Buddhism and the Suffering of Non-human Animals
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Abstract
This article attempts a cursory overview of some of the conceptual issues surrounding the status of non-human animals in early Buddhism and the Pali Canon.2 It examines to what extent 'degrees' of suffering (dukkha)3 impacts on the conditions of possibility for
enlightenment, and also explores whether the relative position of animals in Buddhist cosmology results in their denigration. The first section looks at the Pali terminology standardly used to refer to non-human animals4, and the next section reviews traditional depictions of the animal realm. The result of human-animal co-habitation is briefly touched on in an appendix.
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