A question for Davos

A friend of mine recently used a phrase that hit me strong: Economics - where real people are spending real money.

It really made somethings clear to me. Isn't a major part of the problem we are having now that economics is based on a model using man as a rational creature with perfect information making decisions driven purely by self-interest? That is about as far away from real people as I can imagine getting. And real money? Debt backed money may be equally far away from real money.

I realize we got to where we are with many tiny little steps but now we are at the abyss and need to take big and bold actions to save things. How do we turn around the whole distorted model of economics?

mindfulness ....

thinking about what you are doing
thinking about why you are doing it
thinking about what the effects of doing it are going to be

Mind Full

It seems like just yesterday that I posted here. In other ways it seems like a lifetime ago.

Right after I posted here the last time, I took on a task that was too big to do in the allotted time. I edited a translation of part of a Thai book entitled "Buddhist Economics: Evolution, Theories and Its Application to Various Economic Subjects". It is done. The author is happy. I am not. We will get it right on the second printing.

That project consumed all - and I do mean ALL - of my time for just over three weeks. By the time it was over, I was already into the beginning of a new semester and teaching 2 classes that I had never taught before that used up 15 lecture hours a week.

During November and December I was incredibly fortunate to host a visiting faculty member from Ashcroft International Business School. She came here and taught Buddhism and sustainable business practices.

Partly she was coming here for the 2nd International Conference of the Buddhist Economic Research Platform: Theory and Practice which I have been the chief organizer of for over a year. Unfortunately, days before the conference we had to postpone due to the civil unrest here in Thailand that had closed down transportation. The conference has been rescheduled for April 9-11, 2009 and the plans are at least under control again.

Also during my absence from here there has been a huge faculty upheaval that has resulted in the dean of my faculty resigning and created problems that don't warrant discussion here.

All of this has resulted in many changes in my life.

The current semester will be over at the end of February - barely 5 weeks away. At that time I will be focusing on finalizing all of the plans for the conference in April and I will also be tying up loose ends here as after the conference I will be returning to the United States for a year to work on my PhD research before coming back to defend my thesis mid 2010.

The year home at this particular time is problematic. With the economic situation what it is, it's incredibly unlikely I will get a job. I have applied for a grant to cover my travel expenses for my research in the US but won't know the status on that for a couple of weeks yet. So, I continue to plan to go home with all of my savings from here and hope that it is enough for me to survive and do all of the traveling I need to do to interview all of the people I need to interview and visit all the communities of practice I want to visit even if I don't get the grant.

Mindfulness has to sustain me here. I know what I want to do. I know the problems. I know more than ever that we need to find a new way to lead our economic lives. I know that without that change we are doomed. I know that with it, there is hope.

mindfulness ....

thinking about what you are doing
thinking about why you are doing it
thinking about what the effects of doing it are going to be

The reality of Poverty

Today is Blog Action Day. Blog Action day is trying to this one day, focus the attention of readers of blogs on the topic of poverty.

Poverty is not a condition that makes me happy or comfortable. I have more than enough to eat and always have had. I have money to buy clothes when I need them, provide a roof over my head and be able to see a doctor when I need to. Don't get me wrong. I am not rich. But God knows I am not in poverty.

I don't like to see poverty. I don't like to talk about poverty. I don't like to think about poverty. Poverty is a huge problem in this world and it shouldn't be. There is enough food in the world to feed every person. That is a distribution problem. If you look at the wealth in the world, I suspect that there is enough wealth in the world to eliminate poverty as well. It's a distribution problem.

If each of us looks mindfully at how we distribute the money that we are stewards of.....could we then act to eliminate poverty?

mindfullness ....

thinking about what you are doing
thinking about why you are doing it
thinking about what the effects of doing it are going to be

My first post - a second time

DISCLAIMER This is rambling. This is thinking. Call it (at this point) individual brainstorming. I have posted this here because I want to work with each of you and share these ideas to build an organized vision and maybe lead to an insight in a positive forward direction. I speak of Buddhism not being a Buddhist but admiring much of what I see. I am not an expert. I also posted this initially on ned.com my real home

I believe deep in my heart that every person on the globe wants to move their life forward toward something better.

The problem is figuring out the direction. We wander. We look around us to see what others are doing and kind of figure the direction most people is going is the right direction.

Some of us travel that path and find that it really isn't going anywhere that we want to go and screw up enough courage to try to swim upstream.

I guess I feel like I have always been swimming upstream. I mean I gave my first doom and gloom speech on the environment to a large church group in 1966. (About the same time I was protesting the war in Vietnam.)

I got into this mode of thinking by the constant comments when I speak about Sufficiency Economy here in Thailand (remember, this is a philosophy developed by the King of Thailand) that I must be crazy. How could I get into the Sufficiency Economy thing when I am an American?

People in Thailand and much of the rest of the world, believe that the west (most visibly and audibly America) has the answers to happiness and well being. They don't have a clue. But why should I be surprised that Thais and Africans don't understand that the western goal of mindless consumerism and endless accumulation is not the answer when those who are living in the middle of that and know that it is not really the answer keep chasing it?

When I came to first learn about Buddhist Economics, it grabbed me. Most simply stated it is economics where ethics matter. Where people are central. Where having a job is more than making money; it is honing a skill and having pride in your work and knowing that you are contributing to society with your work. It is an economics where the focus is not on the accumulation of wealth but rather a measure of how you distribute your wealth.

One of the biggest problems with it is that it is still, in many ways, a regional, cultural concept that is fully shrouded in Buddhism. That is not to say that there is anything wrong with that. It is to say that it is my belief that as long as it wears that outer layer, not many people will look at the beauty inside it. I have more than once joked with Aj. Apichai that I thought I was called to take the Buddhism out of Buddhist Economics. I am just not sure how to do that so that it can speak to millions of people in the west who I believe are searching for the answers it points to.

The hub in Buddhist Economics is the Buddhist concept of relieving suffering. Relieving suffering for oneself and for all those around us. The goals of the Buddhist Philosophy are to examine (in your own life) the causes of suffering. The central cause of suffering is identified as attachment. Attachment to things and people and ideas - attachment to anything - limits our satisfaction.

Buddhism seems to be focused on awareness: self awareness, awareness of others and awareness of our actions and their effects....looking for causes.

Mindfulness.

It is a term that was focused into my vision last year when I went to the conference in Budapest. There was another conference participant, Joel Magnuson who is from Portland. He is an economist who teaches at Portland State University and Portland Community College. He has written a great textbook "Mindful Economics".

mindfulness
thinking about what you are doing
thinking about why you are doing it
thinking about what the effects of doing it are going to be

Mindfulness.... It makes me think of all the times I would get in hot water with my mother and would land up saying "... but I didn't think it would matter" or "I didn't think you would care" and she would come back with "That is precisely the point: you didn't think." She used that phrase often. I hope she knows that now I at least try to think.

Your turn...