ABSTRACT
Humanity has achieved incredible technological and material growth. Yet, the ecosystem and human communities are collapsing due largely to that very advancement. The challenge before us is not the acceleration of competitive economic and technological growth and the creation of a ‘post-nature,’ ‘post-human’ world but a fundamental transformation to a balanced path of social and psychological development. This chapter explores the egoism and domination underlying the contemporary market and technological paradigm, and the selflessness and partnership that would underlie an alternative ecological paradigm. It examines the Middle Path as a guide to the exploration of globalism and localization in the context of current ecological and social crises. Drawing from the teachings of the Buddha on the Middle Path as well as social science research on the partnership paradigm, this chapter considers the Middle Path toward a socially just and ecologically based economic system that upholds humanity and nature.
