The environment, or one's surroundings, provides an ideal vantage point through which to engage in an experiential learning process that can lead to improvements in the environment and one's quality of life. It is particularly suitable in a Buddhist context given Buddhism's ecological outlook among the world's belief systems. Buddhism is not a "religion" in the western sense, but a way of life that perceives all life, including so-called inanimate objects, as interconnected and interrelated. Physical reality, as quantum physics has again reminded us, is a seamless web of relationships, not the purview of a subject-object or fact-value separation. An ecological understanding of the environment is best seen, or experienced, in terms of a "humans-nature-culture matrix," as Sri Lankan Buddhist scholar Padmasiri de Silva pointed out at a regional seminar, "Toward an Environmental Ethic in Southeast Asia," organized in November 1997 by the Buddhist Institute in Phnom Penh. The seminar brought together religious scholars - mainly Buddhist, but also Muslim, and indigenous people's representatives - and environmentalists. The Buddhist Institute agreed to establish an Environmental Ethics in Southeast Asia Project (EESEAP) as a follow-up to the seminar. In 1998, EESEAP produced the proceedings of the seminar, "Toward an Environmental Ethic in Southeast Asia". Its sale at $25 ppd. provided initial funding for EESEAP. KEAP (P.O. Box 657, Crestone CO 81131/USA) is its distributor outside Asia. A complimentary copy of the proceedings is provided to anyone who donates $100 or more to any of the environmental activities and projects listed below.
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