Buddhism and the Environment

[cooran]

Hello all,

Personally, I think that caring for how our actions affect the environment is Avihimsā - harmlessness, non-violence - which is one of the three constituents of right motivation sammā-sankappa, i.e. the 2nd factor of the 8-fold path see: magga. In the several lists of elements dhātu appears also an element of harmlessness avihesā-dhātu, in the sense of an irreducible elementary quality of Noble thought, speech & behaviour. See Dhp.
http://what-buddha-said.net/library/Bud ... tm#avihimsā

Journal of Buddhist Ethics - Articles on the Environment (David Loy, Peter Harvey et al.)
http://blogs.dickinson.edu/buddhistethi ... vironment/

Greening Buddhist Practice
http://www.crosscurrents.org/greening.htm

Thoughts?

with metta
Chris

[Hanzze]

Dear cooran,

from my view, the monk rules are mostly about environment and how to protect it for his own sake and the sake of the community. Much solution can be fond inside of it, it just would need the courage to do it, which means also to keep the rules by one self.
I guess it is not easy to leave comfortable ideas.

[retrofuturist]

Greetings,

Thoughts?

I agree. What you say about avihimsā is an appropriate way to regards the environment from the point of view of the Dhamma.

The efficacy of the Dhamma is measured in terms of internal mental purity, with respect to the objective ideal of nibbana.

The efficacy of environmentalism is measured in external environmental purity, with respect to a subjective ideal of a utopian environment.

Avihimsā contributes directly to internal mental purity.

Metta,
Retro.

[rowyourboat]

Hi Cooran

Thank you. You have made a very good point -linking ahimsa with protecting our environment.


with metta

Matheesha