Does Buddhism consider Human Life Trivial?
Does Buddhism consider Human Life Trivial?
I was looking at my log files on the Ambud server, and found several queries asking if Buddhists considered life trivial. I decided to write an article to answer the question.
In Buddhism, there is a belief that we have been around for countless millennia, reborn in many different forms; from worms to humans. While many have difficulty with concepts of re-incarnation and rebirth, Buddhism essentially holds that consciousness is neither created, nor destroyed; only conditioned, similar to energy. In fact, I read a statement by the Dalai Lama on consciousness, where he stated that consciousness should be thought of as; ‘riding on the back of energy’. At each moment we are essentially reborn; one moment of consciousness creating the next. Each instantiation of life, which may have left us as a worm, essentially continues this flow of consciousness.
We need a human mind to be able to purposefully condition consciousness. It is believed, that as a person, we have the ability to condition our Karma in a positive way; creating positive results. This is not a Good/ Bad thing, positive and negative, in this sense is more about balance; similar to Taoism’s yin and yang. So, Buddhism thinks of human life as most precious, since this is a time where we can sow the seeds, which will help achieve higher states of being.
The Buddhist stance that all things are impermanent, un-lasting, and changing shouldn’t be a difficult concept to prove out. Look around you, what is static, what is unchanging. Even at the most basic level we understand that the molecules in our bodies, a chair, and yes, even my precious Mercedes, are constantly being replaced.
Another Buddhist idea, which asserts that things ultimately exist in dependence on causes, and their own parts, is front and foremost in the philosophy. These two ideas, coupled together, cause many who are un-initiated to Buddhism, to decide that Buddhism is Nihilistic (the idea that nothing exists or that nothing matters). The conclusion then becomes that Buddhists believe life is trivial, which couldn’t be further from the truth. All life is considered precious in Buddhism; from ants to Humans.
Ambud
I find this to be one of your best articles. Thank you. The fact that Buddhism holds all life forms as being precious is one of first thing I understood about Buddhism. This article was beautifully written.
Thanks, I was happy to write the article. I hope it answers some of the questions people have.