Podcast: The implications of the Eightfold path

Terrific podcasts - Mike. Really enjoyed them.  Nice articulation of what a Buddhist Accounting might look like. 

FYI - Jesse Dillard recently published a Buddhist accounting paper: Buddhist Economics: A Path from an Amoral Accounting toward a Moral One, Advances in Public Interest Accounting. 14:25-55 (2009).

Do you attend the AAA or EAA or public interest section of the AAA midyear? We ought to play around with the idea of a Buddhist accounting session at one of these meetings. I've done some writing on mindfulness in recent years but this has, to date, mostly been around organizational and technology issues. 

Dan Stone

Univ. of Kentucky

A very good point, CT! I think that it is fundamental to reconceptualise the relationship between humans and other sentient beings, in the way society organises its economic activity. Businesses should be accountable for actions that impact on other sentient beings rather than just on human 'stakeholders'. This is an important example of the need for Buddhist Accounting, to facilitate business acting in accordance with Buddhist precepts. 

Mike

I think the core teaching of Buddhism of no-thing-ness and non-self does provide a compelling contrast to the Western notion of primacy of self. Also, Buddhism does not have the human-centric concept of human beings as the measure of all things. To the Buddhists, human beings are just one of the beings.

The great challenge is how to translate an essentially psychological concept into a socio-economic concept. It would be great that if Buddhism could provide a viable alternative economic model.

Thanks Terry for this thoughtful contribution. I know of Robert Kegan by reputation and will now certainly check out his works - sounds very intersting and closely related to 'Buddhist Psychology' ( see Caroline Brazier's book of the same name). As I mention in one of the podcasts, the challenge for me is the development of a 'Buddhist Accounting' as a spur towards encouraging some buddhist practices in the workplace!

Mike

Mike, you mention that modern capitalist societies make it difficult for personal development to result from work.  Have you read any of Robert Kegan's books?  He is a adult developmental psychologist and argues that current business leaders are 'in over their heads'.  He says that western society has the aim to develop leaders to a 4th order of consciousness (self authoring mind) - which focuses on perosnal autonomy, authority, and independent judgement.  Whereas, the current change, complexity and ambiguity requires 5th order consciousness (self transforming mind) - which is about interdependence, self surrender, and seeing self as a process or product of relationships.  Whilst Kegan doesn't say explicitly, I think the 5th order takes a buddhist perspective.  Most leaders develop in the workplace, however is this enough to enable leaders to make the transition to level 5?  Perhaps some buddhist practices in the workplace could help.

Terry

Very well put! I think overcoming self centredness in economic life is a central challenge for humanity in pursuit of sustainability. We need a compelling intellectual frame of reference and Buddhist Economics can provide this.

How fantastic would it be to have a Buddhist view on economics implemented in the western world? It would certainly end the disease of constant self gratification through consuming, which as the very term suggests (I feel) has to be finite, you can only consume so much, and really how happy are we? Retail therapy is not real therapy and filling a void in ones life with consumer goods does not lead to happiness only more debt and a desire to buy more things. I have been increasingly drawn to Zen Buddhism over the last few years and the stark contrast between that world view and our Western one is saddening. As JHWinship says above, unelected bankers have too much influence over society especially as they control the production of money, to which we will always be in debt! The Bhutan example sounds like the ideal, but I'm sure time will tell.

A very thought-provoking piece on Economics.  John Ruskin called the subject “The Science of getting riches”.  Perhaps a little unfair, but many people now think that modern, mainstream Economics makes very limited assumptions about how humans maximise their well being.  Economists, like bankers, perhaps have too much influence in our modern world given that they are unelected, disagree with each other and have an incentive to add sophistry to their discourse. 

Yes, the small Buddhist kingdom of Butan has developed a performance indicator called'Gross National Happiness' to replace Gross National Product as a better measure of real human welfare. This has potentially important implications for accountants and economists in the West who are preoccupied with measuring 'profit'.  Such indicators could also be used at the micro level of the individual organisation /business, implying a fruitful future research agenda in developing Buddhist Accounting.

Mike

It seems Buddhist views on job and consumption imply a higher end than living a life mostly defined by what material consumption choices we make. As result, even human resources, are seen as resource, a means by economic organisation to achieve rganisational goals. When the goals happen to be making profits or share value maximising, the role of individual is reduced to no better than that of any non-human resource.

Bhutan is perhaps the only country where Buddhism is being stretched to encompass economic policies. However small an experiment that is, one has to see if it succeeds in ensuring reducing the poverty and at the same time controlling the problems associated with share value model.