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Buddhism, Plants and Environmental Ethics
Kocurek, Jakub ; Holba, Jiří (advisor) ; Heřman, Robin (referee)
The thesis deals with the problem of Buddhist approach to plants through its history and all its lands. Scientific literature and translations of primary sources translated into western languages are the main sources I use. I particularly focus on the question whether Buddhism considers plants as sentient beings and ascribes them the ability to achieve enlightenment. I also deal with pre-Buddhist ideas concerning plants in each particular region. In the case of India I especially focus on Jainism, the historical companion of Buddhism. Furthermore, I put these facts into a broader frame of Buddhist environmental ethics and Buddhist treatment of the natural world. Thus, this paper should also contribute to the discussion about how ecological Buddhism is. In the pre-Buddhist India, plants were believed to be sentient beings and were involved in the cycle of rebirths. This view was accepted by Jains, but Buddhism chose another way. Whereas early parts of the Pali cannon contain rules prohibiting harming plants, later texts explicitly exclude them from the realm of sentience beings. The topic was further dealt mainly by Eastern Buddhism and, on the contrary, mainly overlooked in other regions. Eastern Buddhism, especially in Japan, again ascribed to plants the ability to attain Buddhahood. This doctrine...
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