CONTENTS

• Preface
   
• Chapter 1 : The Economic Hidden Agenda behind every war
    
• Chapter 2 : Distinguishing Principles of Buddhist Microeconomics
   
• Chapter 3 : Buddhist Microeconomics for the Here and Now
    
• Chapter 4 : Buddhist Microeconomics for the Hereafter
    
• Chapter 5 : Buddhist Microeconomics on the Ultimate Level
    
• Chapter 6 : Summary of Threefold Goals in Buddhist Microeconomics 
• Chapter 7 : Buddhist Macroeconomics
   
• Chapter 8 : Conclusion 

Preface

Buddhists often tend to disregard economics completely, because
the monastic way of life idealized by Buddhism is economically very
minimalist. Such neglect of comment concerning economic values is not
warranted, however, because the Buddhist scriptures are in fact rich with
advice from the Buddha regarding sound economic values — and they are applicable
to monastic and lay lifestyles alike. 

The availability of teachings, is not, however, the only reason
Buddhists should take an interest in economics. Of all the reasons for
compiling a treatise in Buddhist economics, the most pressing reason
Buddhists have to sit up and take notice of economic issues is because if we
don’t, abuse of economic principles will continue to escalate conflict in the
world. The whole history of our planet from ancient times until now has been
punctuated by wars — whether they be world wars or more localized ones –
and as Buddhists see it, the outbreak of war can usually be traced back to
financial strife, or else problems of the abuse of economic knowledge.
However, once war breaks out, the nature of the problem is often distorted to
make it look as if it is a problem of religious or ethnic conflict.

In the West we are accustomed to feeling a sense of relief when we
hear that the economy is booming — however, we sometimes fail to realize
what those economic figures actually reflect in terms of quality of life.
Ironically, all it takes for a country to be considered economically strong
is for its economic figures to look good. If every household in a certain
country or society were wealthy, of course that country or society would have
good economic figures to show for itself. In Thailand, however, the majority
of the population are economically poor. It is only a small minority of
population who are wealthy — thus, how can Thailand possibly be considered
economically strong? If you want to have an accurate picture of the economy
of any country, you have to take a long hard look at the wealth of the
majority — not just at the collective figures. It is the economic status of
the majority which most accurately reflects the true economic state of that
country or society.

Economic values in Buddhism are concerned with quality of life.
But in Buddhism we define quality of life not only in terms of material
comfort, but also in terms of mental wellbeing and ultimately liberation of the
mind from negative latent tendencies. Thus, value is put on sometimes quite
abstract qualities. As in the words of the Buddhist nun, Kuhn Yay Ratana
Upasika Chandra Khonnokyoong who founded Wat Phra Dhammakaya in Thailand:

“with a well-trained group of
people in front of me ready to work for good in society, I fell that I am
already a multimillionnaire — because even if I were to have ten million, I
could still not guarantee being able to train up such a group.”

Contrary to popular opinion, the
Buddha never prohibited wealth — but he did prohibit poverty. Happiness
appropriate to a householder (A.ii.69) includes ownership [atthisukha],
enjoyment [bhogasukha], freedom from debt [ananasukha] and
blamelessness [anavajjasukha]. Buddhism praises contentment [santu.t.thi]
and limited desires [appicchata] but not poverty. What is important as
a Buddhist, however, in the economic process, whether one is earning, saving
or using money, is that one should never compromise one’s principles. Once
wealthy, as a Buddhist one should use one’s wealth in a way that supports a
wholesome aim in life — not to fritter away money away aimlessly or in a way
that leads to further proliferation of defilements of greed, hatred or
delusion in the mind. It is not to say that riches cannot buy happiness –
but riches used aimlessly may create more damage than good. Riches, if they
are to bring happiness, must be applied to support the emergence of higher
spiritual values — especially virtues and virtuous people — which according
Buddhist economics have more value than anyone can put a price on.

Originally this book was intended to deal solely with Buddhist
Economics, however after the warlike events of 11 September 2001, the present
author would like to extend the scope of this book to show how the build-up
of economic tensions can be blamed for these sort of incidents.

1

The Economic Hidden Agenda behind
every war

The abuse of economic knowledge has
beset our interactions with the economy all the way from earning, to saving
and expenditure — every step of the economic process being vulnerable to
those who respect no ethical guidelines. In spite of this, western economics
seems to turn a blind eye to ethical issues surrounding the economic process.
Ethical issues are often intentionally overlooked under the pretext of being
‘objective’ — but alas, this leaves the door open to all sorts of economic
exploitation — and even though opponants might never be threatened with
knives or guns, the positioning that goes on behind the scenes of the world
economy is no less cruel than out-and-out aggression. Economic exploitation
in the present day has proliferated to the point that entire populations of
countries are forced into compromises that leaves them strait-jacketed with
regard to the appropriation of their own finances. This is the reality of
economic ‘colonization’ in many countries of the world even at this very
moment — and Thailand is just one of many countries that seems to have
become an economic plaything to more dominant superpowers.

In response to obvious injustice, it is hard to deny that
understanding of economics attuned to ethical values must start by addressing
two issues: 

• the scrupulousness of how
  wealth is accrued  
• the scrupulousness of those
  who accrue it  

The seriousness of economic
exploitation, of course depends on how far people are prepared to go to
achieve their economic ends. Are they to kill each other or does their
conscience cause them to stop short of this merely at indirect (political or
diplomatic) pressure? In brief, it can be said that when resources are
acquired, hoarded or used unscrupulously, it soon leads to conflict and chaos
throughout the world. Insignificant incidences of exploitation gradually
exacerbate the burden of bitterness which eventually stops short at nothing
less than armed conflict.

The Economics of
Exploitation

Having recognized the implications of economic exploitation (even without
knowing who is taking advantage of whom) we can start to appreciate that the
web of economic exploitation has become so complex that it is difficult to
know a beginning or an end of it. When one nation’s army turns its guns on
another, far from starting a war, they are the products of a war started long
ago through economic exploitation. In the absence of any ethical guidelines,
when any means seems justified by economic ends, it is no surprise that the
conflicts continue to escalate — violence has indeed proliferated to a point
where it is difficult to see how we personally can do anything to
ameliorate the situation, without remedies of a similarly large scale.

Condoning unethical economic practices is to kindle the flames of
war on our planet. Wars like the Crusades, lasted for longer than a century
— and upon first sight they might seem to have been nothing more than a
religious war between Christians and Moslems, however, if examined in more
depth, they turn out to have been the result of badly organized economic
policy admixed with incompatability of beliefs. If you look beneath the
surface of any other religious war which has broken out in history, you will
always find a hidden agenda of economic advantage behind the conflict. It is
only with the admixture of other elements that turns the conflict into a war.
If it wasn’t for economic difficulties, in spite of differences of belief,
why should different groups want to interrupt ‘business as usual’? However,
any day economic progress becomes obstructed and a political tinder box
doesn’t emerge spontaneously, it is not usually long before ethnic and
religious differences will provide the necessary spark. To the uninitiated,
of course it looks like a war motivated by ethnic or religious conflict . . .

Even the battle for
Ayutthaya had economic roots

Even the most famous invasion of Thailand in 1564 when the (then) capital of
Ayutthaya was sacked by the Burmese is popularly believed to have been a
fight over ‘royal white elephants’. The first invasion took place in the
reign of King Maha Chakrap’at. At that time the region of Ayutthaya, extended
as far south as Rangsit and the present site of Wat Phra Dhammakaya. The
populace were renowned for elephant husbandry — especially elephants for use
in royal service — and several of these included the legendary ‘white
elephants’. According to eye-witness accounts, even as recently as fifty
years ago, there was still a large shallow pond in front of Wat Phra
Dhammakaya, which previously was used as a watering hole for the elephants of
the vicinity. At that time, although the whole area was densely forested, the
presence of herds of elephants made the area of strategic importance, because
as well as being the royal ‘chargers’, trained elephants were the most
indefatiguable ‘machines of war’ (equivalent to the modern-day tanks).

The news of the abundance of elephants reached the ears of King
Bayinnaung of Burma, who sent an emissary to ask for a pair of ‘white
elephants’ for himself in 1563.

Of course Thailand would never agree to part with any white
elephants — and that was known full well in advance by King Bayinnaung. He
knew that when the refusal came, he would have an excuse to go to war with
Thailand. When a battle ensued in 1564, it turned out that it was the Thais
who lost on their home ground as a result of their lack of strategy and
unity. That is the popular history of the outbreak of war. However, in
reality it would be crazy for any king to risk the life and limb of large
numbers of his subjects just out of the whim of acquiring an elephant. There
ought to be more substantial reasons for the war breaking out in those times.

Much later the present author came across the description of a
historical document found in about 1987 by Professors Prasert na Nakorn and
Sukit Nimmanmain. It was a letter describing how the Lanna Kingdom had used
to trade with Burma in silver, gold, herbs (especially alloe, cinnamon and
spices), lac and honey. According to the document Lanna changed its policy on
trade and started trading with Ayutthaya instead of Burma. Originally Burma
had no interest in the spice trade, but when Europe started trading in spices
through India, it saw its chance to dominate the market. Burma had become a
wealthy middle man for spices traded between Lanna and the Europeans in
India.

Ayutthaya, however, was also a spice trading centre — but its
prices were lower than those of Burma. It was no real difficulty for the
trading ships from Europe to round the peninsular at Singapore to trade with
Thailand instead of Burma. Within a relatively short period of time, all the
Lanna traders decided to supply Ayutthaya instead of Burma. In addition, to
take their merchandise to Ayutthaya was easier than taking it to Burma
because it was all downstream. Thus Ayutthaya could be a cheaper middleman
than Burma and this was the real reason for the conflict that grew up between
Burma and Thailand. This is why King Bayinnaung (and King Tabinshwehti before
him) wanted to sack Ayutthaya — and the white elephant was only an excuse –
but he got lucky in the ensuing war and conquered Siam. Thus the reason for
the first invasion of Ayutthaya was for economic reasons.

The second fall of Ayutthaya in 1569 was partly revenge for the
rebel Sett’at’irat’s subsequent counterattack against Burma in 1566 but
analysed more deeply, Burma could only sack Ayutthaya a second time because
the Thais were competing amongst themselves for economic power and at that
time, towards the end of the Ayutthaya dynasty, vice had become very
widespread in the old capital. Even the king was up to his neck in ‘roads to
ruin’. Wherever there is economic prosperity to excess, as we shall discover
later in this book, there will be an upsurge various sorts of vice and
addiction.

In conclusion, we can say that Buddhist economics and western
economics diverge whenever economic advantage is used as a reason to justify
conflict. In Buddhism economics, economic advantage is not seen as adequate
means to justify ignoble ends.

Having identified the real roots of world conflict, it is no
longer useful to look for who to blame. To look for scapegoats is
really only an admission of our own inadequecies or laziness to recognize our
own part in the problem. It would be more appropriate that we start to study
the ethical issues surrounding economics as outlined in the remainder of this
book while doing our personal best to be most scrupulous in all respects.

Scrupulous macroeconomics on the level of national policy has to
be built on the foundation of scrupulous on the individual (microeconomic)
level. Economics on both levels are dealt with in the remainder of this book.

2

The Distinguishing features of
Buddhist Economics

There are many points of similarity
and difference between Western Economics and Buddhist Economics. What the two
have in common is in their recognition of three stages in the economic
process. However, in the detail of each of the three stages, we find
significant divergence: 

• acquisition of wealth:
  While Western Economics recognizes acquisition as important, it gives virtually
  no guidelines for the ethical limits of scrupulous acquisition –
  especially concerning livelihood. Anything that doesn’t break the Law is
  seen as fair play. Unfortunately, the Law is a very rough and ready
  indicator of ethical behaviour. In the olden days where morality was a
  part of common sense, the Law might have been seen to offer sufficient
  guidelines, however, in the present day, that can no longer be said to
  be true. When the way people acquire their wealth is no more ethical
  than the way animals hunt their prey, that is the point where humans
  become prepared to kill each other for their wealth — even if people
  still have sufficient conscience not to kill each other overtly for
  wealth, it doesn’t mean they won’t attempt to do so covertly by economic
  exploitation — where direct killing means setting about each other with
  weapons and indirect killing means pressurizing, cheating and exploiting
  others by various means.
    
• conservation of wealth:
  Having acquired wealth surplus to one’s needs, the remainder needs to be
  stored or shared. Animals will tend to hoard as much as they can without
  any consideration of ethical fairness. If you watch any African wildlife
  documentary you will see how in the dry season the big cats don’t have
  to go out hunting, but sculk by the watering hole, dominating that
  scarce resource, so that they can prey on anything that comes to drink
  there. The big cat will get both water to drink and easy meat just by
  staying close to the watering hole. This is the way animals hoard their
  requisites — without any consideration of ethicality. How do people
  measure up to these animal ways? As we all know, some acquire wealth
  scrupulously — while others disregard ethicality completely or
  partially. Hoarding wealth in a way that disregards ethicality includes
  limiting the supply of resources to the point that others risk death
  because of the lack of these things in the marketplace. In the present
  day, this often happens — for example when oil-producing countries
  limit the supply of their produce to force the prices up — to the
  degree that their potential customers must suffer. In such a case
  Buddhists would no longer agree with Western economics that such
  hoarding is ethically justified and would favour the sale of such
  products at a moderate price. It is frightening to consider what would
  happen if the food producing countries were to start hoarding their
  products — there would be dire consequences for the rest of the world.
    
• employment of weath for benefit or to
  satisfy desires: When spending, Buddhist economics again
  diverges from Western Economics, because it advocates spending one’s
  resources:
   

• in moderation: ‘Moderation’
  is the keyword when it comes to the beneficial deployment of wealth.
  Moderation in spending depends largely on a person’s ability to
  distinguish between need and want. Necessary wealth can be broken down
  into the Four Requisites of clothing, food, shelter and medicine.
  Buddhists define ‘need’ as clothing enough to protect oneself from heat
  and cold, food to stave off hunger, shelter to protect us from the
  elements and medical care to treat us when we are ill (as mentioned in
  the verses of the Buddhist monk’s recollection [M.i.10, Nd.496]). If
  one is clear in one’s mind what constitutes a ‘need’, one will see consumption
  for what it really is — that is, merely a means to an end. If we
  confuse ‘wants’ with ‘needs’, however, as encouraged by modern
  marketing forces, we will err into regarding consumption as an end in
  itself. However because people have the tendency never to know enough
  of a good thing, ‘need’ has given way to ‘want’. When people want
  anything they can get their hands on, their ethical considerations tend
  to be forgotten. The Buddha would see moderation as an antidote for
  consumption to excess and would say that moderation in fact contributes
  to economic wellbeing. Most people are most interested in how high
  their income is. However, more important still is how much you are left
  with at the end of the month. In the olden days, they used to say “Don’t
  just eat because you feel like it — eat when you are hungry
  . . .” — because we can feel like eating twenty-four hours
  a day! If there was nothing more to moderation than appetite, then we
  would need to be no more intelligent than a cow which chews cud at one
  end and drops cowpats from the other. It is not the income which counts
  but how much is left after the expenses. The secret of having something
  left is to expend only in case of need (not want). However, because
  people know no moderation in their consumption, resources become scarce
  and there is not much remaining difference between how such people make
  their living and how scavenging birds fight over their carrion.
  However, moderate consumption is hardly something supported by Western
  economics.
   
• only in order to give
  the greatest possible amount of true happiness for all:
  Consider how much the world could be improved if all the money
  squandered worldwide on gambling, drugs and prostitution were
  redirected into feeding the hungry, giving basic education or
  instilling virtue in the hearts of our planet’s citizens? Even if not
  all the money were to be redirected — maybe just 5-10%, our world
  would be a much more attractive place to live in! Unfortunately,
  because such a large amount of money has been sunk into businesses
  involved with vice, our whole world has become inundated with the
  contingent social problems — and consequently, the opportunity to
  encourage virtue in society diminishes with every passing year.
   

3

Buddhist Micro-economics for the
here-and-now

The Buddha gave a total of four principles of economic practice
for finding happiness in the present lifetime [di.t.t.hadhammikattha-sa.mvattanika
dhamma] (A.iv.281): 

1. Diligent acquisition
   [u.t.thaanasampadaa]: Diligent acquisition means skilfulness in
   the acquisition of wealth. Diligent acquisition refers to the habits of
   a person who works hard for their living — in contrast to those who are
   too lazy to make the effort. It also refers to the patience needed for
   people to work together as a team and the wisdom to recognize the work
   left undone — being able to perform, organize and administer the work
   as required. The most important feature of this first stage of the economic
   process can be summarized as acquiring wealth in an ethical way. As
   Buddhists we would say that taking advantage of others economically, in
   whatever form, is unethical acquisition of wealth. Particular
   forms of livelihood which the Buddha advised us to avoid in this respect
   are the five sorts of Unwholesome Livelihood [micchaa va.nijjaa]
   (A.iii.207) mentioned below:
     

1. trading in weapons:
   The weapon trade is a major source of income for every superpower of
   the world. It is only normal that those who supply weapons will be on
   the receiving end of hatred from the victims of the destruction caused
   by the weapons they have sold. Selling weapons is the starting point of
   a long chain of negative karmic consequences. Weapons have had a part
   in every violent catastrophe occurring worldwide over the years — and
   it is not our place here to say who is right or wrong — but no-one can
   deny the magnitude of the death toll coming from armed conflict. Not
   selling weapons means refraining from any sort of trade in instruments
   for destroying life, whether it be guns, knives or even hunting
   equipment like traps or bait. Anything used for killing people or
   animals are considered weapons for the purposes of Unwholesome
   Livelihood. Even without physically harming a person, maltreatment can
   cause resentment which lasts across lifetimes — thus, it is up to all
   of us to check our own aggression without waiting for prodding from
   others . . .
    
2. trading in people:
   Trading in people is also making profit out of the suffering of others.
   It formerly meant trading in slaves, but nowadays has come to include
   child labour, wage-slaves and prostitution;
    
3. selling live animals to the
   slaughterhouse: Selling live animals to the
   slaughterhouse is taking a profit from the suffering of animals in a
   way that leads inevitably to their death;
    
4. trading in alcohol or intoxicants: Trading
   in alcohol and intoxicants including non-medicinal drugs such as
   marijuana;
    
5. trading in poison: Trading
   in poison means selling poison such as insecticide or rat-poison. The
   Buddha advised us not to sell such agents because otherwise their
   retribution will find its way back to us. Even though when we sell the
   poison it has not yet caused any harm, but as soon as it is used it has
   the same potency as already mentioned for weapons. If only we were to
   follow the Buddha’s advice more widely we wouldn’t have to waste our
   time in the present day for so much campaigning for biologically grown
   vegetables.
     

It is not to say that
there are no more than these five ways of unwholesomely earning a living –
but these are the main ones. Thus if you would like to know where to start
looking for ways to reduce the amount of conflict in the world, the present
author’s advice would be to start by minimizing your involvement with Unwholesome
Livelihood. The Buddha taught that any person who lapses into Unwholesome
Livelihood will eventually attract a heavy burden of negative karma for
themselves. Other ways of making money which involve economic exploitation in
various ways can also be included as unwholesome livelihood, such as criminal
activities, or for example:
 

• Making one’s living out of interest:
  The present author’s still remembers when he was a child, his mother
  always maintained, “In our household and our family we have never
  liked living off the interest earned from the money we lend to
  others.” She explained, “It is making a living out of the
  suffering of people who are incompetent in managing their own finances.
  If they were really competent in their financial management, they
  wouldn’t have to come borrowing money from the likes of us! Those who
  are financially careless would rather borrow at a high interest rate
  than go without — which would indicate that they don’t have much idea
  about the effective way to earn, save and use their finances. If you
  get too involved with these sort of people, it will just lead you to
  unnecessary frustration. If you really want to help such people, then
  just give the money to them without strings attached. It is not
  worthwhile to extend the mutual agony of having to be paid back for the
  interest on a loan.”
   
1. Careful conservation
   [aarakkhasampadaa]: Careful conservation means skilfulness in the
   saving of wealth. Having earned wealth by the sweat of one’s brow in a
   scrupulous way, a person should take good care of their wealth, not
   allowing it to be eroded away by unjust taxation, theft, natural
   disaster or unintended inheritants. As for unwholesome conservation of
   wealth — this refers to excessive hoarding or stockpiling as mentioned
   above. Furthermore, when saving up one’s wealth — one should not allow
   doing so to bring us into conflict with those around us. Good reasons to
   put money on the side, according to Buddhist principles (A.iii.45) are
   in case of emergency such as repairing the consequences of fire, flood,
   excess taxation, theft or exhortion by malevolent relatives! You have to
   consider carefully, however what form you ought to save your money in.
   Of course the best way to conserve your wealth is as transcendental
   wealth or merit (see self-sacrifice of Chapter 4) — because in such a
   form it is beyond the touch of interest rates and it will appreciate
   with the passing of the years — thus saving in the form of
   transcendental wealth is really the most skilful way of conserving one’s
   wealth.
    
2. Having virtuous friends
   [kalyaa.namittata]: Having virtuous friends means surrounding
   yourself with a network of virtuous friends in all areas of your life.
   The sort of friends one should cultivate are those endowed with faith [saddha],
   self-discipline [siila], self-sacrifice [caaga] and wisdom
   [pa~n~naa]. Apart from facilitating our cultivation of wisdom, it
   will also strengthen the network of good friends of which we are a part.
   Such networking is particularly relevant to teamwork because when one
   earns one’s living, one does not usually do so alone — whether it be
   working in the same office as one’s colleagues or cooperating in an
   international network. The most important attribute of teamwork is that
   the team members must have a similarly high level of scrupulousness in
   their work dealings and a similarly high level of faith in spiritual
   teachings. Furthermore, everyone in the team should have a similarly
   high level of self-sacrifice, dedicated to the collective good –
   thereby avoiding the dangers of networking with those who are overcome
   by their own selfishness. The Buddha taught that worldly wealth is
   exhausted in a moment — but the value of training other people to be
   virtuous never knows an end. The importance of this virtue is emphasized
   over and over again by the Buddha — who especially in the context of
   economics, taught that simply acquiring, storing and using wealth is not
   good enough. We have to build up a network of good people to work with
   too, before we get round to using our wealth — the way we use our
   wealth should be in cooperation with such good friends, if we really
   want happiness and prosperity in life.The Buddha emphasized that when
   one is earning one’s living, one should try to avoid associating
   with those who break the Precepts — no matter whether they be young or
   old. If not only the Precepts, but also their faith in Buddhism is
   lacking, then that is all the more reason to avoid associating with
   them. It is as if we are selective about channelling our resources –
   devoting our resources to encourage the proliferation of virtuous people
   in our society. Those who encourage virtue in their co-workers at the
   same time they earn their living will never have to complain at a later
   date of being ’stabbed in the back’ by their colleagues. You have no-one
   else but yourself to blame if your employees are left incompetent,
   unable to work as a team or unable to delegate — you cannot just expect
   competent people to rain down on you from the sky! You have to build on
   your employees competency by training them yourself. At the same time
   you need to continue to train yourself — seeing what virtues you can
   pick up from those more experienced than yourself — in this way, you
   will soon produce a network of good co-workers for yourself.
    
3. Living within your means
   [samajiivitaa]: Living within your means means skilfulness in
   spending. Those who realize the ease with which wealth can come and go,
   should lead their life in a way that is appropriate to their means –
   not being extravagent but at the same time, not too spendthrift either!
   When we talk of generosity [daana] in this context we mean giving
   those things which are surplus to our needs. Some people might doubt as
   to how much they really need or might be unable to distinguish between
   ‘need’ and ‘want’ and hence the Buddha gave guidance about how
   householders should budget their earnings so that their generosity is
   neither reluctant nor a burden on the family expenditure. The Buddha
   taught (Aadiya Sutta A.iii.45 [36/93]) that the family budget should be
   divided into five. He did not say that each part should be 20% of your
   earnings, but he taught that you should budget for each of these sorts
   of expenditure. As for the “working capital” which you have
   built up for yourself, the Buddha taught in the Si”ngalovaada Sutta
   (D.iii.180ff.) that you should apply one-quarter of your earnings for
   your immediate needs, one-half should be reinvested in your business and
   the remaining quarter should be saved in case of emergency. It is up to
   each individual to decide how much of their income to use as
   “working capital” and how much to use for generosity. If you
   budget in this way, you will be able to practise generosity, giving
   neither too much nor too little. The fivefold division of one’s funds
   mentioned above should be as follows:
     

0. one part to support the
   immediate needs of yourself, your parents, your children, spouse,
   servants
     
1. one part to extend
   generosity towards your friends
     
2. one part to be saved in
   case of emergency (as already mentioned above)
     
3. one part which should be
   used for five sorts of dedication  

1. for
   one’s extended family  
2. for
   hospitality  
3. for
   dedicating merit for the departed  
4. for
   taxes  
5. for
   dedicating merit to the things that you believe in according to your
   local custom (e.g.ascetics, animals, physical forces and elements,
   lower deities or higher deities depending on your culture)
     

In the old days they used to compare an extravagent person with a low income
to the owner of a fig-tree who shakes the tree so that all the figs fall off,
but who picks up only a few of them to eat. At the other extreme, a person
with a good income who is not generous with their wealth will die in
hardship out of keeping with their social status. Steering the middle way
between stinginess and extravagence in a way appropriate to your level of
income is said to be living within your means. Aside of the main five forms
of Unwholesome Livelihood (mentioned above) which cause deterioration
of wealth, there are another four sorts of behaviour, known as the ‘Four
Roads to Ruin’ which if we can avoid them, will also help to protect our
hard-earned income:
 

5. womanizing;  
6. drinking
   alcohol;  
7. gambling;  
8. associating with bad
   company 

In conclusion, for anyone to remain
scrupulous after wholesomely acquiring and saving their wealth, it is
necessary to build up a network of good people [kalyaa.namitta] around
themselves first, before they come to spending their hard-earned wealth.
Habitually associating with good friends will cause one to expend with
reflection as to true benefit, and thereby use one’s wealth solely for things
which help in cultivating faith, keeping one’s precepts purely, practising
self-sacrifice and cultivating wisdom in keeping with the guidance of the
Buddha for happiness in lives to come (see next chapter).

Thus, throughout one’s life one should earn one’s living
carefully according to the four principles of happiness in the present
lifetime — never compromising one’s Buddhist scrupulousness — and the same
goes for saving one’s wealth. At the same time one needs to develop
those around one as a protective fence or network of good friends. Surrounded
by virtuous people, the tendency for our mind to be tempted by unethical
compromises will be significantly reduced — and the interactions we have
with our fellow workers will be for mutual encouragement of further good
deeds.

Metaphor of the reservoir

The four economic principles for happiness in the present lifetime can be
compared to four channels of water which supply a pool. The Four Roads to
Ruin can be compared to four outlets from the pool. If we close the inlets
and open the outlets, in the absence of rain, the pool will soon become
completely dry. There will certainly be no increase in the water level. On
the contrary, if one opens all four of the inlets by conducting oneself in
keeping with the Buddhist economic principles, while closing the outlets by
avoiding all four roads to ruin, before long the pool will be full or even
overflowing. Thus, whether we are speaking economically on a personal level
or on national level, it is vital to seal up the four possible outlets from
our economic prosperity — by not womanizing, drinking alcohol or gambling –
and by associating with good friends. These are the basics of Buddhist
microeconomics for the present lifetime — economics that you won’t find
described anywhere else in the world. If you heed the Buddha’s words on
economics and put them in to practice you will have prosperity in your
future, never falling upon hard times.

4

Buddhist Microeconomics for the
Hereafter

In the Buddhist microeconomics of the
previous chapter, in fact we have spoken about only the profane category of
happiness due to us from following the Buddha’s economic principles — i.e.
the happiness we can expect in the present lifetime. Our Buddhist ancestors
saw each person’s life as a sort of business which could run at a profit or
at a loss. For those interested only in worldly wealth, but who ignored
spiritual values, their business was seen to trade only in worldly wealth.
However those who consecrated time for spiritual practice saw their profit
and loss in terms of merit and demerit — which were the way to
transcendental wealth. If you are not born human it is going to be difficult
to deal in merit. An angel, even though considered fortunate in birth, in
fact still has difficulty in accruing merit. If one is born in the nether
realms such as hell, the animal realm, as hungry ghosts or as Titans, then it
is all the more difficult to ‘deal in merit’. It is only in the human realm
that we have the possibility to accumulate merit for ourselves. This is why
the wise were wont to ask the Buddha two questions whenever they had the
opportunity to meet with Him, in the same way as Diighajaa.nu Byagghapajja
who wanted to know what he should do for his happiness and benefit both
in this lifetime and the next. The four practices [byagghapajjadhamma]
enumerated by the Buddha in response to Diighajaa.nu’s second question, which
are for happiness in the hereafter are as follows [samparaayikattha
sa.mvattanika dhamma] (A.iv.284): 

1. faithfulness
   [saddhasampadaa]: Faithfulness is something that arises in a person
   when they have confidence (rather than blind-belief) in the wisdom and
   enlightenment of the Buddha. The benefit of having such faith in the
   Lord Buddha is that one is prepared to practise in his footsteps. Faith
   is thus no insignificant virtue for a person to have, because it will
   literally illuminate the mind from within. In general, any person who
   isn’t overly bent on wickedness has a little brightness in their heart
   — but it tends to be fleeting like distant lightning over the horizon
   or the glimmer of a firefly. Sometimes we have a flash of inspiration in
   our mind and we’d like to follow the thought further to its conclusion,
   but because of lack of continuity we are unable to follow the train of
   thought to completion. If only we had a little faith in mind to give a
   continuous level of brightnessin the mind, we would be able to follow
   our inspiration through to its logical conclusion — e.g. to realize
   that the Law of Karma is reasonable, that those who do good actions
   receive good returns on their action, that those who do evil actions
   will get evil retribution — allowing one to find the proper pathway in
   life for oneself. No-one should ever underestimate faith because it
   means that the mind is sufficiently illuminated to understand about the
   enlightenment of the Lord Buddha — to a degree that the causes and
   effects of any issue begin to become clear to one — that merit and
   demerit are no longer a myth or a mystery to one — and one gains the
   precursory discretion or ‘benefit of the doubt’ to discern the
   difference between appropriate and inappropriate, heaven and hell. When
   one’s mind is sufficiently illuminated to understand these issues, one
   will trust in the truth of the wisdom of the Buddha’s enlightenment –
   banishing the doubt and suspicion from one’s mind, and making one ready
   to practise in the Buddha’s footsteps. Even if one possesses faith
   alone, already one has a chance to protect oneself from falling
   into the nether realms — but the trouble with having faith alone is
   that it may not be very steadfast. For the cultivation of faith, one
   needs invest enough time, money and effort in one’s spiritual activities
   so that one’s faith can be developed into wisdom. Economically speaking,
   this justifies the expense of going to listen to Dhamma teachings in
   order to consolidate one’s level of faith in the Triple Gem.
    
2. self-discipline
   [siilasampadaa]: By self-discipline, we mean at least the ability
   to keep all five of the Precepts — all the way from restraining oneself
   from taking the life of living beings, to restraining oneself from
   drinking alcohol. Apart from restraining ourselves from the behaviours
   prohibited by the Five Precepts, we must work on our mind too to uproot
   even the latent tendencies that make us want to break the Precepts in the
   first place. The reason we have to be so strict with ourselves is that
   one’s mind is filled with faith and has sufficient inner brightness to
   see the connections between causes and effects, we will start to be
   self-motivated to be more strict with ourselves. From an economic point
   of view, in cultivating self-discipline you need to find the time to go
   to the temple to keep the Precepts purely — rather than labouring under
   the misapprehension that extra salary will bring happiness both in this
   lifetime and the next;
     
3. self-sacrifice
   [caagasampada]: A person is endowed with self-sacrifice when they
   are free of any further stinginess in their mind — someone who takes
   pleasure in giving. Such people, apart from having self-discipline and
   faith, can also be said to be skilled in saving up their wealth
   — but they choose not to save it up in this this world as material
   wealth, but as transcendental wealth for the next. They know that
   if they try to hoard what they have in this world, before long it will
   be nibbled away by unjust taxation, by thieves, fire, flood or uninvited
   inheritants. Some grandchildren who cannot wait for death of a wealthy
   grandparent might even conspire to murder them in order to receive a
   legacy before its due! Buying shares is no real security, because even
   the value of shares can sometimes collapse. Buying dollars or gold
   offers no real security either, because the market might slump at any
   time. However, if you transform material wealth into merit by giving it
   away, it will be wealth that will stay with you from one lifetime to the
   next — and without fear that the value of your assets will deteriorate
   — they will know only increase! Wherever there are those who practice
   self-sacrifice, there will never be a danger of economic exploitation –
   on the contrary, when self-sacrifice is abundant, everyone’s financial
   status will improve, both giver and recipient alike. This is why
   self-sacrifice is so important in laying the foundation of happiness for
   lifetimes to come. For self-sacrifice, you need do divide up an
   appropriate proportion of your wealth (as mentioned already in the
   section on skilful deployment of wealth) for giving in charity to
   save as transcendental wealth for next lifetime. If we share
   wholeheartedly with others, in turn they will want to share with us –
   and this will save one from finding oneself on the breadline, or living
   from hand to mouth, with a job that destroys our health.
     
4. wisdom [pa~n~naasampadaa]:
   Sometimes the word ‘wisdom’ is bandied about without real consideration
   of its true meaning. In Buddhism, the word means ‘penetrative insight
   into the vicissitudes of the psycho-physical constituents [khanda]
   and into the arising and decay of all things’. Knowledge of other
   things, for example engineering or computing, could hardly be considered
   wisdom according to the Buddhist definition. True wisdom means knowing
   every facet of the constant change taking place in our bodily make-up –
   knowing that there is birth, old-age, sickness and death, decay and
   destruction as in the words ‘arising, continuity and decay’. Even though
   a person might have several doctorates under their belt, if their
   knowledge cannot keep up with the working of the bodily make-up, it is
   still incomplete knowledge — and knowledge which is not completely pure
   because it still potentially harmful. Wisdom allows you to uproot the
   last of the defilements in your mind. True wisdom is not only reflection
   on a matter, but reflection in a way that you can see the arising and
   the decay of that thing. This sort of wisdom is indeed noble
   wisdom because it helps us to uproot the last of the defilements in the
   mind and can thus bring us, by the proper means, to an end of suffering.
   The importance of wisdom is that it shines forth like light which drives
   away the darkness that prevents us from seeing the reality of the world.
   Wisdom also functions like a spade which one can use to dig up the
   deepest roots of a poisonous weed — in this case the poisonous
   defilements which pollute the mind. Thus, economically speaking, we have
   to be self-disciplined in the use of our wealth to give ourselves
   sufficient freedom to use one’s time for meditation practice and Dhamma
   study to give rise to a constantly higher level of wisdom within
   oneself.  

Of the four practices, the most
important precursor of transcendental wealth is faith. Faith is
something we have often heard about, but often misunderstood — so in our
studies of the practices for happiness in the hereafter, we should start on
the right foot by making sure we understand the concept of faith. With a
correct understanding of faith, it will start to become clear how the the
Buddha could teach that ‘each time faith arises for someone, in the end it
will lead to wisdom.’ 

Anyone who works diligently and is
not reckless with their earnings, who knows how to earn their living in an
appropriate way, while at the same time having faith, self-discipline, who is
helpful to those in need (giving an amount to them which is appropriate),
whose mind is free of stinginess, who cultivates continuously the path to
happiness in the hereafter (rather than doing virtuous deeds sporadically or
according to whim) — making such good deeds habitual. Thus, faith,
self-discipline, self-sacrifice and wisdom are the microeconomic practices
recommended by the Buddha for happiness in lives to come.

5

Buddhist Microeconomics at the
Ultimate Level 

When looking for Buddhist economic principles to take us beyond
the material comfort and economic security of Chapter 3 and the mental
wellbeing of Chapter 4, to attain inner freedom (especially from the
defilement of grasping in the mind). What becomes important is economic
values and practices which lead to the uprooting of sense-pleasure from the
mind. Before looking at microeconomics at the ultimate level, it is first
necessary to examine the meaning of the word ’sensuality’.

Sense pleasure means indulgence of the things that are attractive
to the senses and it can be broken down into two components:

1. Sense-side sensuality [kilesakama]: the
   emotion of desiring something which is a defilement existing in the mind
   and which forces the mind to grasp after things and desire for things
   without end with the defilements of grasping [raaga] and greed [lobha]
   as two examples of its products;
     
2. Object-side sensuality
   [kamavatthu]: this
   means physical objects that are attractive to us — images, sounds,
   textures, smells and tastes which are attractive to the corresponding
   sense. An attractive image might mean a beautiful flower or a sparkling
   diamond. An attractive sound might be that of pleasant music, a pleasant
   voice, birdsong or the sound of a waterfall and nature. A pleasant smell
   might be the scent of perfume or the aroma of food. A pleasant taste
   might mean anything one finds tasty, whether it be sweet or sour, salty
   or oily which one prefers. Something pleasant to the touch [photabba]
   might be anything that which when it comes into physical contact with
   one’s body is soft or pleasant. 

Sense objects have sometimes been
compared to an unignited match head. The mental components of desire are like
the striker on a matchbox. Only when sensual objects and their mental
components come into contact with one another do we run the risk of becoming
slave to our desires. In any case, it should be understood that the sensually
tempting things of the world are not the reason for greed — they are only
part of the story. The sensual grasping comes from the minds of men. Without
the grasping in the human mind the attractive things of the world never
caused any harm to anyone. Once knowing the danger that lies with the sensual
grasping in the mind, the wise do their best to eradicate all trace of
sensual grasping from the mind.

Practically speaking, to eradicate grasping from the mind, one
must follow the advice the Buddha gave to Bahiya Daaruciiriya
(DhA.ii.209ff.):

“When you see an object, be
conscious of just the visible object (without being entranced thereby); when
you hear a sound, be conscious of just the sound; when you smell or taste or
touch something, be conscious of just the smell, the taste or the touch; and
when you think of anything, be conscious of just that mind-object.”

By doing this, one’s mind will always
be without object-side sensuality [kaamavatthu]. By not being
entranced by a perception, the sense-side sensuality has no chance to flare
up. The opposite would be the case if one becomes elated by the pleasing
things one senses, becoming entranced thereby and allowing the emotion of
grasping to hijack the ethical discretion of your mind.

The Harm of Sensuality

It follows that those whose mind is heavily under the influence of sensual
grasping and craving for sensual pleasures will soon have reasons to take advantage
of themselves or others or both.

For those whose mind is overrun with grasping, killing, stealing,
sexually molesting others and lying is not very far away. However, if our
mind is free of sensual grasping, there will be no harmful thoughts to generate
harmful speech or actions for us. This is the reason why the Buddha taught
monks and laypeople alike:

“You should cut down the forest
of sensuality in the mind — whether it be a large forest or a small forest
you should make sure none remains. Verily, I do say that sense-side
sensuality is as a forest and object-side sensuality is like the trees.”

When everyone is overrun with the
defilements of greed the whole of the time, it causes people to seek
endlessly for happiness from sensual objects — this is why such people are
referred to as ‘consumers of sense pleasure’ [kaamabhogii]. In such a
search there is a never-ending work to do — whether it be acquisition,
conservation or spending of wealth throughout one’s life.

 

From the Kaamabhogii Sutta, it can thus be concluded that the
Buddha enumerated ten different sorts of attitude subscribed to by people as
shown in the following table:
 

If a person can acquire their wealth solely by scrupulous means, and if they
can manage to derive pleasure from that wealth, while at the same time
disbursing their wealth for others and donating it for meritorious work, and
also having the insight to see the harm of sense-desire and the importance of
extricating oneself from it, this is the crème-de-la-crème of the ten
attitudes.

6

Ideals and Goals in Buddhist
Microeconomics

Threefold Goals in
Buddhist Economics

Having studied the economic practices applicable to happiness in this
lifetime and the next, in this chapter we shall look at the goals of
such practice — because without such goals clearly in mind, it is unlikely
that anyone will have the patience to put the forgoing principles into
practice. 

Buddhist microeconomics are designed to work on three levels
(these determine the true value of any economic activity): 

1. the purely materialist level
   (material comfort & economic security)  
2. the material/spiritual level
   (mental wellbeing)  
3. the purely spiritual level
   (inner freedom)  

To deal with each level in turn:

The Purely Materialist level

Practice on the purely materialist level corresponds to the first question
from the Diighajaa.nu Sutta (see Box 2) concerning happiness in the present
lifetime. When one’s only aim in life is to find immediate material
convenience for oneself, so that we can avoid hardship, the Buddha’s teaching
can be summarized by the acronym ‘U-A-Ka-Sa’, namely:

The aim on this level, which we must
not lose sight of is standing on our own two feet instead of being a burden
on society — achieving by scrupulous means a moderate degree of material
comfort and economic security for oneself and one’s family. The most
important guiding principle in accumulating wealth for oneself is to avoid
the bad karma of taking advantage of others.

The Material/Spiritual level

Practice on the material/spiritual level corresponds to the second question
from the Diighajaa.nu Sutta (see Box 2) concerning happiness in lifetimes to
come. The Buddha’s teaching on this level can be summarized by the acronym
‘Sa-Sii-Caa-Pa’, namely:

The aim on this level, which we must not lose sight of are:

• making faith and the four Gharavasadhamma
  habitual: The Buddha taught that if one is to avoid
  sorrow in the worlds to comeone must have the character habits of
  truthfulness [sacca], training oneself without end [dama],
  patience [di.thi] and self-sacrifice [caaga] — all these
  with ‘faith’ [saddha] as their precursor. Indeed it is this group of
  four virtues which is another key factor in the understanding of
  Buddhist economics. Anyone who has these qualities will amass supreme
  wealth for themselves because they will avoid sorrow in lives to come –
  also gaining the possibility to enter upon heaven. Any householder with
  faith, who avails themselves of these four virtues has found for
  themselves the most supreme and effective path in life. Any person who
  develops U-A-Ka-Sa and Sa-Si-Ca-Pa will avail themselves of the habits
  expounded in the Gharavasadhamma — i.e. they will have the habits of
  truthfulness, develops the mselves without end, is patient and knows
  self-sacrifice, will attain success both in this lifetime and the next.
  The identifying feature which tells us that a person is endowed with the
  Four Virtues of a householder is that they lead their lives according to
  the principles of happiness in this lifetime (U-A-Ka-Sa) and happiness
  in the next lifetime (Sa-Si-Ca-Pa) too.
   
• expanding the mind: One’s
  ability to give is a very important economic value for Buddhists
  — because it has a direct influence on our quality of mind. Buddhist
  economics advocates giving limitlessly because apart from expanding the
  mind, transcendental wealth accrued will be limitless. This is in
  contrast to some people or even animals for whom generosity is limited
  in its scope. No matter how many offspring animals have, they will bring
  all of them up without qualms — but if anyone else’s offspring should
  stray into their territory, they will be attacked or hunted down. Thus
  the loving kindness of an animal would seem to extend no further than
  that animal’s own progeny — its generosity has its boundaries — and
  the same seems to be the case whether its cats, dogs, chickens or crows.
  It is like some teachers who hold back from teaching certain things they
  know — or from teaching those who don’t pay. Some don’t ask for a fee
  for their teaching — their students don’t have to pay anything — but
  they will accept students, but they will accept students only from their
  own tribe or clan. Even if potential students have money to spend, if
  they belong to another tribe or language, such teachers will refuse to
  teach them. All these instances of those who don’t help as much as they
  could are examples of compassion with limits. Even the compassion of
  temple-goers can have its limits. Some find they are able to spread
  loving kindness to their own family, or to those who have done them
  favours in the past — but outside these groups they feel at a loss to
  spread their compassion. More compassionate people spread their loving
  kindness to the whole world without exception and the karmic fruits of
  such compassion are so much broader. In everyday life, many people we
  meet with are honest, but narrow-minded. Their virtues might extend only
  within their own household. Their tenderness and mercy is reserved only
  for their own family. However, they may be ready to cheat those external
  to their own family — feeling that strangers are ‘fair game’. As
  described in the Kaamabhogii Sutta (see Box 3), their motives are a
  mixture of scrupulous and unscrupulous, and the unscrupulous part
  applies solely to those other than their nearest and dearest. Such
  people make good leaders for a household, but such an attitude will
  create problems if they ever become a village councillor or mayor –
  because they are unable to share happiness with others outside their own
  family. Some people manage to expand the scope of their mind to
  encompass their whole village — such people deserve to make a good
  mayor but will create problems whenever they manage to work their way up
  to the provincial council. They will work only for the prosperity of
  their own village and leave the problems of the rest of the province
  unsolved. Some people make good provincial governors but if they ever
  work their way up to the ministry, they may start to create problems if
  they cannot expand their mind accordingly. If they fail to be aware of
  the needs of the whole country and curry favour only with those of their
  own province, their staff or their canvassers, they will fail to fulfil
  the position of responsibility they have attained. In the case that
  compassion is limited, miraculous powers one accrues will also be
  territory-limited. Thus the scope of awareness and compassion differs
  from one person to the next — but according to Buddhist economics it is
  important that we practice compassion limitlessly with the aim of
  expanding the mind thereby.
    

The Purely Spiritual level

The purely spiritual level is not dealt with in the Diighajaa.nu Sutta. His
questions covered only the lower two levels. The question remains of what
sort of economics one needs if one wants to reach beyond the heaven realms to
Nirvana and a complete end of all defilements. In the answers of the Buddha,
He has already used the word ‘ariya‘ or ‘transcendental’ several times
— especially in the last virtue of the second set of practices for happiness
in lives to come — where wisdom. The aim on this level, which we must not
lose sight of is to bring oneself to an end of defilements.

INTEGRATION OF
MICROECONOMIC PRACTICE ON THREE LEVELS:

In the present day, educationalists and theoreticians alike need to produce
graphics to help them to plan the economy for the years ahead. However,
charts and graphics are not something that are an innovation for our
generation — because ever since ancient times, Thai Buddhists have had a way
of modelling economics as follows:

They would summarized the practices on the level of a purely
material goal in the form of a mandala to make it look a little more
sacred. In the old days, when monks went to give a house an inaugural
blessing, they used to mark such a diagram above the door. Sometimes the monk
would not write the abbreviations in Thai, but in the Khom language of the
old scriptures. In the beginning everyone would know the meaning of the
abbreviations on the door lintel. Later generations changed the Khom
characters to Thai characters for ease of comprehension. 

They added a second layer of economic abbreviations around the
original in order to denote practice on the level of a material/spiritual
goal as follows:

Usually the invited monk would write the mandala in flour
mixed with water — but unfortunately in most cases, the monk would just
write the mandala and return to the temple without explaining its
meaning. Thus the owner of the house in later generations had no idea of the
Buddhist economic principles encapsulated therein. They didn’t know the
meaning and assumed that the mandala was sacred in itself — so once
the monk had returned, they felt relieved that they had already done their
duty as a good Buddhist and went back to playing poker in the assumption that
they would soon be rich.

This mandala so far gives only practices for economic aims
on the material and material/spiritual levels. If you want to go all the way
and have an economic aim that will take you to Nirvana, you need to add the
Noble Eightfold Path to each of the eight corners of the mandala as
illustrated in the diagram below:

. . . where the abbreviations have
the following meanings:

Because the people of old found the mandala
so important, but feared that it would be lost, they made mandalas of
it on cloth — making the famous ‘yantra‘ cloths found throughout
Thailand. Later finding that even the ‘yantra‘ cloths were not very
long-lasting, they engraved the pattern on plates of gold, silver or other
metals. Later, with the wish to be able to take the teaching around with
them, they made miniatures in on small metal rolls and made necklaces out of
them.

These were skilful means of ancient Thai Buddhists who tried to
integrate Buddhist teachings into everyday life on every level — especially
so as not to get carried away with madness for material wealth, and in order
to focus instead on cultivating spiritual values. Practising one’s
livelihood, according to the principles of Buddhism would immediately grasp
that, one’s duty as a Buddhist was to avoid one’s livelihood being the reason
for accumulating demerit in one’s life. With such principles in mind, even
though it might be a great temptation to make a quick profit from
unscrupulous practices, if one knew that it involved the Wrong Livelihood
prohibited by the Buddha, one would rather sacrifice one’s life than to do
it.

In conclusion, you can say that Buddhist economics teaches us to
interact economically in life without abandoning one’s Dhamma principles.

7

Principles of Buddhist Macroeconomics

All of what we have spoken about up
until now has concerned our personal economic habits — otherwise known as
Buddhist Microeconomics. However, the Buddha also gave economic guidelines
applicable on the national or global level — something we can perhaps call
‘Buddhist Macroeconomics’. We find such guidelines in the Kuu.tada.n.ta Sutta
(see Box 6) for economics on this level. The Buddha distinguished two level
of socio-economic groups in society: 

Both the groups above and below have one thing in common — in
that they feel poor. For the group below it is not just a feeling
of poverty — they are poor because they live from hand to mouth, on
the breadline often, struggling to make ends meet — no matter whether they
are farmers, labourers or clerical workers. Shop-keepers and traders have to
put themselves in debt to get the stock they need to open shop. Clerks tend
to be treated unjustly and have a pitiable wage. All these groups are poor
because of a real lack of wealth.

 

As for those at the top — even if they have a hundred million or
a thousand million, they still feel poor — but their poverty is different
from those of the grassroots because the reason they feel poor is that their
desires are insatiable.

The majority of people in any country belong to the grassroots –
usually 80-90% — that is usually the figure for people in any country who
lack adequate wealth. As for those on top, although they are not very
numerous, their every move has some impact on the government and might even
cause a change of government in some cases. Those at the top are few but
wield a lot of power.

Government Investment

In the olden days, economic problems on a national scale would be solved by
making concessions to those at the top. However, no matter how many
concessions the government may make to such figures, it is never enough for
them. Unfortunately, when such giants make a fuss, their voice is loud. Even
though those below are more numerous, their ability to protest is reduced
because they are struggling even to keep their head above water — and can
afford to set aside no time to protest. Thus the government tends to protect
its skin by giving concessions to those at the top. However, even if you were
to give them a hundred million, it would hardly be enough (It is hardly
enough for a good night out in Las Vegas). Thus helping at the top just keeps
the giants quiet without satisfying them — and meanwhile the grassroots
continue to die an undignified death.

If we turn to look at what advice the Buddha gave for government
investment, we find that He supported allocation of funds to those at the
grassroots — but with one important condition — that the recipients should
be carefully selected. If handouts are given indiscriminately, you may find
that the more impatient would rather kill the golden goose than wait for its
eggs!

Thus when giving concessions or help to those at the grassroots,
you should look to see which people are virtuous (i.e. manage to keep the
Five Precepts and are established in Right Livelihood) but who lack the
capital or technology. They should be those who are diligent and have
attained success at a certain level — such people should be selected to
receive concessions. Helping such people will also be an example for others
to follow — by helping in such a way you will find that your investment
doesn’t immediately disappear as it would if helping the people at the top.

These are principles which it was easier to follow in the olden
days. A king would set out a ‘talent scout’ who would look for people of real
virtue deserving to be helped by the king. By helping such people, exemplars
of virtue would shine forth in the kingdom. Sometimes it might be traders of
exceptional virtue who lacked capital or honest civil servants who had been
mistreated or had received insufficient salary. However, the most important
was always to select those who were virtuous. Having helped such people,
there should be follow-up — to see how such people had responded to the
help. Before long there would be could get down to work, before long the
products of their work would start to become apparent. At that point, it
would be appropriate to involve some of the giants in order to help in the
marketing and other high level strategies.

However, in the present day it is difficult for anyone to accept
that one person might be more worthy than another of help merely on the
observations of a ‘talent scout’. The talent scout might be partial. Thus in
the present day it is usually more convenient for people to work as a
committee to look after allocation of local budgets. Even this arrangement
might not be failsafe, however, because some local councils are less honest
than others. This is why our society has developed the system of democracy [lokaadhipateyya]
(with all its faults) in place of the Buddha’s ideal system of government [dhammaadhipateyya]
(D.iii.220, A.i.147) where virtue alone and not the majority vote is the
deciding factor in government.

There is still the risk, however, that the money might easily
disappear when invested at the grassroots — but if the government afraid to
invest, they might never have the chance to train the ‘new blood’ in
responsibility. If they take the money and still fail you, maybe you should
just consider the lost capital as a the cost of ‘tuition’ in responsibility.

In the case the government cannot afford to risk losing money by
helping at the grassroots, they should bring in some of those at the top,
such as the local M.P. or the local head of the civil service or academics to
help set up systems and procedures for those who are less knowledgeable. The
trouble with many working at the grassroots level is that they don’t have the
knowledge of administration or any idea of how to set up systems in order to
work efficiently when starting out. If those at the top ‘put their man in’ to
help at the start-up of new enterprises and help by following up progress in
the initial months — concerning the accounts, legal matters, and
accountability they can help to create a feeling of collective ownership of a
project (because if it is a success it will benefit everybody in the locality).
Accountants should help to teach the recipients of the investment how to
regulate their finances — because otherwise, if the money invested should
disappear because good accounts have not been kept, who can be blamed?

When encouraging businessmen at the top to get involved with
investments in the grassroots, sometimes there will be something in it too
for the big businesses, sometimes not — but irrespective, as fellow
countrymen, they ought to feel proud that they are doing something for
the nation — even if it is only considered part of the company’s budget for
‘good works’. As for the government, there is always a risk that the
investment will be lost — but in any case it is better than investing at the
top because in that way it would be lost for sure.

This is a problem of how investment in the lower sector can help
society to develop. Of course, no-one can expect 100% return with such
investments — but at the very least will upgrade the ability of the bottom
rungs of society to take responsibility for their own future. Success depends
on the follow-up and the degree of co-operation between all involved –
co-operating to develop members of society with truthfulness, the inspiration
to develop themselves without end, patience and self-sacrifice — the Virtues
of the Householder mentioned in the previous section — struggling against
all the things that prevent our society from having a fair economy.

Cleaning Up Society

Even on a national level, it is the ‘roads to ruin’ which do most damage to a
fair economy. If roads to ruin must continue to exist in society, then they
should be zone-restricted and with clear opening hours so as not to encourage
them to spread throughout society indiscriminately. Better than that, however
is to try to eradicate the ‘roads to ruin’ completely from our society –
something which can only ever happen if there is co-operation on all levels.

8

Conclusion

This book has dealt with the problems of the world through the
eyes of Buddhist Economics. Usually such matters are not the domain of
expertise of a monk such as the present author — but when economics become
such an implicit part of everyone’s life, even monks cannot afford not to
have a standpoint — however, where monks do become involved in such matters,
it should be in a way suitable for a monk . . . that is, to try to gain
insight into the reality of economics and waking people up to that reality,
helping to train-up virtuous people and encouraging Buddhists truly to pursue
Perfections in the footsteps of the Buddha — spreading the wisdom of
Buddhism far and wide, while helping to forge an amenable homeground [pa.tiruupadesa]
for Buddhism. It is the hope of the present author that by clarifying
Buddhist principles relating to economics on the three levels of aim in life,
it will be easier for Buddhist in conscience to know where compromises can be
made and where compromises would be unscrupulous. What sort of wealth is
worthwhile and what sorts undermine the fabric of society. It is also the
present author’s hope that readers will start to grasp that from the point of
view of Buddhism it is not just money or economic figures per se that matters
in economics — but happiness on three levels of aim in life. Often things
other than money can better bring happiness and from the Buddhist economic
viewpoint we would say that the virtues mentioned in this book that bring
mental wellbeing or inner freedom are more valuable than money can buy — and
so economically priceless.