Summary of Activities at the 2nd International Conference on Buddhist Economic

Research Platform

This is to summarise activities of the event, and on the GNH workshop offered
by GNH Movement project.

This event was organised by Faculty of Management Science, Ubon

Ratchathani University during 9th – 11th of April 2009. The Buddhist Economic
Research Platform is a joint initiative of the Business Ethics Centre of the Corvinus
University of Budapest, and the East-West Research Institute of Budapest Buddhist
University. The platform aims to connect people and institutes engaged in developing
Buddhist economic theory and practice, and to spread ideas and working models of
Buddhist Economics to the general public.

As Buddhism spreads from Asia into the other parts of the world, the
incorporation of Buddhist ideals and beliefs into everyday life takes new and varied
forms. The challenges that Buddhist practitioners face in different parts of the worrd
are daunting.

The first international conference of the Buddhist Economics Research

Platform was held in Budapest, Hungary in August of 2007 with approximately 50
participants. About 90% of the participants were Buddhist living in the western
societies. The participants were enthusiastic to hold the second conference in a
Buddhist culture where they could experience practices that were more a reflection of
Buddhist society.

The Second International Conference of the Platform was therefore held in

Thailand where Buddhist culture is dominant and the concept of Buddhist Economics
has been advocated. This conference proposes to continue to build a platform or
foundation that explores how to meld knowledge, research and practice to support
Buddhists as they face challenges of today’s complex economic landscape.

This conference is therefore an attempt to bring together opposite ends of

numerous spectrums: Buddhism in a primary capitalist, Christian culture and
Buddhism in Buddhist culture that is increasingly capitalist; Western theoreticians
working on ways to incorporate theory into culture and Eastern practitioners seeking
to build theoretical frameworks from practice; and Eastern and Western religious
leaders seeking the best methods to influence their fellows.

This conference was attended by a wide variety of people. Although almost

half of the participants were from the academia, they were from several fields, and of
course many countries. Others were from civil society, religion-based organisations,
government agencies, and businesses locally as well as abroad.

The conference began with an opening from Professor Prakob Wirojanakud,

President of Ubon Rajathani University. He passed on an old saying “money is
illusion, food is real” to the audience. Then a keynote speaker, Phra Payutto, was
introduced. He was not well enough to be at the conference in person, however he
was kind enough to allow the recording of his keynote in a video which was played to
the audience. The essence of his speech is that economic process should lead to
sufficiency. To this end, humans are to be satisfied with their desires. Two types of
desire were given by Venerable. They are skilful and unskillful desire which lead to
different ends. Unskillful desire relating to consumption of materials finally leads to
dependence happiness which can cause problems such as we face at the present. On
the other hand, skilful desire will lead to independent happiness which translates into
freedom. This, if practiced by all, will eventually create a peaceful and happiness
society. He emphasised that skilful desire can be trained.

Many other side activities were arranged to complement the conference. In

the first day evening, a documentary about Tibet’s middle-way approaches to politics
and everyday life was shown. Later on, a panel discussion presenting two case studies
on Buddhist economics in business by two Thai celebrated entrepreneurs. Apichart
Karunkornsakul of Asia Precisions, and Adisorn Pungchompu of Taengmo brand
were our speakers. They vividly presented their case of applying Buddhist ethics in
their businesses which has helped them enormously through tough times. On the
second day, a field visit to Wat Pa Nanachat including giving alms to the monks and
novices, and listening to Dharma was organised successfully by the organisers. In the
evening of the same day, dinner was served at Ratchathani Asoke community, and a
talk on Buddhist way of living was given by Thamrong Sangsuriyajan. Last but not
least, in the morning of the third day, breakfast with a tour was served at UBU
Sufficiency Economy Community, a pilot scale live-in self sufficiency project. In the
morning of the last day, a workshop on Gross National Happiness was conducted.
 Content-wise, the conference was highlighted with a wide range of papers.
They may be grouped into two broad categories: theoretical and applied/practical
papers.

The so-called theoretical part began with a keynote speech by Bronwen Rees
who is a member of Western Buddhist order, and has worked in business school for a
long time. The topic of her talk is ‘Building bridges between East and West: Buddhist
Economics in Practice’. She proposed a model of implementing Buddhist economics
in the real world. Systems thinking was employed to analyse the pathology of the
current crisis. It was described that ‘systems are unstable because we abandoned
human-scale organisation for industrial scale models of growth with no capacity for
self-governance.’ Current conditions were characterised by modern western mindset
which lacks of relationship with the natural world, is fragmented and lacks meaning.
The speaker then offered solutions to the unsustainable systems. They are self-
organising, supply of non-toxic energy, and adaptation at microeconomic level.
Therefore a model for Eastern consciousness in Western organisation was
recommended. This model asked for respect and humility for identity, wisdom
instead of knowledge, and orientation to time. This company model needs leaders
that inspire, and people to think differently and to find meaning of and purposes in
life. The speaker finally asked us to act and get our systems right.

Another interesting paper in the theoretical realm is “The Economics of

Enough: Thailand’s ‘Sufficiency Economy’ Debate” by Peter Warr from Australian
National University. The author argued that the philosophy of ‘Sufficiency Economy’
is directly linked to Buddhist Economics since it applies Buddhist philosophy of the
Middle Way. Warr dubbed it as the economics of ‘enough’. He presented recent
events and information about Thailand’s development in economics and psychology
in order to demonstrate the importance and timing of HM the King speeches on this
topic. In addition, relationship between Sufficiency Economy and economics of
happiness was discussed. Especially it was put in the context of marginal utility
where spending moves from necessity to status. It is found that the rate of marginal
utility diminishes when GDP reaches a certain level. Such level in all aspects of life
can be called ‘sufficiency level’ where no more material wealth can satisfy human
wants. This may relate to the concept of contentment in Buddhism. If adopted,
sufficiency economy would bring about desirable conditions, the question is though
what and how to be sufficient. Further he argued that even though major institutions
in Thai society claim of adopting the philosophy, “public policy has yet to catch up
with the wisdom contained in these insights.”

The central paper of this conference was presented by Professor Apichai

Puntasen. In his paper, Apichai argued that mainstream economics misses a critical
concept that is consumption efficiency. Production efficiency, on the other hand, is
seriously concerned by capitalism ideology. The absence of consumption efficiency
plays a major role in supporting the existing situation dominated by consumerism.
Under such condition, resources are depleted at an alarming rate threatening the
survival of humanity. “Without consumption efficiency, the emphasis on production
efficiency alone is rather useless, as it cannot prevent over-utilisation of natural
resources.”

Neo-classical economics interprets consumption as diagram below.

If the above diagram is explained in a Buddhist way, the output should be

defined as the maintenance of a healthy body and a healthy mind instead of pleasure
or utility. Such output is a necessary condition for the further development of the
1
mind in order to achieve ‘sukha’ which is the desirable outcome from this process. In
order to achieve such an outcome the ability to develop the mind is a necessary
2
condition. The development must be achieved through the process of sikkhattaya .

Healthy
Body
Production process
Goods Wast
to produce ‘sukkha’
and
Services
Healthy
Mind
1
the quality of mind that is opposite to that of ‘dukkha’ which means uneasiness, conflict,
contradiction, alienation or suffering
2
known as the threefold
training leading to having a purified or clean mind, and a clear mind
 The problem is that “mainstream economics does not try to differentiate
between human needs, human desire, and human greed while in reality the three
concepts are distinctively different”, Apichai argued.

Moreover, mainstream economics incorrectly assumes that more

consumption increases welfare of a person. Such assumption is supported by the
belief that self-interest is a rational behaviour. Neo-classical economics therefore
assumes of desire and greed as naturally parts of self-interest. These two false
assumptions reinforce each other. Buddhist Economics, Apichai argued, classifies
anything related to matter and energy as the scientific realm, and things related to
the human mind as the non-scientific realm, hence Self-interest falls into the
scientific realm whereas Desire and Greed are put in the non-scientific realm.
 Additionally, the analysis in mainstream economics in general is a static one.
It can be clearly seen that static analysis often does not reflect the real world because
time is frozen. As such, it is not capable of understanding everything in its own
nature. A theory that is not based on reality can be considered as an incorrect one.
This problem is a major short coming of mainstream economics.

Buddhist Economics, on the other hand, is based on a dynamic analysis of any

event known as paticcasamuppāda. Every result has its original causes and other
related factors. The result at this moment will turn to into a cause of a future result.
In a Buddhist analysis, the time dimension of past, present and future must also be
considered.

An understanding of Buddha’s teaching or Buddha Dhamma is needed to

provide a realistic assessment of the actual situation. Without worrying about
pleasure or ‘sukha’ from acquisition, it can be easily understood that efficiency of
consumption is similar to that of production, as such a consumption process can be
analysed in the same way.

At this point Buddhist Economics can provide an analysis by looking at the

meanings of the two words, “needs” and “wants”. It can be traced back to the
explanation of Abraham Maslow where needs are classified into three levels,
physiological needs, social needs and moral needs. In Buddha Dhamma, there is only
one form or one level of needs that is physiological needs. This can be accounted for
through the understanding of pañña3. The real wellness or ‘sukha’ of a human being
results from the development of pañña through sikkhattaya. It is not a linear
development but more like a virtuous spiral that will not return to the origin spot but
will uplift the mind and pañña to new levels.

With the concept of consumption efficiency, together with production

efficiency a new way for sustainable development can be found leading humanity out
of possible catastrophes. Apichai proposed a consumption and production diagram
based on Buddhist Economics.

3
The word pañña has no equivalent word in English. The closest meaning is wisdom, but wisdom is
not the same as pañña.
 More theoretical papers presented in this Conference complemented
Professor Puntasen’s proposition. Principles of happiness in western economic
thoughts were explained in relation to Buddhist Economics in Georg Erber’s paper.
He summed up quite nicely the neo-classical economic description of happiness as a
function of utility and self-interest. As a Bayesian search process, he argued that the
greatest happiness is thought of as the ends and life itself as a means, but no clear
pathway is offered. The linear understanding of happiness as a utility function puts it
that wherever there is an increase in income, happiness increases. However
Easterlin’s research showed otherwise. This paper ended with a hope that a bridge
will emerge between Buddhist Economics and the rediscovery of the Principles of
greatest Happiness in modern western economics.

It is supported by a paper by Janos Mate from University of Western

Hungary. His paper talks about the principles of promotion of Buddhist Economics.
It points out that the western ideas culminating during the industrial revolution have,
according to Schumacher, encouraged the dangerous idea of ‘belief in economy’.
Certain aspects of global economy are falling into deep crisis. He proposed that
Buddhist Economics is well suited for healing this situation. Many traditional beliefs
were used to create a sophisticated explanation for, what he called, software of the
mind. This system comprises of four components/steps: call out, creation, forming,
and making. It is based on an ancient Egyptian saying that ‘Existence of things
cannot be real unless it has come through words or sight’. The differences between
the western and eastern order of values can influence economic decision-making, yet
the idea of co-habitation of the western and eastern economic decision-making raises
doubts. Therefore he suggested that in countries where this kind of initiatives is not
welcome, there should be experimental courses under which economic aspects of
religious teachings could be unfolded.

Along the same line, Hans Luther presented his idea of combining Buddhist
Economics with niche market concept. These two concepts were explained together
as a new development paradigm where economy depends on development of niche
market products for example organic food, and cultural tourism. The overall
economy should strive towards simplicity, austerity, and moderation. The synergy
between these two concepts is very vital to sustainability of traditional or emerging
economy such as Lao PDR. In addition, Adam Arvidsson proposed the idea of ‘ethical
economy’. He suggested that the ‘next economy’ will be an ethical one where value is
no longer based upon labour as in the capitalist economy. He argued that it will
instead be based on the ability to construct ‘ethically significant social relations’.
Intangible values subtly influence other tangible values, without those tangible values
cannot be visible. Arvidsson stated that this ethical economy is in fact happening. In
the realm of creative industries, in brand management, in advance forms of
knowledge work, on financial markets, and in an expanding range of autonomous
form of social productions – ranging from P2P software to alternative agriculture and
food distribution. These initiatives are made possible by and will be growing by the
informational and communication technologies and their evolution and diffusion.
Further contribution of Buddhist Economic to the discussion and advancement of a
more established concept of sustainable development was presented by Morgen
Buch-Hansen from Denmark. He advocated for redefining sustainability by pursuing
the ‘Middle Way’. He suggested that Buddhist Economics should join hands with
geography with a view to provide a moral supplement to the self-interest of the
‘economic man’. The theoretical section was further supplemented by a paper by
Peter Calkins from Chiang Mai University. The paper recommended a Third Way
based on a combination of the ‘new traditionalist’ economic traditions (Buddhist,
Confucian, Catholic, Judaic) to improve practical economic planning and make
religion more relevant to creating the conditions for spiritual growth. This paper
focuses on Theravada Buddhism which is explored in detail from three
complementary perspectives: textual exegesis of the Buddhist suttas, the historical
records of the macroeconomic policies of Buddhist Kings throughout Asia, and the
formal logic of mathematical economic model. The author came up with a
sophisticated explanation of ‘Theravada Macroeconomics’. Later policy
recommendations that flow directly from the triangulation of these three approaches
were offered.

Next section of this summary will briefly talk about the papers about practical
application of Buddhist Economics and related ideas. Cases of business firms using
Buddhist Economics approach were presented by Wanna Prayukvong. The emphasis
of this study is based on the distinct difference between Buddhist Economics and
Neoclassical Economics on the paradigm of human nature. The core values of
Buddhism, compassion and cooperation, to achieve well-being through higher
wisdom, pañña replaces self-interest and maximum utility. The paper suggests that
cultivation of these new core values requires organisational change driven by an
agent as institutional entrepreneur. This paper was accompanied by a paper called
‘CSR: The Road to Sufficiency Economy’ by Alex Mavro. This piece of work is based
on the logical connection linking four critical constructs – Gross National Happiness,
Sufficiency Economy, Sustainability, and Corporate Social Responsibility. Although
definitions of these constructs vary in different sectors (NGOs/CSOs, business,
academic, public), yet there can be synergy among them. These four concepts
together bring all stakeholders/sectors to the same page of creating alternative
development worldview which is moral, green, fair, and peaceful.

More examples can be found in the two papers about ecological agriculture
and food networks in Thailand. Alex Kuafman has studied unconventional agro-food
system in rural Thailand for some time. His paper argues that ecological food entities
in Northeastern Thailand empower rural farming communities through holistic
approaches rooted in self-sufficiency and spiritual practice. It follows several organic
farming networks working against mainstream modern agriculture practice, such as
Moral Rice Movement, Santi-Asoke group, and Green Net. Another paper By
Saweang Rauysoongnern looks closer to the development and constraints of the
Moral Organic Rice Network in Yasothon province. It is the next step of the existing
Organic Rice Network in Kudchum district of the province. The Network has further
refined the regulations of the existing network in order to strengthen the remaining
weaknesses of the network members on their personal problems, such as drinking,
gambling, and unnecessary expenses. As such the production of organic rice could be
more beneficial to the farmer’s livelihood. This investigation found that despite
successes, the expansion of the network is relatively slow, results showed both
internal and external constraints revealing lessons learned for future development.

Further away, examples from the international sphere were offered. First off,
Michel Bauwens presented his case, along the same line as Adam Arvidsson, on Open
Source economy. He called it “neotraditional approaches in the reconstructive
transmodern era”. The explanation was that this ‘new’ idea is based on a connection
in some ways to pre-modern conceptions of society and economy which inspire us to
critically examine current economic and political arrangements. The key theme of the
paper is that we are in the transition towards a post-industrial economy growing
upon creation of non-material values, peer production, renewable innovations, and
not-for-profit spirit. Later on Peter Daniels of Griffith University, Australia,
contributed his thoughts on how Buddhism can address the problem of climate
change. The paper argued that ethical and cosmological aspects of Buddhism and its
precepts can act as logical and practical basis for minimising climate change-related
pressures of production and consumption. Using an ecological economics approach,
the author suggested an innovative framework of integration of two major
environmental assessment tools and key Buddhist values and influences on well-
being. A new tool emerged as an improved system for human-environmental
analysis. Buddhist economic systems were recommended to help outline effective
responses to the threat of climate change. In conclusion, Buddhist notions of
interconnectedness, dependent origination, and mindful consumption and
production can help reshape human motives and actions for sustainability.

Moreover John Nirenberg, a scholar from Walden University, whose expertise

is in workplace management and organisational culture presented a work on how
formal organisations can act as instruments in creating Gross National Happiness.
The paper emphasised GNH values of people as ends in themselves, and the structure
and processes of organisations that stimulate the creation of both happiness and
profit as outputs. From a smaller scale, at organisation level, development of a
compatible organisational infrastructure that enables the realisation of GNH could
work as a model for realisation at broader levels. Furthermore, an example of using
new tools to create a better place is offered by Hugh Barnard. He talked about
difficulties, challenges and opportunities for computer and ICT to support radically
reformed methods of the storage and exchange of value. Cases of partial replacement
of conventional money with new forms and expressions of value were presented as a
context for challenges faced by open source financial systems. These alternative
currency systems are sophisticated development based on local values and ethics.
Last but not least, world religions were called upon to safe the world economy from
collapsing. Lisa Nowakowski asked for grassroots realisation that personal attitudes,
beliefs, and actions must change in fundamental and ethical ways. The paper
investigated the importance and urgency of finding a common ground or a middle
pathway for world religions to be able to speak with a powerful unified voice.
GNH Workshop

Dharma Buddha

Good Cultural
Governance Promotion

Equality Freedom

Government Civil Society

Sangha

Equitable
Socio-
economic
Development

Community
Spirit