Written by Master Xuexiang as an answer to a disciples question.
From a larger view, climate change is a kind of automatic adjustment of the earth’s ecology, but it takes a long time. Maybe after hundreds of years, thousands of years, there might be slight changes, while in tens of thousands of years, hundreds of thousands of years, there will be obvious changes. I don’t have the specific knowledge and the accurate details of the specific years, but it is more or less like this. As for the abnormal climate changes, many are due to artificial reasons, for which I don’t need to give a lot of examples, as we all know this is common sense. Especially since the outbreak of the corona virus, many places have been closed for a long time, so in some local parks, etc., wild animals and all kinds of plants unexpectedly appeared. I think everybody knows who actually causes the destruction of the world climate. So if people want to change the climate, they should first change their mind.
Buddhism in this aspect has the biggest advantage. Buddhism doesn’t think God created everything, otherwise we can blame God for all the wars and environmental problems in the world and make it his fault. Because only he has the ability to create humans, but cannot help humans to live in harmony, unable to purify the world, his ability is limited. If human beings do not do well, he would then punish us.
I feel that this is not worthy of our trust, as the God’s creation mode is only then responsible for creation and punishment. Buddhism believes that the inside of our mind and things outside around us are two sides of the same coin, everything outside is closely related to everyone, the whole world is an expression of the heart, the heart and the world are not two separate things.
Of course, this view is not just the relationship between individuals and the whole, as some Eastern and Western philosophies say, but the relationship between the heart and the world is actually one thing. Therefore, Buddhism believes that if people want to change the world, they can only start from knowing the power of the mind, so that they can really change the world. Otherwise, if while repairing the environment people are constantly having bad thoughts, the world would then become worse and worse. This is a simple explanation, if we want to have deeper discussion, the content is very complex, so it’s suitable to elaborate on another occasion.