1.32 UNCONTROLLED EMOTION EFFECTS SEVERE ECOLOGICAL DAMAGE
If we believe that the material world should be controlled and manipulated for our
pleasure and ease, and we act accordingly, we should consider the collateral
damage we cause. In the past few centuries, scientists have invented machines
that can travel through the air, under water, and under the earth. This has allowed
us to travel easily, eat better food, and wear better clothes, and it has facilitated
communication through e-mail, television, and video. We have better furniture,
better heating in winter and cooling in summer, and, with electricity, we can turn
night into day. Scientists are still improving their inventions and contriving new
ones.
All this activity is admirable. But if we look at the other side of the coin,
excessive production brings many negative side effects and an imbalance in the
four elements. These negative effects are becoming increasingly evident. The
earth is becoming warmer and warmer, and the ice of many centuries is melting,
and some countries may eventually be flooded. Moreover, some kinds of birds,
animals, trees, and grasses will become extinct. The majority of scientists are now
predicting such results. An imbalance of the four elements will produce
catastrophe. Predictions are that the suffering will be a hundred times greater than
that of the Second World War.
The root cause here is people’s greed. Even though this world belongs to all the
sentient beings who live in it, human beings monopolize and utilize its resources
for their own exclusive benefit, at the same time producing chemicals that pollute
air, water, and earth. Through an imbalance of the elements, many animals,
insects, trees, and plants that reside and grow in water and earth will become
extinct. Ignorant of the fact that we are accelerating our own demise in this world,
we proceed with “development” without the least concern for others. And this
development is related to the fame and strength of the countries called
“superpowers.” Consider the person who puts himself or herself on the wrong side
of the saw and cuts off the branch of the tree that he or she is sitting on. This is an
example of crass foolishness, and it is not appropriate to compare the development
work of the wise people of our world with such idiocy. On the other hand, to
consciously ignore protecting the endangered environment and the four elements
is very stupid.
What Shakyamuni Buddha teaches is that moderation and self-contentment is
much more acceptable to the noble ones than the path of greed. Such teaching is
like the white medicine that acts as a panacea, balancing the four elements and
bringing peace to the world and harmony to its people. This path brings happiness
in this life and the next, and for that reason we should all follow it.
1.33 THE DZOGCHEN PROCESS NECESSARILY AND NATURALLY PRESERVES THE ENVIRONMENT
It is important to keep both outer and inner things unmodified. Until the mind is
kept in its authentic state without modification and without fabrication, neither