Buddhism and Ecology

Abstract

A statement by Bhikkhu Bodhi (1987, p. vii) reflects several of the core principles, values, and practices that are most relevant to Buddhist environmentalism: “With its philosophical insight into the interconnectedness and thoroughgoing interdependence of all conditioned things, with its thesis that happiness is to be found through the restraint of desire in a life of contentment rather than through the proliferation of desire, with its goal of enlightenment through renunciation and contemplation and its ethic of non-injury and boundless loving-kindness for all beings, Buddhism provides all the essential elements for a relationship to the natural world characterized by respect, care, and compassion.” Here these attributes will be explained and illustrated with examples, several of them drawn from our field research in Thailand (Sponsel 2012).