Asceticism and the environment

The Buddha also promulgated a list of rules for his monastics, albeit far more exhaustive. Four require expulsion from the monastic order if violated: fornication, theft, killing a human being, and falsely claiming spiritual attainments. (3) Other vows specify behavior that must be observed in accord with honesty, avoidance of schism, shunning of luxurious beds and overly-comfortable buildings, non-acceptance of gold and silver, parsimonious handling of personal items such as one's robes and begging bowl, restrictions on travel, and general comportment. (4) These vows continue to define and regulate Buddhist monastic life. Though many of the requirements are specific to monks and nuns, several of the rules may find universal application, such as the precepts of not killing, not stealing, and truthfulness.

The later Mahayana Buddhist tradition taught adherence to six perfections which combine a concern for moral behavior with the cultivation of positive virtues. These include giving (dana), morality (sila, specified as not killing, stealing or fornicating; not lying, slandering, speaking harshly, or chattering frivolously; not having covetous thoughts, hostile thoughts, or false views), patience (ksanti), vigor (virya), meditation (dhyana), and the perfection of wisdom (prajna-paramita). (5) This last perfection takes human shape in the form of a goddess known as the Perfection of Wisdom who is "the Mother of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas."

Stretching Vows to Cover the Earth

Each of these forms of asceticism requires intense self-scrutiny and attention to the behavior of each monk and nun. Spiritual aspiration requires a specific lifestyle, referred to by the Buddha as Right Livelihood. The Right Livelihood for a Buddhist monk requires the adoption of more than two hundred monastic rules. Lay Buddhists, though not required to follow the rules for monks and nuns, nonetheless are expected to maintain nonviolence, truthfulness, and not stealing as the anchor for their lifestyle. Similarly, in Jainism, a much larger and more complex set of rules governs the lives of monks and nuns while Jaina laypersons live according to a somewhat lesser code. Nonetheless, lay Jainas are expected to conform to a vegetarian diet and take up traditionally nonviolent professions such as trade and the arts.

Being mindful of one's clothing can extend to all the goods that one chooses to possess. The story of how the Buddha designed the monastic wardrobe holds several lessons. He determined how much is enough. Two robes would be insufficient to protect one from the cold; five robes would be unnecessary. Even for a layperson, this approach to possessions can be instructive. Owning too much has been effectively linked with unwise resource use. Energy, generally in the form of coal or oil, is needed to grow the raw materials for cloth, harvest them, and transport them to the market for processing. If, for instance, the crop needed to produce clothing is cotton, the factory needs electricity to create thread, to power the looms, and then more resources are needed to transport the cloth to another factory for sewing into garments, and then shipping the garments, often thousands of miles, to be sold, creating a hugely inefficient process for sheltering one from the elements. To own fewer clothes (and to own organic, locally produced clothes) reduces the net negative impact of consumer behavior on the overall ecological balance.