Literary Analysis Essay on 'Toward a Middle Path of Survival'

Introduction

The Western perception about environmental morals affirms that there is significant incoherence between nature and humanity as Kalupahana explain in the book, 'Toward a Middle Path of Survival' (Kalupahana, 1989). The author, however, disregards their viewpoints and gets apparent on the reasons for the opinion. Western culture provides that nature and environment have different meanings and can never get into comparison together. The existing incoherency of the relationship between nature and environment has made the Western cultures to disregard the value of life as depicted by Kalupahana's statement, "the West has failed to appreciate or value nature" (Kalupahana, 1989). The authors, therefore, takes a keen interest in Buddhist society as one of the dissenting groups in the Western countries with a firm stance that nature and environment have an absolute difference. The society's approach to paired opposites, and how they view the environment and life clearly describes their position that human and nature are different in terms of existing relations.

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Paired opposites, according to Kalupahana, involves virtues like good and evil, positive and negatives. The author affirms that it is not for someone to view the experience as right or wrong, good or bad, and even as positive or negative. The argument is backed by the fact that everyone has a personal view of whether an experience is good or bad depending on their reasons for undergoing experiences. The reason why someone may consider experience as negative always result from the fact that people have a different view on everything. Kalupahana adds that the paired opposites have a direct impact on each other due to the mutual provision of opportunities to the other. The Buddhist community, however, rejects the rule since their stance is rooted in the fact that does not necessarily base on the personal views. Their attitude that nature and human have no apparent relationship applies in many perspectives.

Kalupahana further argues that senses are not the primary determinants of knowledge. However, the author validates the knowledge that is gained through the sense experiences. According to the view, the sense experiences that provide an understanding of the opposites can still be valid (Kalupahana, 1989). On the other hand, the Buddhist beliefs affirm that only knowledge through the senses is the perfect ones. They firmly believe that experience is unable to complement any sense as held by their Western traditions. In counteracting their stance, the author even suggests that any knowledge that originates entirely from the senses is dangerous to human nature and should be scrutinized before any inception process. The author's regard of a substantial knowledge rejects the significance of senses in enriching a particular knowledge except if the knowledge acquiring process involves numerous experiences that complement the sense. The perspective, therefore, creates an optimistic view of life which the Buddhist community disregards.

The assertion that knowledge should not rely on senses for justifications is the finding from Advaita Vedanta School of thoughts (Kalupahana, 1989). A philosophical stance from the institution provides that consciousness that directly originates from ideas is detrimental to any practical application. The author's argument on 'hasty knowledge,' the oppositely less substantial, is therefore evident and provable (Kalupahana, 2016). The statements aim to clarify to the Buddhists that any knowledge requires further synthesis to make it more significant. Most Western cultures, however, object the assertion due to different opinions as held by their perspectives of environmental ethics. Their negligence of sense has led to numerous problems within their community like getting ejected from some of the Western lands as well as misleading their members. The Buddhist uncalculated step in making decisions have therefore created more problems to the communities and consequently proposed for a need to make changes.

Kalupahana surrenders to the fact that a person is unable to be knowledgeable about all the aspects of life and have the power to solve all the problems. This is a situation that everyone should accept since human nature is brought up in a manner that everybody has a specific field on abilities which is considered to be the pessimistic perception of life. According to the Buddhists perspectives of environmental ethics, one can know everything within reach and have a solution to any problem within the environment (Kalupahana, 1989). Their opinion does not correlate to the typical Eastern traditions as their view of nature and environment are different in all perspectives. For instance, the Asian angle of pessimistic view is increasingly apparent in their religious expression, which depicts some ties with the Buddhist stance. Moreover, many western cultures disregard s the pessimistic view of nature since they believe that nature and being have no relations regarding the concept.

In making the Western attitudes of environmental morals more apparent, the author further describes the Jaina thinkers as a group with dissenting notions that states that all responsibilities subjected to a person are likely to be completed without any external support. The only reason for that may make it impossible is the fact that the action may seem unfair to the subjected person. It is therefore clear that they disregard the pessimistic view of life and that everybody has a unique ability that requires in-depth subjection to be apparent.

According to Kalupahana, contemporary Buddhism perception and evaluation of life depends on correlating virtues. The religion has since changed in India to due to the various changes in the current society that has exposed them to different situation of life which are more practical than in the past (Keown, 2016). Their aim of ejecting the tradition was to redefine the misinterpretations that individuals had developed towards the norms of the entire Western cultures. The author describes the medieval Hindu groups to have significantly contributed to the changes that Buddhist communities have undergone. For instance, the Udayana Acarya, a member of the Hindu communities, were the primary participants in the activities that led to the extinction of Buddhism conceptions (Kalupahana, 1989). Their views that were broadly different from other communities are no longer the case. The reason is due to the efforts of the community to completely alter their interpretation of environmental ethics that regarded nature and human to possess absolutism in all perspectives.

Some of the primary reasons for rejection of Buddhism from some places like India mainly resulted from the adverse effects involved in the processes of human search and predicament (Kalupahana, 1989). In an attempt to understand Buddhism by the Hindu communities, they presumed that Buddhist upheld a tragic perception of life by embracing universal misery. Schopenhauer, a Hindu, believed in the existing opinion that eventually resulted in the formation of irreconcilable issues of the paired opposites (Kalupahana, 1989). The author expresses the viewpoints for disregarding the community since it could even guide the members to rightful choices. It is therefore apparent that their perspectives of nature and human beings was very unhealthy for their future generation.

The approach to hasty occasions without calculated steps in an attempt to avoid precise explanations is very unhealthy for human existence. The author considers Buddha's solution to specific societal issues to be of weak morals are likely to cost the entire community. He describes the community to be lacking the ability to oversee any future problem since they were not concerned with any long term life goals that would see them pass through difficult situations. The society was therefore considered to be lacking, 'the tough-minded' ability (Kalupahana, 1989). The author's advice to the community is to incorporate the aspect of experience before engaging any knowledge or opinion to protect society's future co-existence.

The Buddhists' perception of nature and human beings do not engage any second party involvement, and the author considers their views as less substantiated (Keown, 2016). The author adds that their explanation of experience loosely applies knowledge without any further consideration hence are disregarded. The Buddha's stance argues that human is a part of nature like any other living and non-living thing and do not qualify to have any special relationship with nature. The assertion is the main argument of the Buddha Community. On the other hand, the author refutes the Buddhist perception of nature by giving their explanation for considering nature to be having a more exclusive relationship with the human. Kalupahana affirms that the Buddhist community does not view life from a pessimistic point which can make them understand the nature and human. The author's stance on the preceding paragraph appears adamant due to the reason and justifications in the apparent readings.

References

Kalupahana, D. J. (1989). Toward a middle path of survival. Nature in Asian Tradition of Thought: Essays in Environmental Philosophy. Retrieved from http://buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/

Keown, D. (2016). The nature of Buddhist ethics. Springer. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/