkha also appears in many other middle and later post-Buddhist Upanishads such as the verse 6.20 of Shvetashvatara Upanishad , [ 35 ] as well as in the Bhagavad Gita , all in the ...
Getz (2004: p. 760) provides a generalist Western Buddhist encyclopedic definition: Sentient beings is a term used to designate the totality of living, conscious beings that constitute the object and audience of Buddhist teaching.