On Ecological Ethics In Buddhism And Its Functions In Nowadays

Buddhism, as one of the three biggest religions, was introduced to China from Indian in HanDynasty, and now has become one of the most important parts of Chinese traditional culture.There are also vey important ideas on ecological ethics in Buddhism, such as “Everythingoriginates from emptiness”,“All creatures are equal”,“Even those that have no feelings do haveBuddha nature”, and “Nobody can tell the truth of birth and death”. The theory of origin is thephilosophy foundation of the ecological ethics of Buddhism, which deems that everything andeveryone appear and disappear in this world with a reason and are a result of a certain opportunity.It emphasizes that human beings are created together with all other creatures, and will live withmankind all the time. The ecological ideas of Buddhism show that everything itself is the aim ofits existence, which is the same as human beings. It emphasizes the equality between humanbeings and all other creatures and points out that human beings should not evaluate other creaturesthrough its own standard, and that all the creatures enjoy the same right to existence. TheBuddhists take greed, anger and stupidity as three serious poisonous characters, and they tend tolive a humble life. Killing is forbidden for Buddhists, and they are all vegetarians, which is goodfor the ecology environment.With the development of science and technology and the improvement in our materialcivilization, the ecology problem attains more attention. The Government pays special attention tothe environment problem. The scientific outlook on development, the requirement of Building ofHarmonious Society and the idea of Low Carbon Economy all put the protection of theenvironment in the top position. The report of the18thNational Congress devotes a single chapteron the topic of “Ecological Civilization”, which symbolizes that it places great importance on thissubject. It even brings out the strategic conception of building a “Beautiful China”. Those ideas ofecological ethics in Buddhism, though were appeared and developed in agricultural civilizationtimes, not only forms a necessary part of the traditional civilization, but also inspires us in thefields of reasonable use of the natural resources, how to maintain a sustainable development andhow to build a beautiful China. It for sure will help us to improve our understanding to the ecologyethics and to push the rapid construction of ecological civilization in China.