Global Recovery: - United Nations Day of Vesak 2013

Global Recovery :
through Buddhist Ecology
back water, until something breaks and washes everything downhill – forcefully,
away!
Bamboo is not only used to preventing landslide, it is useful in many ways.
We build halls for religious activities and others, and repair kutis (monk residences).
In a house, how is bamboo used? Commonly, in a house more than 80% of it is
bamboo. Also, there are some houses built only with bamboos – floor, pillars, roof
and the walls, only the base-floor is ground. Broken bamboos which cannot be used
for building and repair house are used as firewood to cook food. Bamboo firewood
can fire easily than the wood. The ashes are also good fertilization and pesticide for
vegetables and fruit-trees. Also, bamboo skin is also commonly used with it to make
a fine powder to stop bleeding, if someone has a cut.
In April 1992, the news reported that there was a strong earthquake in
Limon, Costa Rica. It broke down and destroyed high buildings leaving only
the bamboo houses standing. Bamboo is flexible and lightweight - bamboo enabled
structures to "dance" in the earthquake. 25
In Zimbabwe Mr. Oliver Waziweyi’s “invention” of planting bamboo solved
the complex problem that his community faced. “As simple as Mr. Waziweyi's
invention was, it was an important invention that help his community to farm their
land -- effectively, too. People who used to go hungry can now feed themselves and
their family.” 26
Eating bamboo shoots, indeed, degrades - leaving no bamboo for future use
and thus there becomes an imbalance in the ecosystem. We often look only to our
own benefit, and with no thought of beings, like bees, who can collect pollen or suck
nectar from flowers without harming its beauty and fragrance – preventing other
species from their necessary-functions is another unseen-initial step to degradation.
Obviously, as seen everywhere, trees are not valued as important part of our
lives. This worried the Buddha: sooner or later in future the world will face great
destruction, if humans don’t become aware and purify their action and ways of living.
When we travel on foot or get stressed we usually look a cool place to relax
and calm down our stress. But, what if there is nobody or nowhere that offers shadow
or shelter, free of charge, in a time of warm-periods, except trees? Depending on this
account, the post-canonical text, the Petakopadesa states: If one was to sleep or sit
under shade of a tree, he must not break the branches of that tree; if he does so, he is
an evil friend. To the wise, dhamma is everywhere and available for anyone to learn
and get great benefits from, like, for instance: the Buddha and Sir Isaac Newton.
25 http://www.bamboorevolution.com/sustainability/renewability.htm, accessed on March 23, 22010.
26 http://www.hydroponicsearch.com/Explore_the_Science_of_Hydroponics/Hydroponics_cultivation_m
ethods/Bamboo_hydroponics_garden_technique/, accessed on March 23, 2010.
35