THE ONENESS OF LIFE AND ENVIRONMENT
The Buddhist teaching known as "Esho Funi" reveals that life and its environment are essentially one. This concept, which is of course a particular aspect of the general oneness of all things in the universe, gives us human beings great insight on how we should live our lives.
Nichiren Daishonin, the 13th century Japanese sage, expressed it as follows in one of his writings: "Environment is like the shadow, and life, the body. Without the body there can be no shadow. Similarly, without life, environment cannot exist, even though life is supported by its environment".
We easily perceive our individual environments in their tangible aspects such as our home, our loved ones or our country. The principle of Esho Funi is that we are not simply conditioned by our environment and compelled to live our best within it but that, because there is no essential difference between our lives and our environment, our lives actually affect our environment and vice-versa.
For example, if one arrives home after work in an angry mood because things have not gone well during the day it does not take long for this anger to permeate the entire household. Petty squabbles and bickering are very likely to occur in these circumstances. If we realise this and decide to put the problems of the day into their correct perspective, we can arrive home with a smile on our face, full of pleasure at the thought of the evening ahead. This attitude will definitely be reflected in our environment. Those we meet will respond positively to our peaceful attitude. What a difference it makes!
Another important result of taking the teaching of Esho Funi to heart is that it becomes unthinkable to pollute our country or our planet in any way whatsoever for in doing so we are polluting our lives and the lives of all people including those we most love.
Our environment actually responds to us and to the way we habitually think. This is beautifully expressed in another of Nichiren's writings: "If the minds of the people are impure, their land is also impure, but if their minds are pure, so is their land. There are not two lands, pure and impure in themselves. The difference lies solely in the good or evil of our minds".