A blueprint for social change showing how we can reverse the destructive attitudes that threaten our world.

The doctrine of paṭicca samuppāda or dependent co-arising is fundamental to Buddhist ethics. In this vision of radical relativity, reality appears as an interdependent process wherein change and choice, doer and deed, person and community are mutually causative. Morality is grounded in this interdependence, as in the corrollary Buddhist views of anattā and karma. Consequently it reveals a reciprocal dynamic between personal and social transformation, expressed in Buddhist scripture and illustrated in a contemporary Buddhist movement in Sri Lanka.

Convergences between systems philosophy, as developed from general systems theory and articulated by ervin laszlok, and buddhist thought suggest the possibility that the one can serve as a tool for interpreting the other. these convergences include their respective views of (1) reality as process, (2) interdependent causality, (3) the relation of mind to matter, and (4) the nonsubstantiality of the self. cybernetic models of cognitive process are applied to meditative practices of vipassana and mahayana visualizations, as an example of the (...) reciprocal hermeneutic that is possible between these two bodies of thought. (shrink)

Draws on a lifetime of wisdom to offer a re-focus on the natural world, where readers can find the strength and spiritual nourishment to envision a new future for humanity built on a sustainable relationship with the earth.

Draws on a lifetime of wisdom to offer a re-focus on the natural world, where readers can find the strength and spiritual nourishment to envision a new future for humanity built on a sustainable relationship with the earth.