How might Buddhists respond to the ongoing ecological crisis? Loy builds some strong foundations here, on the way to an effective answer. I think his more concrete suggestions get weaker. This is a huge topic that is in the early stages of exploration, so it's really too much to expect a maturely ripe fruit at this point. A lot of what is here is just a restatement and summary of what one might find elsewhere, but there are some deep original ideas here too.

I've been involved in Buddhism for about forty years, and ecological at least aware and concerned for more like fifty. This book is really very close to the center of my core concerns. I found myself exclaiming "yes, but..." at quite a few points in my reading here. This would be an excellent book for readers both from the ecological and the Buddhist communities. I imagine everyone will nod in agreement at many points and be stopped at other points, but the particular reactions will vary a lot across that readership.

A key point that Loy makes here is that the climate crisis is just the tip of a vast iceberg, whose deeper layers are a much broader ecological crisis, social crises, and metaphysical outlooks that have spawned these problems. If we solve the climate crisis without addressing these deeper issues, we'll run into fresh symptoms quickly enough.

One beautiful thought I found here - surely I have heard this again and again, but somehow the way Loy put it hit me more deeply.... one main aspect of our problematic metaphysical outlook is how we treat the objects around us as tools we can use to fulfill our desires. We even treat time this way. The present moment is just a step on the path to the achievement of our goals.

Loy challenges Buddhism to change itself to become able to address these crises of our day. He repeats a slogan - Buddhism is not just what the Buddha said, it's also what the Buddha started. So Buddhism has evolved and can continue to evolve. Our problems now are systemic, structural. Loy brings up the idea of a collective self, to which Buddhist analysis and therapy might apply as they do to personal selves. These ideas will probably make tradition-bound Buddhists pause! Myself, I find them quite natural.

Loy puts a lot of hope in the notion of an eco-sattva, a sort of next step for a Bodhisattva. I agree that we do need such a new ideal. How such a new ideal might catalyze the kind of social transformation we need if we are to navigate any of the least miserable trajectories possible ahead of us... that's where I found the ideas in this book a bit weak. I can't really imagine very many people living up to any very high moral standard. Looking at the diversity of cultures around the world and through history, it's clear that profound change is possible, and that the ideals we hold are fundamental. Where I see a lot more exploration needed is in how our way of living and our ideals are related. One piece of that puzzle will be to look into the dynamics of societies, how they orbit in some stable basin for a few centuries, then somehow tumble into some different pattern. One way or another we are surely facing a period of tumbling. I am guessing that ideals and ways of living fit together differently in periods of tumbling versus periods of orbiting. ( )