January-March 2012

DHARMA AND THE MODERN WORLD

By Owen Cole

With retirement from the workforce not far away, the global financial crisis is a very uncomfortable experience. Assets – shares, pension funds and property – have been hammered and there doesn’t seem much let up in sight.

As I write, the U.S. stock market is still down about 13percent from before the 2007 global financial crisis and others are not faring much better.

During discussions around a recent European Union bail out of Greece, a prominent Australian economist and board member of the country’s central bank described the global economy as facing a slow-moving train wreck.

It’s a sinking feeling to see the value of your hard-earned savings, shares or property evaporating before your eyes. These are what you worked so hard for, spent so much time thinking about, nurtured, took joy in and were counting on to take you comfortably into your old age so you could spend the remainder of your days studying your library of unread Dharma books and quietly meditating.

The share market is the worst of the lot: a good or bad obscure piece of economic news and off it goes – up or down. The cause of the movement could even be a storm or political change in some faraway place. If there is one thing you can say about the movements in the markets it is that they are not rational. They are fueled by the two great competing emotions of greed and fear. On the stock market these emotions are at their rawest best.

The stock market plays with one’s emotions like a cat teases a trapped mouse. Just when you thought things were going to get much worse, the market starts to go up and gives you that warm inner feeling. The next moment, it plunges and you feel gutted.

The stock market also provides good lessons on impermanence, emptiness and refuge. How can you place your hope for the future in something that is so unreliable?

Then there’s the regret. “If only I had made this investment decision instead of that, I would be OK now.”

This reaction is contrary to Buddhist ideology as it’s virtually a denial of karma. If the karma is there, you will have success. If not, you won’t succeed no matter what you do.

A friend, who used to be a stockbroker, believes in karma though he’s not a “Buddhist.” He said he could sell shares which had few good prospects to some clients who would make money out of them time and time again. In fact, any venture they undertook turned to money. But other clients could be sold really good investments but they inevitably lost money. This experience convinced him that karma works. The amount of money made was not due to how clever the person was or what financial insights they had, but their karma. There is not much point in worrying about the outcome.

From a Buddhist point of view the way to make money is to be generous. Give away money. Have a mind that wants others to have wealth. Be the first to pay when the bill comes at the restaurant. I guess this would mean for a country in financial trouble, it would be good to increase the amount of overseas aid (though it could be political suicide, particularly in these times).

The effects of karma and money can also be seen in Dharma organizations. The FPMT has had some unsuccessful businesses which were intended to make money for Dharma activities. They could have been set up by people who have been very successful in their own field, are competent individuals and have their heart in the right place, but the businesses fail. Ven. Roger Kunsang once said it is important to check with Lama Zopa Rinpoche before starting up a business aimed at benefitting Dharma activities to see that the people who are going to benefit from the business have the karma to benefit from it. That blew me away.

Similar principles apply to Dharma centers. I’ve been in three centers that have purchased properties and in every case there was nowhere near enough money according to any rational financial analysis. However, on Rinpoche’s advice the properties were purchased, so he must have seen that the karma for success was there as the mortgage payments were always met.

The great meditators and scholars who gave rise to the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism, the Kadampa Geshes, had a saying: “If in an argument, lose it; if there is a profit to be made, let someone else make it.” If only it were that easy!