Global Recovery: - United Nations Day of Vesak 2013

Global Recovery :
through Buddhist Ecology
His Holiness the Dalai Lama has rightly said, “Peace and survival of life on
the earth as we know it are threatened by human activities which lack a commitment
to humanitarian values. Destruction of nature and natural resources results from
ignorance, greed, and lack of respect for the earth’s living things.” 2 A well known
Buddhist legend regarding the evolution of the world as discussed in the Aggañña
Sutta 3 - the life span of human beings were very long because the nutrition provided
by plants and vegetables was of the highest quality. The point is made, however, that
man’s deteriorating morals (greed, conceit, stealing, lying, etc.) brought about
changes, which were adverse to nature and living beings. These changes brought
about by man accelerated and changed the direction of the changes inherent in nature.
The results of which was – and still is today – adverse to mankind’s well being and
happiness; and the same thing is also expressed in the Cakkavattisīhanāda Sutta 4
where the anticipated graver effects on mankind and nature by man’s further moral
degeneration in vividly illustrated. The commentaries to the Cakkavattisīhanāda
Sutta 5 further explain this pattern of mutual interaction in connection with regards to
nature which goes like greed leads to famine, hatred leads to non-violence and
delusion leads to epidemic.
What the Buddha taught were practices which enable us to eliminate mental
pollution permanently. Simply put, these practices have three aspects: moral precepts,
meditation concentration, and wisdom. The three aspects have been compared to
the legs of a tripod, which support a vessel. Remove any one of the three and the
vessel collapses. Likewise, cease to follow the precepts and your practice collapses;
let concentration lapse or become muddled about what is happening, and your
practice becomes ineffective. Why is following the moral precepts essential to
successful Buddhist practice? To answer this question, let us first take a look at the
most fundamental moral guidelines taught by the buddha, the five precepts (pañcasikkhāpada)
6 or five virtues (pañca-śīla) which are: abstention from a) taking life
(pāṇātipātā veramaṇī sikkhāpada³ samādiyāmi), b) from taking what is not given
(adinnādānā veramaṇī sikkhāpada³ samādiyāmi), c) sexual misconduct (kāmesu
micchācāra veramaṇī sikkhāpada³ samādiyāmi), d) false speech (musāvāda
veramaṇī sikkhāpada³ samādiyāmi) and fermented drink that causes heedlessness
(surā-meraya-majja-pamādaṭṭhānā veramaṇī sikkhāpada³ samādiyāmi). The moral
precepts are designed as basic guidelines for counteracting the pollution of
the ego-defenses. By following the guidelines the pollution is naturally removed and
the mind cleared. Just as anti-pollution laws must be closely monitored to insure
2 http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2007/2007-04-19-01.asp
3 D.III.80.
4 Ibid., 71.
5 Dhammapada A»»hakathå.III.854.
6 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Precepts --accessed 29 January 2009.
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