A Buddhist Response to Climate Change, Part 1

At the end of January, I received a request from Lisu Tan, the director of the Amitabha Buddhist Library in Chicago. The library had received a call for papers from the organizing committee for the United Nations Day of Vesak 2008 to be held in this May in Vietnam . Abstracts and CVs were to be submitted on seven topics. If an abstract was accepted, the writer would be requested to submit the completed paper. Director Tan asked if I would write an abstract, and paper if invited, on behalf of the library.

One title in particular appealed to me: Care for Our Environment: Buddhist Response to Climate Change. Those who have been reading this blog will understand why. But I hesitated to say yes to Director Tan. I’d be writing on a new subject for me. My parents had always taught that if you do anything, do it the best you can. If I made this commitment, would I be able to fulfill it? The abstract was to be submitted in one month and the paper in the following month. Would I have enough time? And how could I write the requested 7000 words?

With Director Tan’s encouragement, I agreed to write the abstract. It was accepted, and I was asked to submit the paper. I will be posting it here over the next eight days. It will then be available as a complete download here.

“With Our Thoughts We Create the World”

Do no harm. Do what is good. Purify the mind.

If you cannot purify the mind, then do no harm and do what is good.

If you cannot do what is good, at the very least, do no harm.

Everything is manifested by the mind and altered by the consciousness. In other words, with our thoughts we create the world. As Buddhists, we learn that our greed results in floods. Angry thoughts result in fires, and ignorant thoughts are the cause of disasters involving wind. This is causality: every cause will have a result. As we continuously crave more power, more material goods and experiences, and we fail to obtain what we desire, the results—like natural disasters and environmental degradation—likewise intensify.

When we look around, consider what we see: prolonged drought; more frequent tornadoes; recording-breaking floods, hurricanes, and wildfires. These are the results of the three poisons of greed, anger, and ignorance. The terrible truth we are facing in the world today is that we are unable even to “Do no harm.” We are poised at the brink of worldwide environmental collapse and have very likely already reached our “tipping point.” This is the point at which we have gone too far and are no longer able to pull back from the plunge into the abyss. The question becomes “How deep is the abyss?” And then, “How did we get to this point?”

The more power and wealth politicians and companies want to have and the more comfort individuals seek to enjoy, the more we will harm the environment and every person, animal, and plant who struggle to exist in that environment. We are now experiencing the result: climate change. This now looming worldwide disaster has arisen from a very real cause—craving.

We consume more, thinking all the things we crave will make us happy. But in reality we are depleting our nonrenewable resources and exhausting our planet. Toxic waste seeps into the earth and works its way into our rivers and oceans, contaminating everything it touches. Our imported goods and exotic foods are transported around the world on ships, planes, and trucks that spew toxic fumes and pump tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The rights of the poor to have clean water, arable land, and a safe place to raise their children are completely disregarded in the name of profit. As corporations become larger and larger, their preoccupation with the bottom lines makes them forget that those “purchasing units” are real people, struggling to live on this planet. One agribusiness fund manager gleefully said recently “Higher food prices are inevitable all over the world; we’re in a sweet spot.”

The more we buy and the less mindfully we live, the more we destroy what is natural and pure. In its place, we leave devastation. Tragically, we are committing unimaginable harm. Because of our greed and wish for control, we are coming precariously close to destroying our world as we know it.

Is there a way to stop this reckless behavior—a way to behave responsibly and stop climate change? Is there still time? We do not know the answer to these questions. But we need to do everything within our power to try.

Even if everyone else does not do what is right,
I alone will.

Even if everyone else is doing wrong,
I alone will not.