[Son of Númenor]

I think there should be some implication underlying any viewpoint expressed here on the Downs. There is no underlying implication that I can see in The Ka's post: is it that LotR has influenced, or was influenced by, Buddhism? Is it that Buddhists can find spiritual guidance in LotR?

This viewpoint influenced the questions he raised and the ideas he put forward. While Tolkien was a "lover of trees", he was not involved with an organized ecomogical movement and his own views were expressed in a very different way.

But Tolkien's views on the subject were expressed nonetheless -- unlike whatever views he may have had on Buddhism. Curry's book seems to have been written with a clear agenda of promoting ecological awareness. That is very different from merely stating similarities between The Lord of the Rings and a religion when the similarity is obviously coincidental, and when there is no supportable assertion or hypothesis drawn from the revelation of the similarities. A post about Tolkien's views about the environment, supported with evidence, from an environmentalist's point of view, might add to my understanding of Middle-earth (which is, I think we can all agree, the purpose of the Downs). I fail to see how a post about rough similarities between Buddhism and the 'mythological structures' of Middle-earth can do that.