“Pure Land” is made out of the compassion of the Mahayana Bodhisattvas. In the Mahayana sutras, the land, trees, and pond in the “Pure Lands,” are described in light of their religious implications rather than the environmental significance as they are portrayed as forming a “sacred space” in contrast to the “mundane space” and they can assist the beings’ religious practices residing in the Pure Lands. Therefore, for scholars of the environmental philosophy, how to draw on these thoughts for the discussion of environmental philosophy has become an issue. In this paper, I would like to analyze the possible implications of the idea “when one’s mind is pure, then the land will be pure.” I would like especially to single out the idea of “the purification of mind.” In the Pure Land sutras, the purity of the land is the result and the purity of one’s mind is the cause. The focal point in this statement is “people’s mind” but not “the land.” Therefore, the possible connection of this idea with Buddhist ecology will have to be pinpointed from a specific perspective. I will point out the clues that show us this connection lies in the idea of “attaining Buddhahood in polluted lands.” According to this theory, as a way to move ahead in one’s Boddhisattva path, one has to be committed to improve the world in which he lives in to attain Buddhahood. Although this interpretation is an extension of the Buddhist philosophy and not expounded in the sutra, but the necessity of attaining Buddhahood in the polluted land, but not the pure land, demonstrates the importance of the concern over the environment that one lives in in the Buddhist philosophy. Recent scholars working on Engaged Buddhism or “Buddhism in the Human Realm” usually give more attention on the aspect of “Purity” instead of the “Land.” In this paper, I will propose a Buddhist ecological interpretation of the idea “when one’s mind is pure, then the land will be pure as well” and try to formulate some basic principles in putting this ideal into practice.
