Contact: Dr Jake Lyne, kjlyne@gmail.com
We are changing our environment in a direction that threatens to lead to a sixth mass extinction in the history of life on earth. Scientists have identified nine planetary boundaries, that if exceeded could result in irreversible and potentially harmful changes to the ecosystem. The boundaries refer to air pollution, land use change, freshwater use, ocean acidification, climate change, chemical pollution including plastics, biodiversity loss, ozone depletion and agricultural use of nitrogen and phosphorus. Ecodharma is relevant to all of these complex issues.
Buddha Dharma is the teaching of the middle way, meaning many things, e.g. modest living, living in harmony with nature, attempting to find a peaceful path through conflict and avoidance of extreme views and behaviours.
Ecodharma is Buddha Dharma with particular relevance to the world environmental crisis we human beings are causing. A Bodhisattva takes vows to do no harm, to do what is good and to help all beings. The six Ecosattva vows emphasise ecology or the interdependence of all things, and given the numbers of people in the world, the need to live lightly and sustainably in the earth, to support innovations such as green energy and to challenge technologies and policies that cause environmental problems and threaten to make these problems worse.
click here for the latest EcoDharma document: "EcoEcodharma: Walking lightly on the earth and practising the three pure precepts"