Showing posts with label Buddhist Economics. Show all posts

Saturday, November 11, 2017

GNH of Business Conference and Certificate

This week, the 7. International Conference on Gross National Happiness took place in Thimphu, Bhutan. The gathering of about 350 people focused on applying GNH in the business sector. Honourable Prime Minister of Bhutan and Dasho Karma Ura from the Centre for Bhutan Studies and GNH opened the event. On the first day, I presented a paper we had jointly submitted with Prof. Laszlo Zsolnai from the Corvinus University of Budapest about GNH rating for companies and Buddhist values in business.

I look forward to seeing GNH in Business in practice from 2018.

Monday, December 3, 2012

'Buddhist inspired values in business' workshop

On 24-25 Nov, I spent the weekend in Brussels with 40 wonderful, like-minded people of varied background - academics, business managers, entrepreneurs, nuns, nonprofit leaders, management consultants, public servants and students - exploring the application of Buddhist values in business management. I had the great privilege to coordinate the event and share a few thoughts about my ongoing journey of discovering Buddhism, Buddhist economics, GNH and Bhutan.

More importantly, I learned a lot from our panel of excellent speakers such as Prof. Laszlo Zsolnai, Joel Magnuson, Bart Weetjens, Keturaja, and Dr Karma Phuntsho. Via video interview, Dasho Karma Ura was also sharing his inspiring thoughts about Gross National Happiness, Buddhism and Business.

Active participation, thoughtfulness and open-mindedness of the audience made the workshop a fruitful and enjoyable event to be continued in the future.

More: www.bububrussels.blogspot.com

To visually support my talk, I borrowed and changed a bit the title page of
Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse's popular book 'What makes you (not) a Buddhist?'

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Last chance to register

This is your last chance to register before 18th November to this unique international workshop on Buddhist Values in Business and its Potential for Europe on www.bububrussels.blogspot.com

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Buddhist Values in Business and its Potential for Europe

I happen to coordinate a unique workshop to be held in Brussels on 24-25 November 2012. It's an interactive, small gathering for people who are interested in exploring how Buddhist values can be applied in business management and how such approach may improve the way business is currently conducted in Europe and elsewhere. We will also have participants from Bhutan so that the concept of Gross National Happiness can be part of our conversation.

You can read more about this event and register before 18th November on www.bububrussels.blogspot.com

And, of course, feel free to spread the word around.

Monday, July 30, 2012

Can happiness be measured? - two different views

When considering new ways of measuring progress of a nation such as Gross National Happiness, Happy Planet Index, EU Beyond GDP, OECD Better Life Index, etc, there are experts who argue for and against. This short interview on the Guardian with Julian Baggini and Lord Richard Layard is a recent snapshot of this exciting debate.

A unique workshop with speakers from Bhutan, Hungary, US and Europe to be held in Brussels, Belgium in November also aims to contribute to this discussion through looking at the application of Buddhist Values in Business.

To learn more about this event and register, click HERE.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Those who die with the most toys "win."

Buddhism and the End of Economic Growth

Posted by John Stanley and David Loy on Huffington Post: 09/19/11

"We are seeing a perfect storm of converging crises that together represent a watershed moment in the history of our species. We are witnesses to, and participants in, a transition from decades of growth to decades of economic contraction." -- Richard Heinberg

"True development is in harmony with the needs of people and the rhythms of the natural world. Humans are part of the universe, not its masters. This awareness of the interrelatedness of all things, as expressed in Buddhism, is also lived in the traditions of indigenous peoples throughout the world." -- Sulak Sivaraksa

It is increasingly obvious that natural limitations will soon force economic growth to cease. Although this view has been well-studied for at least 40 years, it still remains largely unexamined by the mainstream media. National leaders and corporate CEOs continue to insist that the economy is the true heartbeat of human society, and its growth is the only valid measure of social progress. From this perspective there is very little difference between the top levels of government and the top levels of corporate management. Both are preoccupied with promoting endless growth, because both believe in what Adam Smith called the "invisible hand" of the market, which magically transcends physical and biological limits.

As Dan Hamburg concluded in 1997 from his years as a U.S. Congressman, "The real government of our country is economic, dominated by large corporations that charter the state to their bidding. Fostering a secure environment in which corporations and their investors can flourish is the paramount objective of both [political] parties." Back in 1932, Huey Long expressed this colorfully: "They've got a set of Republican waiters on one side and a set of Democratic waiters on the other side, but no matter which set of waiters brings you the dish, the legislative grub is all prepared in the same Wall Street kitchen."

However, something more powerful than an invisible hand is turning our economic assumptions upside down. Economic growth remains blocked. The so-called "recovery" of the last two years (recovery for the banks and Wall Street, not for the rest) has stalled. The official explanation blames the vast accumulation of financial debt. But there are other long-term obstacles to growth that are even more difficult to address, especially the shock of resource depletion. Since the 1970s there has been a recession every time the price of oil passes $80 per barrel. An increasing number of environmental disasters are resulting from oil drilling and nuclear power generation. Large-scale global warming impacts have already appeared in Russia, Pakistan, China, Africa and Australia -- and Texas. The consequences include major reductions in crop yields that are driving up world food prices.

As Richard Heinberg points out, these are converging crises. They will compel our civilization to re-think the way it understands the relationship between the economy and the rest of the biosphere. Sooner or later, we will have to adopt a sane and well-reasoned "steady state" economy that operates mindfully within the Earth's resource and energy budget. Although you would not guess it from the mainstream media, our contemporary obsession with economic growth is already a "dead man walking."

Thai Buddhist elder Sulak Sivaraksa believes the future of the world must include interconnectedness, which for him is a spiritual perspective that dwells in the human heart. Globalization preaches the interdependence of nations, but that type of economic interconnectedness functions in a very different way: in Asia it has brought free-market fundamentalism, environmental degradation, and the destruction of Buddhist culture and values by consumerism. The same inner corrosion has been happening in "overdeveloped" as well as in "underdeveloped" countries. Individuals are induced by advertising to earn more to acquire more, creating an endless cycle of greed and insecurity. Those who die with the most toys "win."

According to Buddhist teachings, it doesn't have to be like this. Buddhists should add their voices to other calls for society to go beyond the one-dimensional measurement of gross domestic product (GDP), which is merely a crude total of collective expenditures. The Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan has developed an alternative way to calculate social improvement, the Gross National Happiness index. This measures nine aspects of society: time-use, living standards, good governance, psychological well-being, community vitality, culture, health, education and ecology. The Happy Planet Index (HPI), developed by the New Economics Foundation in the UK, compares life satisfaction, life expectancy and ecological footprints across the world. Countries that exemplify "successful economic development" are some of the worst performers in sustainable well-being. Britain is midway down the table in 74th place. The U.S. is in 114th place. Costa Rica has the best score.

Today it is essential that Buddhists think critically and challenge the fetish of economic growth. Buddhist leaders such as the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh and Sulak Sivaraksa have been emphasizing this for years, and now the crunch has arrived. If humanity is to survive and thrive during this century, we must quickly learn to accept -- indeed, to embrace -- the need for limits. Buddhist teachings emphasize that this does not require a reduction in the quality of life. On the contrary, a creative "downshift" will help us to focus on what is most important in life.

If, in the midst of converging global crises, we wish to enhance our awareness of the interrelatedness of all things, and promote genuine spiritual contentment, we must emphasize and live by another way of life: the steady-state economy. In this fashion we can minimize, for ourselves and others, the social difficulties of transition from decades of economic growth to decades of economic contraction.

John Stanley and David Loy are part of the Ecobuddhism Project.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Growth in Buddhist Economy by Jeffrey Sachs

Recently my friends drew my attention to articles of Jeffrey Sachs, Professor of Economics at Columbia University, inspired by Bhutan. One of them titled 'Growth in a Buddhist Economy' can be read clicking HERE

I found the article very interesting and commented on it as follows:

"I'm happy that Mr. Sachs highlights Bhutan as a unique country with enlightened public policies and political leadership dedicated to put these policies in practice. Many other countries, including the US, many times lack both, but especially leadership.

I was a volunteer in Bhutan - which is about 6% of the size of France - working with young entrepreneurs funded by the country's first registered charity, the Loden Foundation. I saw many parts of the country and I spoke with various people from taxi drivers to elected officials, from drug abusers to monks and former monks, from journalists to tourist guides. I was impressed by the concept of Gross National Happiness and the way the government, religious leaders, and the King are implementing it.

However, I also became concerned about rapid urbanization and its side effects such as consumerism, pollution, crime, youth unemployment, drug abuse, social disintegration, imported bad quality food, new diseases, etc. Of course, these issues are still limited in scale, but dynamically increasing since cable television, foreign visitors and the Internet bring new dreams to people that in many ways challenge their traditional culture based on communal rural life, frugality and Buddhism. As new consumer goods, entertainment services and well marketed cultural habits such as Birthday parties, Valentine Day, wedding ceremonies, Halloween, even Santa Claus, are imported to the country, people's attitudes are gradually changing without realizing the long term negative consequences. They want more or different things rather than what they really need and what their natural environment can bear. I saw Coca-Cola drinks and potato chips piled on the altar offered to the temple which was located in the middle of the forest in high mountains! This means people bother to buy and then bring plastic garbage walking hours to their sacred places, because they attribute value to these unhealthy food items.

Such a transition Bhutan is currently going through, or any large scale economic and social change, requires good leadership as well as good experts and advisors independent from business interest to effectively influence and pressurize domestic and international leaders to make the right decisions that work for the majority of citizens and for the Planet. Meetings and discussions and articles and books are great and important, but I'm afraid we are all running out of time and we must act now to save Bhutan for a better world and create a better world for Bhutan."

More on Buddhist Economics in my blog HERE

Monday, July 18, 2011

Socially Engaged Buddhism

I believe Engaged Buddhism has a key role to play in solving our current social, economic and ecological issues in the world. Recently, I had the privilege to attend an exciting meeting organized by the European Buddhist Union at the Naropa Institute in Cadzand, the Netherlands. Participants, including Laszlo Zsolnai representing the Buddhist Economics Research Platform, discussed various ideas on how Buddhism can contribute to a better world, evaluated the links between Buddhist practice and social engagement, and encouraged communication and support among existing Buddhist initiatives worldwide.

Considering my working experience with emerging enterprises in Bhutan, I think there is a need for advanced business and management practices that are aligned with Buddhist ideas and values as opposed to simply trying to follow what companies in other countries have done. In my view, copying currently mainstream aggressive management practices can only lead to disaster in countries like Bhutan.

Below you can read the public letter crafted by the participants:

Letter from Cadzand on Socially Engaged Buddhism

On 18-19 June 2011, the committee ‘Buddhism and Society’ of the European Buddhist Union organised an informal networking weekend, hosted by the Naropa Institute in Cadzand, the Netherlands. Socially engaged Buddhist networks from the United States, Asia and Europe were represented.

The purpose of the brainstorming weekend was

to share ideas on how Buddhism can contribute to a better world
to evaluate the links between Buddhist practice and social engagement
to encourage communication and support among existing Buddhist initiatives worldwide

Over 2600 years ago, Siddhartha Gautama rejected all forms of social discrimination and institutionalized inequalities. Buddhism teaches that everyone, regardless of race, colour, gender, sexual orientation, language, religion, political ideology, nationality, social origins, property, birth status or other distinctions, has the potential to become enlightened. The global financial crisis reminds us that social and economic structures are fashioned by human minds, which also implies that they can be reconstructed.

No-self, impermanence and interconnectedness are inspirational core teachings that help us (with meditation and other contemplative practices) to identify suffering and the causes of suffering, and to act compassionately, with awareness of our own motivations.

Becoming aware of the suffering due to abuse, injury, poverty, illness, imprisonment, oppression and war continues to be a source of action for many Buddhists. Many types of initiatives have been developed in different parts of the world.

The participants at the meeting in Cadzand came to the following conclusions:

1. Many socially engaged projects by Buddhists are not well known within the broader Buddhist community. The participants identified a strong need to share ideas and methods. It would therefore be useful to set up a directory and network, a sort of World Forum for Socially Engaged Buddhism, to facilitate global communication and cooperation. The participants intend to support informal networks via mailing groups and the construction of a website where existing initiatives, ideas and literature are easily accessible.

2. As a first step it would be useful to organize a European symposium on Socially Engaged Buddhismin the near future (Summer 2013). This will be the third in a series of major conferences on the topic, following a symposium on engaged Buddhism in the United States (August 2010 in Montague, Massachusetts) and a forthcoming conference on ‘The Future of Buddhism: from Personal Awakening to Global Transformation’ by the International Network of Engaged Buddhists (INEB) in India (October 26-29, 2011 in Bodh Gaya). The proposed European symposium will highlight the activities of those who are already involved in engaged Buddhist initiatives and encourage cooperation among them. It will also bring together people who would like to do something and put them into contact with those who are already conducting projects.

3. Finally, we participants at the networking weekend in Cadzand invite all Buddhist organizationsto reflect on existing or potential initiatives within their own communities. National Buddhist Unions in Europe might also consider appointing a national coordinator to gather information on local projects within their countries, and to forward that information to the international network. It is important that individual Buddhists and Buddhist organizations take a much more active role in responding to the ecological and social challenges that threaten our planet and its inhabitants. Our situation is urgent and time is running out.

4. We also welcome the various kinds of supportyou might be able to offer: sharing ideas, informing us about socially engaged projects, promoting such projects, administrative support, help with the construction and maintenance of a website, links to existing websites and social networking communities, etc.

May you who read this letter be free from suffering and the causes of suffering.

May everyone you meet be free from suffering and the causes of suffering.

May all sentient beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering.

Cadzand, 19^th June 2011

Somboon Chungprampree

Executive Secretary at the International Network of Engaged Buddhists (INEB)

Email: secretariat@inebnetwork.org

Website: www.inebnetwork.org

Godfried De Waele

Dana Sangha / Board Member Zen Sangha Belgium

E-mail: wayoftheheart@telenet.be

Paula de Wijs-Koolkin