Buddhist Economics
The presentation of the Buddhist ethics on economics was over all a good summary of the major ideas and principles involved with economics within Buddhism. They touched on some of the important themes involved with economics, and gave a westerner a general idea of the influence, which Buddhism has on both the layperson and the monk. Yet, they also left out some important principles, which could have lead to a more complete understanding of the Buddhist view on Economics. The presenters started their presentation of by discussing the idea of the Middle Way. This was a good topic to begin their presentation because this idea has a large effect on a Buddhist's view of economics. "Economics are in agreement that man has limitless or endless desires, but Buddhists believe that fulfilling all desires of demand may not be beneficial." (Outline) This idea is very important because it contrasts the western way of capitalism and endless desire with the Buddhist view of the Middle Way. In both capitalism and in Buddhist Economics, they acknowledge that limitless desire is instinctual, but in capitalism desire is welcomed, and the fact that humans always desire more is what makes capitalism successful. On the ot
------------------------------------------------------------------------**Bibliography**. This leads to the next important idea of Dana, which the group did discuss, but failed to acknowledge the over all importance of this idea when understanding Buddhist economics. "Karma thus contributes to a strong a sense of morality as conditioning one's existence and to stress on individual responsibility rather than social forces as the cause of ones present situation. Economic ethics, whether for monk or for la!ity, ultimately is directed toward furthering the final goal of enlightenment. The idea of Dana is single handedly the most important idea, which a westerner must understand, for them to fully understand the views behind Buddhist economics. It is the way one acquires and uses wealth that is important. " (Outline) They then added a quotation, which described a monk's basic outlook of material possessions, and lead the audience to believe that monks, still to this day are not economically active. Therefore this argues that economic inequalities existing in society can be viewed as the result of past karmic acts, and do not violate a sense of justice but in fact confirm it. We try to acquire as much wealth for ourselves as possible, and the more wealth we have the more successful we consider ourselves to be. They must avoid immoral ways such as killing animals, or selling things like weapons, alcohol, or living beings. Buddhists believe that wealth was never an evil in itself, either for laity of monk, but was to be welcomed as the result of past merits. Also this benefit is not for the attainment of material goods, but instead for something much more import. On their outline they simply listed the basic possessions of a monk which were, "the upper, lower and over robe, belt bowl, razor, needle, water-strainer, staff, and tooth-pick. " (Outline) The first thing Buddhists believe when a layperson is acquiring wealth is that it is through hard work and diligence.
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