Eastern Alternatives Daoism and Buddhism Eastern Alternatives White

Eastern Alternatives: Daoism and Buddhism

Eastern Alternatives White and Callicott both propose that Eastern religions and cultures offer a sounder ecological philosophy than the Western tradition. e. g. Hinduism Jainism Buddhism Taoism Confucianism Do all these different religions have something in common? Are they indeed more ecological in spirit? We are going to concentrate on Buddhism and Taoism.

Buddhism (Buddhism has many schools with different beliefs and practices. This is just a very simplistic introduction. ) Four Noble Truths: • Life is suffering. • Suffering is caused by desire. • Can only end suffering by ending desire. • The Noble Eight-fold Path is the way to end suffering.

The eight-fold path entails living ethically (e. g. not causing harm to other sentient beings), practicing mental discipline (e. g. meditation), and achieving an understanding of the true nature of reality. The goal is to achieve Nirvana and escape from the cycle of birth and death. Escape from life. Unless you achieve Nirvana, you suffer reincarnation. Depending on the degree of enlightenment you have achieved in this life, you may return as a lower animal, a higher animal or a human. The world as we see it is an illusion and a distraction. See through the illusion to obtain enlightenment, hence Buddhahood, hence Nirvana. The Paradox of Desire: to achieve Nirvana, you must give up all desires, including the desire to give up all desires.

Dependent origination All things arise together in a mutually dependent web of cause and effect through the past, the present and the future. All life is connected. All sentient beings are trapped in suffering, and compassion is extended to all life. Harm to any sentient being must be avoided (hence vegetarianism). The ultimate goal is for all beings to achieve nirvana and be released from this life of suffering.

Ecological implications All life is respected. Harm to any sentient being is bad. Even trees and lowly animals have Buddha-nature and thus have value. Harm to animals is proscribed. Vegetarian is normally imperative. Focus is other-worldly. Hence worldly pleasures are devalued. Greed and over-consumption of resources is implicitly avoided, thus ecological damage is minimized. However: Deeply dualist: matter is illusion, spirit is real. Life itself is not valuable, but rather is just a source of suffering. Negative focus: escape suffering, escape life.

Reading for next week Required: “Nonmoral nature”, Stephen Jay Gould (1982), in Hen’s Teeth and Horse’s Toes, p. 32 -44, available at: www. stephenjaygould. org/library/gould_nonmoral. html “The Evolution of Life on Earth”, Stephen Jay Gould (1994), in Scientific American, available at: brembs. net/gould. html Suggested: “Argument from Poor Design”, Wikipedia, available at: en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Argument_from_poor_design