Becoming Animal: Karma and the Animal Realm Envisioned through an Early Yogācāra Lens
Religions June 1, 2019 D. M. Stuart 5 citations
The Buddha observed that the animal realm contains an extraordinary diversity of beings, which he attributed to an even greater diversity of the mind. This paper traces how that early idea develops across a millennium of Buddhist thought, centering on the third-century Sanskrit text Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra. That text bridges early theories of mind and karma with later elaborated doctrines by psychologizing animal behavior and placing it on a continuum with human and divine conduct. Exploring animal embodiments and their karmic limitations becomes a way to examine all beings, inseparable from the human mind. The analysis connects Buddhist philosophy of mind with contemporary embodied cognition theories.