Greg: Please give me your ideas on the relative importance of the suffering of:
the rich/powerful vs the poor …
djs: Suffering is suffering and is not measured in dollars and cents nor is it measured in terms of relative power.
Having said that one cannot deny the rich and powerful are capable of generating more suffering than the poor by using what the poor do not have at their disposal, namely: wealth and power.
Greg: …men vs women
djs: Again suffering is suffering. Human gender is simply a product of the physical. Consciousness may be affected by gender but consciousness itself is gender neutral.
Greg: …humans vs animals
djs: Although we cannot say for certain, it appears suffering is only suffering if one is capable of knowing or self-knowing, self-conscious, self-awareness, or in essence the existence of ‘self’. ‘Self’-knowing is a product of consciousness.
Again, although we cannot say for certain, it appears other levels and basic forms of consciousness could potentially exist.
Plants appear to have a different form of consciousness than animals. Biologists have found plants capable of communicating the presence of insect infestation.
Animals such as mammals have five senses just as humans do. This introduces the concept: consciousness of one’s five senses.
Humans have an additional layer of consciousness, which we believe is unique to humans, what the Buddhists call the ‘mano layer’ of consciousness which is ‘consciousness of ‘self’ or what the West would call ‘self awareness’. Although Buddhist consider this form of consciousness to be a problem they speak of it extensively.
In addition there may well exist the concept of collective consciousness as espoused by Nichiren, Jung, Shakyamuni, Nagarjuna, Vasubandhu …
‘It is from this strong attachment, or clinging, to a reified alaya consciousness that mano consciousness generates the sense of a limited, isolated self referred to in Buddhism as the lesser self.
When the mano consciousness functions in this manner it gives rise to a series of powerful delusions that manifest in the other, more immediate layers of perception and consciousness as attachment to and pride in this proscribed sense of selfhood. The delusion that the reified alaya conscious is one's true self is identified with fundamental ignorance, a turning away from the truth of the interconnectedness of all being. [both, one cannot rationally dismiss ‘self’] It is this sense of one's self as separate and isolated from others that gives rise to discrimination against others, to destructive arrogance and acquisitiveness.’ The
Greg: …all animals with central nervious systems (including humans) vs plant and other forms of life
djs: I think the above answers this question.