Humanity has reached a point of no return, if we are to protect the Earth’s climate and all who live here. As a lay observer, I’ve wondered how our concept of the divine affects our relationship with nature. Sometimes we’re caretakers, but too often, exploiters.
The Earth is growing weary of us—the citified, uncaring master. Many species are disappearing and our carbon-holding forests are being cut or burned down, while wild weather and scorching summers are the new normal.
Advanced technology and economies founded on capitalism have further divorced us from our sense of place and time. We desperately need a fundamental shift in thinking about ourselves not as some higher power or master of nature, but simply as a part of nature, if we are to save our irreplaceable, tiny planet.
While this dire situation unfolds, millions believe in some form of theism, as revealed in a divine document recorded by humans in the know about the godly message. Theism essentially is the belief in a universal God as the creator and ruler of the universe, without rejecting human revelation. Essentially, Christianity, Islam and Judaism are theist (of one God), while Hinduism is polytheist.
In theism, the divine force is projected beyond the stretch of our imagination, yet this force proscribes our conduct with other humans. Animals, plants, fungi, moss and such don’t have any taboos or rituals, vast kingdoms of life below the radar of sacred texts.
Humanity alone has some kind of divine mission, yet we’re missing one essential commandment—thou shall not needlessly harm our planet and other life forms. One reason for this omission is that we have become so estranged from who and what we are: an animal with consciousness, intent and language, but nevertheless, an evolved animal.
While Buddhism is a tradition focused on spiritual liberation, it isn’t theist. Buddha rejected the idea of a creator god; while later Buddhist thinkers didn’t rule out gods, they were simply irrelevant to those who strove for enlightenment.
Buddha urged his followers not to disrupt the established habitat of any other creature or kill them. In Chinese and Japanese Buddhism, the interrelatedness of everything is an important idea, a notion that humans depend on nature and nature depends on humans. Harming one part of the whole is the same as harming all of it. Isn’t that what ecologists and climate activists are saying today?
A lifestyle free from destruction
The mindful precepts of Buddhism postulate that we affect the planet in a harmful way because we are selfish, indifferent, and crave things, which leads to more suffering. Compassion will improve our own future and that of the environment. The goal isn’t more stuff, but peace, harmony and balance. Certainly, living simply must include minimizing waste and habitat destruction.
This is the year that my friends will get something handmade, plants or a donation in their name to feed the hungry.
I am struck by how our main theist holidays seem consumed with consumption in total disregard for our ominous existential situation. Is mass travel on fossil-fuel-burning machines the way to rejoice? So much of our feast food buying is wasted—I’d rather celebrate with local, homegrown and organic food made from scratch.
Gift-giving is a choice and a reflection of consciousness. This is the year that my friends will get something handmade, plants or a donation in their name to feed the hungry. I’ll chronicle my losses this year by the planting of a tree in memory.
We must quickly learn to respect nature, so everything can continue for future generations. The Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh once said, “in order to effect change, we must recover ourselves; one must be whole. Since this requires the kind of environment favourable to one’s healing, one must seek the kind of lifestyle that is free from the destruction of one’s humanness.”
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image 1 Mystic Art Design from Pixabay
