times, on difference. Yet, the definition that is most commonly accepted is identification
as wanting and working for the good of those beings with whom or which we identify. In
what follows, I shall restrict my use of the term to this technical sense alone, and I shall
also use it interchangeably with ‗love,‘ ‗compassion,‘ or ‗solicitude,‘ due to the close
affinity, which, I have argued, exists between these notions. The thorny issue of whether
or not identification requires sameness or difference, I shall argue below, emerges from
the drive to establish some theory as ultimate truth, and it can be avoided if we base
identification on a realization of emptiness instead.
Identification as Bodhicitta: Solicitude in Union with Emptiness
So far, I have argued that the deep ecologist‘s notion of identification is very similar to
the Buddhist virtue of solicitude, in that both involve taking up the needs and interests of
other beings as one‘s own. Yet, the reasons that deep ecologists propose in favour of
doing this—whether as a rigid argument, or as a simple suggestion—have all been
relegated to conventional truth, and are, therefore, ideas that a bodhisattva will eventually
negate. The Mahāyāna Buddhist does not believe in the ultimate truth of oneness or
interrelatedness, and neither is she committed to the ideas that other living beings are the
same or different from us. The question will arise, therefore, why should a Mahāyāna
Buddhist identify with other beings? On what will she base her love and compassion if
not on either the sameness or the difference of other sentient beings to herself?
This has been a recurrent issue in this study—on what can we ground Buddhist
environmentalism, given that emptiness will negate every view? In this chapter, I shall
attempt to show how in Mahāyāna Buddhism, love and compassion are based upon
emptiness itself. Emptiness and compassion are often spoken of as being ‗in union‘ and
this, I would like to suggest, can be thought of as an internal relation, in that these virtues
and emptiness would not be what they are, without this relation to each other. The
product of this relation is, of course, bodhicitta—the ‗mind of enlightenment‘—described
as the wish to reach perfect enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings.
This implies that there are two ways in which solicitude can be understood. There
is the relative sense, the wish that all beings have happiness, which I frame with the belief
times, on difference. Yet, the definition that is most commonly accepted is identification
as wanting and working for the good of those beings with whom or which we identify. In
what follows, I shall restrict my use of the term to this technical sense alone, and I shall
also use it interchangeably with ‗love,‘ ‗compassion,‘ or ‗solicitude,‘ due to the close
affinity, which, I have argued, exists between these notions. The thorny issue of whether
or not identification requires sameness or difference, I shall argue below, emerges from
the drive to establish some theory as ultimate truth, and it can be avoided if we base
identification on a realization of emptiness instead.
Identification as Bodhicitta: Solicitude in Union with Emptiness
So far, I have argued that the deep ecologist‘s notion of identification is very similar to
the Buddhist virtue of solicitude, in that both involve taking up the needs and interests of
other beings as one‘s own. Yet, the reasons that deep ecologists propose in favour of
doing this—whether as a rigid argument, or as a simple suggestion—have all been
relegated to conventional truth, and are, therefore, ideas that a bodhisattva will eventually
negate. The Mahāyāna Buddhist does not believe in the ultimate truth of oneness or
interrelatedness, and neither is she committed to the ideas that other living beings are the
same or different from us. The question will arise, therefore, why should a Mahāyāna
Buddhist identify with other beings? On what will she base her love and compassion if
not on either the sameness or the difference of other sentient beings to herself?
This has been a recurrent issue in this study—on what can we ground Buddhist
environmentalism, given that emptiness will negate every view? In this chapter, I shall
attempt to show how in Mahāyāna Buddhism, love and compassion are based upon
emptiness itself. Emptiness and compassion are often spoken of as being ‗in union‘ and
this, I would like to suggest, can be thought of as an internal relation, in that these virtues
and emptiness would not be what they are, without this relation to each other. The
product of this relation is, of course, bodhicitta—the ‗mind of enlightenment‘—described
as the wish to reach perfect enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings.
This implies that there are two ways in which solicitude can be understood. There
is the relative sense, the wish that all beings have happiness, which I frame with the belief
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