A Buddhist environmental ethic is hence a 'virtue ethic,' one that asks not just which specific actions are necessary to preserve the environment, but more deeply what are the virtues (i.e. the precepts and perfections) we must cultivate in order to be able to actually act in such a way.9 The relational dimension of Buddhism is necessary to secure an ecologically sound vision of the goal, but the developmental dimension of the tradition is every bit as necessary in that it provides the path that will enable us to actually reach that goal. But is there truly a danger that Western Buddhists might overlook the central place of basic Buddhist ethics in formulating a new, 'green' Buddhism? Not consciously, I suspect, but perhaps quite unintentionally as part of the effort to discard our own cultural legacy of hierarchies of oppression.

Consider the following comment made by yet another prominent and respected Green Buddhist. In The Greening of the Self Joanna Macy discusses the notion of 'self-realisation' that lies at the heart of Arnie Naess's Buddhist-inspired sense of deep ecology, proclaiming it the foundation of what will become a new, environmentally benign conception of the self.10 Citing his view that the process of self-realisation, properly understood, involves leaving behind 'notions of altruism and moral duty,' Macy succumbs to a very dangerous, if seductive sentiment. Naess seeks to make a quite specific, if nonetheless ambiguous point when he argues that the ethic of 'self-realisation' he envisions will not require that one act for the sake of others out of a sense of self-abnegating 'duty'. He takes 'altruism' here very literally to mean something done 'for others' in contrast to one's own self-interest. 'Altruism' in this sense will become unnecessary, he asserts, when one reaches the point at which one's 'self-interest' and the interest of others naturally converges. What he fails to clarify is that some form of ethical (and Buddhists would add meditative) practice is still necessary in order to reach that point, and the danger of this ambiguity is borne out in Macy's extension of his argument.

Naess's basic point may be sound enough, as far as it goes. We need an expanded sense of self, one in which acting on behalf of others and the ecosphere is ultimately acting in terms of 'enlightened self-interest' and not out of some sense of moral obligation, or duty, or even the rights of others perceived as separate from our own interests.11 Macy concurs, but falling prey to the implicit ambiguity she is led seriously astray. Please note this important point. She insists that 'virtue is not required for the greening of the self or the emergence of the ecological self' (her italics).12 In this formulation there is no ambiguity, and we are surely on ethical quicksand. She is clearly speaking not of the eventual goal but of the path itself, of the practice by which she feels the ecological self will 'emerge'. Apparently thinking that the rejection of an ethic of duty entails rejecting all moral judgement and discernment - all effort to cultivate virtue - she arrives at the conclusion that ethical discipline and development have no place in the 'new Buddhism' she envisions. If one simply has 'self-realisation' as one's goal, no further ethical effort is required. No practice is necessary, only an opening to what she concedes is something very close to the Christian concept of 'grace'. Let us hope that what she says, in this instance at least, is not actually what she intends, for this would surely be a case of throwing out one crucial aspect of Buddhism in the very act of professing another.

CONCLUSION

WE HAVE EXPLORED how some Green Buddhists, uncomfortable with any notion of hierarchy or developmental verticality, are moving, intentionally or not, towards a kind of uni-dimensional Buddhism, one in which the inverted cone of the hierarchy of compassion is simply collapsed into a single flat circle of relatedness. In doing this they very aptly stress the relevance of the horizontal, relational dimension of Buddhism to environmental ethics, but they overlook or even deny the equally vital vertical dimension, that aspect of the Dharma that sees Enlightenment as a process involving the evolution of consciousness. This development of consciousness in Buddhism is expressed practically as an ever greater sense of responsibility to act compassionately for the benefit of all forms of life; hence its relevance to any discussion of Buddhist-inspired environmental ethics. Failing to distinguish between the two types of hierarchy outlined above, and obsessed with the need to dump out the dirty bath-water of Western hierarchies of oppression, some Green Buddhists fail to note that they are also discarding the 'baby' of all potential for development-of the potential for meaningful growth towards a greater expressed sense of interrelatedness, towards a greater sense of environmental ethics in the most profound sense of the term.