Psychology & Buddhism.pdf

Environmental Problems and Buddhist Ethics 245
subjective world are nondual, one’s improvement enables the improvement of its
environment. Here, a principle of environmental improvement in Buddhism is
recognized. This is the principle in the dimension of life that one’s improvement
causes a change in its environment. Humans and the environment, therefore,
progress each mutually influencing the other, in a relation of continuous action
and reaction, such as: human activity environmental formation action environmental
change environmental action human reaction human adjustment.
Both humans and the environment are historical in existence and change
mutually, biologically, culturally, socially, and in other life dimensions as well.
Viewing the Five Defilements from the Perspective of Time
The five defilements consist of the defilement of period (ko-joku), the defilement
of view (ken-joku), the defilement of evil passions (bonno-joku), the
defilement of sentient beings (shujo-joku), and the defilement of life (myo-joku).
The defilement of period is impurity in age and society. The defilement of view
and the defilement of evil passions, which relate to individual humans, mean
impurity of thought and impurity in greed (ton), anger (jin) and stupidity (chi)
such as so-called instinct, respectively. The defilement of sentient beings means
increasing of sufferings as a result of the defilement of view and the defilement
of evil passions. The defilement of life means that the longevity of living beings
shortens. In the Fa-hua-wen-chu (Hokke-mongu) by T’ien-t’ai (in the modern
edition of Taisho-Shinshu-Daizokyo (1966b)), he describes that the defilement of
period is caused in the following order: first, from the defilement of evil passions,
the defilement of view, and the defilement of life which are immanent in the life
of humans; second, to the defilement of sentient beings; and finally, to the defilement
of period where darkness overwhelms the spirit of that time. Here, the
darkness means that the spirit of age itself becomes ignorant of the true nature of
existence (mumyo).
According to the theories of the three realms of existence and the five defilements
in Buddhism, we could refer to the cause of the environmental crisis from
three areas as follows the self, others versus the self, the natural ecosystem versus
the human race. These three areas correspond to the realm of the five aggregates,
the realm of sentient beings, and the realm of nonsentient beings in the
three realms of existence of Buddhism, respectively. And also, these areas respectively
correspond to areas of behavior, thought, morality, ethics, values, and
desire, areas of the social environment such as culture, education, and religion,
and areas of the natural environment such as animals, plants, microorganisms,
mountains, rivers, and seas. We consider that while the occurrence of the environmental
crisis is caused by the sequential process of effect from the area of
the self to the area of nature via the area of others (society), the effect rebounds
from the area of nature to the area of the self via the area of others (society).