Buddhist contribution to environmental protection - Judge Weeramantry

Wed, 2007-06-20 02:22 

Presenting the Buddhist perspectives on the inter-relationships
between all living beings and the environment, Judge
C. G. Weeramantry, former Vice- President of the International
Court of Justice, told the World Future Council in Hamburg
that Buddhist teachings and Buddhist kings have been in the
forefront of pioneering laws on environmental protection.

Here are excerpts from his presentation:

Buddhism, The Environment And The Human Future

Introductory

Buddhism is replete with perspectives on the long-term future. It
stresses at every stage the fleeting nature of the present and
the transitory nature of present acquisitions.

With its uncompromising quest for justice, righteous conduct and
non-violence and with the spirit of universalism which pervades
it, Buddhism also offers a rich reservoir of conceptual materials
on all aspects of the human condition.

It is to be noted that the Buddha after he attained enlightenment
at the age of 35 was not a recluse living away from people and
their problems but that he moved among them during the remaining
45 years of his life, teaching them how to address their day
to day problems. Thus problems of government also engaged his
attention. Among the Kings of the time who sought his advice
were King Pasenadi of Kosala who along with his regional kings
sought his counsel. King Bimbisara of Magadha and his son King
Ajasatta are also among those who are recorded as turning to
him for advice on governmental matters.

The Noble Eight Fold Path

The noble eight fold path consists of right vision, right
thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right
efforts, right mindfulness and right concentration. Treatises
could be written on the relevance of each of these to the
human future.

On right livelihood for example Buddhist teaching requires
every person to consider the manner in which the performance
of his duties as employee would impact on society and the
future. Employment, for example, in the armaments industry,
which imperils the human future, would be a violation of the
path of right livelihood. Any employment which causes damage
to the environment such as manufacturing of toxic substances,
felling of forests and the adverse exploitation of marine
resources would also be a violation of right livelihood. Any
employment which involves damage to the environment such as
working in the nuclear industry, manufacturing toxic substances,
and the exploitation and depletion of marine resources would
be included in this prohibition.

The Buddhist Scriptures

The vastness of the volume of Buddhist scriptures needs to
be appreciated. The Buddha's discourses, delivered during the
45 years of his ministry, were memorised by his followers and
later reduced to writing. A notable compilation is that which
was effected in the first century prior to the Christian era
by a group of 500 monks at Aluvihare in Sri Lanka. This is
one of the most monumental processes of recording in world
history, amounting in bulk to several multiples of Justinian's
codification - long celebrated as one of the outstanding
compilations of all time.

The Pali Canon, called the Tripitaka or the three baskets,
arranges its subject-matter in three collections called the
Vinaya Pitaka (the basket of discipline), the Sutta Pitaka (the
basket of discourses), and the Abidhamma Pitaka (the basket of
higher doctrine).

The legal inquirer will find much material of a legally-oriented
character in the Vinaya Pitaka. Meant as a code of discipline
for monks, it defines offences with a degree of precision
reminiscent of a modern criminal code, and contains many
procedural provisions which embody the basic principles of fair
trial. In dealing with the 227 rules of conduct laid down for
Buddhist monks, it explains the principles underlying them, as
well as the numerous exceptions which, as every lawyer knows,
must attend the application of nearly every legal rule.

The basket of discourses is immense and contains sermons and
didactic stories embodying a vast range of principles of justice
- individual, national and international. Comparatively little
legal effort has been expended on quarrying from this vast mass
of material the legal principles latent within them. This vast
literature consists of five collections, known as Nikayas - 
the Digha Nikaya (34 long discourses), the Majjhima Nikaya (152
middle length discourses), the Samyutta Nikaya (2,889 short
discourses), the Anguttara Nikaya (2,308 short sayings, often
in the form of maxims or aphorisms), and the Khuddaka Nikaya
(over a thousand sayings in the form of stanzas or aphorisms,
covering the whole range of Buddhist philosophy). Perhaps
the most popular collection of these short sayings, which has
been translated into practically every major language, is the
Dhammapada, a collection of 423 stanzas.

The basket of higher doctrine (Abhidamma) contemplates the
human condition at the most advanced philosophical level. It
is replete with insights bearing on the long term future. Some
idea of the volume of all this literature can be gathered
from the translations of the Pali Text Society, which include
the Anguttara Nikaya (5 vols.), the Digha Nikaya (3 vols.),
Digha Nikaya Commentary (3 vols.), the Dhammapada Commentary
(4 vols.), the Jataka (6 vols.), the Majjhima Nikaya (3 vols.),
the Majjhima Nikaya Commentary (5 vols.), the Samyutta Nikaya
(5 vols.) and the Vinaya Pitaka (5 vols.)

It is little wonder that this enormous mass of material has
not been systematically analysed for its legal content. This
is indeed a pity, for it is a storehouse of moral principles
on which, in the last analysis, all legal systems, national and
international, must be based. Legal inquiry has been inhibited
also by the belief that Buddhism did not concern itself with
secular legal systems.

From this enormous range of literature numerous principles
relevant to the human future can be extracted and elaborated:

Kutadanta Sutta Buddhism points out that it is the responsibility
of the government to protect trees and other organic life. It
is described in the Sutta on Buddhist polity named, ‘The Ten
Duties of the King.' (Dasarajadhamma). The Kutadanta Sutta
points out that the government should take active measures to
provide protection to flora and fauna.

Pupphavagga in Dhammapada, points out that one should live
in the environment without causing any harm to it. It states:
‘As a bee that gathers honey from a flower and departs from it
without injuring the flower or its colours or its fragrance,
the sage dwells in his village.' The flower moreover ensures
the continuity of the species and the bee in taking pollen does
not interfere with nature's design.

Suttanipata - This contains a further expression of goodwill
towards all forms of life

"Whatever breathing creatures there may be

No matter whether they are frail or firm,

With none excepted be they long or big

Or middle-sized, or be they short or small

Or whether they are dwelling far or near

Existing or yet seeking to exist

May beings all be of a blissful heart."

Mahasukha Jataka contains a poetic description of the close
interrelationship between the plant and animal kingdom.

Sakka: Whenever fruitful trees abound

A flock of hungry birds is found:

But should the trees all withered be.

Away at once the birds will flee.

Rejection of Anthropocentrism

Buddhism is completely averse to the notion that nature and
all created things exist for the benefit of mankind. Mankind
is part of the entire cosmic order but not in a position
of dominance. Humans are just as much subject to the
natural order of the universe as any other form of sentient
existence. "Buddhism is ecocentric rather than anthropocentric
since it views humans as an integral part of nature.

Unity of the Human Family

There is another aspect in which humanity is unique. The Buddha
was perhaps the first to point out that whereas every living
species on the planet, whether it be a plant or a worm or an
insect or a bird or a mammal, has many sub-species within it,
humans are all cast in one species.

This reflection is of immense importance on the unity of the
human family and has major implications for our topic. This
one species occupies one common home and it follows inevitably
that it must do all it can to protect its environment and the
species itself.

The interdependence of all things

Buddhism strongly emphasises the interdependence of all entities
and events. There is no entity animate or inanimate and no event
however trivial which is not in some way interconnected with
every other. No entity or event is an island unto itself. The
linkages and inter-linkages are all-pervasive and inextricable.

In the exposition of the Thai monk Buddhadasa Bikkhu, "the
entire cosmos is a cooperative. The sun, the moon and the stars
live together as a cooperative. The same is true for humans and
animals, trees, and the earth. When we realise that the world
is a mutual, interdependent, cooperative enterprise then we
can build a noble environment."

Coexistence rather than Conquest

The aim that Buddhism instils in every individual mind is
emancipation from suffering. The route to that emancipation is
not the pursuit of power and possessions but the very opposite –
the rejection of the pursuit of those materialistic goals which
are so greatly imperilling the human future.

Conquest of the natural environment, of other species or of
other groups of the human family is hence the very reverse of
the ideals which Buddhism teaches. Co-existence is vital and
this requires a recognition and respect of those other species
and groups and not an attempt at dominance.

State Duties towards the Environment

Buddhism specified certain basic virtues of rulers in the Dasa
Raja Dharmaya. These included:

Generosity
Morality
Nonviolence
Friendliness

According to Cakkavattisihanada Sutta the ideal king is expected
to protect not only people but quadrupeds and birds.

King Asoka's 5th Pillar Edict stating that he in fact placed
various species of wild animals under protection is one of the
earliest recorded instances of a specific governmental policy
of conservation.

Also, in Sri Lanka, edicts were issued that not a drop of
water was to be permitted to flow into the sea without first
serving the needs of agriculture. There were also royal edicts
prohibiting the felling of virgin forests.

Ignorance as the Cause of Wrongdoing – the need for environmental
education

Buddhism is very clear in its teaching that often the cause
of wrongdoing is ignorance rather than wickedness or sin. The
natural corollary of this, in the context of the environment,
is the need for environmental education.

It consequently becomes the duty of those interested in
the environment to spread knowledge regarding the damaging
consequences of the environmental destruction we take for
granted.

Principles of Trusteeship

Buddhist philosophers and scholars have expanded on these
concepts in a manner which makes them intensely relevant to the
subject under discussion. Historical examples of such teaching
abound, of which one of the best known illustrations is the
sermon preached by the arahat Mahinda, son of the Emperor Asoka,
to the King of Sri Lanka when the monk accosted the King who
was enjoying a hunt in the royal forest.

The monk's sermon included a reminder to the King that although
he was the King of the country, he was not the owner but the
trustee of the land on which he was hunting.

The Rights of Future Generations

The Dalai Lama has given expression to the Buddhist perspective
in relation to future generations in these terms: "If we
develop good and considerate qualities within our own minds,
our activities will naturally cease to threaten the continued
survival of life on Earth. By protecting the natural environment
and working to halt the degradation of our planet we will
also show respect for Earth's human descendants – our future
generations."

A useful perspective on this same line of thought is that "we
have not inherited the earth from our parents; we have borrowed
it from our children."

Against this rich background of universalistic and indeed
cosmic thought the teachings of Buddhism take added relevance
to International Law in an age in which shortages of Earth
resources are shrinking planet earth into a common village for
all humanity.

Practical Activism

Buddhism has been the inspiration in recent times for much
practical work on environmental protection. It is often ranged
against governments which seek to improve their economies by
rapid "development" which often takes the form of damaging the
environmental heritage. The practical movements Buddhism has
inspired in several countries are of importance to the rest of
the world.

To quote a recent review of this activity, "there has been a
kind of Buddhist revolt against the deterioration of nature"
in countries like Thailand.

Necessary changes of personal attitude

Buddhism teaches that one does not have to traverse the length
and breadth of the Universe to gain a knowledge of what is right
or wrong. All this knowledge is latent within oneself. Applying
this to environmental protection, what is required is an
internal change of attitude. This strikes a resonant chord
with the deep ecologists, for deep ecology requires changes of
attitude, changes within oneself, as the secret of reversing
the environmental crisis. It is not sufficient to correct the
external environment. One must begin the process by correcting
the attitudes of the individual.

"We are what we think

All that we are arises with our thoughts

With our thoughts we make the world."

Correction of false values

All this results from "a world ablaze with greed" for which the
Buddha's teachings in such collections as the Gradual Sayings
supply the necessary corrections.

* * *

In the result Buddhism offers us a range of powerful concepts
for the protection of the long-term future through such
principles as interdependence, universalism, moderation,
trusteeship, environmental protection, environmental education,
sustainable development and a consciousness of the rights of
future generations.

Buddhism's infinite treasury of wisdom cannot any longer be
neglected without damage to the human future.

End Notes

i. Samyutta Nikaya,L.Freur (ed.), 5 vols., London.PTS, 1884-1904, Vol. I,pp.70-76,80

ii. Anguttara Nikaya, R..Morris and E.Hardy (eds.) 5 Vols., PTS, 1885-1900, Vol.II,p.182; see also, O.Abeynayake, Fundamentals of Buddhist Polity;1996, Maha Thera Narada, The Buddha and His Teachings, pp.106-113

iii. Suttanipata, in the edition translated and edited by H.Oldenburg and R.Pischel (London, Pali Text Society, 1883), see V:143-52. 

iv. Klas Sandell (ed.) Buddhist Perspectives on the Ecocrisis, Kandy, Sri Lanka Buddhist Publications Society, 1987.

v. See Huston Smith, The Religions of Man, Harper & Row, NY, 1858,p.121
Fenning, p.18.

vi. Gray, Dennis D.,1987. "Buddhism Being Used to Help Save Asia's Environment", Seeds of Peace 3(2):24-26

Dhammapada, verse (author's translation).

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