| A Tibetan Perspective on the Environment and Environmentalism: Change your mind, change the world. |
[Oct. 23rd, 2008|09:52 pm] |
Basically I'm just going to type my notes as they are because I'm tired and have to wake up possibly before the monks, haha.
- We do not see the world correctly/as it really is, but rather through our own karmic lens -> ignorance
- There is no independent existence. Everything is a product of causes and effects.
- As far as posessions, is there really an "ours" or "mine?"
(Here Chophel thanked everyone in the room for his lunch, if it weren't for the students there would be no college and he would not have had the opportunity to eat the salad that he had for lunch, that goes as far back as when the college was founded they needed a name, so actually he also thanked George Washington and Thomas Jefferson for his lunch.)
- The same for clothing, they depended on the earth, bugs, cotton, cotton gin, etc....
- We want land for its resources.
- Does the plot really "belong" to the purchaser? Is it "ours"? (uh, no, basically)
- What about the chipmunk that lives on the land, is it "his"?
- All life is sacred. The chipmunk (or ant or whatever) is no better than "I" or you.
- The environment being good or bad is a direct result of karma.
- Pollution, hurricanes, global warming = collection of human karma resulting from self-cherishing.
- To heal the earth, we must create better karma.
- Animals, insects, humans, trees, plants being disturbed/destroyed = bad karma
- Mountains and trees etc. are considered to have what might be called a "higher realm" spirit
- If building in Tibet they will first
- divine what spirits live in the area (including that of the mountains, trees etc) could be like 84,000
- purify the area and do prayer ceremonies etc to ensure the spirits are satisfied and assisted to next life
- plant more trees
- only then do you build
- for an example, in Seven Years in Tibet when building the theater they find worms and have to move them before continuing.
- balance the harm you cause
- Tibetans traditionally keep the environment pure - never even mined gold in the area, made statues and religious objects from earth
- Eventually they would use metals mined from other countries or from their washed-out lowlands
- Be conscious of changing your environment
- Curb your self-cherishing - a restricted concern for his or her own welfare (and for a small circle of loved ones)
- We owe a debt to humanity - basically everyone (and thing) on the earth "The people you don't like have done a lot for you."
- Environmentalism starts with the mind
- Sustainability requires lovingkindess
- Environmentalism then is not just the elements, also helping others, humanity, having compassion, skillful interactions
- All people are equal, no people are bad
- A point that Chophel frequently made this week: Even an "irritating" (to you) person is not independently on their own annoying or irritating, someone else loves them and finds them kind, etc.
|
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
red_blue_green's journal
hopeful