CONTENTS:-
Part I. Reconsidering the status of plants in early Buddhism:
1. Plants as a borderline case between sentient and insentient.
2. Alternative proposals.
3. Plants as living beings with one sense-faculty in the Vinaya.
4. Plants as insentient living beings (FUJIMOTO).
5. Additional arguments for the sentience of plants revisited.
6. Plants as saintly beings?
7. Resume.
Part II. The problem of the relationship between the idea of the Buddha nature of grasses and trees and early Buddhism:
Part II.a. The question of textual continuity:
1. General passages. 2. Specific passages.
Part II.b. An attempt at a structural comparison:
1. Facets of the far eastern idea of the 'Buddha-nature of grasses and Trees' and their Indian background.
2. New aspects of the Buddha-nature and sentience of plants in Japanese Buddhism.
3. The question of practical consequences.
