First of all the roots of the Bodhisattva ideal are well represented in the earlier tradition of the Elders. And the early teachings on impermanence and anaatman were already sufficient to establish a basic insight into the ultimate non-substantiality of any putative dichotomy of self-interest vs. other-interest.6 Even more revealing is the fact that the pre-Mahaayaana roots of the relational dimension are implicit in some of the very developmental teachings we have already considered above. An indispensable relational aspect is literally built right into even the most seemingly hierarchical doctrines of the early tradition. While the vertically arrayed taxonomy of life-forms recognised by all schools of Buddhism asserts an explicit hierarchy of levels of consciousness-adding still a higher level reached with the attainment of Buddhahood-the hierarchy here is nonetheless quite different from what we, as products of Western culture, might expect or fear. In Buddhism the point of these vertical distinctions is not to establish a hierarchy of privilege and subjugation. Quite the contrary. The hierarchy here is neither absolute nor does it justify the dominion or domination of one class of beings over another. In fact, as we shall see more clearly below, the vertical distinction here is a matter of compassion, rather than of control.

In the religions of Abraham (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) God is intrinsically superior to humankind, as is the creator to his creation. Similarly humankind, which alone was created in God's image, is intrinsically and (unalterably) superior to the animals and all the rest of creation as well. The Buddhist taxonomy of life forms (including Buddhahood) presents a crucial contrast. It too is thoroughly and incontrovertibly hierarchical in structure, yet in a fundamentally different way. All of the levels in the Buddhist 'chain of being' are both dynamic and interpermeable. A given life form moves up, and often down, in this deadly serious cosmic game of 'chutes and ladders'. The different levels in the Buddhist cosmology, while indicating spiritually significant differences in awareness and consciousness, do not entail the theocentric and anthropocentric perspective and privilege so familiar in our own cultural tradition. They represent rather the range of progressively greater degrees of awareness and ethical sensibility available to all life forms. We might say that this is an ethically dynamic array of possibilities rather than an ontologically static hierarchy of privilege and status.

This is a crucial distinction, and one that is very easy for us to overlook, especially those of us who are the most disenchanted with and critical of the Western notions of ontological hierarchy. Indeed there is an objection that invariably arises at this point in the minds of many contemporary Buddhists. How and why is the vertical, developmental dimension so complementary-and thus so necessary-if, as Buddhism asserts, all of existence is already by its very nature inherently interrelated? If everything is already the way it needs to be, what possible need is there for something to be done? If we have the relational dimension of the Dharma, what need is there for development, for doing?-especially since it is precisely 'human doing' that has brought about the environmental crisis we now face. The anger and frustration that give rise to these questions, expressed often with a palpable tone of indignation, are feelings we have all no doubt shared at sometime or another, and our tendency to feel this impatience is understandable. Yet these questions reflect a grave misunderstanding of the Buddhist teaching of interrelatedness and of Enlightenment as a developmental process. We should note especially the tone of righteous indignation in which these questions are often expressed, moreover, for it betrays, I fear, the ultimate despair of an ethical scepticism, even cynicism, that is fundamentally at odds with the basically positive conception of human potential that characterises the Dharma. In the West we have come to fear that the presence of any vertical, developmental perspective is antithetical to our newly gained recognition of horizontal relatedness. Thus we miss the point that for Buddhism neither is possible without the other. The developmental and the relational are not only complementary, they are inseparably interrelated. This last point is central to the concerns I expressed above that those of us most attracted to Green Buddhism may also be the most prone to seriously misunderstand Buddhism in our very effort to see it as part of the solution to the environmental question.

GREEN BUDDHISM AND THE LOSS OF THE VERTICAL DIMENSION

I HAVE ARGUED that the developmental and the relational are inextricably linked in Buddhist ethics. Yet I have also suggested that contemporary Buddhists are strongly inclined to ignore or even deny that this could be true. We need to consider more closely how this peculiar circumstance has come about. What I wish to demonstrate is that for all its laudable articulation of the environmental ethical themes within the Buddhist tradition, Green Buddhism at present also shows a subtle tendency that threatens to significantly distort the assimilation of the Dharma into the West, a tendency to reduce Buddhism to a one-dimensional teaching of simple interrelatedness. And the dangers of this tendency are all the more ironic and all the more insidious, I would further argue, because it is a tendency that arises out of our own cultural conditioning. It is a problem we are bringing to Buddhism, rather than one inherent in the tradition. As such it is a tendency that may well subvert the very potential Buddhism does have to contribute to the more environmentally ethical perspective we are currently struggling so hard to realise.