religions

Article
Becoming Animal: Karma and the Animal Realm
Envisioned through an Early Yogācāra Lens
Daniel M. Stuart
Department of Religious Studies, University of South Carolina, Rutledge College, Columbia, SC 29208, USA;
stuartd@mailbox.sc.edu
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Received: 24 April 2019; Accepted: 28 May 2019; Published: 1 June 2019 !"#$%&'

Abstract: In an early discourse from the Sam . yuttanikāya, the Buddha states: “I do not see any other
order of living beings so diversified as those in the animal realm. Even those beings in the animal
realm have been diversified by the mind, yet the mind is even more diverse than those beings
in the animal realm.” This paper explores how this key early Buddhist idea gets elaborated in
various layers of Buddhist discourse during a millennium of historical development. I focus in
particular on a middle period Buddhist sūtra, the Saddharmasmr.tyupasthānasūtra, which serves as
a bridge between early Buddhist theories of mind and karma, and later more developed theories.
This third-century South Asian Buddhist Sanskrit text on meditation practice, karma theory, and
cosmology psychologizes animal behavior and places it on a spectrum with the behavior of humans
and divine beings. It allows for an exploration of the conceptual interstices of Buddhist philosophy of
mind and contemporary theories of embodied cognition. Exploring animal embodiments—and their
karmic limitations—becomes a means to exploring all beings, an exploration that can’t be separated
from the human mind among beings.

Keywords: Buddhism; contemplative practice; mind; cognition; embodiment; the animal realm
(tiryaggati); karma; yogācāra; Saddharmasmr.tyupasthānasūtra

1. Introduction
In his 2011 book Becoming Animal, David Abram notes a key issue in the field of philosophy
of mind, an implication of the emergent full-blown physicalism of the modern scientific materialist
episteme. He writes:

Very few of those participant in the current “turn toward the body” seem to notice the wider,
more subversive implications of their work. While they assert that the entirety of the body is
integral to the mind, surely (they assume) it is only the human body that has this privilege,
and not the body of an elk, or an aspen grove, or the dense flesh of the ground itself. Surely
the gushing body of a river, or the ebb and flow of the breeze, has no real part in intelligence!
(Abram 2011, p. 109)1

Abram’s observation captures a problem that South Asian religious and philosophical traditions
have been grappling with for several millennia. In early South Asia, a number of ascetic groups—most
notably the Jains and the Buddhists—acknowledged that humans find themselves on a spectrum
with other embodied (and disembodied) beings, from single-faculty beings such as plants and trees

1 Abram (2011, p. 10) acknowledges his indebtedness to Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari for the phrase ‘becoming animal.’
He also notes that, as a phenomenologist, he takes the idea along very di↵erent avenues than Deleuze and Guattari do.
The present paper is inspired by these phenomenological avenues of Abram’s thought.

Religions 2019, 10, 363; doi:10.3390/rel10060363 www.mdpi.com/journal/religions

Religions 2019, 10, 363 2 of 14

to beings with a full range of six senses (with the mind as the sixth), such as humans or deities2 .
The relationship of the human being and the nonhuman being has particular relevance for the question
of how the mind is embodied. After all, in South Asian traditions—particularly the śramana or ascetic
traditions—the drives and urges central to the problem of su↵ering are those fundamental instincts
most closely associated with basic forms of animal behavior: desiring food for sustenance and sex for
procreation3 .

2. The Buddha and the Ascetics

We find evidence in early Buddhist sources of various ascetic practices reflecting an understanding
that human beings are not particularly distinct from animals on many counts4 . The kukkuravata or the
“vow to behave like a dog” and the govata or the “vow to behave like an ox” were ascetic practices
involving naked ascetics enacting the behavior of a dog or a cow, respectively5 . These practices, which
quite literally enjoin a person to become animal, ostensibly allow a practitioner to experience how their
human constitutions are not very far from those of animals. It appears that such practices aimed at
allowing ascetics to publicly express their animal aspect and thereby master it.
Historical details about such practice traditions are meager, as no such early South Asian ascetic
traditions have survived into the present day. But one thing is clear about these accounts: some
early South Asian ascetics practiced to become animals—imitating animal behaviors and attempting
to embody animal modes of consciousness—in an attempt to come to terms with who they were as
humans. We can read such practices as an acknowledgment of, and response to, the entailments
Abram notes of the more recent “turn toward the body” in modern metaphysics: “ . . . once we
acknowledge that our awareness is inseparable—even, in some sense, indistinguishable—from our
material physiology, can we really continue to maintain that mind remains alien to the rest of material
nature?” (Abram 2011, p. 109)
While Abram here participates conceptually and semiotically in the peculiar epistemology of the
moderns, his solution to the question of embodiment and its entailments is not very di↵erent—except
perhaps in scope and practical engagement—from that of the early South Asians who engaged in

2 Amber Carpenter notes that, in much of South Asian thought, “when we do think about animals, it is not to learn by contrast
about the human but to learn by communion” (Carpenter 2018, p. 67).
3 I take for granted in this article a simple distinction between the human and the nonhuman, allowing that these categories
might be treated in a more complex way.
4 As this article is primarily interested in Buddhist and South Asian contemplative/ascetic practices, and how they relate
to the foundational philosophical underpinnings of the Buddhist tradition in history, I do not here engage Buddhist
narrative literature, much of which is populated by animal protagonists. Preeminent in this body of literature are jātaka
stories, many of which present past lives of the Buddha as an animal. I have spent much time reading these lively
stories—and their parallels in other Indian traditions—but the nature of their composition and transmission remains murky.
For a recent attempt to use such narrative literature to speculate on “animals in the Indian Buddhist imagination,” see
(Ohnuma 2017). To understand the difficulties of assessing the historical contexts of the Jātaka literature, see (Appleton 2010)
and (Anālayo 2012).
5 See, for example, MN 57 and DN 24. The commentary on DN 24 interprets the terminology used to describe one who
has taken up the kukkuravata as follows, “Acela means naked. . . . Kukkuravatika means one who has taken up the dog-vow,
who sni↵s and eats like a dog, sleeps in the ash of cook-fires, and enacts other activities of dogs. Catukkun.d.ika means one
who strikes [at] four [points, who] goes about by placing his two knees and two elbows on the ground. . . . mukhen‘ eva
means that he eats using only his mouth, without touching the food with his hands.” (“acelo” ti naggo. . . . “kukkuravatiko” ti
samādinnakukkuravato sunakho viya ghāyitvā khādati, uddhanantare nipajjati, aññam pi sunakhakiriyam eva karoti. “catukkun.d.iko”
ti catusaṅghat..tito dve jān.ūni dve ca kappare bhūmiyam . .thapetvā vicarati. . . . “mukhen‘ evā” ti hatthena aparāmasitvā khādanı̄yam.
mukhen‘ eva khādati, bhojanı̄yam pi mukhen‘ eva bhuñjati [Sv III, p. 819]). The commentary on MN 57 describes the “dog-duty
ascetic” Seniya, who comes to speak with the Buddha, as follows, “Kukkuravatiko means one who has taken up the dog-vow:
he enacts the activity of dogs in every way. Both of the companions were also those who wore discarded rags. kukkuro va
palikujjitvā means sitting near the master pawing the ground with two feet and yapping with dog yaps. With the intention of
enacting the role of a dog, he sat down after greeting the teacher by pawing the ground, shaking his head, and making
the sound ‘bhū bhū’ while stretching out his arms and legs like a dog.” (“kukkuravatiko” ti samādinnakukkuravato, sabbam .
sunakhakiriyam . karoti. ubho p‘ ete sahapam . sukı̄l.ikā sahāyakā. “kukkuro va palikujjitvā” ti sunakho nāma sāmikassa santike nisı̄danto
dvı̄hi pādehi bhūmiyam . vilekhitvā kukkurakūjitam . kūjanto nisı̄dati. ayam pi “kukkurakiriyam . karissāmı̄” ti bhagavatā saddhim.
sammoditvā dvı̄hi hatthehi bhūmiyam . vilekhitvā sı̄sam . vidhunanto “bhū bhū” ti katvā hatthapāde samiñjitvā sunakho viya nisı̄di [Ps III,
pp. 100–101]).
Religions 2019, 10, 363 3 of 14

dog-duty and ox-duty ascetic practices6 . He models a relationship to the world of physicality that
allows humans—in their experiential relationship to the senses, things, and beings—to become animal:
to participate in sentience as constitutive of a world of “material nature,” rather than being distinct
from it.
But for me it remains a question just how tenable it is that such a lived philosophy might be fully
carried out, enacted, practiced, and performed, when most humans remain in large part cognitively
restricted—victims of hard-wired experiences—by our current modes of embodiment. While Abram
models beautifully in his writing a series of meditations involving connecting with material nature
and the senses, these approaches do not appear to touch the more basic and elemental cognitive forces
that structure human and animal cognition: cognition that constitutes experiencers through a sense of
separation of awareness and objects of awareness, a sense of interiority and exteriority7 .

3. Karma and the Animal Realm

It is in the context of this practical challenge that we might turn to the history of Buddhist
thought—and some of its particular modes of metaphysical deliberation—in an attempt to discern
how the Buddha and his followers took on this issue.
We might begin with a depiction of the Buddha’s response to the ox-duty (govatika) naked
ascetic (acela), Pun.n.a, when asked about the dog-duty practice (kukkuravatika) of his friend Seniya.
After repeatedly exhorting Pun.n.a not to ask about such a topic, the Buddha agrees to comment on it:

Here, Pun.n.a, someone develops the dog-duty (kukkuravata) fully and uninterruptedly; he
develops the dog-habit (kukkurası̄la) fully and uninterruptedly; he develops the dog-mind
(kukkuracitta) fully and uninterruptedly; he develops dog-behaviour (kukkurākappa) fully and
uninterruptedly. Having done so, on the dissolution of the body, after death, he reappears
in the company of dogs. But if he has such a view as this: “By this virtue or observance or
asceticism or holy life I shall become a deity or some other divine incarnation,” that is wrong
view in his case. Now there are two destinations for one with wrong view, I say: hell or the
animal realm. (Adapted from [Ñān.amoli and Bodhi 1995, pp. 493–94])8

Whether this is a fair assessment of the context and aims of such a practice is impossible to
say. What this passage seems to indicate, however, is that some ascetics engaging in such practices
considered them to lead to liberation from gross forms of embodiment—such as animal and human
embodiments—through rebirth as some kind of divinity.
By suggesting that someone who adopts such ideas holds wrong views, the Buddha here presents
his own theory of karma. This analysis turns primarily on the idea that all habits and behaviors (sı̄la)
are inevitably constituted through certain modes of cognition. By understanding how the constraints of
our cognition condition a network of action within which we are enmeshed, ascetic practitioners might
come to see ways to embody cognition that are conducive to dismantling or skillfully navigating that

6 While pushing back against the constraints of such categorizations in many respects, Abram nonetheless takes for granted,
in his conceptualization of the notion of “nature,” the key divisions outlined by Latour (1993) in his delineation of the
modern constitution.
7 Philip Descola’s treatment of what he terms “schemas of practice” might be brought to bear on the discussion here
(Descola 2013, pp. 91–125). His analysis of the experiential foundations of various ontologies across cultures fits well
with the types of distinctions I am trying to highlight. Such distinctions are also amenable to the basic categories of
“interiority” (ajjhatta/adhyātma) and “exteriority” (bahiddha/bahirdha)—commensurate with Descola’s “interiority” (intériorité)
and “physicality” (physicalité)—outlined in the practice models of early Buddhist awareness/mindfulness practices.
8 idha, Pun.n.a, ekacco kukkuravatam . bhāveti paripun.n.am
. abbokin.n.am. , kukkurası̄lam
. bhāveti paripun.n.am . abbokin.n.am. , kukkuracittam .
bhāveti paripun.n.am . abbokin.n.am . , kukkurākappam . bhāveti paripun.n.am . abbokin.n.am. . so kukkuravatam . bhāvetvā paripun.n.am .
abbokin.n.am . , kukkurası̄lam . bhāvetvā paripun.n.am . abbokin.n.am
. , kukkuracittam . bhāvetvā paripun.n.am . abbokin.n.am. , kukkurākappam .
bhāvetvā paripun.n.am . abbokin.n.am . kāyassa bhedā param . maran.ā kukkurānam . sahabyatam . upapajjati. sace kho panassa evam . dit..thi
hoti: “imināham . sı̄lena vā vatena vā tapena vā brahmacariyena vā devo vā bhavissāmi devaññataro vā” ti, sāssa hoti micchādit..thi.
micchādit..thissa kho aham . , pun.n.a, dvinnam . gatı̄nam. aññataram . gatim. vadāmi: nirayam . vā tiracchānayonim. vā (MN 57 at MN I,
pp. 387–88).
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network. (It is, of course, essential to point out that this approach to practice can’t really be understood
outside of a thought system that takes for granted the reality of rebirth.)
So, while knowledge of the nonhuman, in general, and animal behavior, in particular, are certainly
essential for the Buddha or his disciples to fully come to terms with their predicament as embodied,
su↵ering beings, yet another kind of knowledge becomes paramount for the practicing Buddhist in
early South Asia: namely, knowledge about how cognition is variously embodied on an even broader
spectrum of karmic possibility. The Buddha expresses this idea in the Sam . yuttanikāya when discussing
the diversity of species in the animal realm (tiracchānagati):

I do not see any other order of living beings so diversified (citta) as those in the animal realm.
Even those beings in the animal realm have been diversified (cittitā) by the mind (cittena),
yet the mind is even more diverse than those beings in the animal realm. Therefore, monks,
constantly inspect your own mind [as follows]: ‘for a long time this mind has been defiled by
desire, aversion, and delusion.’ Beings are defiled due to mental defilements. Beings are
purified due to purification of mind. (Bodhi 2000, p. 958)9

Here the Buddha puts human minds/cognition on a spectrum with animal minds/cognition,
while at the same time pointing to a broader spectrum of possibility, one that goes beyond the great
diversity of the animal realm. He also prescribes the discernment of the processes of the mind, asserting
the given of the mind’s pollution and the possibility of its purification. Such statements point to two
overlapping ideas in early Buddhist thought: (1) Instances of various forms of embodiment (su↵ering)
cannot be separated from instances of various forms of cognition and (2) the discernment of the process
of cognition allows beings to intervene in that process and either shut it down or escape from it.
While one might read these aspects of early Buddhist thought as amenable to David Abram’s
(among others’) ideas about “the current ‘turn toward the body’” in philosophy of mind, two aspects
of the Buddha’s teaching are difficult to reconcile with it: The first is the notion of rebirth within
a vast cosmology, including immaterial realms constituted entirely of minds or acts of cognition.
This cosmology pushes beyond the ontology of a materialist episteme and allows for subtle material
modes of embodiment, non-material agencies, and disembodied modes of cognition. It also has
(a certain type of ideal) humans at its center, and gives them a paramount, if not the paramount,
position10 . The second is the practical engagement with the mind, which is prescriptively modeled
as discernibly distinct from material bodies in the context of embodied experience. While in these
contexts the mind/cognition and body are indeed inseparable, as Abram would have it, they are not
indistinguishable. Rather, they are experientially distinct as phenomena. The ideal Buddhist is a
human who has found a way to carry out such discernment.

9 “nāham. , bhikkhave, aññam . ekanikāyam pi samanupassāmi evam . cittam

. : yathayidam . , bhikkhave, tiracchānagatā pān.ā. te pi kho, bhikkhave,
tiracchānagatā pān.ā citten‘ eva cittitā, tehi pi kho, bhikkhave, tiracchānagatehi pān.ehi cittaññeva cittataram . . tasmā-t-iha, bhikkhave,
abhikkhan.am . sakam . cittam . paccavekkhitabbam . : ‘dı̄gharattam idam . cittam. sam. kilit..tham
. rāgena dosena mohenā’ ti. cittasam . kilesā,
bhikkhave, sattā sam . kilissanti; cittavodānā sattā visujjhanti” (SN III, pp. 151–52).It is noteworthy that a parallel to this passage in
Chinese translation speaks of the variegated nature of the caran.a bird (fl-£Â), as opposed to the variegated nature of
beings in the animal realm in general. See SĀ 267 at T II, p. 69c18–25. The Pāli tradition takes the term caran.a to refer to a
kind of painting containing various worldly scenes that gets carried from town to town as a prop for traveling performers.
See Spk 7.4 at Spk II, p. 114 and (Stuart [ ]), n. 8.
10 A number of scholars have suggested that the preeminence of the human in Buddhist thought has led to speciesism within
much normative Buddhist doctrine. For an excellent analysis of this issue, see (Schmithausen 2000). Similar issues become
apparent more broadly within South Asian religious traditions in dialogical encounters with recent models of ecological
ethics. Cort (2002) and Dundas (2002) capture the problems surrounding such issues with great clarity in the context of the
Jain tradition. The purpose of the current article is not to construct, reflect on, or critique a normative Buddhist approach to
animals. Rather, it is to engage dialogically with a number of non-normative developments of Buddhist practice that emerge
as elaborations on more normative doctrinal sources.
Religions 2019, 10, 363 5 of 14

4. Contemplative Elaborations
It is precisely at the conceptual interstices of these aspects of the Buddha’s teachings on the
one hand, and contemporary theories of embodied cognition on the other, that I would like to
explore a middle-period Buddhist textual tradition and its depiction of the nonhuman animal realm,
among others.
As I have shown in a number of recent publications, the Saddharmasmr.tyupasthānasūtra is a
middle-period sūtra probably produced in Greater Gandhāra (Stuart 2015a, 2015b, 2017a, 2017b). It is
a meditation text that outlines how a Buddhist practitioner can come to a state of omniscience with
respect to karma and its results through the cultivation of the establishment of awareness/mindfulness
(smr.tyupasthāna). It is a soteriologically transitional text that presented middle period South Asian
Buddhists with a possible path to fully awakened Buddhahood by way of traditional early Buddhist
meditation practices (Stuart 2015a, vol. I, pp. 198–24; Stuart 2015b). It is also one of the most
elaborate texts on Buddhist cosmology ever written, and became an important source for sam . sāric or
cosmological imaginaries throughout East Asia11 .
What is particularly salient here, in the context of this collection of articles, is the text’s treatment of
the animal realm (tiryaggati), its extravagant use of extended animal metaphors, and its practice-oriented
theory of mind. A central method by which the text develops its theory of mind is through a reworking
of the above-quoted early sūtra from the Sam . yuttanikāya. The Saddharmasmr.tyupasthānasūtra prescribes
a meditation practice that involves a meditator envisioning—in a process of cultivating knowledge of
the process of rebirth (cyutyupapattijñāna)12 —the variegated ways in which the mind, like a painter,
paints a world of sam . sāric experience in/as the five realms of the cosmos: (1) the human realm, (2) the
hell realm, (3) the realm of hungry ghosts, (4) the realm of nonhuman animals, and (5) the realm of
deities13 . A meditation practitioner’s ability to envision the entirety of the cosmos in this way hinges
on his capacity to observe the mind constantly and in all possible modes by way of the establishment
of mindfulness/awareness of dharmas (dharmasmr.tyupasthāna). Here we see the traditional practice of
the establishment of mindfulness of dharmas refigured into a metacognitive visionary practice oriented
towards the discernment of the process of karma writ large.
The most basic form of this practice, as it pertains to the realm of animals, can be found in the
second chapter of the Saddharmasmr.tyupasthānasūtra, in a depiction of a meditator monk discerning
aspects of perception:

And further, the yoga practitioner dwells observing dharmas among internal dharma(s): . . .
Further, that monk, seer of the reality of feeling, having accomplished the work [pertaining to]
the six groups of feeling, distinguishes the aggregate of perception, marks it o↵ (nimittı̄karoti):
. . . “[The flow of existence is long] for creatures that live in water, who devour one another,
and are unaware of the knowledge of what is and is not [sexually] approachable. [They]
are constantly agitated by thirst, are parched to the core, and live in fear of being caught.
[They are:] porpoises, hunter fish, crabs, sharks, crocodiles, alligators, leviathans, oysters,
conch, and so on. They are constantly intent on eating one another—the large [dominating]
the small—and live in fear of getting caught in a lowered net. Similarly, [the flow of existence
is long] for creatures that live on the earth [such as]: deer, water bu↵aloes, boars, elephants,
bulls, horses, donkeys, oxen, antelope, bears, rhinoceros, and so on. [These animals] are
agitated by hundreds of thousands of various kinds of su↵ering [such as:] bondage, being
killed by swords, disease, old age and death, and being attacked by others. Similarly, [the

11 See, for example, (Matsunaga and Matsunaga 1972).

12 It is noteworthy that knowledge of the process of rebirth (cyutyupapattijñāna) gets deliberately conflated in the text with the
arising and passing away of dharmas (udayavyayo dharmānā . This association brings the knowledge of rebirth explicitly
. m).
under the umbrella of the practice of the establishment of awareness/mindfulness (smr.tyupasthāna).
13 For an analysis of this early canonical metaphor and its reworking in the Saddharmasmr.tyupasthānasūtra, see (Stuart [ ]).
Religions 2019, 10, 363 6 of 14

flow of existence is long] for creatures that move in the sky [such as:] crows, owls, geese,
peacocks, cocks, lapwings, doves, pigeons, gallinules, shrikes, storks, jı̄vajı̄vakas, vultures,
cuckoos, and other various types of birds. They are filled with terrible fear, and are a✏icted
by poisoning, bondage, swords, hunger and thirst, other animal predators, and cold and heat.
The flow [of existence] is long for these animals, who live and move in three places—the
earth, water and sky.” [In this way,] he takes as an object the sign of perception [of length].”
(Stuart 2015a, vol. I, pp. 408–11)14

Here we see the taxonomic sensibility of the text, the need to categorize animal life according to
di↵erent types of su↵ering. But the text also explicitly places animals on a spectrum of beings who can
become conscious of their su↵ering and be liberated from it:

“There are those [animals] who—[though] fearful of predation, of threats, beatings, cold,
heat, and bad weather—if capable, disregard their trembling and, just for a moment, arouse
a mind of faith towards the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha. The flow [of existence]
is short for those animals.” [In this way,] he takes as an object the sign of perception [of
shortness]. (Stuart 2015a, vol. I, pp. 414–15)15

Here the prospect of liberation from su↵ering for animals turns on their capacity to generate faith
in the triple gem: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha. This is also something that is possible in
the realm of hungry ghosts (pretas). In other words, animals have the capacity for cognition beyond
their basic instinctual tendencies, but instances of such cognition are rare and unlikely in the context of
such modes of embodiment16 .
Most importantly, however, this contemplative encounter allows a human practitioner not only
to taxonomize animal embodiment and modes of cognition, but also to identify with beings in such
situations. One becomes animal by envisioning the cognitive possibilities of animals in acts of human
perception. The text, then, acknowledges the general constraints of various sorts of embodied cognition
while at the same time enacting perception as a distinguishable and unique aspect of mental life, capable
of building mental realities over and above normative bodily-cognitive constraints.17 The embedded
narrative frames of the Saddharmasmr.tyupasthānasūtra, which represent a monk going through these
cognitive exercises while a yogācāra or master meditation practitioner simultaneously observes those
very exercises as dharmas, points to a further metacognitive perspective on such relationships18 .

14 “parasparabhaks.an.āgamyāgamyājñānavimukhānām . jalacarān.ām. nityam . pipāsārditānām . «pariśus.kahr.dayagrahan.abhı̄tānām .

śiśumāralubdhakodratimitimiṅgilakumbhı̄ranakramakaraśuktiśaṅkhapramukhānām . nityam . parasparasthūlasūks.mabhaks.an.atatparān.ām .
vāgurāvarohan.agrahan.abhı̄tānām, tathā sthalacarān.ām. mr.gamahis.avarāhanāgarājavr.s.abhāśvakharagavayarururiks.agan.d.akaprabhr.tı̄nām .
vividhaduh.khabandhanaśastramāran.avyādhijarāmaran.aparasparapı̄d.āśatasahasrārditā»nām, tathāntarı̄ks.acarān.ām.
kākolūkaham . sabarhikukkut.akoyas..tikapārāpatakapotadātyūhavāsaśatapatrachāyāvalı̄najı̄vajı̄vakasampātaparabhr.tānām anyes.ām . ca
śakunijātı̄nām, vais.avadhabandhanaśastraks.utpipāsāparasparabhaks.an.aśı̄tos.n.apı̄d.itānām. tristhānagatānām
. sthalajalajāntarı̄ks.acarān.ām
.
tiryaggatānām . dārun.apratibhayānām
. dı̄rghah. sam. sārah.,” sañjñānimittam ālambati.
15 “parasparabhaks.an.atarjanatād.anaśı̄tos.n.adurdinabhayabhı̄tās te, yadi śaknuvanti, ks.an.avis.kambham agan.ayitvā, ks.an.am apy ekam .
cittaprasādam . buddhadharmasaṅgham . prati kartum, hrasvas tes.ām . tiryaks.u sam . sārah.,” sañjñānimittam anulambati.
16 Ohnuma (2017, pp. 24–40) discusses the role of prasāda or the generation of faith as a central theme in Sanskrit Buddhist
narrative literature.
17 I use the verb ‘enacting’ here (and elsewhere) in a general sense, but also to invoke the idea of the ‘enactive’ as a term of art
in Philosophy of Mind. For an excellent philosophical engagement with normative Buddhist karma theory and the emergent
‘enactive approach’ in philosophy of mind, see (Mackenzie 2013). I am hesitant to whole-heartedly adopt approaches such
as that of MacKenzie precisely for the same reasons that I distinguish David Abram’s approach to becoming animal from
that of a premodern South Asian Buddhist contemplative. While enactivism has its roots in Buddhist philosophy (see
[Varela et al. 1991]), as this approach comes into its own in the field of Philosophy of Mind, those developing it appear to
assume a physicalist metaphysics that may or may not be amenable to Buddhist approaches to the mind in a final analysis.
See, for example, (Hutto and Myin 2012).
18 On the narrative structure of the Saddharmasmr.tyupasthānasūtra and how it constructs such a meta-cognitive approach to
Buddhist practice, see (Stuart 2015b).
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5. Meditation and Metaphor

This contemplative strategy gets more fully developed in a series of extended contemplative
metaphors, the most significant of which is the painter metaphor already mentioned. We find
several versions of this metaphor in the Saddharmasmr.tyupasthānasūtra, and in all of them the realm of
nonhuman animals is depicted as one among five possible realms of rebirth:

That monk sees [the state of beings]: “How is it that these beings have various forms, live in
various states, are born in various realms, and have various types of bodies?”

He sees: “Because these beings have various mental states, are intent on various types of
bodies, and perform various types of actions, therefore they have various forms, live in
various states, are born in various realms, and have various types of bodies. It is just like a
skilled painter or his apprentice, who sits on a perfectly clear, firm and attractive piece of
ground (bhūmi) and, with the power of his mind, produces various types of beautiful images
[on it], using various colors and pigments. Similarly, the actions of the mind, like a painter or
his disciple, produce intentions (adhimuktikara) and [thus] generate beings on the perfectly
clear ground of the three realms, the firm (dr.d.ha) ground of the flow [of existence], which
contains various states, various realms, and various types of bodies [produced through] the
ripening of the fruits of action. . . .

“Further, the actions of the mind, like a painter using a yellow pigment, generate the realms
of animals. With yellow appearance, they drink one another’s blood, eat one another’s flesh,
and kill one another, yellowed (pı̄tākr.ta) by desire, aversion and delusion.” (Stuart 2015a,
vol. I, pp. 486–89)19

Here the focus is on one of the most basic aspects of animal life: predation. But what is of
central import here is the practice of discerning how basic cognitive proclivities condition various
forms of embodiment (or disembodiment). The painter metaphor extends a basic idea of the early
Buddhist tradition and brings it into a new soteriological context, one that allows that such discernment
constitutes the foundation for omniscience about karma, the kind of knowledge accessible only to
the Buddhas.
In so doing, the Saddharmasmr.tyupasthānasūtra remains open to new cosmological and natural
taxonomies, and refigures foundational Buddhist meditation practices to encompass them. This can
be seen in the text’s elaborate accounts of Buddhist hells, the realm of hungry ghosts, the nonhuman
animal realm, and the realm of deities, which are some of the most developed of such accounts in the
history of Buddhism. But in the Saddarmasmr.tyupasthānasūtra such accounts are always framed as
visionary experiences, which can only be perceived after a practitioner has fully come to discern the
entire array of cognitive possibilities for humans in the universe.
One way of presenting this process of discernment is the painter–mind metaphor. But an additional
set of metaphors—likewise drawn from early Buddhist canonical texts—also helps to illustrate this
refigured form of Buddhist practice. The visionary enactment of several nonhuman animal metaphors
is particularly revealing of this project. The text describes a meditator deep in meditation, discerning the
activity of the mind in metaphorical terms as (1) the activity of a monkey, and (2) the activity of a river
fish. These are metaphors from the early Buddhist tradition, but in the Saddharmasmr.tyupasthānasūtra

19 sa bhiks.uh. paśyati: “katham . amı̄ sattvā nānārūpā nānāvasthā nānāgatikā nānāvidhāśrayāh.?”sa paśyati: “yasmād ete sattvā nānācittā
nānāvidhāśrayādhimuktā nanavidhakarman.ah., tasmād ete sattvā nānārūpā nānāvasthā nānāgatikā nānāvidhāśrayāh.. tadyathā daks.aś
citrakaro vā citrakarāntevāsı̄ vā suśuklām. dr.d.hām ālokyaramyām . bhūmim āsādya, nānāvidhai raṅgair nānāvidhaiś citrair nānāvidhāni
śobhanāni rūpāni cittavaśāt kurute. tathāyam . cittacitrakarmakaraś citrakarmakarāntevāsı̄ vādhimuktikarah. suśuklāyām . tridhātubhūmau
dr.d.hāyām
. karmaphalavipākāyām . sam. sārabhūmau nānāvasthāyām . nānāgatikāyām. nānāvidhāśrayāyām
. sattvām
. ś cittacitrakarmakaro
’bhinivartayati. . . . “punar api sa cittacitrakarmakarah. pı̄tam . raṅgam upādāya, abhinivartayati tiryaggatāni. te ’pi parasparen.a
pı̄taraṅgavaśāt pibanti rudhirān.i, khādanti mām . sāni, ghnanti ca parasparato rāgadves.amohena pı̄tākr.tāh..”
Religions 2019, 10, 363 8 of 14

they are literarily expanded and redeployed in the context of the text’s new soteriology. The river fish
metaphor serves here as an example of such redeployment:

Further, that monk sees the fish-mind as similar to a river fish: “Just as a fish in a mountain
river breaks the surface of, and is [then] submerged by, its constantly frothy and turbulent
[waters], its deep, swift flow and the powerful surge of its current, which is capable of
washing away many trees, and whose constant fierce activity is unstoppable due to the
power of its swiftness, similarly the fish-mind breaks the surface of, and is [then] submerged
by, the river of craving. Its constantly frothy and turbulent [waters] are [the waters of]
the three realms of existence. It runs [in parts] deep to the Vaitaran.ı̄ river of the realm of
sensuality, and [at others] supremely deep to the realm of Avı̄ci hell. Its swift flow is the
swift flow of wholesome and unwholesome actions. Its powerful current is the current that
makes it very difficult for all foolish worldlings of the world to cross over to the other shore
[of nirvān.a]. Its ‘surge’ is the surge of the river of the five destinations [that carries beings
onward] for many eons. Its swift stream of sense-objects is capable of carrying away [the
mind]. Its ‘constant fierce activity is unstoppable due to the power of its swiftness.’ [This
refers to] the constant fierce activity of impermanence, which is unstoppable due to the
power of its swiftness. The fish-mind [first] breaks the surface of the river of craving, [to be
born] among deities and men, and is then submerged [by it, to be born] among denizens of
hell, hungry ghosts and animals.” (Stuart 2015a, vol. I, pp. 497–99)20

Metaphors that were once used in didactic teaching contexts to describe the mind’s activity in
categorically negative terms are now refigured and deployed in various modes of contemplative
discernment in such a way that, through them, a Buddhist adept can reach a state of omniscience.
Rather than shutting down the mind as an uncontrolled animal agent of karma, the adept follows and
accounts for all possible paths of action that the mind might take, applying the discernment of Buddhist
wisdom to every facet of embodied (and disembodied) life. In this soteriological and contemplative
context, the phrase ‘becoming animal’ takes on a di↵erently charged connotation. One becomes the
cognitive process by becoming animal.

6. Envisioning the Animal

It is with this foundational orientation that the Saddharmasmr.tyupasthānasūtra can expand the
scope of its contemplative prescriptions to encompass the discernment of karmic ripening in all
possible modes of psycho-physical life. It does so systematically. After detailing the basic mindfulness
meditation practices that allow a monk to attain supernormal visionary capacities, the text goes on
to detail extensively the envisioning of the hell realms, the realm of hungry ghosts, the realm of
nonhuman animals, and the realm of deities21 . While the text is most developed in its descriptions of
the process of envisioning the hell realms and heavenly embodiments, a substantial portion of the text
is devoted to the discernment of the constitution of the animal realm.
This treatment of the animal realm takes the practitioner into a vast and variegated world of
animal life, a world of cognitions and actions far beyond the basic taxonomy of animal species outlined
in the initial contemplations of the Saddharmasmr.tyupsthānasūtra presented above. In this analysis,

20 punar api sa bhiks.ur nadı̄mı̄navat paśyati cittamı̄nam: “yathā hi mı̄nah. pratatataraṅgākulāyām

.
gambhı̄raśı̄ghrasrotodurvis.ahagatipracārāyām anekavr.ksāpakars.an.asamarthāyām . pratataśı̄ghravegānivāryakarmacan.d.āyām.
girinadyām unmajjaty avamajjati, evam evāyam . cittamı̄nah. pratatataraṅgākulāyām. tribhavataraṅgākulāyām,
kāmadhātuvaitaran.ı̄gambhı̄rāyām avı̄ciparamagambhı̄rāyām, śı̄ghrasrotāyām . śubhāśubhakarmasrotāyām, durvis.ahagatyām .
sarvalokabālapr.thagjanapāragamanadurvis.ahagatyām, ‘pracārāyām’ iti pañcagatinadyām . pracārāyām anekakalpāyām . ca,
kars.an.asamarthāyām . vis.ayaśı̄ghrasrotāyām, ‘śı̄ghrapratatavegānivāryacan.d.āyām’ iti anityatāpratatavegānivāryacan.d.āyām, nadyām
.
tr.s.n.ānadyām
. cittamı̄na unmajjananimajjanam . kurute. unmajjati devamanus.yes.u, nimajjati narakapretatiryaks.u sa cittamı̄nas
tr.s.n.ānadyām.”
21 These elaborate visionary contemplations of the four realms beyond the human constitute approximately 93% of the
Saddharmasmr.tyupasthānasūtra as it has come down to us.
Religions 2019, 10, 363 9 of 14

the text does begin with basic taxonomies of common animals, but it then also goes on to describe
a range of supernormal animals, and it is this visionary elucidation that constitutes the majority of
the text’s treatment of the animal realm. The framing of this contemplative envisioning of the animal
realm runs as follows.
Using knowledge of scripture, he sees according to reality that the 340 million types of animals,
which come into existence ordered by their mental proclivities, are the most numerous of
any of the five classes of beings. [They] wear various coats and have by nature [a variety of]
manifestations, gaits, types of food, aims and adversaries. [They] are hostile or amicable,
friendly and unfriendly, inclined to companionship or inclined to solitude. . . . By way of
what karma do living beings have various manifestations, gaits, and types of food? . . .
Using knowledge of scripture, he sees that because living beings have various mental states
(-cetasah.), they are ordered such that they enact various kinds of actions. . . . [The monk]
contemplatively explores those actions of theirs. . . . 22
Such psychologization of animal behavior is constitutive of the text’s treatment of nonhuman
animals. Beasts, birds, fish, and insects behave according to mental proclivities based on past actions,
and their cognitive constraints condition what kinds of actions they are likely to participate in.
However, an even more diverse conception of such embodiments and the spectrum of possibilities in
the animal realm emerges when the text extends its treatment of nonhuman animals to the realm of
nāgas (supernormal reptilian beings) and asuras (demigods possessed by anger who are somewhat
idiosyncratically included in the animal realm)23 . Nāgas and their cognitive proclivities are responsible
for weather patterns on earth, while asuras are constantly intent on the conquest of the deities of the
Heaven of the Thirty-three (Trayastrim . śa) in battle.
The text provides elaborate descriptions of these agents of the animal realm. Most important,
however, is the larger set of karmic and cosmological relationships that emerges from these descriptions.
This is best exemplified in the Saddharmasmr.tyupasthānasūtra’s treatment of asura embodiment, which
is dominated by vehemence and the compulsion to wage war with deities. It presents a detailed
description of a battle between the asuras and the deities, the end of which is marked by the asuras
turning tail and fleeing back to their animal abodes beneath the earth (Ms, pp. 116b5–130a4 [T XVII,
pp. 114c12–124c24; D ra, pp. 26a4–53a6]). A key moment of this narrative is when Indra/Śakra, the king
of the deities, notifies the asuras that their attempts to wage war are futile:
Why are [the asuras] desperately intent on hostility, having created this situation of
self-destruction involving the loss of life of innumerable asuras? Even in this day and
age there are righteous (dhārmika) men in the realm of humans who practice according
to the teachings [of the Buddha] (dharmānuparvartin). The victory of the deities over you
is dependent on [the state of righteousness of] humans. Because [you are] not cognizant
of the appropriate time and place, this desperate hostility that has been enacted brings
about self-slaughter. 24
Here the state of a↵airs in the entire cosmos, and the possibility of actions being accomplished in
various realms—human, nonhuman, animal, and nonanimal—is interdependent with human cognition

22 tatvatah. sa paśyati śrutamayena jñānena tiryañcatustrim . śatkot.iprakārā yathācittāyattavidheyopapannāh. pañcebhyo gatibhyah.

sarvvabhūyis..tatarā nānāves.adharā rūpagatyāhārapaks.apratipaks.apra[102b2] dvis..tādvis..tamitrāmitrasahacarāsahacarajātikās . . . tatra
kataren.a karmman.ā nānāves.arūpagatyāhārā bhavanti prān.inah. | sa paśyati śrutamayena jñānena [yasmā][102b3] n nānācetasah. prān.inah.
prān.ino vidheyā nānāvidhāni karmmāni kurvvanti . . . tes.ām. karmmān.i vicārayati | (Ms, p. 102b1–3)prān.ino ] corr.; prān.ina Ms
23 For a brief overview of this chapter of the Saddharmasmr.tyupasthānasūtra, see Stuart (2015a), vol. I, pp. 82–87.
24 kim idam ā[g]atasthānam . yam evātmanah. kr.tam abhāvāyānek[e]s.ām asurān.ām . jı̄vitāpahārār[th]āya nirarthakam
. vairam anubaddhāh.
santi? adyāpi manus.yaloke dhārmmikāh. purus.ā dharmmānupar[ivar]tt[inah.]. [129b2] manus.yān.ām āyatto hi devānām . jayaparājayo
yūyam. ajñātvā deśakālam . nirarthakam idam . vairam . kr.tam ātmaghātāya. (Ms, p. 129b1–2 [T XVII, p. 124b3–7; D ra, p.
51b4–5])anubaddhāh. ] corr. (?); anubaddhā (?); zhugs pa D; n.e. Tmanus.yān.ām ] corr.; manus.yān.ām Ms; thams cad brtan pa dag yod
na D; Â∫ÓÑ⇥) ›õ⇥∫L Ñ⇥)G4fi⇥Tjayaparājayo ] em.; yajaparājayas te Ms; rgyal ba dang pham pa ni D; Â∫
ÓÑ ) ›õ⇥∫L Ñ )G4fi⇥T
 Religions 2019, 10, 363 10 of 14

Religions 2019, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 10 of 15

and ethical practice. This moment of the Saddharmasmrtyupasthānasūtra brings one aspect of its broader
. about self-
appropriate time and place, this desperate hostility that has been enacted brings
slaughter.24 contemplative narrative—a meditator monk waging war against Māra—into relief against a larger
perennial cosmological narrative involving supernormal beings from the realm of animals and the
Here the state of affairs in the entire cosmos, and the possibility of actions being accomplished
realm of deities25 . In this reading of the text, becoming human as a Buddhist contemplative involves
in various realms—human, nonhuman, animal, and nonanimal—is interdependent with human
cognition and ethical acknowledging that one
practice. This moment of is
theinterconnected with, and ontologically
Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra responsible for, the state of a↵airs in
brings one aspect
every state
of its broader contemplative of cognition
narrative—a in the universe.
meditator monk waging Thewarprocess
againstof Mā
becoming
ra—into animal,
relief therefore—to the extent that
one might
against a larger perennial accountnarrative
cosmological for a prospective 340 millionbeings
involving supernormal typesfromincluding
the realm of and asuras—is entailed in the
nāgas
animals and the realm process of truly
of deities becoming human.
25 . In this reading of the text, becoming human as a Buddhist

contemplative involves acknowledging

Another way that
toone is interconnected
read the text is towith, andthe
take ontologically responsibleelucidated in this constellation
interdependence
for, the state of affairs in every state of cognition in the universe. The process of becoming animal,
of relationships as evidence of an epistemological idealism, a stance that takes the human animal
therefore—to the extent that one might account for a prospective 340 million types including nāgas
and asuras—is entailedorganism as its point
in the process of trulyofbecoming
departure while remaining agnostic about whether the worlds of experience
human.
presented in the cosmological visions
Another way to read the text is to take the interdependence of the text have
elucidated anything
in this to do of
constellation with an externalist account of the
cosmos.
relationships as evidence of Such an interpretation
an epistemological gets
idealism, complicated,
a stance however,
that takes the human by animal
another account of animal life in the
organism as its point Saddharmasmr . tyupasthānas
of departure while remaining ūtra, depicted
agnostic about once
whetheragain in the context
the worlds of the painter–mind metaphor:
of experience
presented in the cosmological visions of the text have anything to do with an externalist account of
Further, gets
the cosmos. Such an interpretation one complicated,
discerns: “Which
however, karma-color is it of
by another account that paints
animal animals?” It is the color[s]
life in
black-red. When [an animal] experiences extreme su↵ering and extreme fear, this is black
the Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra, depicted once again in the context of the painter–mind metaphor:
pigment.
Further, one discerns: When [animals]
“Which karma-color is it that predate one another,
paints animals?” It is the this is red
color[s] pigment. Using such colors, the
black-
red. When [an animal]painter–mind
experiencespaints
extreme[the realm of
suffering and animals].
extreme Further,
fear, this inis brief
black we speak of the animals of the
pigment. When [animals]
threepredate
spheres, one another,
who this is red pigment.
are frightened Using such
of one another, colors,
afraid ofthe
slaughter, afraid of being caught,
painter–mind paints [the realm of animals]. Further, in brief we speak of the animals of the
subject to predation. Those that move through the air are birds, such as peacocks, pheasants,
three spheres, who are frightened of one another, afraid of slaughter, afraid of being caught,
and geese. Those that travel on earth are animals such as water bu↵alo, pigs, and horses.
subject to predation. Those that move through the air are birds, such as peacocks, pheasants,
and geese. Those thatThose
travelthat liveare
on earth in animals
water are suchfish of various
as water buffalo,sorts. They
pigs, and are colored black. If they do not
horses.
fearare
Those that live in water slaughter, theysorts.
fish of various are colored
They arered, as, for
colored example,
black. If they dothenotimages
fear [of animals] in the realm of
26 (Excerpted from Stuart [ ]) 27 the realm of
deities.
slaughter, they are colored red, as, for example, the images [of animals] in
deities.26 (Excerpted from Stuart [forthcoming])27
This very last reference to animals, or images of animals, in the realm of deities takes the question
This verythe
of epistemological idealism—with last reference
human to animals,
organism orof
as a point images of animals,
departure—and in theit realm
subjects to of deities takes the question
further complication.of epistemological idealism—with the human organism as a point of departure—and subjects it to
If the birds that beautify heaven may simply be mental projections of deities,
and deities may simply be the mental projections of humans, where does the locus of the projection
further complication. If the birds that beautify heaven may simply be mental projections of deities,
begin and end? 28 It appears, then, that an externalist reading of Buddhist cosmology must be
and deities may simply be the mental projections of humans, where does the locus of the projection
begin and end?28 It appears, then, that an externalist reading of Buddhist cosmology must be
24 kim idam ā[g]atasthānaṃ yam evātmanaḥ kṛtam abhāvāyānek[e]ṣām asurāṇāṃ jīvitāpahārār[th]āya nirarthakaṃ
accepted at some level for the possibility of arguments about an organism-centered epistemological
vairam anubaddhāḥ santi? adyāpi manuṣyaloke dhārmmikāḥ puruṣā dharmmānupar[ivar]tt[inaḥ]. [129b2] manuṣyāṇām
āyatto hi devānāṃ idealism
jayaparājayo to holdajñātvā
yūyam. water. This appears
deśakālaṃ nirarthakamtoidaṃ
be what is at issue
vairaṃ kṛtam in the(Ms,
ātmaghātāya. philosophical
p. moves of the famous
129b1–2 [T XVII, p.Yogācāra-vijñānavāda
124b3–7; D ra, p. 51b4–5]) idealist Vasubandhu when he proposes in his Vimśikā the example of hungry
.
anubaddhāḥ ] corr. (?); anubaddhā (?); zhugs pa D; n.e. T
ghosts perceiving the water of a river as pus as part of developing an argument for an epistemological
manuṣyāṇām ] corr.; manuṣyāṇām Ms; thams cad brtan pa dag yod na D; 以人修善。天有勝力。人行不善。
天則破壞。T idealism29 .
jayaparājayo ] em.; yajaparājayas te Ms; rgyal ba dang pham pa ni D; 以人修善，天有勝力。人行不善，天
則破壞。T
25 On the tiered narrative
25 On of the Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra, see (Stuart 2015b).
the tiered narrative of the Saddharmasmr.tyupasthānasūtra, see (Stuart 2015b).
26 謂天中象 T; mtho 26 ris kyi bya rnams D: Here the Tibetan translators refer specifically to heavenly birds. Lin
⇥)-a T; mtho ris kyi bya rnams D: Here the Tibetan translators refer specifically to heavenly birds. Lin Li-kouang
Li-kouang (Lin and Demiéville 1949) interpreted
(Lin and Demiéville the Chinese
1949) interpreted text as referring
the Chinese to the celestial
text as referring elephant
to the celestial elephant Airāvan.a, Indra’s mount. This is
Airāvaṇa, Indra’s mount. This
quite is quitethe
possibly possibly
correctthe correct interpretation.
interpretation.
27 27 »©¿fl⇢Um∆rk\\
又復觀察：何業釆色畫作畜生？謂黑赤色。彼若受於第一苦惱，第一怖畏，是黑色畫。若相殺害是赤色畫。如 ⇥—dr⇥|Â◊º, ÊÒ , O /—rk⇥¯∫≥/drk⇥Ç/r⇧ /
是色者，是心畫師，畫如是色。又復略說畜生三處，迭相怖畏，畏殺，畏縛，被他食肉。虛空行者，所謂孔
√k+ kÇ/r⇥»©e™\ U ̯ O O∫ O ´÷flâ⇥[zL⇧ @⇥T¿ … ]IÂ⇥x0L
雀、雉、鵝等鳥。陸地行者，謂牛水牛、猪、馬等畜。水中行者，所謂魚等。彼黑色畫。若不畏殺，彼赤色畫，
⇧ ⇥[4[ ¨I\⇥4-L⇧ @⇥ZI⇥|—rk⇥Â O∫ |drk ⇥)-a⇥(T no. 721, at T XVII,
謂天中象。(T no. 721, at T XVII,
pp. pp. 287b6–287b14)
287b6–287b14)
28 Reiko Ohnuma (2017,28 p.Reiko Ohnuma
17 and nn. 44) (2017,
makesp. 17 and nn.
reference 44)aspect
to this makesofreference
doctrinaltoconcern
this aspect of doctrinal
for early Buddhistconcern for early Buddhist scholasticism
scholasticism but seems but
toseems to havethe
have missed missed the philosophical
philosophical issues of issues
karma of karma
theory andtheory and philosophy
philosophy of mind atof mind at the center of such distinctions.
Instead, she interprets such issues to be related to a Buddhist speciesism. It does not appear to me that such interpretations
are borne out in this instance in the sources cited.
29 See, for example, the third verse of Vasubandhu’s Vimśikā: “Constraint of place is proved, taking the example of dreams.
.
The example of hungry ghosts additionally proves the constraint of the individual cognitive continuum, since they all see
rivers of pus etc.” (deśādiniyamah. siddhah. svapnavat pretavat punah. | sam . tānāniyamah. sarvaih. pūyanadyādidarśane || 3 || (Lévi 1925)
On the Vim . śikā as a classical example of epistemological idealism in South Asian philosophy, see (Kellner and Taber 2014).
Religions 2019, 10, 363 11 of 14

Such developments show how texts like the Saddharmasmr.tyupasthānasūtra serve as a bridge
between what appear to be more realist conceptions of karma theory and the realms of existence—such
as those of earliest Buddhism—and idealist philosophical developments exemplified by the works
of scholars such as Vasubandhu within the Yogācāra-vijñānavāda tradition. The text also indicates
that the latter make little sense without the former, and that an organism-centric and cognition-centric
approach can never be fully abandoned in Buddhist epistemology and Buddhist practice.
Therefore, it is hardly surprising that an analysis of animal life becomes one key way for the
Buddha and those that followed after him to reflect on the problems of being human; however a truly
organism-centric approach to the mind has certain implications. Even when one understands that
coming to terms with oneself involves coming to terms with the mind or intelligence “as an attribute
of nature in its entirety” (Abram 2011, p. 109), such a process must take into account the vicissitudes of
the cognitive and the imaginal. The real–unreal–hyper-real worlds of cognition may be a human’s only
experiential way into “nature in its entirety.” David Abram’s notion of ‘becoming animal’ perhaps
overlooks this issue, and the solution to it that some Buddhist models of practice o↵er.

7. Mind and the Wriggling Insects Below

However there are multiple approaches to this issue within Buddhist thought, too. One interesting
historical moment—which connects indirectly to the transmission of the Saddharmasmr.tyupasthānsūtra
in China—is relevant to the issues raised here. This moment is pivotal in the process of the emergence
of Chan Buddhism in China, and it connects to how proto-Chan distinguished itself early on from
other forms of Buddhist thought and practice available in China30 .
One key player in the proto-Chan community that formed around Bodhidharma and his close
disciples was the Buddhist exegete Tanlin («ó), otherwise known as “armless Lin” (!¬ó). Tanlin was
responsible for the composition/revision/redaction of The Treatise on Two Entrances and Four Practices
(åe€L÷), an important proto-Chan text attributed to Bodhidharma, as well as the collection
of a number of proto-Chan records. These materials have been studied by scholars of early Chan
(Yanagida 1969; Jorgensen 1979; McRae 1986; Broughton 1999). Tanlin was also the Chinese translation
attendant for a number of important sixth-century translation projects, including the translation of the
Saddharmasmr.tyupasthānasūtra (T 721) and a translation of Vasubandhu’s Vim . śikā (T 1588), with the
Indian pundit Gautama Prajñāruci.
In several proto-Chan documents associated with Tanlin and the early cult around Bodhidharma
and his followers, we find critical echoes of some of the ideas we have been exploring in the
Saddharmasmr.tyupasthānasūtra. These passages make an ontological distinction as to what it means for
the mind to be “an attribute of nature in its entirety”—as Abram would have it:

I really thought that the heavenly mansions were another country and the hells another place,
that if one were to attain the path and get the fruit, one’s bodily form would change. I unrolled
sutra scrolls to seek blessings, engaging karmic causes for purification. In confusion I went
around in circles, chasing my mind and creating karma; thus I passed many years not finding
a moment of rest. Then for the first time I dwelled upright in dark quiescence and settled my
attention on the kingdom of mind. However, I had been cultivating false perceptions for such
a long time that my disposition led me to continue to see characteristics. I came to the point
where I wanted to probe the difficulties inherent in these illusory transformations. In the
end I clearly apprehended the Dharma Nature and engaged in a course practice of Thusness.
For the first time I realized that within the square inch [of the mind] there is nothing that does

30 On the distinction between proto-Chan, early Chan, middle Chan, and Song-dynasty Chan, see (McRae 2004, pp. 11–21).
McRae suggests that early Chan emerged as a set of “loosely defined factions/groups” between 600 and 900 CE after a
100-year period of proto-Chan from 500 to 600 CE. He notes that Proto-Chan had no known institutional base or explicit
lineage theory, while later forms of Chan appear to develop under the “unifying ideology” of specific lineage claims.
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8.8.Concluding
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Reflections amenable to Abram’s while leaving a vacuum in terms of practice prescriptions
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natural 31world, 31 実謂天堂別囯、地獄他方、得逍獲果、形殊体異。披経求福、潔淨行因。紛紛繞繞、随心作業、向渉多載、
even if they do not fully account for the vicissitudes of cognition 33 . The
実謂天堂別囯、地獄他方、得逍獲果、形殊体異。披経求福、潔淨行因。紛紛繞繞、随心作業、向渉多載、
31 実謂天堂別囯、地獄他方、得逍獲果、形殊体異。披経求福、潔淨行因。紛紛繞繞、随心作業、向渉多載、未
3131 実謂天堂別囯、地獄他方、得逍獲果、形殊体異。披経求福、潔淨行因。紛紛繞繞、随心作業、向渉多載、未
実謂天堂別囯、地獄他方、得逍獲果、形殊体異。披経求福、潔淨行因。紛紛繞繞、随心作業、向渉多載、未
31 実謂天堂別囯、地獄他方、得逍獲果、形殊体異。披経求福、潔淨行因。紛紛繞繞、随心作業、向渉多載、未
実謂天堂別囯、地獄他方、得逍獲果、形殊体異。披経求福、潔淨行因。紛紛繞繞、随心作業、向渉多載、未 遑有息。始復端居幽寂、定境心王。但妄想久修、随情見相、其中変化、略欲難窮。末乃洞鑒法性 、粗練真如
0D÷π ó rú遑有息。始復端居幽寂、定境心王。但妄想久修、随情見相、其中変化、略欲難窮。 末乃洞鑒法性、粗練真如
31
31 31 31
31 実謂天堂別囯、地獄他方、得逍獲果、形殊体異。披経求福、潔淨行因。紛紛繞繞、随心作業、向渉多載、未
実謂天堂別囯、地獄他方、得逍獲果、形殊体異。披経求福、潔淨行因。紛紛繞繞、随心作業、向渉多載、未
⇥)⇥% 31 実謂天堂別囯、地獄他方、得逍獲果、形殊体異。披経求福、潔淨行因。紛紛繞繞、随心作業、向渉多載、未
実謂天堂別囯、地獄他方、得逍獲果、形殊体異。披経求福、潔淨行因。紛紛繞繞、随心作業、向渉多載、未 bäSp⇥´ Bè TËL‡⇥ ^^ √\m ⌘ ⇢ *Q o⇥À
遑有息。始復端居幽寂、定境心王。但妄想久修、随情見相、其中変化、略欲難窮。
遑有息。始復端居幽寂、定境心王。但妄想久修、随情見相、其中変化、略欲難窮。
遑有息。始復端居幽寂、定境心王。但妄想久修、随情見相、其中変化、略欲難窮。
遑有息。始復端居幽寂、定境心王。但妄想久修、随情見相、其中変化、略欲難窮。
遑有息。始復端居幽寂、定境心王。但妄想久修、随情見相、其中変化、略欲難窮。
遑有息。始復端居幽寂、定境心王。但妄想久修、随情見相、其中変化、略欲難窮。
遑有息。始復端居幽寂、定境心王。但妄想久修、随情見相、其中変化、略欲難窮。 始 知方寸之內、無所不有 末乃洞鑒法性 、 粗練真如
、
、明珠朗徹、玄逹深趣。上自諸仏、下及蠢動、莫非妄想別名、随心指計。(Yanag
末乃洞鑒法性
、 、 、
、、、、粗練真如
、 、 、 、
、
遑有息。始復端居幽寂、定境心王。但妄想久修、随情見相、其中変化、略欲難窮。
遑有息。始復端居幽寂、定境心王。但妄想久修、随情見相、其中変化、略欲難窮。
©ÔE}¬ öÉ√ã⇥FÑÛEÓ 31
始知方寸之內、無所不有
実謂天堂別囯、地獄他方、得逍獲果、形殊体異。披経求福、潔淨行因。紛紛繞繞、随心作業、向渉多載、未 末乃洞鑒法性
末乃洞鑒法性
≈㯠v- 、明珠朗徹、玄逹深趣。上自諸仏、下及蠢動、莫非妄想別名、随心指計。(Yanagi
e2„Æ⇥+C 末乃洞鑒法性
末乃洞鑒法性 末乃洞鑒法性
末乃洞鑒法性粗練真如
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粗練真如
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始 知方寸之內、無所不有 始 知方寸之內、無所不有 、明珠朗徹、玄逹深趣。上自諸仏、下及蠢動、莫非妄想別名、随心指計。(Yanagida
始 知方寸之內、無所不有 、明珠朗徹、玄逹深趣。上自諸仏、下及蠢動、莫非妄想別名、随心指計。(Yanagida
、明珠朗徹、玄逹深趣。上自諸仏、下及蠢動、莫非妄想別名、随心指計。(Yanagida
1969,
始知方寸之內、無所不有
始知方寸之內、無所不有
始始 !@ 知方寸之內、無所不有
知方寸之內、無所不有
知方寸之內、無所不有
始 ‡⌫π p. p. 47). See also
、明珠朗徹、玄逹深趣。上自諸仏、下及蠢動、莫非妄想別名、随心指計。(Yanagida
遑有息。始復端居幽寂、定境心王。但妄想久修、随情見相、其中変化、略欲難窮。
、明珠朗徹、玄逹深趣。上自諸仏、下及蠢動、莫非妄想別名、随心指計。(Yanagida
、明珠朗徹、玄逹深趣。上自諸仏、下及蠢動、莫非妄想別名、随心指計。(Yanagida
、明珠朗徹、玄逹深趣。上自諸仏、下及蠢動、莫非妄想別名、随心指計。(Yanagida
、明珠朗徹、玄逹深趣。上自諸仏、下及蠢動、莫非妄想別名、随心指計。(Yanagida
Ñ Ò£⇥⌦ͯ
、明珠朗徹、玄逹深趣。上自諸仏、下及蠢動、莫非妄想別名、随心指計。(Yanagida
1969, 47). ↵ "’
See also (Jorgensen
´^ÑÛ%
(Jorgensen 1979,
1979, p.p. 250).
√⌥ ⇥(Yanagida 1969, p. 47).
250). See also 、粗練真如、
末乃洞鑒法性
1969,
1969,p.p.47). See also
1969, (Jorgensen
p.
(Jorgensen
1969, p.p.
1969, 47).
47).
p. 1969,
47).See
1979,
See p.
also
See
(Jorgensen 1979,
47).
also
p.
also 250).p.p.
See
(Jorgensen 250).
also
(Jorgensen
(Jorgensen
1979, (Jorgensen
1979,
1979,
250).
32 p. 1979,
250).p. 250).、明珠朗徹、玄逹深趣。上自諸仏、下及蠢動、莫非妄想別名、随心指計。(Yanagida
問、云何心是道体。答、心如木石。譬如有人以手自画作竜虎、自見之還自恐怕。惑人亦如是。心識箏子画
p.250).
p.問、云何心是道体。答、心如木石。譬如有人以手自画作竜虎、自見之還自恐怕。惑人亦如是。心識箏子画
1979, 250).
47).p.
1969, See
47).also
1969, See 47).
also See also 1979,
(Jorgensen p.
(Jorgensen
始
1979,知方寸之內、無所不有
250).
p.1979,
32
250). p. 250).
32
3232
32 問、云何心是道体。答、心如木石。譬如有人以手自画作竜虎、自見之還自恐怕。惑人亦如是。心識箏子画作
問、云何心是道体。答、心如木石。譬如有人以手自画作竜虎、自見之還自恐怕。惑人亦如是。心識箏子画作
3232 問、云何心是道体。答、心如木石。譬如有人以手自画作竜虎、自見之還自恐怕。惑人亦如是。心識箏子画作
O ëU√/SS⇥T √Ç(Û⇥lÇ 刀山剣樹、遠以心識畏之。若能無心畏、妄想悉除。意識筆子分別画作色户香味蝕、遠自見之、起貪咀痴、
∫ÂKÍ\(JorgensenN1979, ÍãKÑÍP ⇥—∫¶Ç/⇥√XèP \ q9 `Â
32
32 32 問、云何心是道体。答、心如木石。譬如有人以手自画作竜虎、自見之還自恐怕。惑人亦如是。心識箏子画作
問、云何心是道体。答、心如木石。譬如有人以手自画作竜虎、自見之還自恐怕。惑人亦如是。心識箏子画作
問、云何心是道体。答、心如木石。譬如有人以手自画作竜虎、自見之還自恐怕。惑人亦如是。心識箏子画作
問、云何心是道体。答、心如木石。譬如有人以手自画作竜虎、自見之還自恐怕。惑人亦如是。心識箏子画作
問、云何心是道体。答、心如木石。譬如有人以手自画作竜虎、自見之還自恐怕。惑人亦如是。心識箏子画作 刀山剣樹、遠以心識畏之。若能無心畏、妄想悉除。意識筆子分別画作色户香味蝕、遠自見之、起貪咀痴、
32 問、云何心是道体。答、心如木石。譬如有人以手自画作竜虎、自見之還自恐怕。惑人亦如是。心識箏子画作 1969, p. 47). See also
刀山剣樹、遠以心識畏之。若能無心畏、妄想悉除。意識筆子分別画作色户香味蝕、遠自見之、起貪咀痴、或 p. 250).
刀山剣樹、遠以心識畏之。若能無心畏、妄想悉除。意識筆子分別画作色户香味蝕、遠自見之、起貪咀痴、或
√XOK⇥½!√O ÑÛâd⇥✏XFP⌃%
刀山剣樹、遠以心識畏之。若能無心畏、妄想悉除。意識筆子分別画作色户香味蝕、遠自見之、起貪咀痴、或
刀山剣樹、遠以心識畏之。若能無心畏、妄想悉除。意識筆子分別画作色户香味蝕、遠自見之、起貪咀痴、或
刀山剣樹、遠以心識畏之。若能無心畏、妄想悉除。意識筆子分別画作色户香味蝕、遠自見之、起貪咀痴、或
刀山剣樹、遠以心識畏之。若能無心畏、妄想悉除。意識筆子分別画作色户香味蝕、遠自見之、起貪咀痴、或
刀山剣樹、遠以心識畏之。若能無心畏、妄想悉除。意識筆子分別画作色户香味蝕、遠自見之、起貪咀痴、或 見或捨、 還以心意識分別、 \rôsU起種種業。若能知心識從本已釆空寂所、即是修逍。(Yanagida
`ÍãK w™ÄÙ ã h ÑÂ√✏X⌃% w 1969,p.p.98).
98).See
Seeala
刀山剣樹、遠以心識畏之。若能無心畏、妄想悉除。意識筆子分別画作色户香味蝕、遠自見之、起貪咀痴、或
刀山剣樹、遠以心識畏之。若能無心畏、妄想悉除。意識筆子分別画作色户香味蝕、遠自見之、起貪咀痴、或
見或捨、
32
還以心意識分別、 見或捨、 還以心意識分別、
問、云何心是道体。答、心如木石。譬如有人以手自画作竜虎、自見之還自恐怕。惑人亦如是。心識箏子画作
起種種業。若能知心識從本已釆空寂所、即是修逍。(Yanagida 起種種業。若能知心識從本已釆空寂所、即是修逍。(Yanagida 1969, p. 98). See also 1969,
見或捨、還以心意識分別、 ..m⇥½Â√Xû,Ú∆z¬@
見或捨、
見或捨、
見或捨、 還以心意識分別、
還以心意識分別、
還以心意識分別、 s/Ó ⇥(Yanagida
起種種業。若能知心識從本已釆空寂所、即是修逍。(Yanagida
起種種業。若能知心識從本已釆空寂所、即是修逍。(Yanagida
起種種業。若能知心識從本已釆空寂所、即是修逍。(Yanagida
起種種業。若能知心識從本已釆空寂所、即是修逍。(Yanagida
(Jorgensen 1979, pp. 1969, p. 98). See
277–78). also
1969, (Jorgensen
1969,
p. 98). p.See
98). See
also
1969,
1969, 1979,
p. also
98).
p.p.98). pp.
See
See 277–78).
also
also
見或捨、 見或捨、 見或捨、
還以心意識分別、還以心意識分別、
33 The culmination 起種種業。若能知心識從本已釆空寂所、即是修逍。(Yanagida
還以心意識分別、
(Jorgensen 1979, 起種種業。若能知心識從本已釆空寂所、即是修逍。(Yanagida
起種種業。若能知心識從本已釆空寂所、即是修逍。(Yanagida
刀山剣樹、遠以心識畏之。若能無心畏、妄想悉除。意識筆子分別画作色户香味蝕、遠自見之、起貪咀痴、或
起種種業。若能知心識從本已釆空寂所、即是修逍。(Yanagida
pp. 277–78).(Jorgensen 1979, pp. 277–78). 1969,
1969, p.p.98).
98).
1969, See
See
p. also
1969,
98).also
See 98). See
also also
(Jorgensen 1979, (Jorgensen
pp. 1979, pp. of277–78).
Abram’s
277–78). piece33 on becoming animal, where hepiece becomes a raven under thewhere
tutelage of a Himalayan
(Jorgensen
(Jorgensen pp.277–78).
(Jorgensen
(Jorgensen
(Jorgensen
33 1979, 1979,
shaman,
33
1979,
pp.
1979,
277–78).
1979,
The
pp.
pp.
pp.
277–78).
evokes powerful
277–78).
277–78).
culmination 見或捨、 33
possibilities
of Abram’s
The
還以心意識分別、
The for
piece
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culmination
the transcendence
onanimal,
becoming
of Abram’s
of
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he
onbecoming
becoming
起種種業。若能知心識從本已釆空寂所、即是修逍。(Yanagida
of Abram’s piece on cognitive
becomes a raven
animal,
animal,
under where
constraintsthe (Abramhehebecomes
tutelage
becomes araven
ravenunder
of a pp.a201–58).
2011,
under thetutelage
1969, p. 98). the
tutelageoo
See also
33 The 3333 The
culmination The culmination
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33 The 33
33 culmination Theof
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33
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The culmination
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(Jorgensen
powerful however,
animal,
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powerful providing
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pp.
possibilities he
shaman,
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277–78).
for atranscendence
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Religions 2019, 10, 363 13 of 14

It is at the complicated intersection of these various approaches to the mind that the modern human
animal often finds itself in attempting to make a way in the world. This spectrum of philosophies
of mind—and possible attendant modes of practice—points up the way in which the animal world,
from beings with six faculties to “trees and stones” and “the wriggling insects below”, serves as a
space for the investigation of human reality and what constrains it.

Funding: This research received no external funding.

Acknowledgments: I am grateful to the organizers of the Buddhist Beasts conference for inviting me to participate
in the event, and to Reiko Ohnuma and Barbara Ambros for their comments on an earlier draft of the paper. I am
also grateful to three anonymous reviewers, whose comments helped to improve the article.
Conflicts of Interest: The author declares no conflicts of interest.

Abbreviations and Sigla

Burmese edition of the Pāli canon (Chat.t.ha Saṅgāyana CD-ROM from Dhammagiri,
Be
Version 3)
corr. corrected
Derge Edition of the Tibetan Tripit.aka, published by the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center
D 2002 (based on a scanning of the photomechanical reprint of the par phud printing
published in Delhi by Karmapae chodhey gyalwae sungrab partun khang, 1976–79).
em. emended
MN Majjhimanikāya
a photocopy of the single known Sanskrit manuscript of the Saddharmasmr.tyupasthānasūtra
Ms kept in the collection of the China Tibetology Research Center (Box 12, No.1), the original
of which is held at Norbulingka in Lhasa
n.e. no equivalent in
Ps Papañcasūdanı̄ Majjhimanikāya-at..thakathā
Psk Sāratthapakāsinı̄ Sam
. yuttanikāya-at..thakathā
punct. punctuated
Saddhsu Saddharmasmr.tyupasthānasūtra
SĀ Sam . yuktāgama (Taishō no. 99)
SN Sam . yuttanikāya
Sv Sumaṅgalavilāsinı̄ Dı̄ghanikāya-at..thakathā
T Taishō
{ ... } elided by the editor
‹ ... › added by the editor
[ ... ] unclear in Ms
] a lemma marking o↵ a chosen reading from actual readings in the textual witnesses
References to Pāli texts are to Pali Text Society editions unless otherwise noted. References to the Taishō edition of
the Chinese Buddhist canon are to the CBETA ˚P[x∆⇣Iü 2011 version. I regularly repunctuate both PTS,
Be , and Taishō texts.

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