A Manual on Buddhism and Deep Ecology

This mannual contains much information and exercises

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The following is a brief introduction to Buddhism’s application to the environment and ecological concerns: Buddhism is the teaching of the Enlightened one. A Buddha is an individual who knows the truth about all things. A Buddha knows “what is what” and how to behave appropriately in respect to all things. According to Ajahn Buddhadassa , a famous master teacher/scholar of Thailand, Buddhism is based on intelligence, science, and knowledge. Its purpose is the extinction of suffering and the source of that suffering. Liberation from suffering requires examining things closely, understanding their true nature and behaving in a way appropriate to that true nature. (Buddhadassa, l989).

 

Buddhism views people as a part of nature. If the environment is destroyed or degraded, people cannot survive or have a quality life. By abusing the environment, people abuse themselves and their descendants as well as future generations of all life. This basic Buddhist concept bars “unskilled” behavior which is inappropriate, incorrect, and abusive toward the environment and its variety of living things. The environment can be defined as the aggregate of all surrounding things (biotic and a biotic) and conditions that influence the life of individual organisms or populations, including humans. It is the sum of all external things (living and nonliving), conditions, and influences that affect the development and, ultimately, the survival of an organism.

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