From the Buddhist perspective, of course, one's actual interrelatedness remains constant and absolute. So what in fact changes as one moves upward in Fig. 2 is not how interrelated one actually is, but rather the extent to which one realises and expresses that interrelatedness in one's actions. In other words, 'progress' in a hierarchy of oppression requires that one actively deny and suppress any recognition of relatedness to those that one seeks to dominate. As one claws one's way to the top of the pyramid, submissively accepting subjugation from those above in return for the privilege and right to dominate those below, the extent of one's expressed interrelatedness, as plotted on the horizontal axis, becomes increasingly more narrow and circumscribed. For one cannot successfully dominate what is below except to the extent that one actively rejects any fundamental communality of interest and needs.

In the hierarchy of oppression one moves upward only by gaining power over others, and to safeguard one's power and security one must seek ultimately to control all of existence, however unrealistic and deluded that aspiration inevitably turns out to be. And one is able to sustain this aspiration, moreover, only to the extent that one actively suppresses and denies any sense of meaningful connection to all that is below. Reaching the apex of the cone in Fig. 1 would thus represent, in the terms of this model, the ultimate 'success' to which one could aspire, but that ultimate 'success' would of course be a state of total alienation-alienation not just from others, but from oneself as well-because one can 'succeed' only by rejecting one's actual nature of interrelatedness. If the folly of this approach to life is not schematically clear from the diagram, one need only reflect on the course of human history, especially (though not exclusively!) the history of the modern West.

THE HIERARCHY OF COMPASSION

IMAGINE NOW the same image turned upside down, stood literally on its head as in Fig. 3. Here we find the apex point at the bottom, and we see that the cone broadens as it rises. This is a model of what I would call a 'hierarchy of compassion'. Note the fundamental difference. As one ascends the vertical, developmental axis in this case, something quite different happens, something that is precisely the inverse of the previous case. As one moves upwards the circle of one's interrelatedness (or rather of one's expressed interrelatedness) increases. In fact, the only way one can move up is by actively realising and acting on the fundamental interrelatedness of all existence. But the line of vertical ascent needs to be plotted somewhat differently in this case, because vertical movement now is not the simple, linear upward assertion of control over gradually more and more of the rest of existence. In the hierarchy of compassion vertical progress is a matter of 'reaching out,' actively and consciously to affirm an ever widening circle of expressed interrelatedness. Such an ever broadening circle plotted as a developmental line becomes the spiral path illustrated in Fig. 3.

Unlike the previous case, moreover, progress along this spiral path confers no increasing privilege over those who are below on the path. Quite the contrary, it entails an ever increasing sense of responsibility. This profoundly ethical sense of responsibility for an ever greater circle of realised relatedness is what is expressed by the Buddhist term karu.naa-compassion or 'wisdom in action'. Perhaps now it is beginning to become clear why I am so concerned about attempts to formulate Western Buddhism in any way that does not fully appreciate the vital complementarity of both the developmental and the relational dimensions of the tradition. Buddhism does offer an ethic that might be capable of transforming our current deluded environmental practice, but the developmental dimension of the tradition is crucial to that ethic, because the Buddhist virtue of compassion is something one can cultivate only through progressing up the spiral path of the hierarchy of compassion. Before looking at this last assertion more closely, however, we much first consider a question I raised in the introduction to this article.

The two models I have just presented each have a vertical dimension, yet I have argued that there is a crucial difference. Why, if these two forms of 'progress' or individual development are so different, do I feel so strongly that both models should be called 'hierarchies,' especially since that word sounds so objectionable to many modern ears? My point is to stress the close, yet decisively different relation between the two, and that crucial point would be missed if we were to suggest that these two ways of living one's life are completely unrelated. Relating to others and to the environment as a whole in accord with the hierarchy of compassion is not just better than climbing the hierarchy of oppression: it is its very antithesis. To the extent that we do one, the other is literally impossible-and this is what is lost if we fail to stress the inherent relationship between the two. Hence the importance given in traditional Buddhism to the notion of 'going forth'. One can advance on the spiral path of compassion only to the extent that one has effectively gone forth from pursuing the rewards of the hierarchy of oppression. Unlike some 'new age' thinking, Buddhism does not suggest that we can have it all. On the contrary, it asserts that progress up the hierarchy of compassion becomes possible only to the extent that we 'go forth' from the aspiration to have it all. For 'having' in this sense is an expression of control and is possible only within the context of the hierarchy of oppression. Without seeing how the two hierarchies are related, one might still imagine that somehow elements of both might be possible to pursue simultaneously.