Buddhism, in common with some other Eastern traditions, does not make the big distinction found in the West between “nature” and human beings. It is stressed that we are not set apart from nature (as is believed in Christianity), but that we are part of it. The doctrines of karma and of rebirth put the whole of human life in the context of an endless series of cycles, which resemble those which operate in the natural world (e.g. the water cycle, the food cycle). The Buddhist stress on impermanence reminds us that our bodies are subject to the endlessly-changing processes of nature, whilst beliefs about rebirth suggest that even our consciousness is recycled in relation to a new body. The form of things changes constantly, but certain basic patterns continue.
So, it should certainly not come as a shock to practising Buddhists to discover what environmentalists are now telling us. That is, that nature is not a boundless ocean of resources (the doctrine of impermanence should have made this clear), and the actions that we perform have an effect on the world around us. In the theory of karma the effects of our actions are in proportion to the greed and hatred which motivated them, so if our spoiling of the planet through stripping its resources and polluting it was motivated by greed, we are now beginning to experience the effects of that greed. The earth is our mirror.
Buddhism thus offers some strong arguments for environmentalism, and it is quite difficult to interpret Buddhism not to at least be sympathetic to environmental concerns. On the other side there are not really any anti-environmentalist Buddhists, but there are some who have given the environment relatively little priority in their thinking, perhaps because of a focus on the personal pursuit of enlightenment.
