Buddhist Environmental Humanism
Integral Human Development
Buddhism, especially the Theravada tradition, has often been described as “humanistic” in its outlook, partly because it does not have a belief in a deity and self-liberation from the cycle of rebirth and suffering wholly depends on the personal effort to achieve self-transformation. The secular humanist Paul Chiariello (2014), for example, remarked, “Buddhism and Humanism are two geographical sides of the same philosophical coin. They’re twins with the same DNA, separated at birth, and brought up by different parents…. Buddhism is Eastern Humanism and Humanism is Western Buddhism.”[1] Buddhism’s status as a religion has also been disputed by many who argue that it is more of a philosophy or a way of life rather than a religious system. It is beyond the scope of this paper to delve into this dispute, and any discussion would not contribute anything new to what has already been presented by much more capable scholars in the field of religion. In this paper, however, I would argue that Buddhism is humanistic – not because it is atheistic, not because it is not a religious tradition (which I believe that it is) – but because it aims to achieve exactly what I have stated above – that human beings achieve the best possible version of themselves while living their earthly life. If successful in this effort, they will be rewarded with being reborn with a better human status in their next life, or being reborn in one of various heavenly realms, or even entering nibbāna, escaping completely from samsara – the cycle of birth, death and rebirth.
The Buddhist teleology of escaping the
cycle of rebirth and the suffering associated with mundane existence, which can
only be achieved over countless lifetimes, and can only be achieved in the form
of human, means that humans must strive to eliminate the spiritual poisons that
cause them to experience suffering and become trapped in samsara. These are the
poisons of greed (rāga), hatred (dosa), and delusion (moha),
which are present in each person in various expressions and degrees of
seriousness from mild to extreme. Greed is the mental
state in which one is unceasingly plagued by a feeling of need and want along
with a constant feeling of lack in his life. This condition, however, can never
be fully or permanently satisfied because the appetite is so insatiable that
even when the desired object is obtained, the feeling of satisfaction is only
temporary. Hatred comprises a whole range of negative emotions such as
disappointment, despair, anxiety and dejection, and feelings of dissatisfaction
towards oneself and others. The third poison is delusion, which is integrally
tied to ignorance (avijjā). A person suffering from delusion faces
confusion and lack of directions in life, and can fall victim to false views
that result in ideological dogmatism and fanaticism.
To overcome these poisons and gain liberation, the Buddha
proposed practicing the Noble Eightfold Path which combines moral
virtues (sīla) with development of concentration (samādhi) and
wisdom or insight (pañña). In the Nidāna Sutta of the Saṃyutta, the
Noble Eightfold Path is declared by the Buddha as the “ancient road travelled
by the Perfectly Enlightened Ones of the past” which leads to cessation of
aging, death, and volitional formations (S.II.12). The eight factors are often
listed as follows:
1. Right view (Sammā diṭṭhi)
2. Right thought (Sammā sankappa)
3. Right speech (Sammā vācā)
4. Right action (Sammā kammanta)
5. Right living (Sammā ājīva)
6. Right effort (Sammā vāyāma)
7. Right mindfulness (Sammā sati)
8. Right concentration (Sammā samādhi)
The Sīla group consists of
right speech, right action, and right living. The Samadhi group includes
right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. The Pañña group
consists of right view and right thought. The diligent training and practice of
these three stages results in higher moral discipline, higher consciousness,
and higher wisdom, which is the condition that directly opposes the ignorance
that give rise human suffering. To achieve the ultimate goal of wisdom, one
must go through the training of the moral discipline, which serves as the
foundation for training of concentration, which in turn serves as the
foundation for training of higher wisdom. One might notice in the sequence
listed above that the two factors in the wisdom group (right view and right
thought) are listed first, not last. This is not an error on the part of the
canonical editors. The wisdom factors appear first on the list because, while
they represent the goal to be achieved, a level of right view and right thought
is needed for one to even commence the process. As the cultivation process goes
on, these wisdom factors will be further developed and refined in proportion to
the degree of higher moral discipline and higher consciousness achieved.
Therefore, the process of self-cultivation is not linear like a ladder; rather
the three aspects of training are always present along the path, with each
continuing to reinforce the other and in turn becomes further developed until
perfection is achieved (Bodhi 1998, p.13). Thus, this path of transformation,
noted Damien Keown (2001, p.102), “is only linear in the metaphorical sense: it
does not list stages which are to be passed through and left behind so much as
describe the dimensions of human good and the technique for their cultivation.”
The ultimate result of this process of cultivation of moral and intellectual virtue
is the attainment of nibbāna, where perfection has been achieved and the
process of rebirth has permanently ceased. Keown emphasizes that nibbāna
is the summit of this very gradual painstaking process and “not an ontological
shift or soteriological quantum leap.”
Intellectual as well as moral
progress as prescribed by the Noble Eightfold Path is compulsory for the attainment
of enlightenment or emancipation from the cycle of rebirth. In the Pali
scriptures, the Buddha harshly condemns teachings that suggest other methods not
containing the Eightfold Path. The Buddha felt strongly that any method which
lacked either the moral or intellectual component would be detrimental to the
quality of perfection achieved (D.II.151). When one has undergone the path in a
correct manner, one is infused with the aspects of moral discipline,
concentration, and wisdom – all three always present and active in the
individual’s life.
Implications for Human-Nature
Relationship
How does the Buddhist effort at
personal transformation relate to the issue of environmental flourishing and
sustainability? As Buddhist self-cultivation aims to help the individual to
improve his or her interior qualities through the progress in wisdom and
virtue, this improvement will be manifested in one’s relationships with other
people as well as non-human sentient beings, and the natural environment.
Consequently, the goal of achieving a harmonious human-nature relationship
becomes integrally connected to the process of self-cultivation. In other
words, a healthy human-nature relationship is the happy result of the effort of
comprehensive and conscientious training aimed at personal liberation.
Self-transformation, which is an interior phenomenon, must be observable in
one’s exterior relational life and ethical dealings with others. One’s actions
towards nature, therefore, serve as evidence of this interior change. The
environmental crisis, in the Buddhist assessment, represents first and foremost
a human ethical and spiritual problem in which humans are plagued by the
poisons of hatred, ignorance and greed. These unwholesome tendencies turn
humans into egotistical creatures bent on fulfilling their selfish desires
while disregarding the well-being of others, especially of nature. Human-human
and human-nature relationships motivated by the three poisons are characterized
by violence and exploitation and in the case of the natural environment, wanton
destruction. Unfortunately, under the influence of delusion, humans do not
realize that the loss of environmental vitality and equilibrium ultimately
proves detrimental to the exploiters themselves. Therefore, the process of
addressing the environmental crisis requires human beings to improve their
relationship with nature not by fixing external or superficial abnormalities
but by undergoing the process of self-cultivation to root out poisons that are
deleterious to self and others. Fundamental Buddhist teachings along with the
practices prescribed by the Noble Eightfold Path not only serve to help the
individual attain spiritual progress but can also help to build human-nature
relationship that are wholesome and mutually beneficial.
First, self-cultivation helps
humans to feel a sense of solidarity with nature in a world inflicted with
unceasing suffering. In the Buddhist cosmogony, since beginningless time, human
beings and nature have coexisted on a cosmological continuum linked by the
common experience of dukkha (suffering). In this reality of
life-after-life called saṃsāra, none of the states of life exists in
complete isolation from one another. All sentient beings share with each other
the experience of suffering, albeit in different degrees. To be born as a
human, despite having to endure various levels of suffering depending on one’s
social status, is relatively more fortunate than to be born as an animal whose
life is constantly under threat of attack by bigger predators. Thus, suffering
is not simply a product of subjective human psychology, but an objective
phenomenon experienced by all sentient beings. Reflecting on this reality,
human beings can realize their connection with nature and develop a sense of
solidarity with the suffering nature. John J. Holder (2007, p.123) writes, “In
early Buddhism, dukkha is the vital link that connects human values to a
concern for the natural world. A genuine concern for the natural world derives
from the fact that the remedy for dukkha in human experience is precisely a
radical shift to a concern for the well-being of all other sentient beings.”
Thus, the mitigation of suffering of other sentient beings become intimately
tied to the goal of eliminating human suffering because, as the late monk
Bhuddhadasa remarked, human beings and other natural entities are “mutual friends
inextricably bound together in the same process of birth, old age, suffering,
and death” (quoted in Swearer 1997, p.28). According to Buddhadasa, this
awareness calls for a way of caring (anurak) that expresses a sense of
deep empathy to protect, shelter and care for the environment (Swearer, 1997,
p. 26). It must be emphasized that the sense of solidarity in suffering begins
strictly within the circle of sentient beings because only sentient beings can
experience suffering. However, such kind of care demands that the non-sentient
entities, e.g., the physical environment (forests, mountains, bodies of water,
the air, etc..) which serves to support sentient life must also be cared for
accordingly.
Second, self-cultivation can
promote the human-nature relationship of responsibility and accountability,
which is based upon one of Buddhism’s most important doctrines, the Law of
Dependent Origination. Although this principle has been interpreted in various
ways by different Buddhist traditions and scholars of Buddhism, fundamentally
it asserts that all things in the universe arise or cease not on their own but
dependent upon a specific set of conditions. In the human situation, the law is
observed on a physical-psychological level while in nature, the law plays out
on a physical level. Defined in this way, the Principle of Dependent
Origination is a natural rather than an ethical law, and it does not make any
judgments about the various phenomena that occur in the world. The law merely
states in an objective manner the various causes and conditions that cause
something to come into existence. However, this does not mean that the
Principle of Dependent Origination holds no ethical implications for human
behavior or for human-nature relationship. The environmental implications
appear when it is recognized in this universal natural law a connection between
human actions and the internal and external consequences exerted upon human
beings as well as the natural world. The Buddha on numerous occasions
highlighted this connection in his sermons. For example, in the
Cakkavattasihanada Sutta (D.III.58–77), the Buddha said that when people
behaved degenerately, the world would experience social and political conflicts
and natural calamities. However, prosperity and peace returned, and natural
balance was restored when people reformed and abandoned their evil ways.
Understanding of the Principle of Dependent Origination, therefore, facilitates
building human-nature relationship characterized by responsibility and accountability,
where human beings, by virtue of their unique mental and spiritual ability, can
affect the process of giving rise to or extinguishing suffering in the world.
The human ability of foresight enables them to see the multiple consequences of
their actions. This means that human beings cannot simply pretend to live
isolated lives in which the impact of their actions, thoughts, and intentions
on nature do not have to be evaluated. The Principle of Dependent Origination
that governs the Buddhist cosmogony further affirms the insight that human
beings and nature are co-sojourners in saṃsāric life. Displaying
responsibility and accountability towards fellow human beings and towards
nature demonstrates the ability to see others as fellow travelers on a journey
where the destination is the eventual emancipation from suffering for all
sentient creatures. When this companionship is understood and felt by human
beings, they are less likely to see the fate and well-being of nature as
something disconnected from their behavior, as something that they cannot be
held accountable for, but always aware that their actions have direct
consequences on the condition of the natural environment.
Finally, self-cultivation helps
promote the human-nature relationship of mutual service and gratitude. The
vision of this human-nature relationship is inspired by the central Buddhist
teaching that nothing in the world possesses a permanent, intrinsic self – an
assertion that holds important implications for how human beings view
themselves as well as the natural world. This doctrine of non-self (anattā)
states that there is no self-existing real ego-entity, soul or any other
permanent substance either within the bodily and mental phenomena of existence
or outside of them. Reality is comprised of mere continually self-consuming
process of arising and passing physical and mental phenomena, and that there is
no separate ego-entity within or without this process. The life which we
experience is merely a composite of various mental and physical components or
aggregates (khandha) existing in various configurations, which only last
momentarily, and is entirely disconnected from the next configuration. Thus,
what we call an automobile is but an aggregate of its various parts existing in
certain relationship to one another. However, the car as a static and permanent
entity is a mere illusion (Vis.M.XVIII). Because there is no static and
permanent substance controlling the aggregates, it is improper to consider
these khandhas as “this is mine” or “this is I” or “this is my self”
(Varanasi 1999, p.14).
The Buddhist insistence on not-self
in mundane entities, human or otherwise, facilitates envisioning a more
harmonious human-nature relationship characterized by selfless virtues. A
positive expression of this selflessness is mutual service and gratitude.
Oftentimes, obsession with the self leads to egotistical tendencies and
attempts to demand rights for oneself, to build up oneself, and to protect
oneself while justifying why the minimum of rights and privileges ought to be
accorded to others. Indeed, much of our social conflicts take place due to
disagreements in the distribution of rights and privileges among groups and
individuals. The Buddhist claim of non-self, on the contrary, opens up the
possibility of building a human-nature relationship characterized by mutual
service and gratitude. This vision of human-nature relationship also encourages
the display of empathy and gratitude towards others in the act of service, and
affirms that the journey of human beings in saṃsāra is far from a
solitary sojourn, but one alongside a great number of companions and friends.
Finally, it promotes reciprocity and cooperation to help relieve the suffering
of one another and help each other to make progress in awareness and state of
life. Services rendered by nature on behalf of human beings are many. In
addition to providing nourishment and air for human beings to sustain their
life, one of the unique services that nature offers is
facilitating the human activity of meditation on the Dhamma. David J.
Kulupahana (2009, p.5) commented that natural settings are extremely beneficial
in the effort of self-cultivation because they not only create fewer
distractions when it comes to sense pleasures, but also “provide a natural
experiential ground for realizing impermanence and dependent arising, that is,
the nature of the world.” Consequently, a human-nature relationship
characterized by mutuality, reciprocity and symbiosis naturally requires human
beings to respond to nature’s outpouring of service with their own modes of
service.
Buddhist
Environmental Virtues
Buddhist self-cultivation as
prescribed by the Noble Eightfold Path enables the individual to possess
virtues that promote the human-nature relationships described above. The
environmental crisis caused by human exploitation and destruction of nature can
be rectified when human virtues are intentionally ordered towards improving the
way human beings relate to nature. First, the relationship of solidarity in
suffering can be nourished by the virtues of loving kindness (mettā),
compassion (karunā), and gentleness (maddava). Loving kindness is
the wish that all sentient beings, without exception, be happy while compassion
is the genuine desire to alleviate the sufferings of others which one is able
to feel. The text that one often encounters when discussing about loving
kindness is from the Suttras which states: “I dwell pervading one quarter with
a mind imbued with loving-kindness, likewise the second quarter, the third
quarter, and the fourth quarter. Thus above, below, across, and everywhere, and
to all as to myself, I dwell pervading the entire world with a mind imbued with
loving-kindness, vast, exalted, measureless, without enmity, without ill will”
(A.I.183). Along with loving kindness, the person who exhibits compassion
towards others and has their well-being in mind ultimately makes progress in
his own spiritual state. If a person practices compassion, “relishes it,
desires it, and finds satisfaction in it. If he is firm in it, focused on it,
often dwells in it, and has not lost it when he dies, he is reborn in
companionship with the devas of streaming radiance” (A.II.129). Compassion is
exemplified by the Buddha himself who is said to be the “one person who arises
in the world…out of compassion for the world” (A.I.23) and is “practicing
simply out of sympathy and compassion for living beings” (A.II.177). Gentleness can be interpreted as the positive
derivative of the non-violence (ahimsā) precept in Buddhism. Buddhism
not only urges people to be gentle in their daily dealings with other people
and animals, but it also encourages people to avoid means of livelihood that
brings about intentional harm to others (A.V.177). Environmental sustainability
greatly depends on a human community that knows how to refrain from doing
violence to its members and to others. By acting with gentleness towards
others, environmentally negative events such as the extinction of animal
species due to excessive hunting or the loss of plant species due to
destruction of forests can be prevented.
Second, the relationship of responsibility
and accountability will be strengthened by the virtues of moderation and
contentment (saṅtuṭṭhī). Moderation and contentment go hand in hand and
serve as the antidote for the greed that is detrimental to one’s quest for
liberation. Contentment is opposed to non-contentment and craving (tanhā).
Craving leads to suffering, or unsatisfactoriness because one is never
fulfilled by the thing that one has and continues to look for fulfillment in
impermanent things, an endeavor that is ultimately done in vain. While human
craving leads us to think that more material possessions and greater material
wealth is desirous, Buddhism teaches us that contentment is the “greatest
riches” (Dp.204) whereas destruction of all cravings means overcoming all suffering
(Dp.21). One can immediately see how moderation and contentment advocated by
Buddhism would have profound effect on human-nature relationship and
environmental well-being. By setting limits on our lifestyle, focusing on what
we truly need rather than what we like or what we want, consumerism, and
subsequently commodity production, is reduced. This leads to less strain on
natural resources and results in improved ecological equilibrium. Moderation
and contentment also mean true appreciation of the thing that one already
possesses and intends to use it in the most meaningful way possible.
Oftentimes, people discard a perfectly good mobile phone or tablet that they
have been using simply because there is a new model out on the market that
supposedly will bring about more satisfaction to the consumer.
Finally, the relationship of mutual service and gratitude is supported by the virtue of generosity (cāga) in giving (dāna). Generosity is the antidote for greed and attachment and is considered to be an essential quality of a superior person (sappurisa), alongside other important qualities of faith, morality, learning and wisdom (Bodhi, 1995). According to Bhikkhu Bodhi, generosity as a spiritual quality is important because “the goal of the path is the destruction of greed, hate and delusion, and the cultivation of generosity directly debilitates greed and hate, while facilitating that pliancy of mind that allows for the eradication of delusion” (Bodhi, 1995). True generosity is the underlying impetus for the practice of dāna parami, the perfection of giving that brings about wholesome kamma essential to the path of enlightenment (Jootla, 1995). How does the virtue of generosity which is reflected in the perfection of giving strengthen the human-nature relationship of mutual service and gratitude? There is no question that nature provides human being with many essential services. Without the oxygen produced by plants, human beings would not be able to breathe. The processes taking place in nature is also extremely conducive to the spiritual progress of human beings when they meditate and reflect on them. Exposure to nature is also conducive to people’s general mental balance and physical well-being. The service that nature offers to human beings is constant and unceasing. The relationship of mutual service, by the very phrase, implies a reciprocal relationship and human beings must also put themselves at the service of nature. True service requires giving, and giving not just in a haphazard manner, but giving with a joyous and peaceful heart, giving out of true generosity. The virtue of generosity strengthens the relationship of mutual service because it responds to nature’s generosity towards human beings with our own mode of generosity. Human generosity reflects our appreciation of the Buddhist doctrine of kataññukatavedi in which one is conscious of the favor that one receives and has the mind to reciprocate such favor. This is the teaching of gratitude that we apply not only to other human beings but to any entity that acts on our behalf. The virtue of generosity also reinforces human-nature relationship because it is the opposite of the defilements of selfishness and attachment that are so detrimental not only to our own well-being but also to the flourishing of nature. It would not take much to convince us that much of the environmental devastation taking place is due to human attachment to material possessions and selfishly accumulating them, causing great strains on natural resources and upsetting the ecological equilibrium.
[1] Paul Chiariello, “Buddhism & Humanism: Two Sides of the same Coin,
Part 1” Applied Sentience (May 23, 2014),
https://appliedsentience.com/2014/05/23/buddhism-humanism-two-sides-of-the-same-coin-part-1/.
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