Global Environment from a Buddhist Perspective

by His Holiness the Sakya Trizin

Life is precious. Life is what is most precious to each one of us. We always worry about losing this life; we worry about anything that might happen to us that could take it away. We make every effort to keep it safe. Just like us, every single being sees life as what is most precious and does everything possible to protect it.

What’s more, we and all other beings wish our lives to last a long, long time. If we are to be granted a long life, then we need to establish the conditions that will make this possible. We first need to realise that everything is interconnected and that the way we treat our environment will affect how long we live. It’s very important that we think about this.

Buddhist teachings, especially Mahayana teachings, say that we are made up of body and mind. The body is easy to describe. We know where it came from, how it was formed and how it developed. The body is something visible. We can describe its size, colour, shape, aspect, and so on. When we leave this world, our body will be disposed of in one way or another. But the mind is something quite different. Neither can we see it with our eyes, nor can we touch it with our hands, nor can we describe its size, colour or shape. Yet mind is more powerful than anything else. Without the mind, our body is no more than a corpse. It’s the mind that does everything.

Everything works with the mind. It’s the mind that does all good things and it’s the mind that does all bad things. It’s the mind that experiences happiness and it’s the mind that experiences suffering. So the mind is the most important thing.

Where does the mind come from? How is it formed? According to the teachings, mind has no beginning as such – and so we refer to beginningless time. We cannot say that someone’s mind begins at any particular time. Mind is intangible, indescribable and continuous. It has its own kind of continuity. From this, one can establish that there was life before our present life. The body from that previous life was disposed of. But the consciousness of its mind continues in our present body. Our mind is currently residing in our body, and when we leave this world, our body will again be disposed of, but there will be no way in which our mind can be disposed of. Because it’s intangible, we won’t be able to cremate it or bury it. Because it’s intangible, we can’t make it disappear. And so this powerful mind again continues and enters into another life.

And this happens over and over again. We are all familiar with what we call the ‘Wheel of Life’. The ‘Wheel of Life’ means that the wheel turns once, and then again, and again. It has no beginning and it never ceases. It is the same with life. Life has no beginning as such, it just goes on and on. And so we have been born innumerable times since beginningless time until now. And we will continue to do so again and again until we attain liberation, or enlightenment.

Life is ceaseless. Furthermore, there is not one single place where one hasn’t been born. Everything keeps changing. Wherever the winds of our karma take us, that is where we’ll be. We have no choice. There nowhere in the universe where we haven’t been born. Even more, there is not one single sentient being who has not been our parent, our friend, our partner, our child, and so on. But due to the change of life, we don’t recognise each other. And we see some beings as our friends, some as our enemies, and some we see with indifference. In reality, every single being is our very dear one, but we can’t recognise each other. Even our most hated enemies are also our very dear ones, although we can’t recognise them as such.

And so therefore, life is not only precious to us, but it is precious to every living being, from the tiniest insect to the highest god. Every life is precious. This is the most important thing that we must realise. Life is what is most precious not only to ourselves, but also to every single other being. And so, when we experience our own feelings, we can remember how every individual also has the same kind of feelings.

We have to always remember how precious life is and how we need to protect its many forms. In order to protect life, we also need to protect the environment that harbours it. No one can live in a place where there is no water, where there are no trees, and so on. Our lives are completely dependent on our environment.

We might say that Lord Buddha was the founder of environmentalism. His Vinaya – the code of behaviour that the Buddha instituted for monks and nuns – stipulates that “You cannot cut trees; you cannot cut leaves; you cannot cut flowers; you cannot disturb the forest; you cannot foul the river; you cannot foul the grass.” Already in His time, the Buddha had instructed His Sangha to observe the same rules that are nowadays set down by environmentalists.

The Buddha also said that every living being has at one time been our parent, and that we must repay the love and kindness that we have received from them. Even our worst enemies, people who cause us harm and create obstacles for us, even they are our very own dear ones. Because we didn’t recognise them as such during our many lifetimes and didn’t pay back their kindness but rather treated them with anger, now they appear to us as enemies. According to Buddhist teachings, love and compassion are described as infinite. They make no exceptions. We must love everyone, near ones, far ones, beings we know, beings we don’t know, dear ones and hated ones. We should feel equal love and compassion toward every sentient being.

Today, our world is experiencing serious environmental problems. I have many friends who are very worried about the environment. They say that eventually the earth will become like a desert; there will be no water, no trees, no rain. Pollution will be so severe that it will even be difficult to breathe, and people will have to carry oxygen bottles around with them. Many people worry about this. And so we need to think about the future, about the beings who will inherit our earth, our children, our grandchildren, and everyone else. We have to think about the problems that they will face. We need to ensure that the earth will be a suitable place for them to inhabit.

Buddhist teachings have much to offer in making the world a better place. Their reach somehow goes beyond human effort, however worthy the latter may be. They go deeper, and they are all-inclusive. They include everything. Buddhist practitioners mainly devote their time and energy to inner practice, like meditation and rituals and so on, and so outwardly they don’t seem to be performing useful activities. Although in comparison to environmentalists, who are very active in trying to save our earth, practitioners don’t seem to be doing much, their influence reaches deeper and wider.

Environmentalists are to be highly lauded for all the work that they do to help. Their accomplishments are vast. And yet, they are not all-embracing in their philosophy. If we take as an example the case of wild animals in India, which is a great source of worry. It is said that India used to have some 40,000 tigers, but their numbers have drastically dropped. There are now only 14,000. Tigers are very beautiful and powerful, and so everyone wants to protect them. There is much worry about endangered species. Like the tigers, other species of animals are protected by environmentalists. For example, the deer in India have become rare and no one is allowed to shoot them. Whoever shoots one is severely punished. This kind of initiative is very beneficial and deserves everyone’s support.

But on the other hand, it is not only rare and beautiful animals that should be protected. Life is for everybody. But there are no environmentalists who say that we should protect mosquitoes. This is because mosquitoes are ugly, because they are noisy and annoying, and because they bite us and not only cause us pain but also carry disease, such as malaria. Therefore many people think that mosquitoes should be destroyed. But mosquitoes are also living beings. All forms of life are precious. Some animals are precious to humans, either because they are beautiful or because they’re useful. People love birds because they’re beautiful to look at and they sing lovely songs. And so they must be protected. But mosquitoes are noisy and they annoy us; we worry about them breeding in ponds because they carry disease, and so no one talks about protecting them.

Buddhist teachings take a very different stand. They say that every living being needs to be protected, whether they are beneficial or harmful to us, whether they are beautiful or ugly, rare or abundant. In India, it is allowed to shoot certain wild animals because there are many of them. From a Buddhist perspective, this is not correct. In practical terms, non-Buddhists won’t agree with us, but as we are looking at the environment from a Buddhist point of view, this is an important point to make.

The main thing, though, is to realise how precious life is. It’s precious to us, but it’s also precious to mosquitoes. Their own lives are very precious to them. But a mosquito’s life is short. Its life is short, just a few days, and even then many don’t manage to survive their natural lifespan. Whenever people see a mosquito, their reaction is to kill it. People don’t feel compassion toward mosquitoes and don’t realise how important their lives are to them.

So here lies the difference. The Buddhist idea of love and compassion, that all beings should be protected, goes deeper and wider than ordinary considerations. And yet, practitioners don’t actively go out and help beings. They meditate and recite prayers such as: “May all sentient beings be happy and be with the causes of happiness”. But when they come near animals that are suffering, they don’t necessarily help them. On the other hand, whereas animal lovers and environmentalists may not meditate or say prayers, they do step in and help animals that are hungry or sick, or in any kind of pain.

The ideal thing would be to combine these two attitudes, the Buddhist practice of compassion and the environmentalist one. This would be enormously beneficial to our world.

Right from the beginning, the Buddha Himself taught that life is precious. According to the Buddha’s law, monks are not allowed to chop trees, pluck flowers or cut grass. Actually, the Buddha was a precursor of the environmentalists. Buddhism teaches us that we should make this world beautiful, free and clean, not only for human beings but for every living being that inhabits it.

There is a story that tells of a bald monk who was sitting in meditation under a banana tree. At some point, a large leaf fell on his head and interrupted his concentration. He became very angry and crushed the leaf into pieces, thinking “Why did the Buddha make such strange rules that we can’t pluck flowers or leaves?” And he even became angry with the Buddha.

As a result of this, he was reborn in his next life as a naga, with a huge tree growing from his head. This seems strange, but there are such beings that we can see for ourselves, for instance corals. Corals look like plants, like small trees, but they are actually animals. And so this tree was growing on his head and digging its root inside it, which was very painful.

One day, the Buddha was travelling with a king, and they came across this unfortunate being. The king asked the Buddha why this person had a tree growing out of his head and seemed to be in such pain, and the Buddha explained how in his previous life he had been one of the Buddha’s monks and had disrespected the Buddha’s rules, causing him to be reborn afflicted in this manner. In a way, this story illustrates the concern that the Buddha had for all forms of life, including trees, grass and flowers.

And so it seems to me that modern environmentalists could learn something from the Buddha’s teachings, especially the rules of the Vinaya. By incorporating these to their own philosophy, environmentalists might enrich the latter and make its scope deeper and broader. It’s impossible, of course, to protect everything and everyone. But we do as much as we can. And the work of protecting the environment cannot be left to just a few people or organisations. It’s everyone’s responsibility. It’s very important that everyone becomes aware of its importance and realises how things might turn out to be on our earth if we don’t take care of it.

It is impossible to fix everyone’s problems, everywhere. But if many people make an effort, then certainly this will make a considerable difference. And so, whatever we do, it is important to fully appreciate that life is precious and that we must all do something to preserve it and to make it fruitful and long-lasting. We need to this for our own benefit but, even more, for the sake of future generations.

Already, things are changing a great deal. Many of my friends from Tibet tell me how the climate there is changing dramatically, especially the snow mountains; they are melting, some at a very rapid pace. Not only the mountains, but also the rivers, forests and the earth itself are affected by pollution, deforestation and mining.

We Tibetans believe that it’s not only the visible aspect of nature that is affected. There is also an invisible dimension to it that we are not always aware of. In Tibet, every mountain has its own local deity that resides in it. According to our ancient beliefs, these deities are also affected by these changes, and this makes them unhappy, which leads to the occurrence of natural disasters. Due to people’s greed, chemical refuse is thrown into rivers, forests are decimated and the ground is carved to extract valuable minerals. All these aspects of nature are home to deities, and when they are violated in this way, so are its resident deities. Many people don’t believe in gods, local deities and other invisible beings. But I believe that they do exist and make a substantial difference to how things are.

These visible and invisible aspects of nature are intrinsically linked to each other, and as a result of their being affected, many disasters arise, such as floods, earthquakes, tsunamis and hurricanes. And so, in order to remedy this state of affairs, I believe that we need to adopt a two-pronged approach.

Not only do we need to follow the directives of environmentalists on how to physically take care of our world, but we need to perform protective and rejuvenating rituals such as bathing rituals, incense offerings, treasure vase burying rituals, and so on. I truly believe that these rituals have a concrete effect on things.

Japan and Taiwan, for instance, lie on an earthquake zone. They are often afflicted by earthquakes and typhoons, sometimes very severe ones. Lately, many of the Taiwanese Buddhist masters have begun performing offering, fire, bathing and treasure-vase burying rituals, and I’m told that since then the natural disasters have been less frequent and less devastating.

Not everybody believes in this sort of thing, but I think that by trying from every angle, everybody in their own way, things will definitely improve. It seems to me that it’s very important that everyone play a part in taking care of our earth, and not only a few individuals or organisations. It’s everyone’s responsibility. We are all part of the human race and we have to think of its future, of the human beings that will follow us. If we don’t act now, they will have to live in a sort of hungry ghost land, which would be very sad.

And so it’s important that we endeavour with all our strength to make things better, and for this, we first need to deeply realise how precious life is, how important it is to make this life healthier for all, happier and longer, and how crucial it is that we create a sustainable environment.

It would be equally important to incorporate the teachings of the Buddha in this effort. The Buddha possesses omniscient wisdom. His wisdom is infinite. He sees the past, present and future as we see the palms of our own hands. He sees every effect to every cause and every cause to every effect. And so His teachings are authentic and wondrous, and they lead us to work for the benefit of beings, the world and the environment.