[Buddha-l] Victimized Vegans?

[Franz Metcalf]

Gang,

Just want to remind us of the importance of intention in Buddhism.

Bernie Simon, with admirable consistency, asked

> Why resort to half measures and discriminate against the plant 
> kingdom? Become a breatharian and live a totally non-violent life.

Curt responded,

> The only way out is suicide. As long as your immune system is 
> functioning you are constantly engaged in the act of killing. And as 
> soon as your immune system turns off the countdown begins.

While this is accurate, it ought to matter to Jains more than 
Buddhists. The functioning of the immune system is autonomic, 
non-volitional. So it creates bad karma for us only if the hardcore 
kriyāvādins (like the Jains) are right and actions are all-important. 
But the standard Buddhist view gets us off the hook here. In this view, 
such autonomic actions are surely unintentional and perhaps even 
ahetuka (causeless), like the actions of an arahant, and thus won't 
impede our future path to nibbāna.

Suicide, btw, is also not an option, at least in the Pali canon. Damien 
Keown has dealt with this very subtly:

http://purifymind.com/BuddhismSuicide.htm

I'm afraid there's no escape but the tedious workings of bhāvanā,

Tediously yours,

Franz