Esho Funi
The Oneness Of Life and Environment
UK Express Aug.'96, Jane Seymour

Simply put, esho funi is a Japanese term for the Buddhist concept that expresses the oneness of life and it's environment. It is one of the ten onenesses identified by the eighth century Buddhist scholar and priest Miao-lo in his commentary on T'ien-t'ai's lecture Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra. The principle of esho funi explains the interdependent relationship which exists between life and it's environment.

Esho is a combination of two words: eho and shoho. Shoho menas the living self, or subjective world, and eho means the environment, or objective world which supports life. Funi is a term which is common to several Buddhist concepts. It is a contraction of nini-funi 'two but not two' and funi-nini 'not two but two'. This expresses the fundamental unity of beings and their environments.

We tend to regard the environment and the individual as two separate phenomena, seeing ourselves as 'inside' and 'outside', with our skin as a kind of dividing line. However, when we look deeper we can see that human existence is impossible to sustain without a supportive environment. If the individual is unable to take in food, water and air from the environment, he will die. Likewise, human beings can either support and protect the environment or damage and pollute it. Nichiren Daishonin says:

"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 it's environment." (Major Writings, Vol.4, pl.146).

So although self and environment might appear to be two, in reality they are inseparable. Furthermore, no two people share exactly the same environment - each individual creates a unique environment which is the result of his thoughts, words and actions.

This is easier to understand if we look at eho and shoho Both contain the word ho, which means manifest effect, or the concrete, perceptible appearance of karma. The presence of ho in both self (shoho) and environment (eho) indicates that it is our own actions, or karma, which shape the life of both the individual and his environment.

Looking at our environment we can see no 'stop point' at which it ends. The environment of the individual reaches out indefinitely into the uiniverse. For instance, the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl in Russia polluted farm lands as far away as Wales. Likewise the sun, although many millions of miles away, supports life on earth.

Budhhism teaches that the universe itself is one huge living entity whose cosmic life (Nam-myoho-renge-kyo) manifests as both living beings and the environment which supports them. Nichiren Daishonin says:

"Life at each moment encompasses both body and spirit and both self and environment of all sentient beings in every condition of life, as well as insentient beings - plants, sky and earth, on down to the most minute particles of dust." [On Attaining Buddhahood]

Therefore, incredible though it seems, the life of an individual is equivalent to the life of the universe. Likewise, the life of the universe is contained in the life of the individual. When we examine this from the standpoint of the Ten Worlds it follows that if my life-state is Hell, the response from my environmnet must be Hell too.

We often blame people and situations 'outside' ours control for the circumstances we find ourselves in. But the principle of esho funi shows that because the individual and his environment are inseparable, both the causes and the solutions to our problems are not 'outside' but rather, lie within us. When we chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, we base our actions on the highest life-state, Buddhahood. At that moment, the innate Buddhahood in the enviroment responds to us. As Nichiren Daishonin says:

"...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." [Attaining Buddhahood-Gosho]

The principle of esho funi teaches us that we don't have to wait for anyone or anything else to change. It starts with us. Any change in the environment is a manifestation of a change taking place simultaneously within individuals. This is what President Ikeda means when he says "...a great revolution of character in just a single man will help achieve a change in the destiny of all mankind." (The Human Revolution, VOl.1, SGI-UK, '94, p.v.)

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