the external nor the internal worlds can be kept in the same natural manner.
Mental contrivance is the main cause of ecological imbalance. For this reason,
first, we need to keep pure presence unmodified and free of greedy thoughts and
other emotions so that we remain empty of any need for control of the exterior.
Then gradually the imbalance of the external ecology will be rectified, and the
mind will be free of attachment, aversion, ignorance, and delusion so that
contentment arises naturally. With this contentment, striving for development will
decrease, and this will help to reduce global warming.
About contentment, Sri Saraha sang,
Contentment is the ultimate wealth;
Detachment is the final happiness.This is surely true. So we need to strive to tame the mind and give it stability.
There are many experts in this world who presume to train the mind, but there is
none better than the Buddha.
Once king Bimbisara of Magadha gave an elephant to an elephant trainer and
asked him to train it well, promising that he would be handsomely rewarded.
After many months of training, the elephant was completely obedient. The trainer
then presented the elephant to the king, and the king was delighted, and gave the
trainer a large gift. But one day when the king and his two queens were riding the
elephant in the forest, enjoying the beauty of nature, the elephant, suddenly
paying no attention to the king’s commands, went mad and stampeded. The king
and his queens thought that they would be thrown off and killed, but they were
lucky enough to become caught up in the branches of a tree, which surely saved
their lives. The elephant was lost in the forest. Back at the palace, the king ordered
the elephant trainer brought before him and accused him of lying and
incompetently training the elephant. The king threatened a dire punishment. The
trainer protested that he had trained the elephant’s body but that he could not
control its mind. “When the smell of a female elephant entered his nostrils, he
went mad and had to run to her,” he said “Wait a few days, and after the elephant
has mated with the female, he will return.” The king gave the trainer the benefit
of the doubt and waited for a few days, and the elephant did indeed return. When
presented before the king, the trainer ordered the elephant to pick up a bar of
burning iron. The elephant did this without hesitation. The king thus regained
faith in the trainer. “Who is the best mindtrainer?” the king asked the trainer.
“Shakyamuni Buddha!” came the reply.
Practicing buddha-dharma, we should tame the mind; thereby we will gain the
wealth of contentment as well as release from both attachment to external objects
and striving after them. The ecological balance will be redressed thereby, and the
environment will benefit.
Consider these events: my enemy has harmed me, so I am going to confront him,
fight him, defeat him, and teach him a lesson; my girlfriend is having an affair
with another man, so I am going to beat her so that she will not do it again. We
think that through aggression we can control the external world and be happy, but
such thinking is just the common error of ordinary people. In The Thirty-Seven