Buddhism’s Philosophy of Ecology: Pratītyasamutpāda and its potential practice for Sustainability

Since the entry of industrial civilization in the 18th century, the damage to the ecological environment has become increasingly serious. In the 1870s, the German biologist Haeckel first coined the term "ecology" (Smith). During the 1960s, the issue of ecological environment has attracted widespread attention. In the 1980s, German scholar Huber put forward the ecological modernization theory of the mutually beneficial coupling of modernization and natural environment. Till now, protecting resources and the environment has always been a heated topic and related to the destiny of the entire human being and the earth. Efforts to achieve the balance of the relationship between human beings and nature is the basis for ensuring sustainable development. Theory always guides practice, and thoughts govern behavior. Buddhism is a religious and cultural system that provides liberation for all sentient beings, which contains rich ecological philosophy. This essay is starting from the Buddhism view to interpret the ecological philosophy and application.

        Pratītyasamutpāda, commonly translated as dependent origination or dependent arising, can be seen as the foundation of how Buddhism views the relationship between human beings and nature. It also closely relates to the concept of karma, which is an application of this principle to individual actions and their fruition. The Dalai Lama explains karma as follows: Karma is one particular instance of the natural causal laws that operate throughout the universe where, according to Buddhism, things and events come into being purely as a result of the combination of causes and conditions. In other words, nothing can be seen as solely independent and all existences in nature have a cause. Furthermore, according to Atharva Veda, all the interconnectedness of the universe is just like Indra's net, a multifaceted jewel at each vertex, and each jewel is reflected in all the other jewels. The principle of dependent origination also applies to the concept of no-self (anatman), which means it is impossible to identify an independent, inherently existing self; that the self only exists in dependence upon causes and conditions. From the perspective of understanding the natural world, anatman is a direct negation of anthropocentrism, which has progressive significance. The idea that human beings are the masters of nature is no longer applicable in this way.

        The keynote of Buddhism on life is the equality of all beings, the interconnectedness among all things and the reincarnation of life (samsara). From this point of view, Buddhism firmly opposes killing, and regards respecting all life in the universe, which is reflected in the code of conduct such as “abstain from killing living beings”, “being vegetarian”, “release life” and so on.

        “Abstain from killing living beings” is the first precept that restricts Buddhists. Among all the crimes, murder is the most serious; among all the merits, not killing is the first. Human beings and living things are interdependent in a common relationship of origin. Killing other beings will inevitably lead to falling into the evil realm, and will also result in the evil retribution of being killed. The precepts of not killing and not harming are not only regulations for human-human relations, but also regulations for human-animal relations. During the Buddha's time, when disciples wanted to convert to Buddhism in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, they needed to make an oath: “From now until the end of life, always only to protect life.” Not killing is an ethical norm arising from protecting life. The compassion of Buddhists is appreciated by contemporary environmental ethicists. Especially in China, during the Southern and Northern Dynasties 1500 years ago, the emperor of Liang was Xiao Yan in the southern region, who has started to abstain from killing living beings as a loyalty to Buddhism. Thus, Peter Singer, a famous British animal liberationist, pointed out in the preface to the Chinese edition of his book “Animal Liberation”, which has a worldwide influence: “A central concept of the Buddhist tradition that has influenced China for many centuries is the equality of all living beings, and even requires believers not to kill; this is completely different from the Western's separation of human beings and animals, emphasizing that only human beings are the deliberate creation of God, and thus have the right to rule other animals.” He believes that the Buddhist tradition of equality and non-killing of all living beings is a noble ethic that helps save the earth inhabited by human beings. The evolution of our demand for clothing reflects this status quo. In the early days, people's demand for clothing was only to cover ugliness and keep warm and cold, but now, in order to pursue beauty and show off wealth, clothing made of animal fur is popular. Nearly 10 billion animals are slaughtered each year in the US for human beings (“The Number of Animals Killed | FFAC”). There are many similar examples. These human behaviors directly and seriously threaten the lives of rare wild animals and cause heavy damage to the ecological environment. Also, in 2002 and 2003, a large-scale outbreak of atypical pneumonia (SARS) took many lives. The root cause of the disease can be traced to the civet cats that people ate. In addition, the recent global pandemic COVID-19 can be seen as another example. Though the root cause has not been discovered yet, experts confirmed that it is a human disease of animal origin that caused the whole tragedy (Trust). In Buddhism, this is seen as the result of various diseases caused by people’s previous wanton killing, which can be related to the theory of Pratītyasamutpāda and karma.                 

        Buddhists also advocate vegetarianism based on various scriptures and teachings. Vegetarianism is a diet based on edible plants, which is an important guarantee for the implementation of abstinence from killing. Its purpose is to cultivate the seeds of compassion and Buddhahood in people's lives. The Buddha takes compassion as his heart, and the Buddha regards all living beings on the earth as the same. He not only saves human life in the sea of ​​misery, but also saves other non-human life equally. A vegetarian diet has a direct positive effect on protecting the diversity of animals.

        For thousands of years, Buddhism has been adhering to the fine tradition of vegetarian food, refusing to eat animals and wearing clothes made of animal skins, which are the basic requirements to implement the precept of “non-killing”. In addition to these, “release animals” is another proposition with environmental significance put forward by Buddhism.

        The so-called “release of animals” is simply to release birds and beasts based on certain karma and return them to suitable places for them. In the living environment, actively promote it to return to the embrace of nature and obtain the freedom of life. The release of animals can be regarded as a further requirement of Buddhism for abstaining from killing and vegetarianism, because if it is said that non-killing and vegetarianism are Buddhist attempts to pass on human beings to regulate their hearts, and then to protect their weak lives in a way of inaction, then to a certain extent, this is only an indirect and passive protection of life; while “release” is to protect life by means of action, which can be understood as a direct and active protection of life. The life-releasing activity directly embodies the Buddhist concept of cause and effect of reincarnation and the spirit of compassion that advocates the equality of all beings and relieves all beings in distress and suffering. People are happy to accumulate good fruits through the release of animals, and major Buddhist temples have specially set up release pools to facilitate people's release activities. Nowadays, on the birthdays of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, release of animals is one of the indispensable activities in Buddhist temples. If this action in ancient times was only used as a means of doing good deeds, cultivating Taoism and becoming a Buddha, then the current release of animals can be regarded as an important measure to protect the environment and maintain the balance of the ecology.

        The 1972 United Nations Stockholm Declaration states that: “People have the right to freedom, equality and living conditions. For the realization of this fundamental right, people have the responsibility and obligation to protect and improve our environment.” However, for a long time, with the development of industrialization and modernization, people have endlessly demanded, plundered and trampled on nature, resulting in the depletion of various resources, the sharp reduction of forest areas, the expansion of desertification areas, the acceleration of species extinction, and global warming. Even though diseases and flu are prevalent, the earth has become more and more unbearable for human needs and is increasingly facing the possibility of destruction brought about by ecological deterioration. The grim reality requires people to fundamentally reflect on human lifestyle, value orientation, and attitude towards nature, and establish the best-of-both-worlds pattern of harmonious coexistence and benign interaction between human beings and nature.

        Looking back at the thousands of years of culture, it is not difficult to find that Buddhism contains very rich ecological ethics. The philosophy contained in Buddhism is conducive to the harmonious and sustainable development of human beings and nature. Prudently absorbing the Buddhist concepts of “karma”, “equality of all beings”, “harmonious coexistence” and so on can be enlightening for protecting endangered biological species, restoring the damaged ecological environment, curbing overexploitation of resources, and improving human relationships with other life on the earth.

References

“The Number of Animals Killed | FFAC.” Factory Farming Awareness Coalition, ffacoalition.org/facts/number-of-animals-killed. Accessed 23 Oct. 2022.

2005 | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. iep.utm.edu/2005. Accessed 21 Oct. 2022.

Singer, Peter. Animal Liberation. Ecco Press, 2001.

Smith, Robert Leo. “Ecology.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 15 Sept. 2022, www.britannica.com/science/ecology.

Trust, Bat Conservation. “COVID-19 and Bats - Bats and Disease.” Bat Conservation Trust, www.bats.org.uk/about-bats/bats-and-disease/covid-19-and-bats. Accessed 23 Oct. 2022.

Confino, Jo. “Zen And the Art of Protecting the Planet.” The Guardian, 7 Sept. 2010, www.theguardian.com/sustainability/environment-zen-buddhism-sustainability.