Natural Farming was first proposed by Mokichi Okada and Masanobu Fukuoka respectively in the late 1930s, and neither of their ideas is based on Buddhist thought. However, the concepts and practices of natural farming are very compatible with the teachings of the Buddha. The main purpose of this study is to explore the concept of natural farming corresponding to or inspired by the Buddhist bioethics from four aspects -- environment, sentient beings, plants and food. In this way, the Dharma can be used as a theoretical basis for the practice of natural farming, and natural farming can also be used as a Buddhist praxis, thus revealing Buddhist-style natural farming. This thesis is organized as follows. The first chapter explains the motive, purpose, literature review, methods, thesis structure and key concept of this study. The second chapter illuminates the inspiration of the view of Buddhist world and land on natural farming, explaining the significance of the world, the attitude towards the world and the evaluation of nature, and elaborating on the concept of turning the impure land to pure land. Actually, the adoption of natural farming is to purify the earth and transform the polluted land contaminated with pesticides and chemical fertilizers into pure land. The third chapter discusses the natural farming from the concept of sentient beings. I will clarify the meaning of sentient beings and different life forms, and then delineate Buddhist views of human beings and animals. Human beings with a superior status among the six realms of existence should be responsible for caring and protecting all sentient beings. The Buddhist ethics of compassion for and nonviolence to animals is very compatible with natural farming. The fourth chapter explores plants as the important protagonist in the natural farming. I will describe the viewpoints and attitudes of plants in the Buddhist scriptures, then investigate whether plants are sentient beings. I will further delineate the merits of planting trees and the protection of plants by modern Buddhism. The fifth chapter elaborates the connection between the Buddhist food concepts with natural farming. I will first expound the concepts of four nutriments in Buddhism and then argue the changes of the interaction between food and human body and mind , drawing on Aggañña Sutta in early Buddhism . Last but not least, I will elucidate a moderate diet and contentment with less desire in Buddhist practice.
