Nonhuman Animals, Karmic Collectives, and More-than-Human Justice in Mahāyāna Buddhism

This paper analyzes lived Buddhist relationships with nonhuman animals to extend and complicate existing notions of collective karma. It begins by unpacking how individualized notions of karma function to both justify both exploitation and liberation of animals in canonical Buddhism. Then, it analyzes a selection of historical and contemporary accounts of Buddhist relationships with animals to show how these narratives often departed from these canonical ideas in favor of more collective understandings of karma. Drawing from these examples, it then theorizes how a more-than-human collective karma can inform present day justice initiatives. It develops the idea of “more-than-human collective karma” as a potential tool for social and animal justice, and argues that the kinds of collective karma we find in the lived expressions of Mahāyāna Buddhism can be used to articulate a unique Buddhist approach to ethics, justice, and freedom inclusive of human and nonhuman animals alike.