The Wake up Call: Buddhism and Nature

Rtr. Dilhan Jayasinghe

Sri Lanka, is a country with a majority of Buddhists. Hence it is worth investigating the insight of Buddhism and how we can get to know the sustainable living from Buddhism. 

Buddhism teaches that there is no human life without nature. This implies that every single life form on the earth is considered interdependent and cannot survive without the help and existence of the environment. Buddha taught people to respect human life and nature. Human life and nature should be in great harmony, without overexploiting nature to get more than what is needed. In one example, Buddha taught, a butterfly collects nectar from a flower without destroying or harming the flower & in return, the flower will give back a fruit. This fruit will give more trees and flowers and this cycle will continue. 

That is why it can be stated that Buddhism has an environmental view and Buddhist’s reality lies with ecology. Buddhism sees the world from an eco-centric point of view, which means according to Buddhism, humans are subject to nature, rather than controlling it. Both Buddhism and eco centrism focus on protecting holistic natural entities such as species and ecosystems. The concept is sustainability and the way we can start interacting, appreciating and using nature as an integral part of our lives and respecting it in whatever development that is done. 

It is essential to all large development projects to acquire an environment impact assessment (ESI). This should be viewed as a minimum guideline and actual sustainability needs more commitment. But the craving for money and power has led humans to be engaged in a rat race, forgetting nature. However Buddha taught compassion to oneself and to the rest of the world, society and community, taking care of oneself physically and mentally. 

 Buddhism is neither a religion nor a philosophy. It is a unique concept which promotes mindfulness and balance in life, heading towards our ultimate goal of ‘Nirvana (Nibbana)’. But throughout this journey, it is quite evident that Buddhism reinforces the concept of modern-day sustainability, even before sustainability became a buzz word. Buddhism, the 2500 year old teachings of Buddha were promoting the same ideas long before the issues got worse. 

During this time, we have been discussing the reasons, consequences and solutions to eliminate pollution and move towards a sustainable lifestyle. There is a responsibility to each person about caring for the environment as caring for their families. Hence, let’s start from ourselves. 

Before concluding, I would like to remind you that a ‘single grain of rice can tip the scale’.

 The ‘Wake-up call’ is another attempt of the Rotaract club of College of Chemical sciences to give a serious awareness to the community about the timely need to think about the environment since it is the only way of our survival.