Non-Western

Environmental
World Views
Dr Edsel E. Sajor
Gandhi’s Concept of Self-
Realization
For Gandhi, the Self – the atman– is the supreme
or universal Self that is to be realized. Self-
realization is to be achieved through selfless
action, that is, though reduction of the
dominance of the narrow self or ego. Through
the wider Self every living being is connected
intimately, and from this intimacy follows the
capacity of identification and as its natural
consequences, the practice of nonviolence.
“The rock-bottom foundation of the technique
for achieving the power of nonviolence is belief
in the essential oneness of all life.
Gandhian Basic
Ecophilosophy
“I believe in avaita (non-duality), I believe in the
essential unity of man and, for that matter, of all
that lives. Therefore I believe that if one man
gains spiritually, the whole world gains with him
and, if one man fails, the whole world fails to
that extent” (Gandhi).

Avaita tradition denies the concept of self-as-

subject, self-as-knower. In the philosophy
debate between the existence of self and no-
self, it is at the no-self camp.
Implications of Gandhian
World View
 Gandhi’s supreme or universal Self – that is, a much
widened self that is not identical with the narrow
egocentrism and which has to be realized (Self-realization)
--has major implications on man relationship with the
environment.
 Gandhi recognized a basic, common right to live and
blossom, to self-realization applicable to any being having
interests or needs. Gandhi made manifest the internal
relation between self-realization, nonviolence and what is
sometimes called bio-egalitarianism.
 Biocentric equality is intimately related to the all inclusive
Self-Realization in the sense that if we harm the rest of
Nature then we are harming ourselves. There are no
boundaries and everything is interrelated.
Buddhist Basic World View
Buddha believes in no-self. It does not
believe that self is real. According to
Buddhist philosophy, the self is impermanent,
fluctuating, and its perceive unity only an
appearance. In Buddhism, the self, with its
perceive unity at any given moment and
over time, is “entirely fabricated from the
bundle of discrete mental phenomena”.
Implications of Buddha’s No-Self Position (or
no independent and permanent self)_
 Given the self is interpreted in the wide sense
of embracing another being, Buddha taught
his disciples to embrace all living things as a
mother care for her son, her only son.
 This notion of Buddha is closest to a present-
day deep ecologist statement as follows:
“we are here to embrace rather than conquer
the world” (n.b., the ‘world’ in this statement is
all inclusive – a world that is alive)
Influence of Buddhist and Gandhian World Views
On Two Key Norms of Present-day Deep Ecology (1)

 On the Self-Realization:
In keeping with the spiritual tradition of Buddhism and Avaita, Deep Ecology has
adopted a norm of self-realization that goes beyond the modern Western self
which is defined as an isolated or individuated ego striving primarily for hedonistic
gratification or for a narrow sense of individual salvation in this life or the next. Or,
the narrow self becoming socially programmed (social self), which robs the
beginning for a search for ‘our unique spiritual/biological personhood’.
Deep Ecology’s sense of self instead requires a further maturity and growth, an
identification which goes beyond humanity to include the nonhuman world. There
should be a meditative deep-questioning process narrow contemporary cultural
assumptions and values, and the conventional wisdom of our time and place.
The “Self” in Deep Ecology, stands of organic wholeness. The process of full
unfolding of the self can also be summarized by the phrase, “No one is saved until
we are all saved, where the phrase “one” includes not only me, an individual
human, but all humans, whales, grizzly bears, whole rain forest ecosystems,
mountains and rivers, the tiniest microbes in the soil, etc.

 On Biocentric Equality: (next slide)

Influence of Buddhist and Gandhian World
Views on Two Key Norms of Present-day Deep
Ecology (2)

 On Biocentric Equality
The intuition of biocentric equality is that all things in the biosphere have an equal
right to live and blossom and to reach their own individual forms of unfolding and
self-realization within the larger Self-realization. All organisms and entities in the
ecosphere, as parts of the interrelated whole, are equal in intrinsic worth.

Biocentric equality is intimately related to the all-inclusive Self-realization in the

sense that if we harm the rest of Nature then we are harming ourselves. There are
no boundaries and everything is interrelated. But insofar as we perceive things as
individual organisms or entities, there ought to be respect for all human and non-
human individuals in their own right as parts of the whole without feeling the need
to set up hierarchies of species with humans at the top.

The practical implications of the above-mentioned intuition or norm suggest that

we should live with minimum rather than maximum impact on other species and
on Earth in general. A guiding principle “simple in means, rich in ends”.
 Dominant Worldview
Dominance over Nature
Natural environment as a
resource for humans
Material/economic growth for
growing human population
Belief in ample resource
reserves
High technology progress and
solutions
Consumerism
National/centralized
community
Deep Ecology
Harmony with Nature
All nature has intrinsic
worth/biospecies equality.
Elegantly simple material needs
(material goals serving the
larger goal of self-realization)
Earth “supplies” limited
Appropriate technology;
nondominating science
Doing with enough/recycling
Minority tradition/bioregion
Thank you!