How do animals attain enlightenment?

score:4

Accepted answer

Ignorance is the cause of birth and death. Birth and death comes from craving. Craving comes from desire. Desire comes from wanting pleasure. Pleasure comes from avoiding suffering.

When a being comes to this plane, it comes because it's ignorant of who it is. That being starts to learn. While learning, it does many mistakes. It invents birth. It invents death. It searches for pleasure. It avoids suffering to find pleasure. It does so many many many many many lives.

When a lion came to this plane, it came because it was ignorant of who it was. That lion is learning. While learning, it did many many mistakes. It was born. It wanted to live. It searched for pleasure. It avoided suffering. The more it found pleasure and avoided suffering, the more it learned. The more it learned, the more it knew after death. The more it knew after death, the more it knew after rebirth. Positive kamma was building up many many many many lives.

When that being was reborn into this plane, it was reborn because it was ignorant of who it was. That being has learned. While learning, it did many many many mistakes. It was born. It wanted to live. It learned that by avoiding suffering, pleasure will come. By avoiding suffering and searching for pleasure, that being learned good-and-bad. The more it learned, the more it knew after death. The more it knew after death, the more it knew after rebirth. Positive kamma was building up many many many lives.

When that being was reborn into this plane, it was reborn because it was ignorant of who it was. That being has learned. While learning, it did many many many many mistakes. It was born. It wanted to live. From differentiating good-and-bad it learned to avoid suffering. The more it avoided suffering, the more it knew. The more it knew, the more it renounced suffering, pleasure, desire, craving, death and birth. Positive kamma was building up many many lives.

When a being comes to this plane and renounces birth, death, craving, desire, pleasure and suffering, that being is liberated. It knows: "Oh, ignorance! Ignorant I was! I did many many many many many mistakes. That's the reason for all this mess."

By completely eliminating suffering, pleasure, desire, craving, death and birth, ignorance ceased. When ignorance ceased, it learned who it was. By learning who it was, kamma was found. By finding kamma, kamma was unwinded. By unwinding kamma, knowledge about previous lives arose. By arising knowledge of previous lives, that being knew: "This is suffering. This is the cause of suffering. This is the end of suffering. This is the end of all this mess".

Upvote:-2

"Dog tries to save fish with water" http://youtu.be/Mx_X6hmhwrs

Watch it and it inspires.

Upvote:1

There are some interesting cases among animals not only cat but birds, dogs, cows, fish and any kind.

Hope this is helpful. Don't take it too seriously but for your reference. About a cat who refuse to eat chicken, catfood, fish, or any meats and only eating vegetables and shedding tears when given food.

https://youtu.be/CN5yKheno_s

Upvote:6

An animal can't be liberated as an animal; that being itself may be liberated in future births in higher realms of being.

Upvote:8

In short they get reborn as a human being sometime in the future and practice.

You could help by reading some dhamma(suttas) to your cat if you wish.

There is a precedence in a sutta where a frog was listening to a Buddha's discourse and got killed because someone accidentally impaled it with a walking stick. It was then reborn as a deva.

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