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Slaughtering cow has been a taboo, with some texts suggesting that taking care of a cow is a means of taking care of "all living beings". Cattle are seen in some Buddhist sects as a form of reborn human beings in the endless rebirth cycles in samsara, protecting animal life and being kind to cattle and other animals is good karma.
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.
According to Buddhist belief, humans do not deserve preferential treatment over other living beings. Thus, the world is not specifically meant for human use and should be shared equally amongst all creatures. [77] Buddhists recognize that all animals are sentient and are capable of feeling pain, grief, fear, happiness, and hunger. [78]
Sentient beings is a term used to designate the totality of living, conscious beings that constitute the object and audience of Buddhist teaching. Translating various Sanskrit terms ( jantu, bahu jana, jagat, sattva ), sentient beings conventionally refers to the mass of living things subject to illusion, suffering, and rebirth ( saṃsāra ).
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.
The respect for animal rights in Jainism, Hinduism, and Buddhism derives from the doctrine of ahimsa. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] In Hinduism, animals contain a soul just like humans; when sentient beings die, they can either be reincarnated as a human or as an animal.
Buddhism Sujata , also Sujātā , or Nandabala , was a farmer's wife, who is said to have fed Gautama Buddha a bowl of kheer , a milk-rice pudding, ending his six years of asceticism . Such was his emaciated appearance that she wrongly believed him to be a tree-spirit that had granted her wish of having a child.
Donald S. Lopez, a renowned [citation needed] Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan studies explains in his book "Buddhism and Science: a Guide for the Perplexed" that in Buddhism, the process of Rebirth (into any of a multitude of states of being including a human, any kind of animal and several types of supernatural being) is conditioned by karma ...