Schools > Students > Ages 17-18 > Buddhism and the natural world > Simplify SIMPLIFY, SIMPLIFY
Having given some thought to how we might get into the
habit of being more connected to others, the next question is
what specific things do we need to do? How should one's
lifestyle be changed to help the environment? Most
books of this kind will include a list of environmental do's
and don'ts.
This one is no exception, so here it is - a list of twenty-five
specific things you can do that will make a difference. A lot of them
are one-off actions that will have lasting consequences. You could
set yourself a timescale, say a month, and put a reminder in your
diary to check how many you've done. But please read the rest
of the chapter before you start, because I'll be suggesting that
it's not just what you do, but how and why you do it, that makes a
difference.(footnote 23)
Twenty-Five Excellent Things To Do
See how many of these action points you can tick off after
a month. Most of them can be carried out in any country,
though most
of the information references and phone numbers are uk-based.
- Make a decision to avoid air travel whenever
possible. Calculate the carbon emissions from your
flight at www.chooseclimate.org
- If you drive, set yourself a target to cut down on car
mileage -
a 25% reduction could save a tonne of greenhouse gases in a
year.
- If you do drive, avoid going at over 55 mph, as fuel
efficiency decreases rapidly above this speed.
For more on energy-efficient driving, see www.nsc.org/ehc/mobile/refuelin
- Try out public transport alternatives for
your most frequent journeys and find ways to enjoy the ride.
- Take up cycling, especially for local journeys. To join
a peaceful bike-power protest, visit www. critical-mass.org
- Switch to phosphate-free detergents to avoid killing
plant-life and fish. Or try out eco-balls (available
from www.ecozone.co.uk), which contain no harmful chemicals
at all.
- Clean your house without polluting the world. Check out
environmentally friendly cleaning products
at www.greenpeace.org.uk
- Wash your clothes at 40°C maximum - any hotter
is unnecessary.
- Turn down your central heating thermostat by 1°C.
- Check your insulation and find out some other energy
saving ideas through the Energy Savings
Trust at www.est.org.uk. You could save up to £200 a year on
your bills.
- Switch to green electricity. It is now possible to buy
from only renewable sources through
companies such as Good Energy (www.good-energy.co.uk). You
can check out the alternatives at www.greenelectricity.org
- Check out green DIY and building products at www.greenbuildingstore.co.uk
- Learn how to become an ethical shopper. There’s loads of
information available at www.ethical-junction.org , www.ethicalconsumer.org , and www.getethical.com
- There’s more specific information available at the UK
Organic Directory (www.organicliving.ukf.net);
the Clean Clothes Campaign (www.cleanclothes.org); the
Fairtrade Foundation
(www.fairtrade.org.uk); the Recycled Products Guide
(www.recycledproducts.org.uk); and the Green
Stationery Company (www.greenstat.co.uk). And if you’ve done
all that, reward yourself with some
www.divinechocolate.com
- Reduce your food miles - how far your food has travelled
and contributed to climate change. See www.bbc.co.uk/food
- Avoid plastic packaging by making your own sandwiches
instead of buying them ready-made. And
carry your own water bottle rather than buying bottlled
water. You can check out the effects of the
bottled water industry at www.allaboutwater.org. Take your own
shopping bag and
refuse excess packaging when it’s offered to you.
- Start a compost heap, preferably built from scrap
materials. Remember that they benefit from fibres
such as tissues and cereal boxes, as well as uncooked food.
See www.wasteonline.org.uk for more tips.
- Get into a ‘slow food’ rather than ‘fast food’ habit.
Take time to enjoy growing, preparing and eating
food. For inspiration see www.slowfood.com
- Arrange for a green burial! Information on
pollution-free funerals and biodegradable coffins is
available from the Natural Death Centre at www.naturaldeath.co.uk
- Make yours a pesticide-free wildlife garden.
www.gardenorganic.org.uk is an excellent site for this. Help
save endangered species of butterfly through www.butterfly-conservation.org
- Grow your own flowers or give plants instead of
commercially
produced flowers. They are often associated with heavy
pesticide use,
cheap labour, and high transport-related pollution.
- Ask your bank whether it has an ethical investment
policy. If not, switch to the
Co-op or Triodos
and tell your old bank why you
changed. For further information, see www.ethicalmoney.org
- Eliminate junk mail! If you register with the Mailing
Preference Service, you
can choose what direct mail you want, and what you don’t
want.
- Keep an eye on what your MP is doing (or not doing) about
environmental issues through www.theyworkforyou.com - and let them know what you think!
And go and talk to your local
councillor about issues such as road building and recycling.
- Support a development charity or campaign. Here are a few
examples to choose from: WaterAid
020 7793 4500, the World Development
Movement 020 7737 6215, Oxfam
01865 312610, or for a Buddhist-run alternative
dedicated
to dignity and self-confidence, the
Karuna Trust
020 7700 3434.
- For more in-depth information and advice on ecologically
friendly daily living, see The Ecologist
magazine, or their site www.theecologist.org
Lists such as these are an excellent place to start and
give us plenty of good, practical things to be getting on
with, but
there are some drawbacks to just ticking off boxes. First,
lists in
themselves don't motivate us to take action. Even if we do
take action,
we don't always sustain it. Most of us who have made New
Year's resolutions
know how easy it is to slip back into our unwanted habits by
February.
Secondly, it is all too easy to select the least challenging
things
on the list and ignore the rest. For example, it is tempting
to think
that by recycling one's glass and paper, one is 'doing
one's bit for the environment'. Whilst recycling reduces the
amount
of waste that is incinerated or dumped in local landfill
sites, it
has little or no impact on big global issues such as climate
change.
If you're making a special car journey to the recycling bank,
it might
even have a negative effect. It is easy to espouse an
environmental
sentimentality whilst quietly putting off decisions that are
really
going to bite. We need to be clear about what we're doing and
why.
There needs to be a clear relationship between the precise
problems
we want to address and the actions we take. The well-known
slogan
'Think Global, Act Local' only works if the action taken
locally is
appropriate to the global problems.
A third pitfall of lists of dos and don'ts is that they can
reduce
environmental concern to a matter of following rules. The
problem
of following rules is that you can forget the original
motivation
for doing so and it becomes a very dry experience. There's a
danger
of becoming a bit of an eco-bore. You've probably met the
kind of
person who sternly tells you off for putting your orange peel
in the
wrong compost bin. Or worse, you might have found yourself
doing it
to others. This type of 'environmental correctness' probably
does
more harm than good. How many of us are so perfect that we
are in
a position to judge others? In any case, what is an easy
decision
for us might require a real effort for someone else. A
morally superior
attitude singularly fails to inspire other people to take
action.
Perhaps the best thing to do if you find it creeping into
your own
thinking is to throw your jam jars into the main rubbish bin
for a
day or two, and enjoy the sense of freedom! To avoid these
pitfalls,
we need to keep the following points in mind when we try to
apply
an action list:
Don't let the fact that you can't be perfect
stop you from
doing anything at all. We can all make a start somewhere.
Remain aware of your basic motivation. What
motivates you
positively? Is it, for example, a concern for wildlife, or a
desire
that people should be able to live happily on the earth in
the future?
Do the unexpected. If you find yourself
dismissing certain
actions as too difficult, gently ask yourself why. It is
likely to
be the difficult things (usually those that have implications
for
the way we spend our time or money) that break the more
harmful patterns
of our lives and really make a difference. Work up to doing
at least
one thing that is quite radical and unexpected, despite the
difficulties.
Don't rest on your laurels. There is always
something more
to do.
Don't get stuck in guilt. Enjoy doing what
you can and
try to make progress. What a difference it would make if
everyone
did that.
Cultivate simplicity. Don't think of the
action list as
an end in itself, but as a guideline for cultivating a
richer, more
contented lifestyle, in tune with the environment and with
others.
In the rest of this chapter, I'll look at these areas
in more depth and see how the Buddha's teachings might give
us some
insight into them.
Motivation:
The Cultivation of Wisdom and Compassion
What motivates us to take action on the environment in
the first place? In some way, it is probably a desire to end
suffering,
particularly the suffering that comes from the pollution,
stress,
and exploitation associated with the environmental crisis. We
see
people struggling to survive drought, or animals losing their
habitats,
and something inside us is moved to respond. Something
resonates.
This basic desire that other beings should not come to harm
is what
underlies Buddhist ethics. There are no commandments
in Buddhism - just a set of guidelines to help us cultivate
non-violent
and loving states of mind. The things that lead us to such
states,
covering actions of body, speech, and mind, are:
- acts of kindness,
- open-handed generosity,
- stillness, simplicity, and contentment,
- truthful communication,
- clear and radiant awareness.
Underlying these is the principle of non-violence. The
Buddha himself exemplified it. Not only did he oppose the
iniquities
of the caste system of his day, but he also repeatedly spoke
against
the practice of blood sacrifice.(footnote 24) There is some
evidence that
the Buddha's teachings brought about a change of attitude
towards
animals throughout India, even within his own lifetime, which
endures
today. Non-violence is difficult or even impossible to apply
in an
absolute way. Just being alive implicates us in the death of
countless
micro-organisms inside our bodies. There are many situations
in the
world - violent crime, state brutality, terrorism, war -
in which it is hard to see a non-violent solution that does
not itself
imply more suffering. But these difficulties need not deter
us from
being as non-violent as we can, trying our best in each
circumstance
to see the best way forward. They don't undermine
non-violence as
a principle, but only go to demonstrate that we live in a
world of
complex choices, where we don't have the comfort of
simplistic rules
that will tell us what to do in every situation.
What we can do, over a period of time, is push back the
boundaries
of our sensitivity to other living things. In Buddhist
ethics, what
defines an act as positive or negative is not whether it
conforms
to a rule, but the motivation behind it. So non-violence is
not a
rule or an external observance, but a state of heart and
mind. In
each situation, we bring to bear whatever wisdom and
compassion we
have and try to act non-violently. From each situation, we
learn how
we might have done better, how we can become wiser and more
compassionate.
The Buddha likened this development of wisdom and compassion
to lotuses
growing from the mud. We may begin by being tightly closed
and bound
within mud, but we can start to reach out of the mud and up
through
the water. Eventually, we will rise above the surface of the
pond
and open up to the sunlight as beautifully coloured and
fragrant flowers.
We can use our action list in the same way - not as a list of
commandments to be obeyed out of grim duty, but as a tool to
help
us cultivate an attitude of non-violence to all that lives.
To the
extent that we can do this, our actions to help the
environment will
become a natural expression of our growing wisdom and
compassion.
They will become a celebration of life itself.
Doing the Unexpected
It is sometimes difficult enough to behave ethically even
when face to face with those affected by one's actions. How
much more
difficult it is when separated by thousands of miles, or by
decades
or generations. This is exactly the predicament we face in
the modern
world. The complexities of manufacturing systems,
technological processes,
and trading patterns all obscure from us the effects of our
actions.
We don't know where our potatoes were grown, which forest our
newspaper
came from. We don't see the undesired effects of the
chemicals we
spray in our gardens. We may not even know what happens to
our own
effluent once it disappears round the U-bend.
It follows that to act truly ethically in the modern world
will require
some extra effort on our part. The changes we need to make to
our
lives are very real and visible, while the benefits they
might have
are far away and far removed. It is very easy in these
circumstances
to develop ethical blind spots - areas that we're dimly aware
of but would rather not look into too closely. But if we do
look at
them, they can be seen as valuable opportunities, because
these are
exactly the changes that will have the most transformative
effect
on ourselves and the world.
We need to be willing to change our habits. People often
fear that behaving in an environmentally friendly way means
spending
one's days lost in complex calculations of the effects of car
exhausts,
roof lagging, and plastic bags, continually weighing one
course of
action against another. But our lifestyles are really just an
amalgam
of habits. We don't usually decide from scratch on each new
occasion
which washing powder to buy or how to travel to work. With a
little
initial effort, habits can be changed. Perhaps we can have
the greatest
effect by keeping the environment in mind when making big
decisions
- where to live, how to make a living, where to go on
holiday,
and so on.
In this way, instead of necessarily thinking about changing
everything
at once, you could think about changing your habits and
conditions
over a period of time. You could, for example, make a list of
proposed
changes and make a note in your diary to review your progress
every
three months. The important thing is to remember why you want
to make
the changes, not to lose touch with your motivation. In this
way,
changing your lifestyle will be a natural part of broadening
your
sphere of concern. If this happens, making the right choices
will
become second nature.
a case study: air travel
Let's take as an example the first point on our action list
- air travel. Perhaps the most
pressing global issue of the moment is climate change,
the greenhouse effect. This is brought about
by so-called greenhouse gases (mainly carbon dioxide)
which we have been emitting in large quantities since the
beginning
of the Industrial Revolution and especially in the last fifty
years.
They reduce the amount of heat that the earth radiates back
into space,
leading to a gradual warming of the atmosphere. There are a
number
of ways in which you can reduce the levels of greenhouse gas
emissions
for which you are personally responsible. One of these is to
avoid
travelling by air, or at least to reduce your air mileage.
Increasing
numbers of people are travelling by air, which has led to a
three
per cent increase in greenhouse gas emissions per
year.(footnote 25) You
can cause as much greenhouse gas emission in one return
transatlantic
flight as in driving a car for a year. So, avoiding a
rule-following
approach, how can one engage one's imagination more with the
consequences
of air travel? There are two ways of doing this, both of
which might
help.
First, before booking a flight, visualize a square on the
ground ten metres by ten, and imagine all the air above it,
stretching
up to the top of the atmosphere. The same amount of carbon
dioxide
is contained in that column of air as is emitted for each
passenger
on a 1,500-mile flight (roughly the distance from London to
Athens).
To absorb that amount of carbon dioxide, you would have to
plant a
tree that would grow to twelve metres in height.(footnote 26)
Once emitted,
the gas will stay in the atmosphere for more than a century,
still,
as it were, bearing your name on it.
Imagine meeting and talking with some of the people who,
over that period, will lose their homes, their means of
livelihood,
or their lives, through rising sea levels, floods, and
droughts brought
about by global warming, and to which you have contributed.
What would
you say?
Imagine, again, being back in Tuvalu, talking with
Tubwebwe (see chapter two). As she strains the nonu juice
she talks about her anxiety as to what will become of her
three children
if their island is lost beneath the rising sea. She asks you
why this
might happen and whether you can help.
Imagine watching a nature documentary in a few decades' time
describing the death of the last coral reef. How would you
feel?
Imagine the effects that some scientists are warning of,
in which some of the Antarctic ice sheet slips into the
sea, leading to an even higher rise in sea levels than
predicted for
ordinary global warming scenarios, and deluging vast
populated areas
such as London. Or to take the worst scenario of all, imagine
the
fate of the last surviving people and animals struggling to
find sustenance
from an increasingly scorched planet.
Perhaps you have now decided not to buy the ticket, or you
might have taken the consequences into account but decided
they are
outweighed by the benefits to the world of your journey (not
something one could do lightly). You could still choose to
travel
overland by bus or train, or go by sea.
Perhaps you have dismissed the above scenarios as overly
emotive, or even hysterical, even though they merely point
out some
very real possibilities. Or you could argue that the aircraft
is travelling
anyway and one extra passenger won't make any difference.
Aircraft
only fly, though, because passengers pay the airlines. Yours
might
be the booking (or cancellation) that makes the difference
between
a flight going ahead or not. We have individual
responsibilities
even in collective situations, a point which also accounts
for the
'my little bit of greenhouse gas emissions won't make that
much difference'
argument.
Perhaps you feel concerned by the effects of air travel,
but not concerned enough to make a difference to your
decision. Thinking
about the consequences only makes you feel guilty. To get
this far
is a very positive step if, instead of just feeling guilty,
you recognize
the limitations of your concern for others and resolve to do
something
about it.
Now try out the second way of imagining the consequences
of all our actions. Imagine the earth in a few decades or
centuries,
home to happy, thriving human societies and a myriad
colourful forms
of life. Cultivate a care for the health of the planet, as
you would
care for the health of your own body. Think of yourself as
the protector
of coral reefs and future generations of people. Imagine
talking to
those future people and being able to say, 'I was one of
those who
helped to change things for the better.'
Using the Imagination:
Some Other Examples
Similar exercises of the imagination can easily be
devised with respect to other common choices we are faced
with.
Car travel is another major
contributor of greenhouse gases and other forms of pollution
such as acid rain - a cocktail of photochemicals that has
damaged
vast stretches of forest and poisoned tens of thousands of
lakes in
Europe and North America. Pollution from cars also aggravates
asthma
and can cause eye irritation, coughs, and lung and chest
problems.
When you buy a new car, you are using up large quantities of
finite
resources in steel, plastic, aluminium, and rubber. Imagine
the effects
of all these on real people.
Keep in mind, if you do drive, that the houses, villages,
and towns that pass like a blur outside the windows are
people's homes,
and how you drive affects their peace of mind and safety.
Noise
is a frequently overlooked aspect of environmental pollution.
It is
worth taking some time to think how one affects others in
this respect,
not only by the transport one uses, but also through stereos,
barking
dogs, security alarms, and so on.
The immediate effects of eating meat are quite
easy to imagine, especially if you've ever visited a
slaughterhouse.
Many Buddhists are vegetarian simply because
meat-eating involves the taking of life, but there are also
very good
environmental reasons for eating less meat. It is a grossly
inefficient
use of agricultural land - as much grain is fed to livestock
in
the United States as is consumed the populations of India and
China
put together.(footnote 27) Farm animals produce about a fifth
of the methane
(a greenhouse gas) in the atmosphere. About a hundred and
fifty thousand
square miles of the Amazon rainforest have
been cleared for beef production.(footnote 28) This
deforestation
also contributes to global warming, because trees soak up
carbon dioxide.
Imagine the richness of the forests, or the people who could
be fed
as a result of using land more efficiently.
Experiments with Simplicity
If we practise environmentalism as a list of rules bolted
on to our existing lifestyle, we might find it's an unwanted
complication;
just one more thing to think about. But if we use our
imagination
and think of it as a way of cultivating a richer connection
with life,
the opposite is likely to be true.
Many people in the West are locked into high-income
high-consumption
ways of life, working long hours to buy the best cars,
holidays, and electronic gadgetry. Sometimes we get into
self-perpetuating
loops - earning the money to buy the car that we need for
work;
or to squeeze enough enjoyment out of one fortnight's holiday
to compensate
for overworking the rest of the year.
Some people have embraced the idea of 'voluntary simplicity'
and made radical changes to their lifestyles, working less
and
consuming less. Some are motivated by environmental concerns,
while
others are escaping the rat race. Many have found that their
lives
have been enriched - rather than impoverished - by the
experience. It can reduce stress, sweep away a lot of the
time-consuming
clutter of life (buying, cleaning, maintaining, and insuring
things),
and encourage more creativity and communication.
The Buddha taught simplicity as a guideline for living
because he
knew how easily distracted we are, how easily we can get
caught up
in inconsequential detail. Being caught up in details
alienates us
from other people, or brings us into competition or conflict
with
them. The more we can open ourselves up to the question of
how much
is really necessary, the more likely we are to be in harmony
with
others and with the natural world.
Everyone can try some experiments with simplicity. Here are
some examples
of modest steps we could take towards lower consumption, most
of which
could be tried out for a week or two:
Buy food in bulk and enjoy the art of cookery.
Live without television, radio, and your computer.
Ignore the news media for a while.
Reduce working hours and use the extra free time creatively.
Give up the idea of shopping as a leisure activity.
Keep a note of what you spend your money on and see how
much is really unnecessary.
Get rid of things that are neither useful nor beautiful.
Use public transport instead of a car, spending the time
in reflection or reading.
Once you have tried these experiments, you might, if you
have not already done so, feel more inclined to more radical
courses of action, such as living without a car, changing
your employment
patterns, or living more communally.
The point is not to deny ourselves things, but to strip away
some
of the inessentials of life so that what is essential can
shine through.
Initially we might find ourselves bored without our usual
distractions,
or it may be that we have to ask ourselves what the essential
is -
what is life for if not to work and consume?
Practised in this way, simplicity is more than a way of
avoiding stress
or even of living in greater harmony with the environment. It
is a
way of streamlining our lives around their central purpose.
As part
of awakening the heart and mind, the process of
simplification can
be carried much further than choices of lifestyle.
Ultimately, all
our thoughts, words, and deeds can express non-harmfulness
and loving-kindness
- which become part of who we are as well as what we do. The
Buddhist
teacher Sangharakshita describes what he calls this
aesthetic simplicity in the following way:
The truly simple life glows with significance, for its
simplicity
is not the dead simplicity of a skeleton but the living
simplicity
of a flower or a great work of art. The unessential has
melted like
mist from life and the Himalayan contours of the essential
are seen
towering with sublime simplicity above the petty hills and
valleys
of the futilities of mundane existence.(footnote 29)
Buy this book
Footnotes
23: The chapter title is taken from Henry David Thoreau:'Our life is frittered away by detail ... simplify, simplify.' Walden and Civil Disobedience, Penguin: London 1983, p.136.
24:Kutadanta Sutta, Digha-Nikaya 5.22 ff.
25:Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Aviation and the Global Atmosphere, 1999
26: You can check out the implications of your own journey at www.chooseclimate.org/flying/mapcalc.html
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27:Nicholas Hildyard, 'Foxes in Charge of Chickens', in Wolfgang Sachs (ed.) Global Ecology: A New Arena of Political Conflict,Zed: London 1993
28: Bodhipaksa, Vegetarianism, Windhorse: Birmingham 1999
29: Sangharakshita, from 'The Simple Life', in Crossing the Stream, Windhorse: Birmingham 1987