Buddhists and philosophers: if life is so sacred, what happens ....?

Question

... to the creatures in the lower orders of the food chain, who die for food for other species? Man, household pets, domestic animals and vegetarian animals to not have to kill to live, so why is Life so sacred? (also, vegetables are a form of life - but that's another question!)

Answer 1

Buddha never speaks of life being precious or sacred. For him life is full of suffereing and his fundamental objective is to end suffering, by escaping from the birth-death- rebirth cycle. As a matter of fact, no Indian Philosophers except perhaps the Lokayatas speak of life as even important or sacred.

Animals just keep doing their Dharma, as what had been assigned to them through nature. The only annimal which is capable of erring and making 'mistakes' is the human annimal. Annimals should be ashamed of humans speaking in terms of annimality etc.

All life forms follow the natural course, excpet humans. Humans destroyed the balance of nature by over populating and over exploiting the nature, occupying space that are naturally meant for other living beings, and resourses of course.

Answer 2

The Buddha did not claim that life is sacred. To the contrary, he said that life is full of suffering and pain, and that the highest peace is to liberate oneself from the cycle of life and death.

On another note, if life is indeed sacred, then ALL life is sacred. Too often I hear this claim being made with the unspoken caveat that only some kinds of life are sacred. Either strictly human life, or only human and animal life (the cute ones). If a person is going to appreciate and revere the mystery of life, then that reverence should extend to all life forms, from the smallest microorganisms to the largest mammals. Otherwise, one is being, in the words of Peter Singer, speciesist.

Answer 3

I don't recall life being sacred to Bhuddhists, they revere all forms of life and try not to harm living things, but sacred implies a religious association - keep that for all the fairytale religions, christianity, islam etc.

I think I should clarify that Bhuddhism isn't a religion, it's a way of life, the Bhuddha, a man who lived rather than being created in stories, found the path to enlightenment, which is a state of being, once that state is achieved it means an end to constant re-incarnation.

That's the Bhuddist belief: unless an individual achieves enlightenment they will return to live another life. That's why Bhuddists revere all forms of life. In their eyes they could be stepping on a worm who, in another life, was related to them.

If you don't believe that yourself, well that's fine, you don't have to Bhuddists won't threaten you if you choose not to believe it.
By the way, most Bhuddists don't achieve enlightenment, but they try. I would suggest that if the fairytale religions exercised similar tolerance and practiced 10% of what they preach the world would be a far better place.

Answer 4

well think about a cow? what purpose besides food for us does a cow serve? i believe some animals were created just to keep the organisms on the higher order living. We are not supposed to kill domestic animals because they serve more of a purpose than food. They make us happy and entertain us.

I could go on and on down the food chain, but it would take forever.

Answer 5

Evolution, does a lion not kill a zebra. I suppose that is not fair we also take the cow's milk, sometimes it is good being a contentious child and growing up allows us to observe that whilst we do not know the answer we can still gripe and moan about it, that is what adults do. Hope this is of some help my future buddhist and philosopher.

Answer 6

If life is all that is sacred in being then why devote it or even give it for causes deemed to be just and divine and therefore superior to physical manifestation of life? And if life is all that is there as purpose, in the general nature of animals for instance, then why there are purposes stronger still to be able to take it away from them?

Human life is sacred by virtue of the purpose it retains, and ideally manifests, other forms of life are also regarded sacred by only human because of their relation to human life, and therefore to purposes of human life.

This is ironic that no animal or a plant is purposed to regard their life as sacred, and retain this as knowledge. Perhaps this is because it is in human nature alone to be able to disregarding its own sanctity on occasions due to its capability to deviate form the laws of nature. It therefore is most human that we should bear this in our mind, keep most evident in understanding, have it encoded in our creed that all life is sacred, first and foremost; life is sacred even when it is taken, or sacrificed, for a purpose, or a need justifiable not only in the eyes of our intellectual or philosophical understanding, but also through our spiritual wisdom.

This therefore could be the task of man to know what is purpose of his creation and the creation of the rest of the things around him, both living and non-living. In this sense this question make part of a wider, more general and in a way eternal debate about life in general - what is the purpose of life?

Answer 7

According to buddhists, insects and lower lofe forms are what they are because they are paying the price for sins committed in a prior life. Its karma, if u were a human and you committed sins, u will be reincarnated as a lower life. As far as preserving life, just drinking water causes us to kill millions of microscopic organisms. And what about cancer? Its a form of life also.

Answer 8

Everything that is living must die. The purpose of some life forms is the sustenance of others.
I do see life as a blessing and some, though not the vast majority of food animals, are treated with respect.
I remember the scene in the movie, Cold Mountain, where the woman in the woods, kills one of her goats to feed herself and her guest. She held it and stroked it and loved it and honored it. It is the same view as the American Indians' honoring the buffalo that they killed for meat.
I doubt anyone loves the chickens that are slaughtered at a chicken processing plant.
Perhaps, all we can do is say our blessings over each of our meals and give thanks.
C. :)!!

Answer 9

It's hard to see why life should be imagined to be sacred. Everything that lives must do so by sacrificing other lives: even a blade of grass is only there because some other plant died off or never even had a chance.

When God created the world, he left two daily prayers: one for the tigers, one for the sheep:
*.....Let us prey
*.....God be merciful to me, a dinner.

Answer 10

Well, we DO have to kill to live! It's not enough to go veggie! There is a constant battle in our bodies, in which we are killing millions of invading organisms! Every breath we take kills thousands!
At what level of cellular organisation is life supposed to become 'Sacred'?