Introduction
Buddha taught economics in his teachings because it is important. Buddhism recognizes the importance of basic material wealth for personal happiness as well as spiritual progress. In Dhammapada, the Buddha mentioned that hunger is the greatest disease.[1] Every being depends on food[2] (ãhãra) such as
(1). Physical food (kabaliṅkāro).
(2).Contact (phasso).
(3).Mental volition (manosañcetanā).
10 million people die from hunger and hunger related illnesses every year. More than 5 million kids die annually from hunger, malnutrition, and hunger-related illnesses. That means a child is dying every 5 seconds now.
Without food, the beings cannot treat their greatest disease. We can find a lot of guidance of the Buddha on economics and wealth namely four things which are conducive to a man’s happiness in this world, four kinds of pleasantness that can be attained by householders four kind of happiness, Wealth and Ethics, Some methods to carry out business in Buddhism and Abhidhammã, The Buddha’s profound philosophy and economics. I will take only a few examples and elaborate guidance of the Buddha on economics and wealth here.
The Cakkavattisihanada sutta of the Dῑgha-nikãya clearly descries that poverty is the cause of immorality and crime such as theft, falsehood, violence, hatred, cruelty etc. King in ancient times, like government today, tried to suppress crime through punishment. The Kuțandanta-sutta of the same Nikãya mentions how futile this is. It says that that this method can never be successful. Instead the Buddha suggested that, in order to eradicate crime, the economic condition of the people should be improved: grain and other facilities for agriculture should be provided farmers and cultivators; capital should be provided for traders and those engaged in business; adequate wages should be paid to opportunities for earning a sufficient income, they contented, will be peaceful and free from crime. Therefore Buddha told lay people how important it is to improve their economics.
Four things which are conducive to a man’s happiness in this world
A man named Dhighajãnu once visited the Buddha and said: ‘ Venerable, sir, we are ordinary lay men, leading family life with wife and children. Would the Blessed One teach us some doctrine which will be conductive to our happiness in this world and hereafter? The Buddha tells him that there are four things which are conducive to a man’s happiness in this world. First: he should be skilled, efficient, earnest, and energetic in whatever profession he engaged, and he should know it well.( utthana sampada); second: he should protect his income, which he has thus earned righteously, with the sweat of his brow (arakkha sampada); third: he should have good friends (kalyãna mitta) who are faithful, learned, virtuous, liberal and intelligent, who will help him along the right path away from evil; fourth: he should spend reasonly, in proportion to his income, neither too much nor too little in moderation ( samajivitã).[4] Then the Buddha preached him how to live happily next life: he should have confidence in moral, spiritual and intellectual values, observing precepts, charity and generosity and developing wisdom.[5]
Four kinds of pleasantness that can be attained by householder’s four kinds of happiness
Once the Buddha told Anãthapindika, the great banker, one of his devoted lay disciple who set up for him Jetavana monastery, at sãvatthi as the following:
(1) Happiness of ownership — What you earn and how you earn lawfully with
striving.(atthi sukha). "Householder, what is the bliss of having? There is the case where the son of a good family has wealth earned through his efforts & enterprise, amassed through the strength of his arm, and piled up through the sweat of his brow, righteous wealth righteously gained.… he experiences bliss, he experiences joy. This is called the bliss of having.
(2) Happiness of wealth — how you enjoy what you have earned lawfully (bhoga sukha);
What is the pleasantness of [making use of] wealth? …..using the wealth earned. Wealth righteously gained, partakes of his wealth and makes merit. He experiences pleasantness, he experiences joy.
(3) Happiness of debtlessness — living without having any debt to anyone ( anaņa sukha)
"And what is the pleasantness of debtlessness? … owes no debt, great or small, to anyone at all…he experiences pleasantness, he experiences joy.
(4) Happiness of blamelessness — life which is blessed with good act of body, mind and speech(anajja sukha).[6] "Here, householder, the noble disciple is endowed with faultless bodily action, faultless verbal action and faultless mental action. He becomes pleasant thinking I am faultless in bodily, verbal and mental actions."
Householder, these four pleasantness can be attained by householders, partaking sensual pleasures as and when the convenience occurs.
According to Buddhism, the highest ideal person enjoys life on both the mundane and the transcendent planes as follows:
Mundane:
1. Seeking wealth lawfully and honestly.
2. Seeing to one's own needs.
3. Sharing with others and performing meritorious deeds.
Transcendent:
4. Making use of one's wealth without greed, longing or infatuation, heedful of the dangers and possessed of the insight that sustains spiritual freedom.
Such a person is said to be a Noble Disciple, one who is progressing toward individual perfection. Of particular note here is the compatibility between the mundane and the transcendent spheres of life, which combine to form the integral whole of Buddhist ethics, which is only perfected when the transcendent sphere is incorporated.[7]
Wealth and Ethics
1. Since Buddhism does not consider wealth as evil so possession of wealth is not a crime. However, wealth must be accompanied by ethics; otherwise, it can even lead to the destruction of the owner.
2. As the Buddha recognizes that material wealth is the basis for our survival and foundation for spiritual development.
Some methods to carry out business in Buddhism
In the Anguttara Nikaya, the Buddha says: a shopkeeper should have the
following particular skills:
(1) Shrewd—he has the knowledge to know the quality of goods.
(2) The skill in buying and selling, he is extremely capable.
(3) Confidence of his piousness
For example, when people think this man is very good, he wants to increase what he has and earn what he does not have. He should attend his work closely in the morning, afternoon and in the evening, he is vigilant all the time; he invests his wealth well and he uses his wealth very well, and his wealth increases day by day.
Therefore, people have confidence in him and deposit their wealth in his place in order to get interest. Such confidence is very important for businessmen.[8]
In other place in the Anguttara Nikaya, the Buddha takes five things into consideration to be good businessmen:
Although the Buddha took the five things into consideration for a good businessman 25 century ago, it is applicable to businessmen even today.
(1) Skill in buying and selling.
(2) Sense of making profit.
(3) He should have ready source of capital.
(4) His service is dear to consumer’s satisfaction.
(5) Land work. (A. III, ii, 20)
If a business man should study how to carry out his business well. He should train and educate to be good at his profession.[9]
Abhidhammã, The Buddha’s profound philosophy and economics
Abhidhammã Pitaka contains the Buddha’s more esoteric teachings. While the Abhiddhamma does not directly address economics, it does have a strong indirect connection because it analyses the mind and its constituents in minute detail. These metal factors are the root of all human behavior, including economic activity. Negative constituents such as greed, aversion, delusion and pride motivate economic activity as do the positive constituents such as non-greed, non-aversion, non-delusion, faith, generosity, and goodwill. In this respect, the Abhidhamma is a study of economic on its most fundamental level.
In similar connection, the more esoteric practices of Buddhism, meditation in particular, relate indirectly but fundamentally to economics. Through mediation and mental training, we come to witness the stream of causes and conditions that begin as mental conditions and lead to economic activity. Meditation helps us to see how ethical and unethical behaviors are the natural consequence of the mental conditions and motivations which motivate them. Greed, hatred and delusion drive us to unethical acts. Wisdom and a desire for true well-being guide us to ethical behavior and a good life.
Perhaps more importantly, through meditation training it is possible to realize a higher kind of happiness‒‒inner peace, the independent kind of happiness. When we have the ability to find peace within ourselves we can use wealth, which is no longer necessary for our own happiness, freely for the social good.[10]
From Conflict to Harmony
In the struggle to feed their blind and endless desires, people do not clearly perceive what is of true benefit and what is harmful in life. They do not know what leads to true well-being and what leads away from it. As they struggle against each other and the world around them to fulfill their selfish desires, human beings live in conflict with themselves, with their societies and with the natural environment. Aggaňňa sutta mentions the beings who lived in the beginning of life on earth made of mind (manomayā) with taking the joy as food(piti bhakkhā), self- luminous(sayaṃ pabhā), traversed in the Air (Antalikkha-carā), stayed only very higher places(Subhaṭṭhāyino). Later on the more they increased selfish desires, the more they lost their food and so on. It is evidence that human’s mind affect environment too much.[11] They took property more than what are necessary. According to their environment today we can guess the people who every part of the world have increased their defilements namely greed, hatred, ignorance and wholesome such as morality, concentration, wisdom, loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, equanimity and the like. Therefore good mentalities of the people also should be improved to have good situation. When ignorance is replaced with wisdom, it is possible to distinguish between what is of true benefit and what is not. With wisdom, desires will naturally be for that which is truly beneficial. In Buddhism, this desire for true well-being is called Dhammachanda (desire for that which is right), kusalachanda (desire for that which is skillful), or in short, chanda. The objective of chanda is dhamma or kusaladhamma, truth and goodness. Truth and goodness must be obtained through effort, and so chanda leads to action, as opposed to tanha, which leads to seeking. Chanda arises from intelligent reflection (yoniso-manasikara), as opposed to tanhã, which is part of the habitual stream of ignorant reactions.
To summarize this:
1. Tanhã is directed toward feeling; it leads to seeking of objects which pander to self-interests and is supported and nourished by ignorance.
2. Chanda is directed toward benefit, it leads to effort and action, and is founded on intelligent reflection.
When someone attach to income, it is tanhã named craving. When one knows his duty that needs to do his job. It is called motivation called chanda. I define the tanhã and chanda that are similar to English words but it is not totally same meaning of the pãli words.
By training and developing ourselves, we live less and less at the directives of ignorance and tanhã and more and more under the guidance of wisdom and chanda. This leads to a more skillful life, and a much better and more fruitful relationship with the things around us. With wisdom and chanda we no longer see life as a conflict of interests. Instead, we strive to harmonize our own interests with those of society and nature. The conflict of interests becomes a harmony of interests.[12]
Conclusion
The greatest problems of economics are laziness. If a person is lazy, he does not study knowledge of the way to earn money. Without enough financial, he cannot communicate and convince people well. Without good friends, he cannot obtain objective of economics to set up his company etc. to be rich. If he has no financial sufficiently, he is not easy to act his good deed as lay people. Without enough wholesome, he will not attain Nibbana, eternal bliss. In our daily life, we should therefore know and apply what the Buddha taught us on economics such as four things which are conducive to a man’s happiness in this world, four kinds of pleasantness that can be attained by householders four kind of happiness, Wealth and Ethics, methods to carry out business in Buddhism. The Buddha told young man Sῑgãla that he should spend one fourth of his income on his daily expenses, invest half in his business and put aside one fourth for any emergency[13]. We should learn education on economics since we are young and train us how to save money very important because some material authors in the west and some people who hold communist’s idea view and understand that Buddhism encourages poverty. But Buddhist countries are also rich in Asia because they really work hard. The Buddha encouraged people to focus, concentrate and emphasize that wealth should be earned through hardworking. Wealth is just a form of energy exchange. We exchange our energy or labour for wealth. In 21st century, a good example of a inventor called Steve Jobs was Zen Buddhist. I would like to tell you how he became a Buddhist. At age 13, Jobs asked the Lutheran pastor of his parents' church if God knew about starving children. "Yes, God knows everything," the pastor replied. Jobs never returned to church, refusing to worship a God who allowed such suffering. Like many baby boomers, Jobs later turned to Eastern spirituality, particularly countercultural keystones such as Be Here Now, Baba Ram Dass' guide to meditation and psychedelic drugs.He also studied Buddhism, practicing meditation and reading Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, a collection of lectures by Shunryu Suzuki, one of the first Zen masters to teach in America
Buddhism provides people how to live happily and free from sadness. For example Thai people never cry in funeral because Buddhist monks teach them Impermanence of Doctrine and Mãitikã which includes in Abhidhamma, Ultimate Teaching. It is very surprises. It is very rare to commit suicide in Buddhist countries. Buddhists live happily and are friendly. All negative emotions are eliminated, by practicing the eight fold noble paths viz, 1. Right view, 2. Right thought, 3. Right speech, 4.Right action, 5.Right livelihood, 6. Right mindfulness 7. Right effort 8.Right concentration. The eight fold noble paths are the heart of practical teaching in Buddhism.
Bibliography
BodhiBikkhu.buddhistglobalrelief.gwww.buddhistglobalrelief.org.com. Retrieved March,22.2012. buddhistglobalrelief.http://www.buddhistglobalrelief.org/active/understandingHunger/understandHunger1.html
Burke Daniel . Steve Jobs' private spirituality now an open book . www.usatoday.com.RetrievedApril7,2012 http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/story/2011-11-02/steve-jobs-faith-buddhism/51049772/1
Jighaccã paramã rogã . Narada. The Dhammapada. P.176. Taipei: The corporate Body of the Buddha Educational Foundation 11f., 55 HANG Chow south Road sec 1, Thaiwan.R.O.C. (1993).
Payutto P.A. . Buddhist economics. P.82-3.Bangkok: Buddhadhamma Foundation, 87/126 Tesabalhl Songkroh Rd., Lad Yao, Chatuchak,
Satyajit Ven. Buddhist view on Economics and Wealth. P.4. Pak Thong Chai: International Buddhist College, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand. (2012).
Rahula Wolpola. What the Buddha Taught. Taipei: the corporation body of the Buddha educational foundation, 11f, 55 Hang South road sec 1, Taiwan, R.O.C. September, 2011
Sammādiṭṭhi Sutta. http://en.wikipedia.org.com. Retrieved 16 March,2012.
Buddhist Economics. http://en.wikipedia.org. Retrieved 16 March, 2012.
Aggañña Sutta. http://en.wikipedia.org. Retrieved 19 March, 2012.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aggañña _Sutta
[1] Jighaccã paramã rogã . Narada. The Dhammapada. P.176. Taipei: The corporate Body of the Buddha Educational Foundation 11f., 55 HANG Chow south Road sec 1, Thaiwan.R.O.C. (1993).
[2] Sabbe sattã ãhãrã thititã. It is taught by the Buddha.
[3] Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Sammādiṭṭhi Sutta. http://en.wikipedia.org.com. Retrieved 16 March,2012.
[4] Wolpola Rahula. What the Buddha Taught. P.83. Taipei: the corporation body of the Buddha educational foundation, 11f, 55 Hang South road sec 1, Taiwan, R.O.C. September, 2011.
[5] Ibid p. 110.
[6] Ibid p. 111
[7] Ven. Satyajit. Buddhist view on Economics and Wealth. P.4. Pak Thong Chai: International Buddhist College, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand. (2012).
[8] Ibid p. 7
[9] Ibid p. 8
[10]P.A. Payutto. Buddhist economics. P.82-3.Bangkok: Buddhadhamma Foundation, 87/126 Tesabalhl Songkroh Rd., Lad Yao, Chatuchak
[11] Aggañña Sutta. http://en.wikipedia.org. Retrieved 19 March, 2012.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aggañña _Sutta
[12] P.A. Payutto. Buddhist Economics. http://www.buddhanet.net. Retrieved 16 March,
http://www.buddhanet.net/cmdsg/econ2.htm#From Conflict
[13] Wolpola Rahula. What the Buddha Taught. P.111. Taipei: the corporation body of the Buddha educational foundation, 11f, 55 Hang South road sec 1, Taiwan, R.O.C. September 2011
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