Issue

10th Issue (December, 2008)

Illustration of Ecocrisis Using the Law of Dependent Origination

Satiman

Introduction

Dependent Origination, Genesis or Co-arising (Pal.: Pațiccasamuppāda; Sans.:Pratītyasamutpāda) is the central fundamental doctrine of Gotama Buddha. It connotes that when A is present, B is also present. When A arises, B also arises. When A is absent, B is also absent. When A ceases, B also ceases. Contigent upon A, there arises B. Contigent upon B, C arises. Contigent upon C, D arises and so on. This process of dynamic becoming perpectuates. This process of dynamic becoming is actually is known as the process of creation or becoming (bhava).

According to western philosophy of Process Theism or Perennial Philosophy, God, a creating Principle, creates the creatures through this process of dependently co-arisen Unity contigent conditions. Divine creation is not the creation of something from absolute nothingness. In other words, the concept of creation by a creator God is, actually, perennially synonymous with the Buddhist doctrine of Dependently co-arisen Unity (Pațiccasamuppāda) of dependent conditions. The dependently co-arisen Unity of existence is known as Wahdat al-Wujud (Unity of Being or Existence) according to Sufi Supreme Master Ibn ‘Arabī in his work ‘Fuṣūṣ al- ḥikam’. The School of Sufi philosophy originating from Ibn ‘Arabī’s exposition of the Doctrine of Waḥdat al- Wujūd, does not differ from the Doctrine of Emptiness (Śūnyatā) expounded in the celebrated Heart Sūtra of Mahāyāna tradition.

Illustration

The Law or Principle of Dependent Co-arising can be utilized to explain the cause and effect of global warming and climate change thus:

Dependently upon increasing population and industrialization, there arises increasing energy consumption. Dependently upon increasing energy, there arises increasing air pollution. Dependently upon increasing air pollution, there arises increasing concentration of green house gases (GHGs), such as CO2 (carbon dioxide) and CH4 (methane). Dependently upon increasing GHGs, there arises global warming. Dependently upon global warming, there arises climate change. Dependently upon climate change, there arises extreme weather conditions. Dependently upon extreme weather conditions, there arises epi and dire disasters or catastrophes, such as heavy and more frequent rainstorms, snowstorms, heatwaves, cyclones, hurricanes Gustav, Katrinas, wider spread of malaria and dengue, droughts, retreating glaciers, melting of sea ice sheets, sea-level rising and so forth known collectively as ecocrisis. Dependently upon the eco-crisis, there arises enormous economic losses.

The process of dependent co-arisen becoming or the creation of creatures based on the eternal principle of Dependent Co-origination, genesis or co-arising goes on incessantly as long as sentient beings especially the enthropogenic beings called human beings is journeying unceasingly in the saṃ̣sāric world.

Conclusion

A coin intrinsically has two faces. The second face cannot exist without the first one; the first face cannot exist without the second one. A coin illustrates the concept of Non-duality perfectly. It denotes the dependently co-arisen unity of existence. Non-duality is Dependent Co-arising. The first necessary existent or conditioned phenomenon dependently produces the second one. The second one produces the third one and so on. The process of dynamic becoming or creation perpectuates on the basis of holistic and reciprocal relationship between created existents or conditioned phenomena and the Principle of Dependent Origination. This is how all phenomena of the multiplicity of the empirical world are created dynamically and incessantly.

The above process of dependently co-arisen becoming has been simplified asymmetrically or linearly giving rise to the apparent simple linear causality of a single cause producing a single effect. This asymmetrical becoming is only the conventional or relative truth according to the Suttanta exposition of Gotama Buddha. The ultimate Truth of becoming is symmetrical becoming in which multiple causes produce multiple effects on the basis of the Abhidhamma exposition of Gotama Buddha.

Buddhism and Monotheism are identical esoterically in terms of the process and perennial philosophy of the ontology of dynamic becoming in which everything is interconnected to one another in an infinite network of interdependent co-existence constituting the infinite universe – the borderless Ocean which have churned up countless waves. The macro ecosystem should be perceived to be akin to the metaphor of the borderless ocean. The living and non-living beings contained in the ecosystem are akin to the metaphor of waves. Without discerning the phenomena-principle relationship, Man become anthropogenic and anothropocentric. Both enthropogenicism and anthropocentricism are directed and empowered by self-centric ego. When self-centric ego directs and empowers one’s economic life, it is difficult to develop the environment ethics to love and protect the natural environment. Buddhism helps us develop lovingkindness and compassion towards the natural environment because it obliterates the self-centric ego.