Buddhist No-Self and Mindful Consumerism

Fundamental Buddhist concepts, such as interrelatedness, karma, and desire, readily tie into an ecologically sustainable perspective. These, and other Buddhist views and ideas, if integrated into daily life choices, have great potential for rectifying and enhancing human interactions with ecosystems and the universe as a whole. This paper is written in an attempt to investigate and encourage the role of Buddhists as mindful consumers through a two-fold synthesis. It incorporates the consideration of both Buddhist philosophy and ecological sustainability issues through academic literature review while illustrating the potential for active integration among the two areas of thought through the use of creative metaphor expansion and short fictional stories, in addition to more conventional academic style. It has been the attempt of the author to apply such a format for discussion without undermining the academic integrity of the paper and it is the hope of the author that such an approach will expedite a more thorough understanding of the topic