Humanity and Nature-Buddhist Reply for Contemporary Environmental Crisis

人與自然－佛教對當前生態危機的回應

學愚(Xue Yu)

《人間佛教研究》 1期 (2011/12) Pp. 17-53

摘要

Environmental ethics has become a new thriving discipline in the past decades due to the growing concern for the incessant occurring issues of pollution, overpopulation and resource exploitation. Human's arbitrariness in killing animals and reckless deforestation has led to an imbalance of the ecological system, edging our planet towards destruction by deteriorating the environment and causing mass extinctions. The preservation of our ecology is now a common responsibility for all humans and scholars from varies disciplines have all started to investigate into the origins of this ecological crisis and seek for a proper solution. Among them some viewed that modern science and western religious philosophies are the original base of this crisis. Not only has modern science reduced the nature under the lenses of atomic and mechanical theories, western religious philosophies have promoted a body-soul dualism which demarcates and segregates humans from nature. The anthropocentrism of the Judeo- Christian tradition sees God bestowing humans the authority to administer the nature, making humans to be its master where they can conquer and manipulate it according to their need and benefit. If Western scientism and religion are indeed the origin of our current ecological crisis, it would be difficult to find a solution from within its sources. Therefore many western scholars have turned their sight towards the Asian civilization, especially Buddhism, in searching for a proper solution towards the ecological crisis. This paper provides an objective analysis on nature in both Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism, and search for possible Buddhist concepts and practices, such as the concept of dependent origination and the mutual relationship of humans with other sentient beings, that can facilitate modern people in reestablishing a relationship with nature. By this analysis we might realize that the ecological crisis is basically a problem caused by human beings, by our misunderstanding of the human/nature relationship and misbehavior of our exploitation of natural resources. Buddhist concept of dependent origination can facilitate us to realize the oneness of men and nature, changing our views and attitudes towards every living animal and plant, and establishing a practice based on human/nature unity.

關鍵字

Buddhism ； nature ； ecology

並列摘要

近數十年以來，環境倫理學迅速成為新的研究領域。這與當前不斷嚴重的環境污染、人口過量、資源枯竭事實有着密切的關係。人類任意捕殺其它動物、肆意破壞森林，導致生態失衡、物種滅絕，環境危機惡化，地球走向死亡。生態問題關係到每一個人，生態環保是全人類共同的責任。當前，不同領域的學者正在探索生態危機的根源，提出相應的解決方法。一部分學者認為，現代科學和西方宗教是當代生態環境危機的罪魁禍首。現代科學用原子和機械理論來化約自然，西方宗教主張身心二元論（body-soul dualism），異化或隔離了人與自然的聯繫。在猶太－基督宗教的人類中心主義中，上帝賦予人類管理自然的權力，人成為自然界的主人，人類根據自身利益的需要，利用乃至征服自然。《生態危機的歷史根源》一書的作者Lynn White將當代生態危機的源頭追溯到基督教的《創世紀》。Baird Callicott和Roger Ames認為，「從六十年代末七十年代初發端的環境危機意識視角來看，現代西方文明似乎建立在源自猶太－基督宗教以及希臘－羅馬文明理念的最差組合之上。」如果西方科學和宗教真是當代生態環境危機的起源，人們很難從它們中間找到解決這種危機的方法。因此，許多西方學者開始「移情」東方文化思想、特別是佛教，希望從中發現解決當前生態危機的方法。本文以佛教經典為依據，客觀地分析上座部和大乘佛教中的自然觀，探索可能幫助現代人重新建立人與自然關係的佛教思想。通過這樣的分析，人們也許會意識到生態環境問題就是人的問題，是人類對人與自然關係的錯誤理解，以及人類掠奪自然資源的錯誤行為所致。佛教緣起法可以幫助人類生起人－自然同體共生的思想，改變人們對自然界動物和植物的態度，建立人與自然一體的理論。

並列關鍵字

佛教 ； 自然 ； 生態環保