Religion & Ecology
July 2010
Banner photo: Alpine Flowers and Cloud Reflection, Colorado [© Carr Clifton]
Life and the Environment: A Buddhist Perspective
The Buddhist doctrine of the oneness of life and its environment (Jpn. esho-funi) focuses on the human being as part of the vast physical universe. Mutually interrelated, the subjective life entity and its environment operate together in a creative way. They are one, or as the original Chinese characters indicate, they are two without being two.
The vast space-time continuum of the internal spiritual life of the individual corresponds to the outer universe of the phenomenal world. It pulsates with limitless energy manifest in many different forms--compassion, love, wisdom, reason, emotion, desire, impulse and so on. Each instant, this energy bursts forth to interact with the external universe, creating a new self and a new world. When the inner universe exists in dynamic harmony, life energy is transformed creatively into compassion, love, wisdom and reason. But when the inner universe has lost its essential rhythm, that energy takes negative, aggressive, domineering forms like greed and destructive impulses, which convert the inner life into a desolate wasteland.
External desertification of the planet corresponds precisely with spiritual desertification of the inner life of human beings. Human relations with nature are part of the complex nexus of relationships between human beings and between the self and its inner life. The egoism of human beings whose internal environments are polluted and desolate inevitably manifests itself in domination, deprivation and destruction in the external environment. To complete the cycle, an impoverished, desolate external environment upsets the rhythm of the internal universe, thus giving further rein to egoism and greed.
But since the ecological system of the planet, human social relations and the individual inner life are all mutually connected, the harmonizing powers of compassion and wisdom can effect a transformation that becomes a basis for solving the complex of global problems. Humanity and nature, human society and the inner universe are all intimately interrelated, and the life force of human beings is always the main axis of reform for all three.
The 13th-century Buddhist teacher Nichiren says, "The ten directions are the 'environment,' and living beings are 'life.' To illustrate, environment is like the shadow, and life, the body."
Humanity's Purpose
One theory of evolution holds that humanity enables the universal life force to be aware of itself. Humanity stands at the pinnacle of the process of material, chemical and biological evolution that has been taking place for more than 10 billion years since the Big Bang, which contemporary thought holds to have been the origin of the universe. The course of spatiotemporal phenomenal development initiated by the Big Bang produced our Earth, and the evolution of humanity gradually enabled the universe to be aware of itself.
Human life enables the universe to be aware of itself, as human beings are the life form capable of perceiving the rhythmical laws operative in the natural ecological system--specifically the law of cause and effect--and of being aware of the ultimate nature of life itself. Therefore human beings have the task of contributing to the creation of value in the evolution of life through their understanding of the dynamics of the universe and the interrelationship of life and its environment.
We might say that the universe itself has imparted to humanity the mission of protecting the complex ecological system of the Earth and of contributing to the creation of value within the biosphere. Consequently, if a sense of this lofty mission orients all of our scientific technology, social systems, politics and economics, we will discover the most truly human--in the best sense of the word--approach to solving our environmental problems.
A Contributive Life
Human beings live in diverse ways based on different types of values. We can allow egoism and greed to drive us into actions that harm others and destroy the ecological balance. At the same time, we are capable of leading altruistic, compassionate and wise lives.
In Buddhist terminology, the way human beings ought to live and act in order to fulfill this mission entrusted to us by the universe is called the compassionate way of the bodhisattva.
People in the bodhisattva state confront the problems of life and society for the sake of the happiness of others as well as themselves. Their lives are grounded in a profound sense of purpose. From the enlightened perspective of Buddhahood, life's most fully realized spiritual potential, they perceive the dignity of the lives of all beings as they grow and develop in the vastness of the phenomenal world unfolding in space and time, and they react in an ethical and sympathetic way not merely with human beings, but also with the whole ecology of life. Controlling egoism and delusion, they are motivated by the desire to create value in the lives of others and in the global biosphere, regarding this as the supreme way of living. Revolutionizing our own lives and society along the lines of the bodhisattva way of life promises hope for the future. People of the bodhisattva frame of mind are aware of the world and therefore feel deep concern for everything in this biosphere--even beings concealed from them by distance in time or space.
Bodhisattvas live for the sake of the future, which they strive to anticipate through compassion and wisdom. They work to amplify the creative vitality of life and to ensure that science, technology and our social systems are shaped and utilized for the well-being of future generations--the as yet unborn emissaries of the abundant life energy of the universe.
A mass movement of wise, compassionate people who keep posterity always in mind could build a society that respects human dignity and prizes creativity in our scientific, economic and legal systems. The birth of such a society would signal the dawn of a brilliant century of life.
[©Seikyo Shimbun]
Daisaku Ikeda is the president of the Soka Gakkai International and founder of the Soka School System (a nondenominational school system including universities in the USA and Japan) and a number of cultural and academic institutions promoting peace (see www.daisakuikeda.org). This article is an edited excerpt of a longer article entitled The Environmental Problem and Buddhism, published by the Institute of Oriental Philosophy, which was founded by Ikeda in 1962.
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