Now that we are almost finished, I would like to offer some suggestions on how science could be improved opon.

Firstly, restraint from without, through regulations and laws, including punishment for lawbreakers and so on, In Buddhism this is called ‘vinaya’.

The second way is restraint from within the individual, through intention. In most cases such intention arises from religious faith. If, for example, there is belief or confidence in religion, there is a readiness and willingness to restrain behaviour. Th

In short, the first way is vinaya - regulations and standards for constraining destructive actions, and the second way is sla – the conscious intention to be restrained within the restrictions thus imposed.

Both of these ways are related in that they are concerned with the control and training of behaviour. On a social level it is necessary to establish regulations, but these are not yet enough. We must also use sla, restraint from within, until moral conduct is fluent and regular.

In the example I am using here, our aim is to conserve nature. If we want everyone to help out in the conservation of nature, we must first instill the desire to do so into people's hearts. So from “conservation of nature'' we arrive at “wanting to conserve nature.”

From where does the desire to conserve nature arise? It arises from a love of nature. If there is an appreciation of nature, the desire to conserve it will naturally follow. But  that's not the end – people will only appreciate nature when they can live happily with nature.

It seems that most people have realized the importance of appreciating nature, but if that is all they see they are shortsighted. They are not seeing the whole chained conditions. As long as they fail to see all the factors involved, any attempts to address the problem will fail. We must search further down to find the beginning of the chain, to see what needs to be done to encourage people to appreciate nature.

A love of nature will arise with difficulty if people are not happy living with nature. People must have minds that are at ease living with nature before they can love nature, from where they can develop the desire to conserve nature, which in turn will lead to the actual work of conservation.

Even though there may be other factors or discrepancies in our chain of conditions, this much is enough to convey the general idea. It seems, though, that so far science has had an important role in obstructing this process from functioning. That is, the desire to seek happiness from the exploitation  of nature has caused people to feel, deeply within, that human beings can only be happy through technology, and that nature is an obstacle to this happiness.

Many children in the present day feel that their happiness lies with technology, they do not feel at all comfortable being with nature. They may even go so far as to see nature as and an enemy, an obstacle to their happiness. Nature must be conquered in order to enjoy the happiness of technology. Take a look at the minds of people in the present age. You will see that most people in society feel this way. This results from the influence of science in the recent Industrial Age.

The beliefs in conquering nature and seeking happiness in material goods, which are represented and advocated by technology, have held sway over the minds of human beings for such a long time that people have developed the feeling that nature is an enemy, an obstruction to human progress. As long as this kind of thinking prevails, it will be very difficult for human beings to love nature, because they will be tenable to find happiness within it.

For this reason, I say that our ways of thinking must be Changed. If we are to continue living in a natural world we must find a point of balance, and in order to do that we must develop an appreciation of nature, at least to see that nature can provide us with happiness. There is much beauty in nature, and technology can be used to enhance our appreciation of it.

In order to be more effective, constraint of behaviour needs  to be supported by mental conviction. If there is appreciation of skilful action and a sense of satisfaction in such behaviour, or there is sufficient drive to make us oluntarily begin to organize our behaviour in a constructive manner, then self- training need not be a forced or difficult operation.

Understanding of the situation opens people's minds and makes them receptive. If there is understanding that a certain action causes damage to the environment, which will in turn have a detrimental effect on human beings, we will have the incentive to change our behaviour.

Sometimes, however, in spite of understanding the ill-effects of something, we cannot change our behaviour, because the mind does not accept the truth on a deep enough level. That is why it is important for the mind to have both an an understanding of the situation on an intellectual level, and also an emotional feeling, an appreciation, an ability to be happy with nature. Scientific knowledge alone is not enough to induce people to change their ways, because of attachment to habits, personal gains, social preferences and so on. With enjoyment of nature as a base, any intellectual understanding, such as an understanding of the ecological system, will serve to deepen or fortify all qualities on the emotional level.

In order to really address the situation we must have a comprehensive solution. The methods of Buddhism are a comprehensive solution to the problem at all levels. There are three prongs ordinations of the Buddhist path. In Buddhism we call the first level sla, the constraint or control of moral behaviour within vinaya, laws and regulations. Restraint of action is achieved through intention, which is the essence of sla. Both these levels, regulations and moral intention, are included under the general heading of sla, training in moral conduct.

The second level concerns the mind, training the feelings, qualities and habits of the mind to be virtuous and skilful. This is the division known as samdhi, the training of the mind.

The third level is wisdom, pa, or knowledge and understanding. Wisdom is the quality which monitors the activities of the first and second levels, examining them and keeping them on the right track throughout. On its own, wisdom tends to be inactive, and so must be supported by training in moral conduct and meditation.

Wisdom not only supervises the practice of moral restraint and meditation, but also examines the negative side of things, seeing, for example, the harmful effects of any unskilful behaviour pattern, even in cases where such behaviour is enjoyable or profitable in some way. If such pleasure is seen to be in any way harmful, wisdom is the voice which tells us that such behaviour should be given up or corrected, and in which ways it can be done.