Introduction
What do Buddhism and Ecology have to say to one another? This book is the result of a recent conference which met in New Delhi to explore this question. It was Gandhi's birthday, a day of national celebration, and a reminder of how spiritual practice may work together with social activism for justice and peace. In the morning, people from 22 countries had gathered to witness the consecration of a golden statue of the Earth-touching Buddha, and its presentation to the people of India, by His Holiness the Dalai Lama on behalf of the Tibetan Community. In the afternoon, when the solemn, joyful, beautiful ritual was complete, we went on, to the opening of an international conference, "Ecological Responsibility: A Dialogue with Buddhism." The presentations collected here interpret this focus on dialogue by asking questions about mutual reciprocity: how can Buddhist teaching and practice enable people to work towards healing the environment, and how, at the same time is the global environmental crisis shaping and redefining people's understanding of "Buddhism." On In raising these questions, we who have contributed to this book enter the growing conversation around the world between the theory and practice of ecology, and the theory and practice of spiritual traditions including Buddhism. Listening and learning, real dialogue inevitably changes our language, as well as our understanding. So you'll notice in reading this collection that people are beginning to use words in new ways. For example, someone may use an environmental understanding of a term like "pollution" to explain a state of body-mind, or describe and environmental situation using a Buddhist concept of "defilement." This transformation of the language is probably the main common feature of the contributions to this book. Another feature is diversity: although situating the conference in New Delhi meant that our discussions share to some extent local priorities and terms of reference (Asia, India, Gandhi, for example), there is clearly no single "ecology," no "Buddhism" and no "eco-Buddhism that says it all. Having recognised this, one can identify recurrent concerns, and enough similarity to group the texts loosely under two main categories. Part One deals largely with analyses of our eco-social-spiritual predicament, and Part Two offers proposals for what to do about it. The contributors come from North and South, from the so- called developed and developing worlds, from cities and rural areas, from religious orders and lay practice, from theoretical study and grassroots activism, from different spiritual traditions and political affiliations. Arising within diverse social, ecological, economic and cultural environments, our view of "the present crisis" is inevitably shaped by these environments. A Buddhist term for this is pratityasamutpada, dependent co-origination: all phenomena arise interdependently; there is no "self" that can be extracted from the envirorument in which it takes shape. Many people have recognised the useful correspondence between this realisation and ecosystems thinking, which describes living systems as patterns of interconnectedness. This aspect of Buddhist teaching also enables us to see that there can be no single vantage point for eco-Buddhism: people see different ecologies, different Buddhas, arising from different situations. This approach, which liberates us from the tyranny of the "one truth" is also at home in ecological work. Here people may speak of "bioregional truth" or "situated kriowledge" to describe a point of view which is true to a particular place and time, but does not claim universal or absolute status. This perspective on truth is being adopted by many people as a creative way of resisting the inmperialist arrogance which treats "other" people and "other" ecosystems as resources to be exploited. For similar reasons, ecologists affirm diversity as a basic principle: although it may bring profit to a few, monoculture depletes the land, and is ultimately unsustainable.
About The Book
eco-Buddhism. Having said this, one can generalise and oversimplify somewhat in order to identify areas of common focus and conserisus. I have called Part One of the collection "Desire and Development in a Suffering World," and Part Two "Compassionate Engagement." What do Buddhism and Ecology have to say to one another?. This book is the result of the conference "Ecological Responsibility: A Dialogue with Buddhism", which was held in New Delhi to explore this question. The essays collected here interpret this focus on dialogue by asking questions about mutual reciprocity: how can Buddhist teaching and practice enable people to work towards healing the environment, and how, at the same time is the global environmental crisis shaping and redefining people's understanding of "Buddhism". Ven. The contributors to the volume are H.H.the Dalai Lama: Ramachandra Gandhi: Radha Burnier: Samdhong Rinpoche; H.H. Kyabgon Sakya Trizin: Noritoshi Aramaki: H.E. Neville Kanakaratne: Robert A.F. Thurman: Kamburupitiye Ariyasena: Kamla Chowdhry: Jose A.Lutzenberger: Allan Hunt Badiner Sunderlal Bahuguna: Ramachandra Guha: Lily de Silva: Henryk Skolimowski: Chatsumarn Kabilsingh: Julia Martin: Ravindra Varma: Stanislav Menshikov: John B. Taylor: Christopher Titmuss.
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