Green Buddhism and the Hierarchy of Compassion
Alan Sponberg (Dharmachari Saaramati)

Buddhist perspectives on nature and the environment have a long and complex history, and it is thus not surprising that one finds within this rich and varied tradition much that resonates with contemporary concerns regarding nature and the place of humanity within it. While Buddhists of the past had little reason to formulate an environmental ethic per se, there is much within traditional Buddhist ethics that does indeed speak to the ethical aspects of the environmental crisis confronting us today, a fact that has been well noted and at least partially explored both by non-Buddhist environmental ethicists and by a growing number of contemporary Buddhists themselves, advocates of what is frequently referred to as 'Green Buddhism'.1 My approach in the present article seeks to bridge these two camps, and I shall thus be writing here both as a practising Buddhist and as an environmental ethicist, one with academic training in philosophy and in the history of Buddhism. I shall undertake a critique of certain features of Green Buddhism in this article, and it is important for the reader to realise that I do so from within the circle of this vital movement of contemporary Buddhism, seeking to identify the 'near-enemy' (aasanna-paccathika) within, which, as Buddhaghosa commented in the fifth century, is often more dangerous than the 'distant-enemy' (duura-paccathika) that remains more obviously (and safely) outside the fold.

The 'near enemy' I have in mind in this case is the view that Green Buddhism is fundamentally incompatible with, and hence necessarily opposed to, hierarchy in any and all forms. There are good reasons why such a view appears quite plausible and attractive at first, though we must recognise that these reasons stem more from our own cultural history than from anything within Buddhism itself. While it is certainly true that Buddhism advocated, in its early forms at least, a radically decentralised institutional structure, this should not be misconstrued in the light of our current Western concerns to mean that the spiritual ideal in Buddhism was seen as non-hierarchical and egalitarian. The Buddha was indeed radical in that he recognised that all beings-not just human beings-have access to the liberation he proclaimed, but this does not mean that he felt that all beings were equal in the sense there is no significant difference between species or individuals. To the extent that we fail to acknowledge this important sense in which Buddhism is non-egalitarian, we not only seriously misrepresent the tradition, we also risk disavowing an aspect of the Dharma that is sorely lacking in contemporary Western thought. Thus in this article I shall seek to show first that the rejection of all forms of hierarchy is fundamentally un-Buddhist and further, that such a view threatens, however unintentionally, to obscure and even reject a fundamental feature of Buddhism that may turn out to be crucial to the agenda of Green Buddhism.

To understand my argument we must reflect on the history of our current Western aversion to hierarchy in any form, and we must also clarify what place hierarchical structures do have in traditional Buddhism. If we find that hierarchy in some sense does have a place in Buddhism, then we shall have to ask whether it is the same kind of hierarchy that we are so anxious to banish from our own cultural history. I realise that discussion of 'hierarchy' in any form will arouse very strong feelings among many Western Buddhists and environmentalists, yet I have intentionally chosen to use this provocative 'h-word' for reasons that will become clear below. It is to those who find this word inherently objectionable that this article is respectfully dedicated. I truly share your concerns, and I ask only that you hear me out, bracketing for the moment whatever affront my thesis may initially elicit. Much of what Buddhism has to offer the West may, I fear, be lost, if we fail to see the quite specific sense in which Buddhism is, and must be, 'hierarchical'. By considering this apparently discordant assertion, we will, I submit, learn something quite important about Buddhism and also something about the cultural roots of a distinctly Western and modern form of 'aversion' (pratigha).

THE TWO DIMENSIONS OF BASIC BUDDHISM

OUR FIRST TASK then shall be to consider whether there is any aspect of traditional Buddhism that might warrant being called 'hierarchical'. While it is imperative that one remember the diversity within the different cultural expressions and traditions of Buddhism, it is nonetheless possible to identify a set of basic Buddhist teachings that remain at the core of the later variations. I am thinking of the basic doctrines of conditionality or dependent arising (pratiitya-samutpaada), karma, the middle path, impermanence, and non-substantiality (anaatman), among others. One quite useful approach I have found for getting a more comprehensive understanding of 'Basic Buddhism' in this sense is to recognise, running throughout Buddhist history, two fundamental aspects of the tradition: a developmental dimension and a relational dimension. While we shall see that each of these two dimensions is clearly distinct, we must also recognise that each complements the other in a way that is crucial to the integrity of the tradition.