Tibetan Buddhism and the formation of ecological consciousness: a view from Buryatia

Abstract

Technicization of human and society, active development of technogenic civilization leads to gradual separation from moral values and principles. These values include ideas of unity and harmony of human with nature, with the surrounding environment, and reasonable, moderate attitude towards natural resources. We believe that humanity should move from the industrial to ecological civilization. The foundations of a new ecophilosophy should become holistic principles, representations of philosophy in general and Buddhism in particular. We outlined basic principles and methods for improving personality of altruistic ethics of Mahayana Buddhism that contribute to human understanding of inseparability, interconnection with the world. We focus on the central Buddhist concept – the absence of an individual ‘I’ that is understood as necessity of recognizing oneself as a separate empirical individual. That is confirmed by a translation of the text PrajnaParamitaHridaya Sutra from Tibetan language. The paper analyzes three types of spiritual personality that correspond to three stages of the Path to awakening. Each stage is a step towards the formation of subjectless consciousness, that is, awareness of universal dependence and responsibility for their actions. The paper argues that for ecological consciousness it is important to form an understanding that the main reason for human existence in not the technosphere, not the economy, but the living nature.