Buddhism and Ecology: Case Study of Engaged Buddhism and Humanistic Buddhism

Buddhism has involved in environmental protection on the local as well as global level. This thesis seeks to explore how and why the Buddhist modern movements, particularly Engaged Buddhism and Humanistic Buddhism adopt different approaches to environmental issues. The comparative study of these two Buddhist movements and their respective approaches to environment protection attempts to characterize and contrast the two different approaches as Eco-Justice and Eco-Spirituality and to analyze them in terms of their cultural, economic, political and social contexts.;Though the approach of Eco-Justice adopted by Engaged Buddhism focuses on social justice and the approach of Eco-Spirituality adopted by Humanistic Buddhism concentrates on spiritual cultivation, this thesis attempts to argue that they provide contrasting yet complementary approaches to environmental protection. The dialogue between Engaged Buddhism and Humanistic Buddhism on environmental issues will enrich each other and contribute to the Buddhist engagement of environmental protection as a whole.