BUDDHIST SCRIPTURAL STUDIES ON THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

It is irrefutable that the correlation between Buddhism and the natural environment is not immaterial or by chance. Conversely, plenty of evidences in the Tripitaka portrays the substantial importance of the natural environment as the suitable place for a monastery, the Dhamma practice (the Four Foundation of Mindfulness), and as the valuable natural resources, including animals, forests, trees, mountains, and rivers. Moreover, human beings as well as other living creatures are connected to those natural environment and resources in a composition of the Dependent Origination (paṭiccasamuppāda). Thus, this article attempts to scrutinize the connection between Buddhism and the natural environment or nature from the time that the Buddha was born up to our days, based on the Buddhist Scripture.