Does a Dog See into Its Buddha-Nature? Re-posing the Question of Animality-Humanity in Zen Buddhism

Article

Citation:	Davis, Bret W. "Does a Dog See into Its Buddha-nature? Re-posing the Question of Animality/Humanity in Zen Buddhism." In Buddha Nature and Animality, edited by David Jones, 83–126. Fremont, CA: Jain Publishing Company, 2007.

Abstract

Using as his point of departure the well-known koan that asks whether or not a dog has Buddha-nature, Bret Davis traces the background of this question in his demonstration of the complexity of the relation between humans and animals as conceived during the development of East Asian Buddhism. In his analysis, he argues that on the one hand, Buddha-nature becomes ever more inclusive in this history, while on the other, it tends to remain firmly, albeit somewhat paradoxically, anthropocentric with regard to the capacity to "realize" this spiritual inclusivity. The issue arising from this analysis in Davis' chapter, "Does a Dog See Into its Buddha-Nature? Re-posing the Question of Animality in Zen Buddhism," is whether only humans have the potential to "see into" their Buddha-nature. His project throughout is to show how the question of animality is inseparable from the question of humanity, and how it emerges continuously and in various intertwined ways for those who inherit the weave of Buddhist texts and contexts for thought and practice. (Jones, Buddha Nature and Animality, 9)