The Buddhist Path to Enlightenment (study)

by Dr Kala Acharya | 2016 | 118,883 words

This page relates ‘Abstention from Killing (panatipata)’ of the study on the Buddhist path to enlightenment. The Buddha was born in the Lumbini grove near the present-day border of India and Nepal in the 6th century B.C. He had achieved enlightenment at the age of thirty–five under the ‘Bodhi-tree’ at Buddha-Gaya. This study investigates the teachings after his Enlightenment which the Buddha decided to teach ‘out of compassion for beings’.

2.4.1. Abstention from Killing (pāṇātipāta)

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[Full title: The Noble Eightfold Path (Ariya-aṭṭhaṅgika-magga)—(4): Right Action—(a): Abstention from Killing (pāṇātipāta)]

Herein someone avoids the taking of life and abstains from it. Without stick or sword, conscientious, full of sympathy, he is desirous of the welfare of all sentient beings.^[1]

The first precept to abstain from killing and to extend compasssion to all beings does not entail any restriction. ‘All beings‘, in Buddhism, implies all living creatures, all that breathe. It is an admitted fact that all that lives, human or animal, love life and hate death. As life is precious to all, their one aim is to preserve it from harm and to prolong it. This applies even to the smallest creatures that are conscious of being alive. It is said: ‘Whoever in his search for happiness harasses those who are fond of happiness, will not be happy in the hereafter.’^[2]

The happiness of all creatures depends on their being alive. So to deprive them of that, which contains all good for them, is cruel and heartless in the extreme. Is it therefore surprising that those who would kill others bring on themselves the hate and ill-will of those they seek to slay?

‘All fear punishment,
Life is dear to all;
Comparing one with others
Kill not nor cause to perish.’^[3]
‘As I am so are they
As they are so am I;
Comparing one with others
Neither slays nor causes to kill.’^[4]

Not to harm and kill others is the criterion of a Buddhist and of all who feel. Those who develop the habit of being cruel to animals are quite capable of ill-treating people as well when the opportunity occurs. When a cruel thought gradually develops into an obsession it may well lead to sadism. As the Buddhist books point out: ‘Those who kill suffer often in this life and may come to a terrible end. After this life the kamma of their ruthless deeds will for long force them into states of woe. Should such destroyers of life be born in prosperous families with beauty and strength and other happy bodily attributes, still their kamma will trouble them to an early grave.’

On the other hand: ‘Those who show pity towards others and refrain from killing will be born in good states of existence and if reborn as humans, will be endowed with health, beauty, riches, influence, intelligence, etc.’^[5]

Right action (sammā-kammanta) is no other than sammā-kamma. The doctrine of kamma is one of the principal tenets of Buddhism. It is our own volitional actions that we call kamma. If one understands the operation of kamma and the result of volitional acts (kamma-vipāka), one may not be tempted to evil and unwholesome actions which will come home to settle so that ‘suffering follows as the wheel the feet of the ox.’^[6]

Thus it is incumbent on all men of understanding to stop hurting and harming others and to cultivate a boundless heart full of pity and benevolence. Killing is killing whether done for sport, or food, or–as in the case of insects—for health. It is useless to try to defend oneself by saying ‘I did it for this good reason or that.’ It is better to call a spade a spade. If we kill we must be honest enough to admit it and regard it as something unwholesome.

Then, with regard to the question of vegetarianism, meat eating is not prohibited in Buddhism. If you have not seen (diṭṭha), heard (suta), suspect (parisaṅkita) that an animal was killed especially for you, and then its meat is acceptable, but not otherwise. There is no rule or injunction in the teaching of the Buddha that a Buddhist should live wholly or even principally on vegetables. Whether or not meat is eaten is purely an individual concern, but those who consume fertilized eggs, however, break the first precept.

The five components of taking the life of sentient being: