Buddhist economics is about growing a Pure Land

Many people rightly equate Buddhist Economics weith the Small is Beuatiful approach of Schummacher. However, since that wonderful book there has not really been much progress. The idea of "Gross National Happiness" made a bit of a splash. Most thinking is going into how to avoid a profit centred or growth centred approach. However this is rather negative. I don't think Buddhism is intrinsically oppsed to growth or even to profit so long as it is used for something good rather than just for self-indulgence. Here we start to, perhaps, see a chink of light. Buddhism's concern is with what resources are used for. Are they used to help create conditions for liberation or are they used in ways that oppress and confine. Commonly they are used in counter-liberation, both for the haves and the have-nots. From the Buddhist point of view we all to frequently are using resources in ways that create a nation of slaves. The blind lead the blind. Slaves to wealth lead slaves to poverty. The emphasis in Buddhist economics needs to be on finding ways to deploy resources in the service of liberation.

To put the same idea differently, Buddhism has the concept of a "Buddha Land" and really we would do well to give more attention to this and less to the idea of Buddha Nature. Nature has the implication of something original, in the past, whereas land is something potential, if not promised, then at least a goal; something in the future. Buddhism is not all about the now, it is also about the future and creating the conditions in the present that are conducive to a liberated future for a greater number of beings. 

Deployment of resources will never do the whole job on its own. Personal change is also part, but only part, of the picture. The middle way that we seek involves itself in the material world but does not surrender itself to materialism. Buddhism has always been in the business of creating new communities and there is always an economic side to this, but this process needs to be more consciously thought through.

 

Comments

[David Brazier]

Some spiritual traditions, including some aspects of Buddhism and Franciscanism, for instance, have placed an emphasis upon poverty as a favoured lifestyle. However, a fraternity of poor devotees must rely upon an other community who do not practice poverty. In the Amida sangha we do not advise poverty, we advise devotees to use their resources in ways that contribute to the collective good, especially spiritual advancement of others. However, even this is not so easy, since there is a need not just to spend but also to conserve. Squandering does not conduce to good. Economics is concerned with these kinds of dilemmas. To do big things requires capital - but what big things are worth doing and who, controlling capital, would have the motivation to do them, and how can a system function such that those people do indeed command the means? ...and so on.