Religion and the Anthropocene

  After reading the Bhagavad Gita with great interest, I started reading another ancient scripture, the Buddhist scripture called the Diamond Sutra . It’s one of the most important texts of the Mahayana school of Buddhism, the most influential branch of Buddhism in China. I tried reading the version of the Diamond Sutra in ancient Chinese, translated from Sanskrit in the 400s and had quite a lot of trouble breaking down the ancient phrases. A recent introduction, Jingangjing Shuo Shenme (which translates to What the Diamond Sutra Discusses About), helped me begin to understand the Sutra. I think that out of all the schools of philosophy from different religions across the globe, that contained in the Diamond Sutra may be some of the most relevant to the era of the Anthropocene. The Anthropocene (perhaps better described as Capitalocene) shows the fatal consequences of a wrong understanding of the relationship of self and world. The Diamond Sutra offers many useful ideas for correct