Religion and Animals
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JAN.–JUNE 2017 VOL. 44 FEATURES: Religion and Animals 2 Religion and Nonhuman Animals Dharma World presents Buddhism by Paul Waldau as a practical living religion and 6 Japanese Ethical Attitudes promotes interreligious dialogue for world peace. It espouses views to Animals that emphasize the dignity of life, by Katsuhiro Kohara seeks to rediscover our inner nature and bring our lives more in accord 9 Islam and Animals with it, and investigates causes of by Magfi rah Dahlan human suff ering. It tries to show 11 Religion and Animals how religious principles help solve problems in daily life and how the in the City least application of such principles by Dave Aft andilian has wholesome eff ects on the world around us. It seeks to demonstrate 15 Gratitude and Treasuring Lives: truths that are fundamental to all Eating Animals in religions, truths on which all people Contemporary Japan can act. by Barbara Ambros Publisher: Shoko Mizutani 20 Miracle Stories of the Horse-Headed Bodhisattva of Compassion, Director: Naoki Taketani Batō Kannon Senior Editor: Kazumasa Osaka by Benedetta Lomi Editor: Katsuyuki Kikuchi Editorial Advisors: Miriam Levering, Gene Reeves, 24 Nikkyo Niwano’s Vision for World Peace: Yoshiaki Sanada, Dominick Scarangello, Interview with Dr. Gene Reeves, Michio T. Shinozaki an International Advisor to Rissho Kosei-kai Copy Editors: William Feuillan, Gary Hoiby, 29 Bodhisattvas in Action: Living the Lotus Sutra in Text, Image, DeAnna Satre, Catherine Szolga and History Subscription Staff : Kazuyo Okazaki by Th omas Newhall Layout and Design: Abinitio Design 36 Th e Vow on Mount Tiantai Cover: Photo: Shutterstock.com by Nikkyo Niwano Photoshop work by Abinitio Design 43 Look Up to the Heavens, Feel No Shame in Doing So by Nichiko Niwano THE THREEFOLD LOTUS SUTRA: A MODERN COMMENTARY 44 Th e Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Law Chapter 25: Th e All-Sidedness of the Bodhisattva Regarder of the Cries of the World (6) Dharma World is published semiannually by Rissho Kosei-kai International, 2-11-1 Wada, Suginami-ku, Tokyo 166-8537. E-mail: [email protected]. Copyright © 2017 by Rissho Kosei-kai International. All rights reserved. Printed in Japan by Komiyama Printing Company. Change of Address: Please provide both old and new addresses. Six weeks’ advance notice is requested. Requests for permission to reprint all or part of any article in this issue must be made in writing to the editor of Dharma World. FEATURES Religion and Nonhuman Animals by Paul Waldau better information about certain ani- Humans’ spiritual traditions provide profoundly moving mals’ lives as individuals or commu- wisdom about the value to both nonhumans and humans nity members. of developing caring, informed modi vivendi by which What makes recovery of ancient her- the diverse living beings that compose our shared earth itages possible is that from time imme- community can coexist and thrive. morial, members of religious traditions have noticed and taken seriously many diff erent kinds of living beings that share In the last quarter century, refl ection in to normalize domination over any and the earth with our own species. Th at deep many diff erent societies has deepened all nonhuman living beings, this one- commitments regarding the sanctity of and broadened regarding the profoundly dimensional narrative advanced human life and the well-being of other living important intersection of, on the one exceptionalism, that is, the view that beings are foundational to many reli- hand, religious beliefs and, on the other humans are so special that whenever gious traditions is well known. In the hand, claims about nonhuman animals harming other living beings creates Buddhist tradition, for example, the daily and their treatment. As a result, today even minor benefi ts for humans, such undertaking known as “the fi rst precept,” our species is able to tell a far richer story as profi ts or luxuries, humans can pursue which commits one to refrain from kill- about humans’ intersection with the their own advantage with no moral ing or otherwise harming seriously any nonhuman living beings that share the qualm. In this version of the human/ living being, has remained a principal earth with us. Th is richer story includes nonhuman story, other living beings commitment and thus a source of con- multiple, intertwined threads as reli- have no moral standing whatsoever. tinuity for all Buddhists. Commitments gious communities around the world Religious communities have long of this kind have their roots in the reli- respond to local, on-the-ground prob- been active in a variety of ways when gious past known as the Axial Age, which lems. Th ese responses weave together challenging forms of human arrogance various insights, including ecological that harm nonhuman living beings, perspectives about the importance of such as uncontrolled business develop- a multispecies community, concern for ment focused solely on short-term prof- the increasing problem of extinctions its that, of course, harms many humans caused by human activities, the emer- as well. On the question of the impor- gence of social values that prize com- tance of moral protection for some ani- panion animals as family members or mals, recent decades have seen some of local wildlife as true neighbors, and the larger, mainline religious institu- recent science-based fi ndings about tions in industrialized societies respond certain animals’ emotional and cogni- with approaches that call into question tive abilities. humans’ unfettered right to destroy the Th is story composed of multiple natural world. Such challenges have at strands contrasts greatly with a far more times been driven by a recovery of a tra- human-centered narrative that became dition’s ancient heritage affi rming the dominant in the last few centuries as sacredness of all life. At other times, these modern societies grew increasingly challenges have invoked important scien- industrialized and urbanized. Attempting tifi c advances that have provided much 2 Dharma World January–June 2017 Paul Waldau is an educator, scholar, and activist working at the intersection of animal studies, ethics, law, religion, and cultural studies. He is a Professor at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York, where he is the director and senior faculty member for the online graduate program in anthrozoology. Dr. Waldau has served as Barker Visiting Professor of Animal Law at Harvard Law School and is the author of a number of books on animal protection, animal studies, and speciesism. has been given various dates by differ- Greek religious thinkers—are founda- ways to deny humans’ own animality ent scholars but is generally said to have tions for religious traditions that today as a way to distinguish humans from, occurred during the six or seven centu- are followed by well over half the human and thereby justify privileges over, all ries in the middle of the first millennium race (including Hinduism, Judaism, other living beings. The prominence BCE in a half-dozen distinct geograph- Buddhism, Jainism, Confucianism, of such religiously motivated denials, ical areas of India, China, the Middle Taoism, Christianity, and Islam). The as well as noteworthy inconsistencies East, and Greece. The key insight devel- fact is that very early forms of humans’ spurred by traditional forms of domi- oped in this seminal period of humans’ ancient religious traditions, as well as nation and even mistreatment of other religious awareness is described by one the vast majority of the thousands of living beings, has been congenial to the prominent scholar in no uncertain terms. our species’ small-scale and indigenous emergence of secular-based tenden- traditions, share in common this break- cies, such as the industrialized phe- The [Axial Age] sages certainly did through insight about the importance nomenon known as factory farming not seek to impose their own view of all living beings—true spirituality is that subordinates any and all nonhu- of this ultimate reality on other peo- constituted not by orthodox belief but, mans for human advantage. ple. What mattered most was instead, by respect for the sacred rights Yet even though it is true that not what you believed but how you of all beings. humans’ many diverse religious com- behaved. Religion was about doing At times, to be sure, this insight munities have at times inconsistently things that changed you at a pro- has been left behind in human-cen- valued other living beings, there is found level. First you must com- tered versions of religion advanced by good news today. As has happened in mit yourself to the ethical life; then the successors of the Axial Age sages. many places and times since the Axial disciplined and habitual benevolence, Some religiously inclined humans found Age, various religious traditions today not metaphysical conviction, would give you intimations of the transcen- dence you sought. [Y]our concern must somehow extend to the entire world. Each tradition developed its own formulation of the Golden Rule: do not do to others what you would not have done to you. As far as the Axial sages were concerned, respect for the sacred rights of all beings—not orthodox belief—was religion. (Karen Armstrong, The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions [Knopf, 2006], xiii–xiv; italics added.) The religious traditions referred to— those of ancient India, the Hebrew Bible prophets, ancient China, and the earliest Dharma World January–June 2017 3 continuities with other animals, many contemporary religious communities and traditions continue to support secular versions of human exceptionalism by insisting that humans are different not just in degree but in kind from any of the earth’s other living beings. A corol- lary of such insistence has been explicit or implicit denial that humans are now, have always been, and always will be mammals, primates, and thus animals.