Environmental Perspectives

1
Environmental Perspectives

• World Religions and Nature
• Part Two Hinduism and Buddhism

2
Hinduism

• Hinduism is really a whole family of religious
  traditions rooted in the part of Asia we call
  India.
• Hinduism does not have a founder, but is the
  result of a flowing together of a host of
  indigenous religious ideas and traditions.

3
Stages in the Development of Hinduism

• The Vedic Period (4000 BCE to 1500 BCE)
• Worship of various gods associated with natural
  forces.
• During this Period the Vedas develop. These
  are texts that are originally passed down orally,
  told by seers, but eventually get written down in
  Sanskrit. In addition commentaries and
  reflections on the Vedas come to be written by
  priests and hermits. These all become the sacred
  literature of the tradition.

4
Stages in the Development of Hinduism

• The Upanishadic Period (1500-500 BCE)
• Characterized by a more speculative approach.
• The Upanishads, dialogues between a teacher and
  student on themes of divine reality and the
  nature of the human self. This is seen as the
  culmination of the Vedas, or Vedanta.

5
Stages in the Development of Hinduism

• The Classical Period (500 BCE to 500 CE)
• During this period various subgroups within
  Hinduism developed their own sacred texts called
  sutras, shastras and agamas.
• The Medieval Period (500 CE to 1800 CE)
• A period of popular devotional theism, based
  largely on texts called the Puranas.
• The Modern Period (1800 to 1900s)
• Begins with the coming of the British empire,
  then later the independence of India and the
  consolidation of the religion under one name,
  Hinduism.

6
Open and Eclectic

• Do not emphasize belief in particular dogmas or
  doctrines.
• See the many stories of their tradition, though
  conflicting as pointing to truth.
• At their deepest level, all these elements
  (myths, gods, rituals) of the religion point
  beyond themselves to a reality that cannot be
  describes by words or stories.

7
For Hindus generally, the purpose of religious
belief and devotion is to cultivate a
relationship with the Holy, the source of
benevolence and blessing as well as death and
difficulty. Most of all, God is a mystery that
is willing to be unveiled. Hindu theologians
define two broad ways of talking about God,
Ultimate Reality, called Brahman in Sanskrit.
John Renard, The Handy Religion Answer Book
8
Two ways of speaking of Brahman.

• Brahman without qualities. Ultimate reality or
  God is beyond all words and concepts, thus
  nothing can be said positively about God. But
  one can think of God in terms of abstraction and
  talking of what God is not.
• Brahman with qualities. But humans need
  positive ways of thinking about God. These are
  okay, but must not be thought of as literal
  truths about God, but point beyond themselves to
  something that cannot be captured by human
  concepts and understanding.

9
Brahman is all reality.

• Human words and concepts divide reality into
  parts, separating one thing from another.
• But in reality, all is one reality, Brahman. We
  are all Brahman.

10
The cycle of life.

• Hindus believe that human life is a continuous
  cycle of incarnations of the soul. After death,
  ones soul goes to dwell in the body of a
  different being.
• According to the law of Karma, the nature of
  ones situation is determined by how one behaved
  in previous lives. In particular, if one grasps
  after things selfishly, one will live a live of
  even more desperate desire.
• The cycle of continuing incarnations is called
  Samsara.

11
Liberation

• Samsara is an oppressive cycle of continuous
  incarnations.
• The goal is not a rich life, or a pleasant life,
  but to detach oneself from seeking anything at
  all, to detach oneself from the very notion of a
  self.
• Ultimately, the goal is liberation from Samsara
  in complete selflessness, unity with Brahman.

12
Some videos of Huston Smith

• On Hinduism in general
• On Yoga

13
The Beginnings of Buddhism

• Began in NE India, in the area which we now call
  Nepal.
• Began by Siddhartha Gautama, who was born around
  563 BCE.
• Siddhartha was born to the ruling elite class, to
  a father who wanted him to be a person of power
  and prestige.
• In his early years, he lived a life of ease and
  wealth, married and had a child.

14
Siddhartha Dissatisfied

• Siddhartha could not be totally protected from
  the suffering in the world, and was troubled when
  he saw people suffering from old age, illness and
  death.
• He left his home and family in search of an
  understanding of the causes and solution to
  suffering.
• He studied with some Hindu teachers, and later
  joined a strict ascetic sect, but neither
  provided the answer.

15
Siddhartha becomes enlightened

• Finally, after an extended period of meditation
  under a tree, Siddhartha has an experience of
  enlightenment, and believes he has a way to
  help men and women escape suffering.
• Buddha means enlightened one. The goal is to
  become a Buddha oneself, not to follow the
  original Buddha.

16
Four Noble Truths

• Buddha is said to have taught Four Noble Truths
• Life is suffering.
• Suffering is the result of selfish grasping (for
  things, for pleasure, for goods, for life
  itself).
• To escape from suffering, one must stop selfish
  grasping.
• To stop grasping for things, one must follow the
  Eightfold Path.

17
The Eightfold Path

• Wisdom
• Proper understanding (of the Four Nobel Truths).
• Proper intent (compassion rather than
  selfishness).
• Ethics
• Proper speech.
• Proper actions (refraining from inappropriate
  sex, killing, stealing, etc.).
• Proper livelihood (avoiding occupations that harm
  others).
• Concentration
• Proper effort (balance in ones attitude to
  work).
• Proper attentiveness (deep reflection on the 4
  truths).
• Proper absorption (total concentration on balance
  and equilibrium in ones life).

18
Buddhism is a solution to suffering in this life,
not a view of the afterlife or God. The goal is
not to focus on making life better for oneself,
now or later. Rather it is to seek to escape
from self and selfishness altogether. One should
not desire happiness, or heaven one should not
desire anything at all, at least for oneself.
19
Schools of Buddhism differ in how they speak of
Ultimate Reality. Since the focus is on this
life, early Buddhism did not tend to speak of God
at all. Thus some have said that Buddhists are
atheists. Others claim that they are theists
(believe in one God). In later Buddhism, the
traditions and gods of Hinduism continue to
play a role in everyday religious understanding.
20
Different Strands of Buddhism

• According to their understanding of the nature of
  Buddha, different branches of Buddhism arose.
  Most prominent among these are
• Theravada Buddhism Emphasized Buddha as a human
  who helped others pursue their own path to
  enlightenment.
• Mahayana Buddhism Think of Buddha as more than
  mere mortal, a saving figure whose compassion
  filled the universe and whose grace was available
  to all who asked. Mahayanas scriptures include
  Sanskrit sutras claiming to be in the Buddhas
  own words.

21
As in Hinduism, the doctrine of the cycle of
life, reincarnation, and the ultimate goal of
escaping from the self altogether, continue to
play an important role in Buddhist thought as it
developed.
22
Buddhism and the Environment

• The cause of suffering Greed.
• The cause of environmental pollution and
  destruction Greed.
• The solution to greed overcoming individual
  selfishness and recognizing ones true nature.

23
Huston Smith

• On the Buddha Nature

24
Some themes from Non-Western perspectives

• Human interconnectedness with nature
• - Native American thought - humans as part of a
  wider community, animals relatives to humans.
• - Hinduism and Buddhism - reincarnation minimizes
  the difference between humans and other living
  things.
• - Hinduism and Buddhism - some branches of these
  perspectives emphasize the fact that all of
  reality is connected in one whole (monism), and
  that all of reality is reflected in everything
  else. Buddhism - p 88, Hinduism - p 63f
• - Chinese religions - emphasize the unity of
  nature/reality. Taoism in particular lends
  itself to the idea of nature as a whole as the
  ultimate reality. The way of nature as the key
  to living. Landscape painting in Chinese and
  Japanese art depicts humans as blending in with
  nature.

25
Some themes from Non-Western perspectives

• Nature as living, not dead matter.
• Native American and aboriginal thought - nature
  as full of spirits.
• Hinduism - deification of natural forces.
• Taoism - nature as organic, infused with chi,
  alive and changing.
• The Buddha Nature of Rocks and Trees (91-98)

26
Some themes from Non-Western perspectives

• Overcoming selfish striving and greed.
• Buddhism - the circle of reincarnation the result
  of clutching on to transitory reality. Also the
  ideal of the Buddha nature which gives us Nirvana
  in order to help all of reality attain ultimate
  liberation. (88 Bodhisattva Ideal)
• Hinduism and Buddhism - Monism undercuts idea of
  individual self-fulfillment in favor of the
  Self-fulfillment of the whole.
• Taoism - emphasis on accepting what one has
  rather than seeking to acquire lots of goods.
  The key is acceptance and quiet action, not
  violent action.

27
Some themes from Non-Western perspectives

• Natural places as sacred
• Native American thought, some places as sacred.
  Some elements suggest all land is sacred.
• Hinduism - books emphasizes that certain places
  are sacred, especially India, Ganges River.
• Nature as a place of inspiration
• Native American vision quest.
• Buddhist asceticism and pilgrimage centers. p. 95

28
Some themes from Non-Western perspectives

• Non-violence toward all living things.
• Hinduism and Buddhism Doctrine of ahimsa
  (non-injury) toward all living things.
• Buddhism - emphasis on self-mastery rather than
  mastery of others.
• Monks and those in higher castes live more
  strictly according to prevent harm to humans
  (both Buddhism and Hinduism).