Buddhism and the Natural World: Discerning an Environmental Imperative

In his talk, Mark Blum, Professor and Shinjo Ito Distinguished Chair in Japanese Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, will first look at traditional views of the natural world in Indian, Chinese, and Japanese Buddhism, where nonhuman sentient life forms commonly appear as a legitimate voice in the unfolding of truth and the neutral view of nonsentient life and inorganic matter in India takes on greater spiritual significance as one moves eastward in Asia. Then the issue of ecology and environmental ethics will be considered in an attempt to clarify the efforts being made to infer an environmental imperative on the basis of Buddhist values. This event is co-sponsored by the American Buddhist Study Center, Cleveland Buddhist Temple, and the CWRU Department of Religious Studies.