Buddhism, Feminism, and the Environmental Crisis: Acting with Compassion, in Ecofeminism and the Sacred, Ed

Kaza, Stephanie. 1993. Buddhism, Feminism, and the Environmental Crisis: Acting with Compassion, in Ecofeminism and the Sacred, ed. Carol Adams, Seattle: Continuum Press, pp. 50-69. 4 Acting with Compassion Buddhism, Feminism,and the EnuironmentalCnsts STEPI.IANIEIGZA w On my altar at home standsa small bronzecasting of Kuan Yin (also known as Kannon or Kanzeonin Japan),who sewesto blessmy meditation spaceand daily activity. Her robes are flowing and gracious,and in her hand she holds a vase of healing water. She standsready to receive the suffering of the world with compassionand equanimity.Above the kitchen sink I have a picture of a carvedjade Kuan Yin from China. Sheholds a rabbit on her arm, manifesting the spirit of harmonywith life and all living beings.On my desk, coveringthe bools and papersof my currentwork, is a prayercloth of the GreenTara. She sitson a lotus petal dais;her aura and soft faceradiate gentle and penetrating power. I begin with Kuan Yin becauseshe representsa feminine gender form of a realized Bodhisattva,known to many people for thousandsof years as the embodimentof compassionfor all beingsin the vast interdependentmutually causalweb. Sometimesdepicted with a thousandarms, Kuan Yin reachesout to offer a thousandtools of compassion-ashovel, a flute, a blanket, a kind word. Kuan Yin is "the Mahayanaarchetype of mutual support, giving life and fulfillment to the Sangha. of stonesand clouds,of wild creaturesand forests, of people , . in the slums and prisons of our cities, not to mention our o\ul StephanleKaza, Ph.D., M. Div., asistant professor of Environrnental Studies,teaches feminist and environmental ethics at the University of Vermont. She has been a student of Zen Bud- dhism for sixteen years, and has trained with Thich Mat Hanh and Joanna Macy in the arca of cngaged Buddhism and social action. Stephanie has worked with otbers in planning three women and Buddhism conferencesand is the author of a forthcoming book on meditations with trees. 50 ACTINAWTITTCOMPASSION 51 familiesand friends" (Aitken 7986,24-29).In the Tibetantradition, the feminine form of the GreenTara servesas a reminderof the onewho healsby her presence,sendng countless beings. Her greencolor qymbolizesthe capacityto take action;her right hand forms the rnudra,or gestureof callingforth awak- ening,and her left the gestureof refuge(see Blofeld 1978,Willson 1986). As realizedbeings, Kuan Yin and Tara listen to all the cries of the world, not just thoseof people.This meansthey are alsoconcerned with plantsand animals,mountains and valleys,small creaturesand large. The feminine com- passionatepresence has long beenaddressed by Buddhistsof manycultures to relieve human sickness,grief, and poverty of spirit. In the current sweepof environmentaldestruction, it is Kanzeonand Tara who seeand experiencewith us the pain and sufferingof deserts,forests, soils, groundwater, oceans, and skies.They offer a model of radical presencein the world, of no separation betweenthe one who suffen and the one who responds.The callsfor action and healing arise spontaneouslyand naturally out of the cries of death and despair. In this introductory work, I draw on the courageand inspiration of these Bodhisattvas to investigate the role of Buddhist practice and philosophy inforrred by feminist principles in support of work for the environment.As Buddhism and feminism gain strength and momentumin the Western world, the environmentalcrisis looms large on the horizon of our survival. I believe thosetrained in the selfdiscipline,analysis, and reflectiveprocesses of Bud- dhism and feminismhave a powerful contributionto make in addressingthe enormouschallenges of environmentalwork. I encouragemany more women andmen to developthese tools for effective,grounded, sensitive, and nonviolent actionon behalf of the earth. I speakfrom my own perspectiveas a Buddhist,feminist, and environmen- talist. I havebeen studying Zen Buddhismfor sixteenyears with Kobun Chino Roshi,practicing at Green Gulch and J*ogr 7,enCenters in California,and servingas chair of the nationalBuddhist Peace Fellowship board. I haveevolved as a feministthrough my mother'sexample as a lawyerfor the poor, through my experienceof power relationsin patriarchalworkplaces and religiouscen- ters,and throughexamination of feministdiscourse in theory philosophy,and morality. I am an environmentalistby profession,with academictraining in both biolory andsocial ethics. I havebeen working in the field of environmental educationand conservation for twentyyears and currently teach Environmental Ethics at the University of Vermont in Burlington. I beginwith principlesheld in commonby Buddhismand feminismthat are relevantto the environmentalcrisis. I then offer examplesof theseprinciples in action,of feministwomen engaged in environmentalwork asBuddhist practice. This explorationis an introductionto a field of integratedperspectives which is just developing.I draw primarily on AmericanBuddhism; the paper shouldnot be construedto be internationallvinclusive. INTRODqC-NON When Buddhismarrived in the West, it encounteredcurious and bright mindsofboth sexes,eager for teachingsand spiritualpractices relevant to their 52 srEPttANrEIAzA lives.The searchfor spiritual foundationescalated in the 1960sand 1970sas sensitivemen and womensuffered through the paralyzingnational pain of the civil rights movementand the Vietnam War. Collegestudents and activists scrutinizedsocial values in depth and rejectedmuch of the statusquo paro- chialismthat characterizedAmerican thinking. Spurred by their interestand, in the caseof Tibet, cultural destruction,the most extensivewave of Buddhist teachersarrived in America from Tibet, Japan, Kore4 Thailand, Sri Lanka, andBurma (see Fields l98l). At the sametime, feminismwas blossoming and gaining strength as a social movement.Women were wakingup to the repressedand hidden crueltiesof male dorninationin individual relationshipsas well as socialinstitutions. In consciousness-raisinggroups across the United States,women examined issues of reproductionand health, power and sexualabuse, and outright misogmy. Feministintellectuals took on the challengeof deconstructinggender-biased assumptionsthat underlaythe foundationsof Westernlanguage, politics, psy- cholory,medicine, law, and philosophy.Feminist Buddhists questioned patri- archal Asian forms and inappropriate teacher-studentconduct (see Boucher 1e8s). Earth Day 1970marked a watershedpoint in public mncern for the environment.Widespread exposure to extensiveenvironmental problems generated a waveof citizen actiongroups and environmentaleducation programs. Activists pointed to the cumulativeexcesses of postwarindustrialization and commer- cialization, along with skyrocketinghuman populations, as pressingthe limits of the planet's carryingcapacity. Doomsday predictions forecast large-scale environmentalcatastrophes long before Chernobyl,Love Canal,or the lossof the Black Forest.Antinuclear activismwas a relativelynew movement struggling againstthe enormousodds of a fearful Cold War nation. In the two decadesbetween Earth Day 1970and Earth Day 1990,Buddhism, feminism,and concernfor the environmentin America grew and changedtre- mendously,reflecting a periodof seriousquestioning ofvalues and socialstruc- tures. The maturation of understandingand insight over these two decades providesa significantsetting for reviewingthe role of Buddhism and feminism in relationshipto the environment.While Beat poetry and fascinationfor Ori- ental culture drew curiousseekers to the few Buddhistteachers of the 1960s and 1970s,twenty years later, there were over 300Buddhist centers across the countryand a dozenmajor Buddhistpublications (see Field 1989;Morreale 1988).In this periodof growth,over twenty women gained recognition as formal Buddhistteachers (see Friedman 1987).In the 1960s,feminism was a little' known word, but by 1990,feminists had establishedhundreds of nonprofit organizationsto supportwomen's issues, from rapehotlines to women'shistory weeks,Retreats and conferencesfor womenBuddhists were regular features on Westernmeditation calendan. By Earth Day 1990,the proliferationof books,graduate prograns' environ- mentalcareers, and by nowwell-established environmental lobbying groups was an indicatorof the all-encompassingscale of the ecologicalsituation. The environmental crisis had grown beyond local, state, national, and international ACTINAWftHCOMPASSION53 I capacity to handle it. Amidst the world context of North-South tension, over 1,500women from 84 countriesstood in solidarity for women'senvironmental needsat the 1991Women's World Congtessfor a Healthy Planet.One after anotherpresented moving testimonies of economicinjustice, forest degradation, loss of soil and farms, and frustration with political sJntemsthat systematically destroyedenvironmental resources.l I believe there is a powerful confluenceof thought, practice, commitment, and communityin the lives of feminist Buddhistsworking for the environment who have lived through this history of startling change.In these two decades, leadershipand participation of womenin Buddhist practicehave paralleled the rise in feminist theory researchand explorationsin conservationbiolory and restorationecologl. A whole new generationofyoung peoplehas been raised in families with feminist and/or Buddhist parentsconcerned about the environment. Feminists,Buddhist women practitioners, and environmentaladvocates are no longer isolated from one anotler. The growh and maturation of these social and religious

Load more