Certainly, if there is grasping at environmental beliefs, for instance, if our green
Buddhist considers them to be ultimately true, perhaps conceiving of the biosphere,
ecosystems, species, and the like in terms of svabhāva, then clearly, we have an example
of wrong view. Ecology is replete with dualisms, such as, stability and disturbance,
exotic species and natives, health and disease, and to the extent that our green Buddhist perceives the environment in terms of such oppositions, it can be said that she perceives the imagined nature This would include, for example, grasping at the truth of the claim that an invasion of exotic palm weevils is decimating an indigenous plant.
It also includes, however, the claim that there is no such thing as an exotic species, or, since the palm trees would have died anyway, the invasion does not matter. Perhaps enlightenment requires the delicate balancing act between knowing that these concepts are imputed, and yet knowing that the imagined also exists in a way. One must not be swayed by the belief in existence or by the belief in nonexistence, and most importantly, one must be prepared to relinquish any view that one might have.
As I hope has emerged from the section on Yogācāra, as well as relinquishing
views, there needs to be the experience of emptiness, otherwise, we risk falling into
nihilism. In the final chapter, I will attempt to re-describe a green Buddhism based on this experience. I will suggest that by realizing the emptiness of natural beings, we protect the possibility of future evolution, and safeguard the persistence of life on this planet. That is,the absolute-svabhāva of natural beings—and here, I include collective entities, such as an ecosystem, or the biosphere as a whole—their lack of essence- and substancesvabhāva,as Nāgārjuna pointed out, is precisely what enables them (and us) to change and to respond to changes in the environment. This ability is literally vital; it is what life is all about. It is only our delusion that makes us view things rigidly, and to want to pin things down as 'this‘ or 'that.‘ Therefore, if we follow the Yogācārin advice to realize emptiness, as well as reducing our attachment and aversion, which, arguably, are among the main causes of environmental degradation, we also permit nature to flourish, and to reveal its true nature. This, I would like to suggest, is one way in which the notion of a Pure Land can be re-described for our times.