< Issue No. 15 (2020)Article
Ecodharma: a new Buddhist path?
Loy, David, Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center
Abstract
Today the climate emergency and other environmental challenges have become the most urgent issue that humanity faces – indeed, arguably the greatest problem that our species has ever faced. Traditional Buddhist texts do not address the types of ecological crises that confront us today, because they did not exist during the Buddha's time, nor were they problems for the other forms of Buddhism that developed afterwards in other Asian societies. Nevertheless, some Buddhist perspectives seem relevant to our situation. This article extrapolates from two teachings: a curious and perhaps quite significant parallel between our usual individual predicament and our present collective situation; and what that means for what is now being called the ecosattva (ecological bodhisattva) path.