Eco-bodhicitta and Artful Conduct

At an October 1991 performance of chant by the Gyuto monks, Professor Huston Smith suggested that as the rain forests are to the world's physical atmosphere, so Tibet is to the world's spiritual atmosphere. I don't know whether I agree with his analogy, but I do find significance in linking Tibetan Buddhism and Ecology in one sentence. In fact, I believe that Buddhism in general, and Tibetan Buddhism in particular, express an ecological attitude, though the tradition itself would not use what we might initially recognize as ecological language. I make this assertion because I believe that Mahayana is ecologically conscious by its nature, and that tantra, as a mode of Mahayana, is in part a practical working out of techniques which express that ecologically conscious nature.

My support for the above assertion comes from an examination and interpretation of the bodhisattva vow, which is what defines Mahayana as such: the gaining of enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. There are three aspects of the vow which need to be considered: what is enlightenment?, what is a bodhisattva?, what are "all sentient beings"?

Sentient beings are all the beings in the six realms of existence who have sense organs. Two of the six realms are material, and therefore visible to our material senses: those of humans and animals. Four realms are nonmaterial: those of heaven and hell beings, ghosts and titans. Beings in the nonmaterial realms cannot be perceived through ordinary human sense organs because of their nonmateriality.

A bodhisattva is anyone who vows to become enlightened in order to save all the beings in these six realms from the unpleasantness of their existences. This vow implies both a motivation and an intentional activity. The intentional activity of the bodhisattva is the self-induced transformation he/she undergoes for the purpose of accomplishing the vow; this is also called "being on the path." Why is it necessary to undergo a transformation? There are many reasons: for one thing, we can't even see the beings in four of the realms of existence in our current state of awareness; how then could we help them?

The transformation required of the bodhisattva is to become enlightened; this is the goal of the bodhisattva's training. Enlightenment means omniscience and liberation from suffering. This is the state of a Buddha, a being who is all-knowing because his/her consciousness is not limited by the extensiveness of space or time. Because of this unimpededness of consciousness, a Buddha knows the actual nature, conditions and circumstances of all beings and therefore knows best how to help them. This is the fundamental reason that the bodhisattva seeks Buddhahood: to have the best possible means to be of help.

As I said above, the process of transformation which turns a bodhisattva into a Buddha is called a path, and in the Tibetan tradition it is graded into stages. One of the implications of the path being graded is that at each stage of the path the consciousness of the bodhisattva is less impeded then at the previous stage. Therefore, the bodhisattva's progress on the path means his/her increased ability to help sentient beings. (Such a statement might not be accepted by Buddhists who believe in the instantaneous transformation of consciousness via the experience of satori. However, this is not the Tibetan view of the process.)

All the animals and humans of this earth are sentient, thus progress on the bodhisattva path is improved ability to help them become free from suffering. Since the ecological crisis is producing suffering and death of animals and persons through pollution, loss of habitat, etc., the bodhisattva will naturally act to alleviate this suffering by using his/her developed consciousness to address and remove the source of this suffering: the human activities which have engendered the ecological crisis.

Therefore, the activity of the bodhisattva is ecologically beneficial and since anyone on the path is a bodhisattva, so the activity of anyone on the path ultimately will produce a consciousness, an attitude and actions which will be environmentally valuable. Thus all Mahayana is environmentally concerned, by definition.

Tibetans group the practices which constitute the Mahayana path into the divisions of sutra and tantra. Sutra consists of those scriptures concerned with acquiring wisdom and creating the mind of a Buddha. Tantra consists of those scriptures concerned with acquiring merit and creating the body of a Buddha.

If we refine our focus to examine the ecological attitude expressed in tantra, we find that there is a key concept to explore: that consciousness and wind always arise and cease together and bear a relationship like a horse and rider. Wind (rlung) is a term which refers to the inner vital energies associated with consciousness. It expresses the idea that consciousness and the physical body are connected in a specific way and that energy is the medium of connection. It also expresses the idea that wind is a subtler version of "body" which supports or "embodies" consciousness.

The metaphor of wind as horse and consciousness as rider goes further, for it asserts not only that wherever consciousness is found, so also wind is found, but also asserts that wind carries consciousness through space and time and that consciousness directs the movement of wind through space and time. (Of course, the space and time referred to here are not space and time as they appear conventionally but rather space and time as they are for a valid cognizer, that is, a consciousness transformed by mastery of Madhyamika dialectics and meditation; but pursuing this would get us off the subject.)

Reconsidering the teachings about the consciousness of a Buddha which were expressed above, it was said that the consciousness of a Buddha is unimpeded, which is to say that it is unlimited in space and time. Thus the consciousness of a Buddha is everywhere and "everywhen," it is ubiquitous. So also, according to tantra, must the wind energy associated with a Buddha consciousness be everywhere and "everywhen."

This means that it is right here and right now.

This also means that the more progress the bodhisattva makes on the path to Buddhahood, the more extensive and unlimited will his/her consciousness become and since all Mahayana practitioners are bodhisattvas, this also applies to them. Which is to say, the more progress any trainee makes on the path, the more extensive their consciousness.

Now we can again ask the question, what does this have to do with Ecology? Ecology is the science of living systems, which takes as a fundamental tenet the interdependence of all living things in mutually influencing patterns of matter, energy and information. This way of thinking is also found in Buddhism, and is called pratityasamutpada, dependent origination, or interdependence. The relationship of systems theory and Buddhism, especially Buddhism as expressed in the teachings of dependent origination, has been well articulated by Joanna Macy. She has gone into great detail on this subject in her recent book Mutual Causality in Buddhism and General Systems Theory, so this need not be elaborated upon here.

However, an example may prove useful at this point. The net effect on the earth's atmosphere of the life sustaining activity of all the animal life on the planet is the production of an excess of carbon dioxide. The net effect on the atmosphere of the life sustaining activity of all the plant life on the planet is the production of an excess of oxygen. Until relatively recently these activities were in balance. This is an excellent demonstration of how living systems exist in dependence on each other, for animals could not live without the oxygen produced by plants, and plants could not live without the carbon dioxide produced by animals. It is also an excellent example of dependent origination, that is, the existence of one thing is predicated on the existence of another.

The key point for our consideration here is that from a tantric perspective, all sentient beings are conscious and the consciousness of each of them exists in dependence on their own vital energy, as does their vital energy exist in dependence on their consciousness. Moreover, all these beings are organized into mutually influencing systems as a fundamental aspect of their existence. Thus the consciousness and vital energy of each of these beings are also organized in dependently arising webs which are mutually influencing.

We know from our consideration of the path that each time a bodhisattva acts in accordance with the vow to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings some small progress is made on the path and his/her consciousness undergoes a change toward a more Buddhalike consciousness. But if we reflect on this change from the point of view of the interdependence of living systems of consciousness and energy, we see that not only is the bodhisattva's consciousness and wind transformed, but the consciousness and wind of the entire web of sentient beings is also affected.

If we give some consideration to the specific actions of a tantric bodhisattva trainee, we find that they include the use of the imagination in the visual, auditory and tactile creation of pure lands, usually called mandalas or palaces, with the trainee as resident bodhisattva. That is, the trainee imagines her/himself as a bodhisattva living in a pure land and through this process (called an effect vehicle) eventually becomes that Buddha which she/he is potentially.

Given what we know about tantra and dependent arising, we may now assert that as the bodhisattva trainee proceeds on the path to this pure land he/she influences all the sentient beings of the earth. As the trainee progresses on the path and more and more successfully creates a pure land, so this ordinary world becomes more and more a pure land.

That is to say, the suffering of all the sentient beings of the biosphere is directly diminished through mental, meditational activity. In this sense, tantric meditation, by creating a pure land, in fact directly purifies this ecologically at-hazard world. It does this through the fundamental interconnectedness of all the consciousnesses and vital forces of the world.

I take this to be the foundation of the Tibetan Buddhist ecological attitude and I believe that it has some significance in the current planetary situation. In fact, I believe that it is an integral feature in the unfolding "New Story" that the theologian Thomas Berry sees as required if we humans are to continue to live on this planet.

I do not mean to imply, however, that this attitude I am calling "ecobodhicitta" or the activities associated with it would be all that would be necessary to solve our ecological problems. Other meritorious actions are also required. Tibetans divide activities into those of body, speech and mind. Here I have been talking about activities of mind. Clearly, the total range of action also must include activities of speech, such as formulating the "New Story," educating people and speaking out against abuses, and activities of body, such as tree hugging, "living lightly" and so forth.

It is worth remembering a Tibetan saying that if you wish to know the mind of the past, examine the body of the present and if you wish to know the body of the future, examine the mind of the present. While this saying obviously refers to rebirth, it illustrates a basic principle, that mental activities have physical repercussions. Thus, healing a tattered biosphere requires not only the proper actions, but also the intention to do so as well as proper thoughts and proper communication about the process.

This view widens the field of ecologically responsible action. For example, from this point of view we can understand how actions which beautify the world, say by arranging flowers or painting, can be ecologically important because aesthetic activity, as action of mind, speech or body, affects the biosphere. Nonbuddhists might not accept such a premise, but we can still encourage others' aesthetic activities and thus improve the planet's circumstances (obviously provided that such activities are nontoxic, etc.). This approach is analogous to one of encouraging materialists to become vegetarians because the grain not eaten by the cattle otherwise consumed by them would then be available to starving humans. This is something that even a materialist is likely to consider positive. For a Buddhist, nonkilling might be as motivating in such encouragement as a desire to feed the hungry, but such motivation need not be mentioned to a materialist in accomplishing the desired goal of nonkilling. This is simply upaya, artful means, an old Buddhist tradition. Here I simply speak of another kind of artfulness which is more aesthetic in orientation. Other examples could also be adduced.

Tantra, through its use of the image in imaginative activity, has a special capacity to alert us to the power of images for mental transformation and thus alert us to the power of images to affect our world. Here we find a rich ground for the type of upaya I have suggested above, for we live in a world dominated by images in advertising, television and so forth.

My final assertion is that it would be an activity of ecobodhicitta to begin to wrest control of these images from the forces of the advertising industry and the lowest common denominator of consumer consciousness and support the bodhisattva artists of our planet who are probably doing more than anyone has suspected to keep this planetary enterprise functioning. Stewart Brand contends that the consciousness of the world changed when in 1969 we finally saw a photograph of this blue-white globe from outer space. On the one hand, we had achieved a new perspective no embodied human had achieved before, as none had physically travelled beyond the atmosphere, but we had also obtained a new image of the one unified earth. After we saw that image we could no longer insist on our separateness; everything had changed.

[Originally published in The Tibet Journal, Vol. 17, No. 2, 1992; pp. 45 - 51.]