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to acquire and enjoy the commodities it turns out by sucking in and transforming the biosphere. A life revolving around production and consumption means people are persistently beset by insatiable craving, restlessness, and a chronic sense of lack: the ills of modernity. When viewed against this background, the crisis of global warming can be read as an object lesson on the limits of the prevailing paradigm of market economics. It points to the need to develop an alternative economic vision grounded in a more respectful conception of human nature. In place of the old model of market capitalism, in which the driving force of the economy is the exchange of money for goods and services, we need an economy governed by the principle of sufficiency: one which reveres the intrinsic beauty and value of the natural world; gives priority to the full development of the human person; promotes a wide sense of human community; and addresses the broad dynamics of what constitutes human happiness.

In brief, the crisis of global warming compels us to look far beyond the immediate exigencies that a changing climate itself portends and assigns us the task of forging a new vision of human life, one that can integrate our endeavor to achieve a satisfactory standard of living for people all across the planet with the need to actualize our highest potentials while cherishing the biosphere that nurtures and sustains our lives.

Why Buddhism Needs the West

David Loy

The West can certainly benefit from Buddhism, but David Loy believes the opposite is also true. While Buddhism offers the West profound wisdom and a path to spiritual liberation, the Western world offers political and social perspectives often lacking in Eastern traditions. Loy, one of Western Buddhism’s most interesting thinkers, argues that the combination of Buddhist philosophy and modern political, economic, and social thought makes a complete package for human progress.

In an oft-cited statement, which might be apocryphal, the British historian Arnold Toynbee said, “The coming of Buddhism to the West may well prove to be the most important event of the twentieth century.” Given the monumental social, political, and scientific changes of the last century, that claim seems pretty unlikely. But Toynbee may have noticed something the rest of us need to see: that the interaction between Buddhism and the West is crucial today, because each emphasizes something the other is missing. Whether or not Toynbee actually made this observation, the significance of the encounter may be nearly as great as his statement suggests.

For many Western convert Buddhists, the claim that Buddhism provides what the West lacks seems reasonable enough. They are, after all, converts. But I believe the opposite is also true: the West offers something just as important to Buddhism, something Buddhism needs if it is to fulfill its vision of human potential. In a way that neither seems to be aware of, Buddhism and the West need each other to complete themselves. To many partisans of either tradition, this idea may sound absurd or even insulting. Certainly it is challenging. Above all, however, it is hopeful.

In his 1969 book Earth House Hold, the Buddhist poet and essayist Gary Snyder wrote, “The mercy of the West has been social revolution; the mercy of the East has been individual insight into the basic self/void. We need both.” Over the years, this observation has been quoted many times by those making the case for a more socially engaged Buddhism. The challenge is to better understand the relationship between the two: the mercy of the East and the mercy of the West.

What mercy does Buddhism offer the West? For those who read this book, answers to that question may already be apparent, but let’s be precise. Buddhist teachings emphasize the basic connection between suffering (dukkha) and the absence of an abiding self (anatta). Why are we constantly dissatisfied? It’s because our sense of self, being a delusion, is incapable of finding lasting satisfaction. We are unable to find happiness in our