Buddhism and Ecology: Man & Environment - A Special Bond  

By Rajeev Bhattacharya

Buddhism and Ecology: Man & Environment - A Special Bond  

Buddhism sees humans neither as a special creation of God, nor does it see them as having been given dominion over 'lesser' species. It says that like all sentient beings, humans also wander in the limited, conditioned realm of samsara, the cycle of rebirths.

It believes that man influences the environment not only through his actions but also through the moral and immoral qualities of his actions - karmic effects catch up with people via their environment.

Thus it is said that if a king and his people act unrighteously, it will have an adverse effect on the environment, leading to little rain, poor crops and weak, short-lived people. Right actions have the opposite effect.

The Agganna Sutta gives an account of the initial stages of development of sentient life on earth. This occurs when divine beings fall from their prior state, and through consuming a savoury crust floating on the oceans, develop physical bodies and later sexual differentiation. At first their environment is bountiful, but it becomes less so the more they greedily take from it.

The beings are affected by what they take from the environment, according to the principle of Conditioned Arising ( paticcasamuppada ) in which nothing exists on its own - each thing depends on others to condition its arising and existence. Nothing can exist by itself. Everything makes its own contribution to the whole.

In Zen, the traditional ideal has been one of harmony with nature, particularly those actions that blend meditation huts into the landscape, not wasting any food in monasteries, landscape painting and gardening, and nature poetry.

The Buddha is said to have had a positive effect on his environment. Accounts of his life are embellished with allusions to nature. He was born under a tree, and lotus flowers sprang up as he took his first steps.

During childhood he often meditated under a jambo tree, gave his first sermon in an animal park and his enlightenment took place under a bodhi tree. The earliest monastic rules as enshrined in the Vinaya Pitaka contain numerous injunctions against environmental irresponsibility. In Buddhism, killing or injuring living beings is regarded as both unwholesome and fundamentally immoral.

On the whole, Buddhism doesn't mind wealth and property but they have to be acquired and used in full accord with ethical norms. Contentment ( samtutthi ) and liberality ( caga ) are emphasised for the rich. Being content with little and avoiding wastefulness stem from a regard for nature.

In its concept of economic development, gigantism, especially of machines, is to be avoided as they tend to control rather than serve human beings. With gigantism comes an excessive greed to violate nature.

The Middle Path of Buddhist development believes in converting both industry and agriculture into a meaningful habitat. Curiously, while humans depend on nature for sustenance, exploitation of nature threatens to destroy this relationship. The reason is unbridled development spurred by a profit-oriented economic system.

This was evident at the Conference on Climate Change held at Kyoto (1997). Virtually every participating country insisted on the right to pursue the path of unrestricted economic growth. It did not matter to them that this would mean that the very support systems that make life on earth possible would be destroyed.

The solution lies in co-opting the services of science and technology to make possible an optimum utilisation of resources while preserving the sanctity of the environment. Only then human endeavour can peacefully pursue other goals - cultural, intellectual and spiritual.

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More from same author see: Rajeev Bhattacharya

See also: Buddhism and Ecology, Faith and Belief, Spiritual Guidance, God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)