Plants ~ Borderline Beings?

A discussion on all aspects of Theravāda Buddhism
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Ajisai
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Re: Are plants living beings ?

Post by Ajisai »

David, thank you for your very clear answers.

What does "one-facultied" mean? Does it mean that it can only grow?

Retrofuturist, thanks a lot for all the links and readings. I am going read this carefully. :)
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DNS
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Re: Are plants living beings ?

Post by DNS »

Ajisai wrote: What does "one-facultied" mean? Does it mean that it can only grow?
I think so. It probably means that it is just a rudimentary form of life, not one with consciousness, perceptions. Plants do react to sunlight, they do 'consume' water and other things, but it is reactive, [apparently] no decisions being made.
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cooran
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Can Plants think?

Post by cooran »

Hello all,

Interesting

Can Plants think?
http://www.sciencefriday.com/segment/01 ... think.html

With metta,
Chris
---The trouble is that you think you have time---
---Worry is the Interest, paid in advance, on a debt you may never owe---
---It's not what happens to you in life that is important ~ it's what you do with it ---
SarathW
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Re: Can Plants think?

Post by SarathW »

No, according to Abhidhamma not even life!

:shrug:

In Abhidhamma trees, plants, mountains and others
are all taken to be external, not internal. Therefore, we cannot
say there is Jīvita in plants or trees. Jīvita, as you see here,
arises only internally. Jīvita-navaka and all these Kammaja
groupings arise internally only. So Jīvita cannot be found
outside living beings according to Abhidhamma. Abhidhamma
takes trees and others as non-living things, not as living
beings. It would be wrong to say that there is Jīvita in trees or
plants. We should be very careful when we talk about these
things. There may be what is called life in plants or in trees,
but that life is not Jīvita. It may be some other thing which is
called life.
Page 356:

http://buddhispano.net/sites/default/fi ... ies-II.pdf
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
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cooran
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Re: Can Plants think?

Post by cooran »

Hello all,

New research on plant intelligence may forever change how you think about plants
http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-01-09/n ... out-plants

With metta,
Chris
---The trouble is that you think you have time---
---Worry is the Interest, paid in advance, on a debt you may never owe---
---It's not what happens to you in life that is important ~ it's what you do with it ---
culaavuso
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Re: Can Plants think?

Post by culaavuso »

Plant intentionality and the phenomenological framework of plant intelligence brings a whole new perspective to the suttas talking about beings living in trees, such as MN 45.
MN 45: Cula-dhammasamadana Sutta wrote: Just as if a maluva creeper pod were to burst open in the last month of the hot season, and a maluva creeper seed were to fall at the foot of a sala tree. The deva living in the tree would become frightened, apprehensive, & anxious. Her friends & companions, relatives & kin — garden devas, forest devas, tree devas, devas living in herbs, grass, & forest monarchs — would gather together to console her: 'Have no fear, have no fear. In all likelihood a peacock is sure to swallow this maluva creeper seed, or a deer will eat it, or a brush fire will burn it up, or woodsmen will pick it up, or termites will carry it off, and anyway it probably isn't really a seed.'
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rowboat
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Re: Can Plants think?

Post by rowboat »

Cooran, I look forward to reading the New Yorker article by Michael Pollan.

"Refracted rearwards along the course of evolution, consciousness displays itself qualitatively as a spectrum of shifting shades whose lower terms are lost in the night." - Teilhard de Chardin

:anjali:
Rain soddens what is covered up,
It does not sodden what is open.
Therefore uncover what is covered
That the rain will not sodden it.
Ud 5.5
PimonratC
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Re: Can Plants think?

Post by PimonratC »

What is the difference between plants and our body ... :smile:

.
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lyndon taylor
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Re: Can Plants think?

Post by lyndon taylor »

Duh, we have a brain!!!
18 years ago I made one of the most important decisions of my life and entered a local Cambodian Buddhist Temple as a temple boy and, for only 3 weeks, an actual Therevada Buddhist monk. I am not a scholar, great meditator, or authority on Buddhism, but Buddhism is something I love from the Bottom of my heart. It has taught me sobriety, morality, peace, and very importantly that my suffering is optional, and doesn't have to run my life. I hope to give back what little I can to the Buddhist community, sincerely former monk John

http://trickleupeconomictheory.blogspot.com/
alan
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Re: Can Plants think?

Post by alan »

He's made a business of writing stories like this. Gets a lot of play in free media, but tells us nothing of any use.
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cooran
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Re: Can Plants think?

Post by cooran »

Interesting opinions here :tongue:

A little bit about Professor Pollan:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Pollan

With metta,
Chris
---The trouble is that you think you have time---
---Worry is the Interest, paid in advance, on a debt you may never owe---
---It's not what happens to you in life that is important ~ it's what you do with it ---
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lyndon taylor
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Re: Can Plants think?

Post by lyndon taylor »

In either case, if you want to reduce the killing of animals, be a vegetarian or vegan, if you want to reduce the killing of plants, be a vegetarian or vegan, as meat production kills way more plants than vegetarians do.......
18 years ago I made one of the most important decisions of my life and entered a local Cambodian Buddhist Temple as a temple boy and, for only 3 weeks, an actual Therevada Buddhist monk. I am not a scholar, great meditator, or authority on Buddhism, but Buddhism is something I love from the Bottom of my heart. It has taught me sobriety, morality, peace, and very importantly that my suffering is optional, and doesn't have to run my life. I hope to give back what little I can to the Buddhist community, sincerely former monk John

http://trickleupeconomictheory.blogspot.com/
Spiny Norman
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Re: Can Plants think?

Post by Spiny Norman »

cooran wrote:Can Plants think?
No, and I think they're better off for it. ;)
Buddha save me from new-agers!
Shaswata_Panja
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Re: Can Plants think?

Post by Shaswata_Panja »

culaavuso wrote:Plant intentionality and the phenomenological framework of plant intelligence brings a whole new perspective to the suttas talking about beings living in trees, such as MN 45.
MN 45: Cula-dhammasamadana Sutta wrote: Just as if a maluva creeper pod were to burst open in the last month of the hot season, and a maluva creeper seed were to fall at the foot of a sala tree. The deva living in the tree would become frightened, apprehensive, & anxious. Her friends & companions, relatives & kin — garden devas, forest devas, tree devas, devas living in herbs, grass, & forest monarchs — would gather together to console her: 'Have no fear, have no fear. In all likelihood a peacock is sure to swallow this maluva creeper seed, or a deer will eat it, or a brush fire will burn it up, or woodsmen will pick it up, or termites will carry it off, and anyway it probably isn't really a seed.'

Please do see M Night Shyamalan's Happening--one of the greatest film on environmental destruction ever made---and thank you for making this post..i would love to disclose more about that film but I am resisting...i think seeing your post..The Happening surely qualifies as a Dhamma film?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Happening_(2008_film)
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Mkoll
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Re: Can Plants think?

Post by Mkoll »

If you're interested in this sort of thing, I'd recommend The Secret Life of Plants: a Fascinating Account of the Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Relations Between Plants and Man. Interesting, to say the least.

:reading:
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
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