Question
The first bodhisattva vow is: "However numerous sentient beings may be, I vow to liberate them all, or save them all."
Does this include plants? Are plants considered sentient beings capable of suffering? Is sensation already dukkha?
Gassho.
sb
Master Kosen’s answer
The sensation of suffering exists, of course.
Buddha mentions it among the phenomena from which we should free ourselves.
It is, however, relative to factors that may be emotional, psychological, or cultural. Indeed, different people react with different intensity to the same painful stimulus.
We could also see suffering as a neural adaptation essential to our survival.
Imagine no longer feeling any pain! We would injure ourselves or break bones without even noticing.
So what do we mean by suffering?
What is the suffering of a plant or a planet?
For my part, I think everything in nature proceeds through cycles of transformation that contain an ordinary suffering,
a normal suffering. I think of teenagers' muscle aches, children's growth-related fevers, or women's labor pains. We could imagine that when the natural cycle is respected, pain is not outrageous. But when the cycle is unnaturally broken or disrupted, pain is intolerable and barbaric.
As for the unbearable scream of a head of lettuce having its throat cut... that is not what outrages me most at the moment. We joke, but scientists have already recorded plants' stress, which is very real, and this is an experiment that no longer needs proving.
The more we evolve, the more empathetically we will regard every form of life as connected to ourselves, and treat it with gentleness, love, and patience. I have not forgotten Don Juan's lesson to his student when he teaches him to speak to a plant and apologize before picking it.
Kosen