Spiritual tips for meditators / Phra Paisal Visalo

Spiritual tips for meditators
Luangpor Khamkhian Suvanno
Phra Paisal Visalo
Preface
Human is not born to suffer only. Though suffering is inherent in every being, each
of us has potential to be free from suffering. Aging, sickness, bereavement,
dissatisfaction, and death cannot inflict suffering to us if we realize the true nature of reality.
Life reveals to us the true nature of reality every moment. But we
are always indifferent to it since we never spare time watching our mind at all. Life gives us tremendous amount of time whereas nature gives us the
tool to monitor our mind. Unfortunately, we never make the best use of what we possess.
However, suffering that always torments our mind
keeps urging us to find the way out of it. After repeated
failures, we will realize that the key to freedom from
suffering, Sati– Panna (mindfulness and wisdom), is
already inherent in our mind; it cannot be found through prosperity, fame, or power.
Sati is a tool for inspecting the mind; panna enables us to realize the truth. Mindfulness and wisdom are capable of elevating us from suffering. The only requirement is: We have to spare time and take effort in developing
mindfulness and wisdom.
Mindfulness meditation is the essential way to develop
our capacity toward freedom from suffering, where aging,
sickness and death no longer do harm to us. This way was
delivered by the Buddha to human beings for more than 2,500 years. Though arcane, it is timeless and universal,suitable for every era and everyone, regardless of nation,religion and culture.
This book is the collection of lectures by both of us,addressed to American audience at Chuang Yen Monastery during June and July last year, with the cordial invitation of
the Buddhist Association of the United States. We are grateful to the Buddhist Association of the United States and Chuang Yen Monastery for rendering us opportunity to lead meditation courses in the United States and meet a lot
of committed practitioners.
Our special thanks go to Dwight Chien who coordinated
this project and never failed to keep us comfortable during
the two months of our stay in New York. We also benefited
a lot from supports of many people especially monks and
nuns in Chuang Yen Monastery and Yen Ming, to name but
a few, to whose generosity we are grateful.
During the process of publishing this book, a lot of
contributions have been made by Susan Chen, NancySteckel, Richard Baska, and Emily Chiang; we would like to
thank all of them.
Luangpor Khamkhian Suvanno
Phra Paisal Visalo
March 1, 1998

 

Biography of
Luangpor Khamkhian Suvanno
& Phra Paisal Visalo
Luangpor Khamkhian, the disciple of Luangpor Teean
who was the founder of Sati Meditation, has been a monk
for more than thirty years, and practiced Sati Meditation
before becoming a monk. The temple he is staying now is a
forest monastery. There are three monasteries in the same
area that Luangpor takes care of. He established meditation
centers there twenty years ago. Since that area was poor
and is still poor today, he not only teaches meditation but
also encourages community development, helping people
there. During the past five years, he has tried to emphasize
the meditation aspect of activities. He gives Dhamma talks
and meditation instructions not only in the regional temples
but also around the country. In fact, he is one of the most
sought after masters.
He was here teaching Sati Meditation three years ago;
this is the second time that he has come back to teach
meditation. As for me, I have never been to the United
States, and have been studying Sati Meditation for fourteen
years, since the beginning of my monkhood. I am now the
abbot of one of Luangpor’s temples.
Phra Paisal Visalo

 

CONTENT
Part ONE
by Luangpor Khamkhian Suvanno
The Path of Mindfulness 2
Cultivating Awareness 12
Knowing Yourself 18
Realizing the True Nature 29
The Balance of Mind 35
The Three– Fold Training 44
Seeing the Mind 51
Foundations of Mindfulness 62
Lifetime Practice 71
Buddhist Meditation in a Nutshell 76
Insight Meditation 81
A Handful of Buddhism 85
Letting Go 89
An Outline of the Insight 95

 

Part TWO
by Phra
Paisal Visalo
Means and Ends of Meditation 102
The Art of Meditation 105
The Middle Ground 113
Practice Independently 117
Harmony Within 123
Calmness and Insight 129
The Point of Balance 133
Reconciliation 137
Dealing with Expectations 143
Unreliable Thoughts 147
Meditator’s Four Friends 152
Meditation in Action 157

 

Spiritual tips for meditators part 1

By
Luangpor Khamkhian Suvanno
The Path of Mindfulness
Now I am going to teach you the way to meditate.
Please relax and feel comfortable because what I am going
to teach you is based on something you already have in
your mind. The teaching that I am going to instruct
you in
is based on something which is real and genuine, the truth.
And the truth cannot be deceived. It cannot be deceived by
neither the master nor the students. The master cannot
deceive the student and the student cannot deceive the
master once either of them has realized or understands the
truth. This is a technique that can be understood by
everybody. All of us have mind and body. We also have
mindfulness. Mindfulness is a quality of mind that we can
cultivate and develop, but it is already in our minds. Once
we are mindful or once we are awaken to mindfulness, all
of us are the same; but if we do not have mindfulness or if
we are not mindful,we are different.Meditating, especially developing mindfulness, doesnot require special time designated specifically for this
technique.It can be practiced all the time in our daily lives.
It dose not demand special time, mainly because
mindfulness is already in our minds. It can be developed
through our daily activities. If we practice properly, we will
feel that our lives are normal.
We cannot practice for others but have to practice for
ourselves. We cannot learn from others but have to learn
from direct experience. We have to learn by realizing the
truth in our minds. The meditation cannot be achieved from
memorizing texts or reading books. We have to experience
the reality in ourselves. For example, when we think, we
have to see, observe, and experience the reality of
thoughts, how they arise and how they fade away. These
can be learned through direct experience, not through
reading books or memorizing texts. What I am trying to
convey is what I have realized from direct experience, not
from analytical thoughts or knowledge of texts. This
realization is based on direct experience that everybody can
achieve or realize for himself.
When we practice, we practice on what we already
have. We have body and mind. We practice by using our
body as an object, our body’s movement. When our body
moves, when our hand moves, we should just be aware.
The hand is real, the body is real, and our awareness of
them is real and can be cultivated. The more we practice,
the more awareness we accumulate. This way of practicing
asks us to accumulate awareness until it becomes the dominant
quality of our minds. Once everybody has total awareness, everybody will be the same, the same in the sense that their lives are normal. But if we do not have
awareness, we behave differently out of hatred, greed, and delusion, which
disrupts our lives so that we contradict each other, preventing harmony and creating disunity. So,the point is how to cultivate awareness. The key to
Buddhist meditation is cultivating awareness and I am
going to instruct you how. Once we understand and
practice by ourselves, we will know ourselves better and
live our lives properly. Now I will demonstrate.

 

Everybody, please place your palms on your thighs,
sit comfortably, and open your eyes. First turn your right
hand onto its edge from your thigh, raise it to the height of
your chest, and move it to your abdomen. Turn your left
hand from your thigh, raise it to height of your chest, and
move it to your abdomen. Move your right hand to your
chest, move it out, lower it to your thigh, and turn it down.
Raise your left hand to your chest, turn it out, lower it, and
turn it down. Again, ....
Please try to be aware of every movement, aware, not
focused. Feel, feel the sensation of your body. Just make it
natural. Just feel it. That is the way to develop awareness
naturally. Sometimes thoughts will sneak into our minds;
just open yourself up to them but don’t follow them. Once
we are aware of our thoughts, we return to our body, to the
movement of our hands. This method does not encourage
one to stop thinking but just to be aware of it. In fact, we
cannot stop thinking because it is the nature of our mind to
think. We should be open to all kinds of thoughts, but do
not follow them or repress them. Just be aware. With
awareness, we will be firm and not react to our minds,
either positively or negatively.
This is the introduction. I would like you to try, to
practice, to feel yourselves and see how it affects your
mind. When you place your hand on your thigh, do you
know where your hand is? Once you know where your hand
is,you have already cultivated knowingness, that is to
know, to feel where your hand is. And the practice of
mindfulness is based on this awareness. When you turn
your hand on your thigh, do you know the position of your
hand? You know where your hand is, right? Raise your
hand. Is it on your thigh? Where is it? Who knows the
position of your hand? You or other people? Can anybody
know for you? Is it only you that can be aware of where
your hand is? Know, know, know, be aware, be aware, be
aware, ....

 

Do not force your mind to focus or concentrate on
every minute of your movements; just feel every step
intervally, and don’t focus your mind to feel like a straight
line of feeling. That’s not the right way. The only thing you
have to do is be aware.Don’t analyze or try to reason what
you are going to do or why you are having such thoughts.
Don’t analyze or rationalize any of your thoughts. Do not
make judgments, whether this thought is good or not, just
be open to it, be aware of it, with no blame,no repression,
and no stopping, just be receptive to the thoughts. This will
enable awareness to develop quickly.
Keep practicing, keep doing, and keep being aware of
your body’s movement. It does not need to be the
movement of your hand but can be the movement of your
breath. When you breathe in and breathe out, these are
also your body’s movements. When you walk, try to be
aware of your walk. Be aware of whatever your movement
is. Be aware of every position, and whatever you do try to
be aware of only one posture. When you walk, just be
aware of your walking; do not be aware of your breath. But
if you want to be aware of your breath, that’s okay as long
as you choose only one object. Do not use too many
objects or they will confuse you. The point is that whatever
thoughts arise, just be aware, and come back to your
body’s movement. Do not be caught up in your thinking
process or your thoughts.
If you feel tired or tense after sitting for a longtime, change your posture. While you change your posture, please be mindful; don’t change it
hastily out of impulse or out of unmindfulness.
During your walking meditation, you can either fold
your arms across your chest or clasp your hands behind
your back. Keep your hands properly; it will enable you to
walk slowly with mindfulness. About eight to twelve paces
of walking will do for the meditation. Do not walk for too
long a length or your mind will be easily distracted. If you
walk at my speed, in one hour you will walk four thousand
paces.If you know every pace, you already have four
thousand units of knowingness in one hour. It will
accumulate and can change the quality of your mind.
Anyway, if you become distracted or you forget and
become unmindful when you walk or move your hands,
that’s okay. Do not blame yourself or feel unhappy when
this happens. Just let it go and start again. When a thought
disturbs your mind, let it be. Do not try to repress or
suppress it. Just feel open to it. It will fade away
automatically. This is the nature of the mind that we can
realize through meditation.
Now, let’s try to experience it ourselves. After
practicing for an hour, you may come back and we will
have a question and answer session for thirty minutes.
How was your practice? When you felt distracted or
caught up in your mind, did you see the difference between
them? Did you realize when you were caught up in your
thoughts? Did you see the difference when you came back
to your body’s movement or became aware of the
movement of your hands or walking? Once you did that, did
you see that the thoughts just ceased or passed away?
When you are caught up in your thoughts or
overwhelmed by emotions, you may forget to move your
hand or you may move it but have no full awareness of
your body. That’s okay, but try to return to your hand’s
movement or to your walk. Once you are aware of your
body’s movement, you are already a practitioner. A
Dhamma practitioner develops awareness; this is the only
duty of the practitioner.The same goes for feeling. If you feel tense, physical
pain, or tired, do not be overwhelmed by the unpleasant
feelings. Just come back to your body’s movement or just
be aware and see the painful feelings. In other words, don’t
become lost, caught up in or overwhelmed by these
unpleasant feelings, but be aware. Awareness will enable
your mind and your life to go ahead without being
interrupted by thoughts or feelings or any kind of
disturbance. Thoughts will arise, feelings will disturb you,
but if you have total awareness, you can go ahead without
being stopped or blocked by these hindrance. You will go
ahead; go straight ahead.
For beginners, just cultivating awareness is enough.
Do not try to achieve or gain anything. Do not expect any
realization, any insight, or wisdom from the practice. Just
awareness is enough for you at the present stage and it will
enable you to go ahead without any problems or difficulties.
For the beginners, you may not sit longer if you wish, and
the awareness may develop slowly, not smoothly. That’s
okay. Just try to keep practicing, and this will enable
mindfulness or awareness to develop. Do not feel bad when
you feel you are caught up in your thoughts or in pleasant
or unpleasant feelings, or you become forgetful of the
practice. That’s okay. Do not blame yourself. Do not feel
depressed. Just come back to the practice; come back to be
aware of your body’s movement.
When you keep practice, you keep accumulating
awareness. You will begin to see, to realize, the nature of
your mind.You will see that thought are one thing and
mindfulness is another. The thoughts or feelings are not
you, not yours, not me, nor mine. Previously, you may
have thought that the thoughts are your thoughts, but in
fact, they are not your thoughts. The thoughts are just
there, but they are not yours. And this you can see,
because of mindfulness. Mindfulness will separate you from
the thought so you can observe the thought without being
identified with it or take it to be you or yours.
In the sutra, the Buddha advises us to contemplate,
to be aware of body, feelings, and mind or the thoughts.
These three aspects
- - body, feeling, and thoughts- - are already with us; they are not something outside of us. We can use them for our spiritual well being. In the past, when
we wanted to stand up, we stood up instantly out of habit.
But if we practice and develop mindfulness, before standing
up, we will be aware of the desire to stand up. Thus we will
stand up mindfully. We can apply this approach or this
attitude to whatever activity we do, and our lives will be on
the path to mindfulness.
Meditation’s priority is to develop awareness first. It
is the crucial factor that needs to be developed during the
practice. This is important because we are already good at
analytical thinking. But we have to practice another quality
of the mind, awareness. It will lead us to a realization
through direct experience that cannot be achieved through
thoughts or the analytical mind.
Any questions? If you want to ask, please ask based
upon the experience that you have already had from your
practice in the past few hours, do not ask through the
analytical mind.
Q: The mind that gives rise to thought, the mind that’s
mindful, and the mind that is aware, are these minds the
same?
A: Practically speaking, you can see the three. You can
see the scattered thoughts, or you can observe the mind.
This can happen when you are aware of your body. When
you are aware of your body and a thought arises, your
mindfulness will come and watch and be aware of your
thoughts. You can see the difference;differentiate between
your thoughts and mindfulness or awareness. Without
being aware of your body’s movement first, it is difficult to
see the difference between your thoughts and your mind.
Q: When you observe a thought, is the thought in the past?
A
: Once you are aware of a random thought, it is in the
past; but if you are not aware of it, it is the present. The
random or unintentional
thought is the kamma, a kind of
action, a mental action that can lead to other
consequences, either good or bad.
If you become aware of
it, awareness will halt that mental action, thus getting rid of
whatever consequences that might have happened.
Q:Is this practice of using your body as a meditative object for the train
ing of Samadhi?
A: The awareness can lead to calmness; if you are
caught up in or dwell on the calmness that is the Samatha,
calmness meditation. But if you lift your mind from the
calmness and observe the calmness, then it is insight
meditation. So it depends on how you deal with calmness.
If you dwell in the calmness, it is a calmness meditation; if
you observe the calmness, it will lead to insight meditation.
Q:Is this awareness the same as the Buddha’s?
A:The awareness mentioned above is the same as
the quality of Buddhahood. It will lead to total insight. This
kind of practice also includes the Three Fold Training- -morality, concentration, and wisdom.
Q: Do you mean that awareness includesThree Fold Training?
A: The Three Fold Training is not awareness itself, but
is based on awareness. You cannot keep precepts without
awareness. Awareness will enable you to keep the precepts,Sila
. And awareness will enable you to develop concentration,Samadhi
, and to gain insight,Panna. We need not waste time developing Sila,
Samadhi,Panna by different ways, but go directly to develop awareness, then
Sila,Samadhi,Panna will take place. According to the Buddhist Canon, the Buddha said, “Self -awareness is the origin of wisdom, the parent, the source of righteousness.
But unknowingness or unawareness is the source or the
parent of all evils.”
Q:Nowadays, young children seem to be practicing
awareness all the time. Even we, when we are exposed to
something new, seem to be more aware. It seems as if we
come to this world practicing awareness, then we start
thinking, thinking, thinking, then we have the same
thoughts over and over and that turns off our awareness.
Why is this happening?
A:It is because we have eyes, nose, ears, mouth, and
body, the five sensual bases, and mind, the sixth base, to
understand the world.We use these six bases to have
contact with the world, and this leads us to a lot of
concocted mind. We think a lot because we have a lot of
contact with the outside world. That’s why our minds
become busy and keep thinking all the time. We ignore
another quality of the mind, awareness. That’s why we
have to come back again, because we have ignored it for
such a long time. We have occupied ourselves with thinking
because of our contact with the outside world through the
five sensual bases. Awareness will liberate us from all
unpleasant events and unfetter our minds. It will liberate us
from all hindrances and fetters. I can assure you that
awareness will rescue our lives. Regardless of nationality or
race, we can be united. Regardless of our differences, we
have one thing in common --awareness. Awareness is in
everyperson. So, I would like to encourage you to develop
awareness so that we will go beyond nationality and race.
After the practice, do you feel that you can get in
touch with awareness, the awareness in your mind? It is an
quality inherent in you that leads you to get in touch with
it.
cont :- https://watpasukatomedia.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/kk_ps_spiritual-tips-for-meditators1.pdf

 

Dhamma Talk | Ajahn Paisal Visalo | How to work happily | TRUE LITTLE MONK

How to love ourselves | Ajahn Paisal Visalo

True Little Monk
Oct 1, 2018

 

Economics for the Quality of Life
By PHRA PAISAL VISALO - October 7, 2017
In honour of the 111th birth anniversary of Buddhadāsa, keynote speech by Venerable Phra Paisal Visalo, abbot of Wat Pa Sukato (Thailand), presented at The 8th International Buddhist Research Seminar & The 2nd International Conference on Buddhadāsa Studies held on 24-25 May 2017 at the Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives, Bangkok.

Venerables, Colleagues and Friends in the Dhamma,

When I was first invited to give a keynote speech on “Economics and Sustainable Development,” I was surprised. Firstly, because I am not an economist and secondly, I think that sustainable development has been involved with a lot of disciplines, not only economics but also politics and social science etc. Another reason is that economics has an impact and is connected not only with sustainable development but it can have impact on a large scale and on issues that are more important than sustainable development. So the title of my talk today will be “Economics for the Quality of Life.”

Ajahn Buddhadāsa was a great monk-scholar who made a lot of significant contributions to modern Thai Buddhism. One of them is to make Thai Buddhism relevant to the modern world. With his deep understanding of modern knowledges and Buddhism, he did more than any of his contemporaries in inspiring Thai western-educated people to embrace Buddhism as the guidance for living.

He has expanded the domain of Dhamma into the daily life of lay people. Dhamma practice is not necessary confined to monastery or temple. We can do it anywhere even in our home, our kitchen or our office as he repeatedly reminded us that “doing work is Dhamma practice.” Not only benefitting others, work can develop our mind. We can use any work as an opportunity to develop detachment, i.e. “doing any job with detached mind.” In other words, according to Ajahn Buddhadāsa, temporality and spirituality are not opposite poles. Any temporal or worldly activity is nothing less than Dhamma. It always involves morality. He once said that,

everything is about morality. Whatever human invented, organized or executed to solve human problems is morality.

Thus, not only politics is a moral issue. In Ajahn Buddhadāsa’s opinion, “economics is a branch of morality” since it is the body of knowledge where

we can make the most of nature, at its best, for the sake of humans and devas, and for the most benefit of the rich and the poor as well.

For general people, economics and Buddhism has nothing to do with each other since economics is the about materials and money whereas Buddhism pays attention to the mind. From this view point, material and mind are in separate domains. Buddhism, however, does not see it that way. In reality, material and mind are closely interrelated. Mental development is possible because of material support, especially four requisites: food, clothes, shelter, and medicine. The Buddha once said that to realize mental development, we need seven suitable things (sappāya), two of which are suitable (and enough) food, and suitable abode. If we are hungry or have difficult living conditions, mental development is hardly possible.

This connection is illustrated clearly by a story in the Buddhist scriptures. One morning while the Buddha resided in Jetavana monastery, he was able to perceive with his psychic power that a poor peasant living near the city of Alavi was mature enough for enlightenment. So he set off walking to that city. When he arrived, the people of Alavi were delighted and welcomed him warmly. In the morning a lot of people came to listen to his talk. However, the Buddha stayed silent and waited for this poor peasant to arrive before starting the talk.

That poor peasant has arrived the place quite late because that morning one ofhis cows disappeared. Despite his eagerness to listen to the Buddha’s discourse, he decided to look for the cow first. Once he found the cow, instead of going home and take food, he went straight to the city to listen to the Buddha’s discourse. By the time he arrived the place, he was exhausted and hungry.

When the Buddha saw his condition he asked that the food be prepared for this peasant. Once this man ate the food and become refreshed, the Buddha started to teach. Upon listening to the talk, the man realized the first stage of enlightenment.

It should be noted that the Buddha considered it important for the poor peasant to have food before listening to his talk. He was aware that if that man was still hungry, it was difficult for him to understand his talk and attain enlightenment.

Not only spiritual enlightenment, decent or moral behaviour needs food and material support, too. The Buddha once related a story about king called Mahavijita who was very rich with an abundance of gold and silver. One day he discussed with his minister-chaplain the plan to make a big sacrifice. The chaplain informed him that his country was now full of thieves and criminals. He disagreed with the king if the king wanted to get rid of the thieves by executions and imprisonment, or by confiscation, threats and banishment since the problem would not end. Instead he suggested to the king this plan to eliminate the thieves.

To those in the kingdom who are engaged in cultivating crops and raising cattle, let Your Majesty distribute grain and fodder; to those in trade, give capital; to those in government service assign proper living wages. Then those people, intent on their own occupations, will not harm the kingdom.

The king accepted the chaplain’s advice and did accordingly. Later on the king found that his kingdom became peaceful. According to the scriptures,

The land is tranquil and not beset by thieves, the people with joy in their hearts play with their children and dwell in open houses.

As illustrated by both stories, moral and spiritual development requires material support. Therefore, providing and distributing materials, which are essential economic activities, are the important steps for human development in Buddhist way. Since economics is the systematic study of production, distribution and consumption, it can be used as a tool for Buddhism to develop human quality of life.

However, if economics can be used to promote human development, it can have a negative effect on human quality if conceived or executed improperly. And this is what is happening with conventional or mainstream economics.

E.F. Schumacher is, arguably, the first who criticized modern economics from a Buddhist standpoint (though he was not a Buddhist). He questioned the assumption that economics is

the science of absolute and invariable truths, without any presuppositions.

 

(cont)
Instead, he pointed out that, modern economics is based on presuppositions or values which are contrary to Buddhist ones. One of them is the presupposition about work. While modern economics regard work as “necessary evil” or “cost to be reduced,” and try to get rid of the workload by all means. Buddhism regards work as a means to develop human faculties and to overcome his ego-centeredness. What should be done is not to get rid of work, but to make work meaningful. From a Buddhist viewpoint, according to Schumacher,
to organize work in such a manner that it becomes meaning less, boring, stultifying, or nerve-racking for the worker would be little short of criminal.
The most important point in Schumacher’s critique is about consumption. Modern economics consider consumption “to be the sole end and purpose of all economic activity,” assuming that “a man who consumes more is ‘better off’ than a man who consumes less.” The purpose of economics is, therefore,
maximize consumption by the optimal pattern of productive efforts.
While modern economics regard consumption as the end, Buddhism regards it as the means. If we use goods and services to provide satisfaction, the desirable economics from Buddhist standpoint should aim to “maximize human satisfactions by the optimal pattern of consumption.” In other words, maximum satisfaction with minimum consumption, rather than maximum consumption with minimum production (or resources), should be the aim of economics.


However, from a Buddhist viewpoint, maximum satisfaction with minimum consumption alone is not enough. Another factor that is very important is the quality of life or well-being. It is not desirable if highest satisfaction has been achieved with low quality of life. Therefore economics should aim for providing maximum quality of life with minimum consumption.


Economics that aims to maximize consumption, or maximize satisfaction through maximized consumption, is undesirable because it causes a lot of problems. Though modern economics succeed in creating material prosperity and a higher level of standard of living in many countries, quality of life of the people is not always improved. Though people are richer, they are not happier because they are encouraged to consume more and more, with no end. Consumerist culture that comes with modern economics tempts people to desire endlessly. The pursuit of material wealth all over the world leads to greed, passion, competition, and suffering. Extreme consumerism drives people to stress, anxiety, restless mind, and the feeling of emptiness of life. Despite having more wealth, people are increasingly disturbed by the sense of lack.


Consumerism is not only harmful to psychological or mental well-being, it also affects other aspects of well-being, physical, social and ecological.


On physical well-being aspect: overconsumption leads to obesity, heart diseases, and a lot of lethal chronic sickness which are the main causes of death in modern society. Not to mention sickness because of pollution and environmental destruction.


On social well-being aspect: desire for more wealth makes people more selfish and care only for themselves, resulting in weak relationships, broken family, exploitation, corruption, crimes, human rights violation, and a wider gap between the rich and the poor


On ecological well-being aspect: overconsumption is the main reason for environmental destruction everywhere. Natural resources have been rapidly depleted in large scale. Air, water and soil have been heavily polluted. Climate change or global warming becomes an imminent threat to human survival.
Desirable economics should aim for promoting quality of life or increasing well-being of the people in all aspects. According to the Buddha, there are 4 aspects or levels of well-being:


Physical well-being: healthy, free from hunger and sickness, free from natural disaster;
Social well-being: living in harmony with the others, free from crimes, oppression, exploitation, discrimination;
Mental well-being: experiencing happiness, inner peace, relaxation, no stress, free from ill-will;
Wisdom or spiritual well-being: deep understanding the true nature of life, resulting in spiritual freedom.


As previously mentioned, social, mental, and spiritual well-being of individuals require material support. Economics, though focus mainly on material stuff, can be used as a tool to promote not only physical well-being, but also other three aspects of well-being.


The key issue that need to be discussed here as far as economics and well-being are concerned is the issue of consumption.

 

(cont.)

Economics is defined as the systematic study of how to attain given ends with the minimum means. If well-being is the given ends and consumption is the means, the question is how much consumption is considered as minimum or optimal.

There is a teaching of the Buddha which appears throughout the Buddhist scriptures, included in the Ovada Patimokkha. That is “knowing moderation in consumption.” As Venerable P.A. Payutto has pointed out:

Knowing moderation means knowing the optimum amount, how much is ‘just right.’
He has elaborated further that,

we may define the right amount as the point at which human satisfaction and true well-being coincide, i.e. when we experience satisfaction through answering the desire for quality of life.
In other words,

when enhancement of true well-being is experienced through consumption, then that consumption is successful

or being optimal. This can be called “right consumption.” Therefore economics should aim for right consumption:

The use of goods and services to satisfy the desire for true well-being.

It should be noted that the right amount of consumption varies among different individuals. It depends on inner development of each person. People who have higher level of inner development, experiencing more inner happiness, would need less consumption than people who have lower level of inner development, and still rely upon more external or physical happiness.

Economic planning and implementation should consider the difference and diversity of people’s wants. People should not be forced to have same level of consumption or same standard of living. Therefore freedom of consumption has to be maintained to a certain extent.

For Buddhists who believe in the Buddhist ideal, it should be emphasized that Buddhist ideal can be realized only through Buddhist way of life. However, for Buddhist way of life to be possible, Buddhist economics is required. As Schumacher noted fourty years ago:

No one seems to think that a Buddhist way of life would call for Buddhist economics, just as the modern materialist way of life has brought forth modern economics.

It is not easy for individual to maintain Buddhist way of life while being fully immersed in modern economic system that incessantly stimulates maximum consumption and fuels extreme consumerism since the pursuit of material acquisition will only lead to greed, passion, competition, and violence which are against Buddhist values.

Consumerism is a powerful world-view which has deep effects on the attitude and way of living of people around the world. Through consumer attitude, virtually everything is transformed into commodity for sale. Health, education, culture, happiness, relationship, identity are all for sale or believed to be accessible in the market. With money, everything can be bought for consumption. Prosperity or material acquisition becomes the goal of life.

This attitude has influenced people’s approach to religion, including Buddhism.

Nowadays Buddhist monks in Thailand are expected to give blessings for prosperity, rather than give guidance for inner peace or true well-being. Even among those who desire the latter, money is regarded as the means for spiritual fulfilment. Spiritual experience is something that can be realized, not by practicing or making effort, but by buying, through “donation.” Such mentality and practice not only divert many Thai Buddhists from moral and spiritual development, abandoning Buddhist way of life, but lso corrupting the monks and Buddhist institutions as a whole.

Therefore it is very important for Buddhists to develop Buddhist economics that increase the quality of life and develop well-being in Buddhist way. Buddhist economics here doesn’t mean economics for the whole country. That is almost impossible in the present context. But we can develop Buddhist economics in small scale, in our own community, for example.

However difficult, an alternative to modern economics is badly needed. It’s increasingly obvious that modern economics is driving the world into crisis, especially ecological crisis that not only renders modern way of living increasingly unsustainable, but can be the threat to human survival. Nowadays the call for reduced consumption is louder and louder all over the world in order to save the ecosystem. This doesn’t mean we have to stop economic development. As Ha-Joon Chang, the Korean economist, has observed:

Even with lower aggregate consumption, human welfare need not go down… Welfare can be increased without increase in consumption by consuming differently, rather than consuming more.

Economic development should continue, not to increase excessive material consumption, but to increase productive capabilities, which is necessary to reduce poverty and improve well-being all over the world.

In conclusion, what we need is the new economics that is radically different from the current one. The new economics that is beautifully defined by Edy Korthals Altes, the Dutch thinker:

The purpose of economics is the responsible use of the limited means at man’s disposal in order to promote the common and individual well-being of present and future generations. Production, distribution and consumption of goods must be oriented towards a just and sustainable society in which the limits of nature are strictly respected.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the true well-being of the present and next generation of people depends on how we conceive economics and run the economy. In fact, even the survival of human beings depends upon the economics. Therefore, it is very important for us to rethink the economics and find the alternative one which is healthy and beneficial to the quality of life and friendly to the ecosystem.

It is a good opportunity that, to commemorate the 111th anniversary of Ajahn Buddhadāsa, we come to think seriously about this issue and redirect it the way it should be that is “to provide the righteousness of all people’s life as far as material is concerned, and to render our life the maximum benefit” as voiced by Ajahn Buddhadāsa.

Thank you.
:- https://www.suanmokkh.org/articles/22