ABSTRACT
Previously Plato’s approach to nature was seen as a cosmological one. In this chapter I shall consider the possibility of the early Buddhist approach being cosmological as well. An examination of the conservationist approach to nature earlier revealed that Buddhist literature contains an idea of conservation that is not only underdeveloped but also faces the constant fear of condemnation from aspects that are contradictory in nature to it. As for marginalization of nature, many may find that it exists in the fact that Nibba¯na in early Buddhism is recognized as the only worthwhile goal. Thus everything else is reduced to insignificance and this includes nature and the environment. The worry here is that devaluing environment may provide the justification needed for exploiting the resources of nature. However this view in Buddhism can be questioned as will be demonstrated in due course.1 It now remains to be seen if the Buddhist approach to nature is a cosmological one. References to nature in the cosmological sense can be identified in Buddhist literature especially in relation to dhamma, pat
˙ iccasamuppa¯da,
sam. sa¯ra and the early Buddhist story of the origin of the world. A cosmological vision implies that entities, plants, animals and man and everything else are a part of the specified universal order. It also suggests implicitly that any definition of nature must not consider aspects in isolation as this would obscure their true value. A cosmological approach implies most importantly shared laws or a shared progress among the different aspects of the cosmos. I believe that it is this cosmological sense of nature that exists in Buddhism, even though, admittedly, the latter’s main interest was never the determination of the meaning of nature but the understanding of suffering and its removal. This portrayal also throws up some interesting questions related to value that will be looked at in due course. Contrary opinions that speak only of human supremacy and value in early Buddhist thought will be addressed in the last section of this chapter.
