The world passes through alternating cycles of evolution and dissolution, each of which endures for a long period of time. Though change is inherent in nature, buddhism believes that natural processes are affected by the morals of man. According to the agga a sutta, 4 which relates the buddhist legend regarding the evolution of the world, the appearance of greed in the primordial beings mdash who at that time were self luminous, subsisting on joy, and traversing in the skies mdash caused the gradual loss of their radiance and their ability to subsist on joy and to move about in the sky. At that time the entire earth was covered over by a very flavorsome fragrant substance similar to butter. When beings started partaking of this substance with more and more greed, on the one hand their subtle bodies became coarser and coarser.

With the solidification of bodies differences of form appeared some were beautiful while others were homely. Thereupon conceit manifested itself in those beings, and the beautiful ones started looking down upon the others. As a result of these moral blemishes the delicious edible earth substance completely disappeared.

In its place there appeared edible mushrooms and later another kind of edible creeper. In the beings who subsisted on them successively sex differentiation became manifest and the former method of spontaneous birth was replaced by sexual reproduction. Self growing rice appeared on earth and through laziness to collect each meal man grew accustomed to hoarding food. As a result of this hoarding habit, the growth rate of food could not keep pace with the rate of demand. After private ownership of land became the order of the day, those who were of a more greedy disposition started robbing from others' plots of land. To curb the wrong doers and punish them a king was elected by the people and thus the original simple society became much more complex and complicated. The point i wish to emphasize by citing this evolutionary legend is that buddhism believes that though change is a factor inherent in nature, man's moral deterioration accelerates the process of change and brings about changes which are adverse to human well being and happiness.

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The cakkavattisihanada sutta of the digha nikaya predicts the future course of events when human morals undergo further degeneration. 5 gradually man's health will deteriorate so much that life expectancy will diminish until at last the average human life span is reduced to ten years and marriageable age to five years. Will have disappeared from the earth what is considered the poorest coarse food today will become a delicacy of that day. Thus buddhism maintains that there is a close link between man's morals and the natural resources available to him. According to a discourse in the anguttara nikaya, when profligate lust, wanton greed, and wrong values grip the heart of man and immorality becomes widespread in society, timely rain does not fall. When timely rain does not fall crops get adversely affected with various kinds of pests and plant diseases.

6 thus several suttas from the pali canon show that early buddhism believes there to be a close relationship between human morality and the natural environment. This idea has been systematized in the theory of the five natural laws pa ca niyamadhamma in the later commentaries. 7 according to this theory, in the cosmos there are five natural laws or forces at work, namely utuniyama lit. Seed law , cittaniyama, kammaniyama, and dhammaniyama. they can be translated as physical laws, biological laws, psychological laws, moral laws, and causal laws, respectively. While the first four laws operate within their respective spheres, the last mentioned law of causality operates within each of them as well as among them.

This means that the physical environment of any given area conditions the growth and development of its biological component, i.e. The morals of man influence not only the psychological makeup of the people but the biological and physical environment of the area as well. Thus the five laws demonstrate that man and nature are bound together in a reciprocal causal relationship with changes in one necessarily bringing about changes in the other.

The commentary on the cakkavattisihanada sutta goes on to explain the pattern of mutual interaction further. 8 when mankind is demoralized through greed, famine is the natural outcome when moral degeneration is due to ignorance, epidemic is the inevitable result when hatred is the demoralizing force, widespread violence is the ultimate outcome. If and when mankind realizes that large scale devastation has taken place as a result of his moral degeneration, a change of heart takes place among the few surviving human beings. With gradual moral regeneration conditions improve through a long period of cause and effect and mankind again starts to enjoy gradually increasing prosperity and longer life. The world, including nature and mankind, stands or falls with the type of moral force at work. If immorality grips society, man and nature deteriorate if morality reigns, the quality of human life and nature improves. This is one reason the buddha has pronounced that the world is led by the mind, cittena niyati loko. 9 thus man and nature, according to the ideas expressed in early buddhism, are interdependent.

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For survival mankind has to depend on nature for his food, clothing, shelter, medicine, and other requisites. For optimum benefits man has to understand nature so that he can utilize natural resources and live harmoniously with nature. By understanding the working of nature mdash for example, the seasonal rainfall pattern, methods of conserving water by irrigation, the soil types, the physical conditions required for growth of various food crops, etc. But this learning has to be accompanied by moral restraint if he is to enjoy the benefits of natural resources for a long time. The resources of the world are not unlimited whereas man's greed knows neither limit nor satiation.

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Modern man in his unbridled voracious greed for pleasure and acquisition of wealth has exploited nature to the point of near impoverishment. One writer says that within forty years americans alone have consumed natural resources to the quantity of what all mankind has consumed for the last 40 years. 10 the vast non replenishable resources of fossil fuels which took millions of years to form have been consumed within a couple of centuries to the point of near exhaustion. This consumerism has given rise to an energy crisis on the one hand and a pollution problem on the other. Man's unrestrained exploitation of nature to gratify his insatiate greed reminds one of the traditional parable of the goose that laid the golden eggs. 11 buddhism tirelessly advocates the virtues of non greed, non hatred and non delusion in all human pursuits.