Hi Everybody,
I'm off tomorrow for distant and sunnier parts. The case is all packed. Taxi ordered. Time to squeeze in one more episode before I go.
We finished last time with a couple opf extraordinary quotes coming out of research studies into this complex issue of money and its impact on our life state. And it is complex of course. No one study can dissolve away that complexity for us. But a whole series of studies taken together can of course give us a steer, open up a new perspective. And that's what these comparative studies do for us, and I'd like to quote just one more, to drive the point home so to speak, because it's tough for all of us to escape from the life-long conditioning that we've all undergone, namely that more money, or more of the stuff that money can buy, is just about the answer to all our problems. It isn't. So here goes;
' If you made a graph of life on both sides of the Atlantic since the end of World War 2, every line concerning money and the things that money can buy would soar upwards, a statistical monument to materialism. Inflation-adjusted income per head in Europe and the US has almost doubled in the last 35 years. Owning a small runabout was once a goal; now the average US household boasts nearly three cars, while in the UK there are now more mobile phones than there are people. Designer everything, personal electronics and other items that didn't even exist half a century ago are noe affordable. No matter how you chart the trends in earning and spending, everything is up, up, up. But if you made a chart of happiness in the same period, the lines would be as falt as the roof of an S class Mercedes. Polls in Europe and the US show remarkably little changein happiness sinc eEurope began rebuilding itself ( after WW2) and America developed into the world's unrivalled economic and military superpower. '
That's another quite remarkable statement isn't it? In fact were it not for the sheer weight of evidence, the story that it is telling seems almost inconceivable. Bu tit is given even sharper edge by the figures that are quoted in other studies. Just to explain, when these surveys are carried out the scientists get their information from a wide sample of people chosen to represent a typical cross-section of the entire population, and then those several thousand personal interviews are reduced to numbers and curves on graphs, so that the sociologists and economists can make use of them to compare results from one time and place to other totally different times and places. The American National Opinion Research Centre for example is typical in that it has been carrying out virtually the same survey since the 1950's, so that we can compare directly how people felt about their lives in the 1950's and 60's, with how they feel today.
Back in the 1950's for example, with infinitely lower levels of wealth and comfort, when Americans were asked to rate their overall satisfaction with life, they reported an average score of 7.5 out of 10. Despite the simply vast changes in the level of material wealth and personal comfort and possessions over the past 50-60 years the average score in the same survey today is just...7.2! So the simply vast increases in material wealth that have occurred in society appear not to have been matched in any way by an increase in our overall sense of well-being.
At the very least I think that kind of understanding should give us pause for thought when we try to weigh up what it is that brings meaning and purpose and fulfilment into our lives, don't you.
Right, enough for today. Next episode when I get back on 10th March.
Until then hope you have an interesting and creative time.
All my best wishes,
William
Sunday, 22 February 2015
Tuesday, 17 February 2015
my buddhist blog number 82
Hi Everybody,
Just the most beautiful spring-like day today, running in Richmond Park with Gatsby, just a hint of frost on the grass glinting in the sunlight. At the moment in my new book I'm writing about the interconnectedness of everything, trying to fit in the science and the Buddhism, and I felt it so strongly this morning, this being part of a coherent whole, me, my spirit and the colossal beauty of the world we inhabit. Some days so much stronger than others of course, but with the practice it is there underlying everything.
We are in the middle of this quite strenuous chapter on Buddhism and Money, and we've reached a sub-heading which reads,
The paradox at the heart of the western way of life.
That brings us directly to the vast range of studies that have been carried out over the past 20 years or so by the economists and sociologists and the remarakbale paradox that they have brought out into the light. In fact it is so counter-intuitive that I have no doubt that many of us will find it hard to swallow. But it helps if we stick strictly to the science, rather than our own instinctive and obviously personal response. The fact is that one of the earliest and most frequently repeated, and unquestionably one of the most surprising findings of this research is that wealth, how much money we earn is not a substantial factor in our basic sense of well-being. What the studies reveal is that once our main needs have been met...that ismof course a crucial proviso...then additional wealth seems to have a rapidly diminishing role to play in how we feel about our lives, until eventually it dies out altogether.
This conclusion has been described by one leading European sociologist as 'the paradox at the heart of western society.' Why paradox? Because it seems to be so completely out of step with our current immensely aggressive materialist consumerist society. Most of us in the western-way-of-life parts of the world, and beyond, are deeply conditioned to believe that much of our happiness, and what we describe as Success, with a capital S, lies in seeking greater financial wealth.
The plain fact is that we all expend very considerable amounts of time and energy throughout our lives in trying to achieve greater wealth. If we were asked the direct question, we all know that we want to be rich or richer don't we? Why? Because we all believe with absolute conviction, that although it may not solve every single one of the things that trouble us, it would certainly blow the vast majority of them out of sight. So we would be a lot happier...wouldn't we? And if I'm absolutely honest, as I sit here writing these words, having done all the research mind you into this issue, a big part of me wants to shout out the answer...' Yes! '
But the accurate answer to that question, and an answer coming from the social scientists remember, and from lots of research, not from some Buddhist text, comes out as a resounding negative. Listen to this for example, from a very eminent British economist;
' There is a paradox at the heart of our lives. Most people want more income and strive for it. Yet as Western Societies have got richer, their people have become no happier. This is no old wives' tale. It is a fact proven by many pieces of scientific research. We have good ways to measure how happy people are...and all the evidence suggests that on average people are no happier today than people were fifty years ago. Yet at the same time, average incomes have more than doubled. This paradox is equally true for the United Sates, Britain and Japan.'
Or this from a leading American sociologist;
' Over the past two decades in fact, an increasing body of social science and psychological research has shown that there is no significant relationship between how much money a person earns and whether he or she feels good about life. A TIME poll carrie dout in the US in December found that happiness tended to increase as income rose to $50,000. After that more income didn't have a dramatic effect. Edward Diener, a psychologist at the University of Illinois, interviewed members of the Forbes 400, the richest Americans. he found the Forbes 400 were only a tiny bit happier than the public as a whole.'
' ...only a tine bit happier thann the public as whole!' What an extraordinarily revealing statement that is, because it reveals the sheer scale of the delusion...I can't think of a more appropriate word to describe it...that most of us carry around with us. If our sense of well-being were to increase in any way even slightly in-step with increasing wealth, as we fondly beleive, then these Forbes 400 people, the very richest Americans remember, should be permanently over the moon shouldn't they? Walking on air. Singin gin the rain. But the unlikely, the surprising, the oh-so-hard-to-believe truth is that they aren't. They are no happier it seems than the restof us, sitting on roughly average incomes. '
Well I enjoyed that. Hope you did, at least a bit.
I'll continue a bit more with this argument next time around.
I'm going off on hols next week. Windsurfing in Can Cun. can't wait. But I will try to get out one more episode before I go.
See you then,
William
PS Just another reminder. The Case for Buddhism can be bought on Amazon or downloaded on Kindle.
I'm really gratreful. I've had some really good comments from readers in theUS and UK and elsewhere.
Just the most beautiful spring-like day today, running in Richmond Park with Gatsby, just a hint of frost on the grass glinting in the sunlight. At the moment in my new book I'm writing about the interconnectedness of everything, trying to fit in the science and the Buddhism, and I felt it so strongly this morning, this being part of a coherent whole, me, my spirit and the colossal beauty of the world we inhabit. Some days so much stronger than others of course, but with the practice it is there underlying everything.
We are in the middle of this quite strenuous chapter on Buddhism and Money, and we've reached a sub-heading which reads,
The paradox at the heart of the western way of life.
That brings us directly to the vast range of studies that have been carried out over the past 20 years or so by the economists and sociologists and the remarakbale paradox that they have brought out into the light. In fact it is so counter-intuitive that I have no doubt that many of us will find it hard to swallow. But it helps if we stick strictly to the science, rather than our own instinctive and obviously personal response. The fact is that one of the earliest and most frequently repeated, and unquestionably one of the most surprising findings of this research is that wealth, how much money we earn is not a substantial factor in our basic sense of well-being. What the studies reveal is that once our main needs have been met...that ismof course a crucial proviso...then additional wealth seems to have a rapidly diminishing role to play in how we feel about our lives, until eventually it dies out altogether.
This conclusion has been described by one leading European sociologist as 'the paradox at the heart of western society.' Why paradox? Because it seems to be so completely out of step with our current immensely aggressive materialist consumerist society. Most of us in the western-way-of-life parts of the world, and beyond, are deeply conditioned to believe that much of our happiness, and what we describe as Success, with a capital S, lies in seeking greater financial wealth.
The plain fact is that we all expend very considerable amounts of time and energy throughout our lives in trying to achieve greater wealth. If we were asked the direct question, we all know that we want to be rich or richer don't we? Why? Because we all believe with absolute conviction, that although it may not solve every single one of the things that trouble us, it would certainly blow the vast majority of them out of sight. So we would be a lot happier...wouldn't we? And if I'm absolutely honest, as I sit here writing these words, having done all the research mind you into this issue, a big part of me wants to shout out the answer...' Yes! '
But the accurate answer to that question, and an answer coming from the social scientists remember, and from lots of research, not from some Buddhist text, comes out as a resounding negative. Listen to this for example, from a very eminent British economist;
' There is a paradox at the heart of our lives. Most people want more income and strive for it. Yet as Western Societies have got richer, their people have become no happier. This is no old wives' tale. It is a fact proven by many pieces of scientific research. We have good ways to measure how happy people are...and all the evidence suggests that on average people are no happier today than people were fifty years ago. Yet at the same time, average incomes have more than doubled. This paradox is equally true for the United Sates, Britain and Japan.'
Or this from a leading American sociologist;
' Over the past two decades in fact, an increasing body of social science and psychological research has shown that there is no significant relationship between how much money a person earns and whether he or she feels good about life. A TIME poll carrie dout in the US in December found that happiness tended to increase as income rose to $50,000. After that more income didn't have a dramatic effect. Edward Diener, a psychologist at the University of Illinois, interviewed members of the Forbes 400, the richest Americans. he found the Forbes 400 were only a tiny bit happier than the public as a whole.'
' ...only a tine bit happier thann the public as whole!' What an extraordinarily revealing statement that is, because it reveals the sheer scale of the delusion...I can't think of a more appropriate word to describe it...that most of us carry around with us. If our sense of well-being were to increase in any way even slightly in-step with increasing wealth, as we fondly beleive, then these Forbes 400 people, the very richest Americans remember, should be permanently over the moon shouldn't they? Walking on air. Singin gin the rain. But the unlikely, the surprising, the oh-so-hard-to-believe truth is that they aren't. They are no happier it seems than the restof us, sitting on roughly average incomes. '
Well I enjoyed that. Hope you did, at least a bit.
I'll continue a bit more with this argument next time around.
I'm going off on hols next week. Windsurfing in Can Cun. can't wait. But I will try to get out one more episode before I go.
See you then,
William
PS Just another reminder. The Case for Buddhism can be bought on Amazon or downloaded on Kindle.
I'm really gratreful. I've had some really good comments from readers in theUS and UK and elsewhere.
Wednesday, 11 February 2015
my buddhist blog number 81
Hi Everybody, hope all is well with you in a seriously troubled world. It is a seriously troubled world isn't it? I just don't watch the 10 o clock news anymore because I don't want to take all that negative energy to bed with me. That's not turning my back on it. I just prefer to hear it next morning when I've done an hours daimoku so I'm re-energised to cope with it. And the other change I've made is to search out things in my own environment where I can make a really positive contribution to ease distress or suffering, rather than simply focusing on all those horrors so far away about which I can do nothing except chant in sympathy. One of those activities has turned out to be really rewarding; I take a hot drink and a hotwater bottle every night to someone who has chosen to cope with disharmony in his family by sleeping rough, as a symbol of his distress. And we talk briefly about Buddhism. It helps to alleviate the grief over Syria.
Right back to the blog, and we're in the middle of Chapter 11, with some interesting stuff on Buddhism and money. Well, I hope it's interesting! And we've come to a sub heading which is...
A sense of balance
So where do we draw the line between what makes sense for our lives and what doesn't? The key thing Buddhism argues, is working to maintain that sense of balance we mentioned earlier, between the spiritual and the material. The middle way you might say. Not getting swept away by overly strong currents in either direction, because both can cause reall suffering.
So that means not being overly spiritual, doing too many Buddhist activities for example and so neglecting the genuine material needs for ourselves and those around us. Just giving quality time to a partner and children for example is a crucial material need, among many others.
Conversely, real trouble can arise, Buddhism argues, when the hunger for more money, more stuff, more material goods, becomes a dominant or even overwhelming life condition.
We may not see it that way of course, because we are inside the desire. It is us. Or we may not see it early enough, because these things tend to creep up on us. We may regard it as simply ambition, or the desire to get more out of life. But when the drive for yet more wealth, yet more material possessions becomes the overriding motivational force in our lives, the thing we get most pleasure out of, and we find ourselves increasingly drawn in that direction, with decreasing time and space allocated to meaning in our lives, or our values, or doing stuff for other people, then Buddhism argues, we've probably lost the plot. We're way out of balance. And the effects of that imbalance can flow into all the other areas of our life, almost without our being aware of it.
In fact Buddhism uses language very similar to that in the scientific article that we touched upon a moment ago. It describes greed, because let's face it, that's really what we're talking about here, as a poison, or an addiction in our system, that can infect all the dimensions of our life, and be the source of deep, life-changing pain and suffering.
Witness the story of the bankrupt businessman that I recounted briefly above. And there are of course many such stories. '
Well that's it for today.
See you next time I hope. Because I'm in the middle of another writing task I'm only putting out one blog a week rather than the two I used to., but I have to say I really enjoy doing it. I hope you can say the same thing about reading it!!
My best wishes,
William
The Case for Buddhism is available on Amazon as a paperback, and on Kindle as a download. And it is even now being translated into Spanish, which I see as a great honour.
Right back to the blog, and we're in the middle of Chapter 11, with some interesting stuff on Buddhism and money. Well, I hope it's interesting! And we've come to a sub heading which is...
A sense of balance
So where do we draw the line between what makes sense for our lives and what doesn't? The key thing Buddhism argues, is working to maintain that sense of balance we mentioned earlier, between the spiritual and the material. The middle way you might say. Not getting swept away by overly strong currents in either direction, because both can cause reall suffering.
So that means not being overly spiritual, doing too many Buddhist activities for example and so neglecting the genuine material needs for ourselves and those around us. Just giving quality time to a partner and children for example is a crucial material need, among many others.
Conversely, real trouble can arise, Buddhism argues, when the hunger for more money, more stuff, more material goods, becomes a dominant or even overwhelming life condition.
We may not see it that way of course, because we are inside the desire. It is us. Or we may not see it early enough, because these things tend to creep up on us. We may regard it as simply ambition, or the desire to get more out of life. But when the drive for yet more wealth, yet more material possessions becomes the overriding motivational force in our lives, the thing we get most pleasure out of, and we find ourselves increasingly drawn in that direction, with decreasing time and space allocated to meaning in our lives, or our values, or doing stuff for other people, then Buddhism argues, we've probably lost the plot. We're way out of balance. And the effects of that imbalance can flow into all the other areas of our life, almost without our being aware of it.
In fact Buddhism uses language very similar to that in the scientific article that we touched upon a moment ago. It describes greed, because let's face it, that's really what we're talking about here, as a poison, or an addiction in our system, that can infect all the dimensions of our life, and be the source of deep, life-changing pain and suffering.
Witness the story of the bankrupt businessman that I recounted briefly above. And there are of course many such stories. '
Well that's it for today.
See you next time I hope. Because I'm in the middle of another writing task I'm only putting out one blog a week rather than the two I used to., but I have to say I really enjoy doing it. I hope you can say the same thing about reading it!!
My best wishes,
William
The Case for Buddhism is available on Amazon as a paperback, and on Kindle as a download. And it is even now being translated into Spanish, which I see as a great honour.
Wednesday, 4 February 2015
my buddhist blog number 80
Hi Everybody,
Can I just thank everybody for the sort of feedback I've been getting all week as a result of Jason's podcast of the first chapter of The Case for Buddhism. It's been just amazing. Jason's Buddhist Podcast of course has been going for much longer than the blog and has a far wider reach, so it pulls in more response, but for any writer, there's just nothing to equal the pleasure and the satisfaction that comes from knowing that people are reading your stuff, and that it seems to be useful. So...thank you. Right thisepisode, we're in the middle of this quite complex chapter on Buddhism and money. We've covered a number of important issues in the last two episodes. on the way in which the pursuit of money has been shown to affect, or distort our value system, and we've come to this key question, what does Buddhism have to say about all this? Well, let's see.
' As I mentioned earlier, since Buddhism claims to be about our ordinary daily lives, and since money undoubtedly has a very important part to play in those daily lives, Buddhism somehow has to embrace that fact in its teachings. Man may not be able to live by bread alone, as the Christian scriptures tell us, he needs some sort of spiritual life as well, but he certainly needs to be able to buy bread! That is to say, he needs money. The fact is that Buddhism has a lot to say that is refreshingly direct about wealth and how we might best relate to it. Perhaps the crucial point we need to grasp, mainly because it runs directly counter to a widely held stereotype, is that Nichiren Buddhism is not in any way about not wanting things, or not having things, or indeed about giving things up. How could it be, since it is about the reality of daily life, and part of that reality for all of us, is to have things?
So Nichiren Buddhism is not about diminishing or reducing or setting arbitrary limits, on what we might or might not possess. Not at all. It teaches simply that since we clearly have extensive physical as well as spiritual needs, we have to attend to both if we are to achieve the most meaningful and the most fulfilling and value-creating lives of which we are capable. That, it teaches, is the very purpose of our lives, and the key to achieving success in this, as in so many things, Buddhism argues, is establishing a keen sense of balance.
Earthly desires.
Those physical needs are often described as earthly desires, not earthly in any pejorative or derogatory sense, but simply in the sense that they are needs and wants that relate to the material aspects of our life. And Buddhism clearly accepts them as playing an essential role our sense of well-being. That is to say, they are not in any way marginal. Wanting things is part of our basic humanity and has been ever since there have been things to want from sharp stone hand axes and pretty cowrie shells, used for currency in several primitive societies, to a better paid or more satisfying job and a more comfortable home, and a car big enough to carry the whole family and the dog, and a bit of spare cash for an enjoyable holiday. Buddhism is ordinary daily life.
So Buddhism makes clear that we shouln't in any way try to reject, or try not to think about these wholy natural wants in our life, or see them as somehow separate from or worse, in conflict with our spiritual life. Because there is no conflict. Not at this everyday, ordinary level of wanting. It doesn't really matter what it is that launches us down the road of establishin ggoals for our life, and then committting ourselves to a Buddhist practice as a way of strengthening our lives and setting out to achieve them. The understanding that lies at the very heart of Buddhism, and proven over countless lifetimes, is that once we set off down this it will inevitably draw out the perception that what we are really seeking is meaning and purpose, and a sense of self-worth, and the durable sense of well-being that comes from the exercise of compassion and altruism, whetehr or not we happen to achieve those material goals we set out with.'
That's it for today. I'm in the middle of a new book so it's quite difficult to do two episodes a week, but I am trying to make sure that there is a regular weekly episode.
See you next time,
William
The book The Case for Buddhism is available on Amazon in paperback and on Kindle as a download. And, once a month as a Buddhist Podcast. We've already recorded Chapters 2 and 3.
Can I just thank everybody for the sort of feedback I've been getting all week as a result of Jason's podcast of the first chapter of The Case for Buddhism. It's been just amazing. Jason's Buddhist Podcast of course has been going for much longer than the blog and has a far wider reach, so it pulls in more response, but for any writer, there's just nothing to equal the pleasure and the satisfaction that comes from knowing that people are reading your stuff, and that it seems to be useful. So...thank you. Right thisepisode, we're in the middle of this quite complex chapter on Buddhism and money. We've covered a number of important issues in the last two episodes. on the way in which the pursuit of money has been shown to affect, or distort our value system, and we've come to this key question, what does Buddhism have to say about all this? Well, let's see.
' As I mentioned earlier, since Buddhism claims to be about our ordinary daily lives, and since money undoubtedly has a very important part to play in those daily lives, Buddhism somehow has to embrace that fact in its teachings. Man may not be able to live by bread alone, as the Christian scriptures tell us, he needs some sort of spiritual life as well, but he certainly needs to be able to buy bread! That is to say, he needs money. The fact is that Buddhism has a lot to say that is refreshingly direct about wealth and how we might best relate to it. Perhaps the crucial point we need to grasp, mainly because it runs directly counter to a widely held stereotype, is that Nichiren Buddhism is not in any way about not wanting things, or not having things, or indeed about giving things up. How could it be, since it is about the reality of daily life, and part of that reality for all of us, is to have things?
So Nichiren Buddhism is not about diminishing or reducing or setting arbitrary limits, on what we might or might not possess. Not at all. It teaches simply that since we clearly have extensive physical as well as spiritual needs, we have to attend to both if we are to achieve the most meaningful and the most fulfilling and value-creating lives of which we are capable. That, it teaches, is the very purpose of our lives, and the key to achieving success in this, as in so many things, Buddhism argues, is establishing a keen sense of balance.
Earthly desires.
Those physical needs are often described as earthly desires, not earthly in any pejorative or derogatory sense, but simply in the sense that they are needs and wants that relate to the material aspects of our life. And Buddhism clearly accepts them as playing an essential role our sense of well-being. That is to say, they are not in any way marginal. Wanting things is part of our basic humanity and has been ever since there have been things to want from sharp stone hand axes and pretty cowrie shells, used for currency in several primitive societies, to a better paid or more satisfying job and a more comfortable home, and a car big enough to carry the whole family and the dog, and a bit of spare cash for an enjoyable holiday. Buddhism is ordinary daily life.
So Buddhism makes clear that we shouln't in any way try to reject, or try not to think about these wholy natural wants in our life, or see them as somehow separate from or worse, in conflict with our spiritual life. Because there is no conflict. Not at this everyday, ordinary level of wanting. It doesn't really matter what it is that launches us down the road of establishin ggoals for our life, and then committting ourselves to a Buddhist practice as a way of strengthening our lives and setting out to achieve them. The understanding that lies at the very heart of Buddhism, and proven over countless lifetimes, is that once we set off down this it will inevitably draw out the perception that what we are really seeking is meaning and purpose, and a sense of self-worth, and the durable sense of well-being that comes from the exercise of compassion and altruism, whetehr or not we happen to achieve those material goals we set out with.'
That's it for today. I'm in the middle of a new book so it's quite difficult to do two episodes a week, but I am trying to make sure that there is a regular weekly episode.
See you next time,
William
The book The Case for Buddhism is available on Amazon in paperback and on Kindle as a download. And, once a month as a Buddhist Podcast. We've already recorded Chapters 2 and 3.
Tuesday, 27 January 2015
my buddhist blog number 79
Hi Everybody,
Hope all is well with you. Last week was great for me I have to say, on two counts. One I broke through a bit of a writer's block I've been having with the new book, and managed to write a few thousand words, most of which I was pleased with. And then Jason Jarrett rang from Vancouver to say that his determination this year is to get 12 podcasts out on the buddhist podcast, and the first one was Chapter 1 of...The Case for Buddhism!! It went out last week and the feedback from so many different parts of the world has been amazing. So that is just a great start to the year. It is so encouraging to get messages on facebook from so many different parts of the world, saying basically that the book and the podcasts are helpful and useful and make a difference to their lives. That is huge. How often can we really make a difference to people's lives?
Anyway, we are in the middle of Chapter 11, which is about Buddhism and Money. Not an easy subject, but a really important one I think for all of us, since we're all caught up in this desire to get more of the stuff. We pick it up on page 202.
' As I mentioned earlier, since Buddhism claims to be about our ordinary daily lives, and since money undoubtedly has a very important part to play in those daily lives, Buddhism somehow has to embrace that fact in its teachings. Man may not be able to live by bread alone, as the Christian scriptures tell us, but he certainly has to be able to buy bread pretty regularly. That is to say, man needs money. The fact is that Buddhism has a lot to say tha tis refreshingly direct about wealth and how we might best relate to it. Perhaps the crucial point we need to grasp, mainly because it runs directly counter to a widely held stereotype, is that Nichiren Buddhism is not in any way about not wanting things, or not having things or indeed about giving up lots of things. How could it be, since it is about the reality of daily life, and part of that reality for all of us, is to want things and to have things.
So Nichiren Buddhism is not about diminishing or reducing, or setting arbitrary limits on what we might or might not possess. Not at all. It teaches simply that since we clearly have extensive physical as well as spiritual needs, we have to attend to both if we are to achieve the most meaningful and the most fulfilling and value-creating lives of which we are capable. That it teaches, is the very purpose of our lives, and the key to achieving success in this, as in so many things Buddhism argues, is establishing a keen sense of balance.
Earthly Desires
These physical needs are often described in Buddhism as earthly desires, not earthly in any pejorative or derogatory sense, but simply in the sense that they are needs and wants that relate to the material aspects of our life. And Buddhism clearly accepts them as playing an essential role in our sense of well-being. That is to say, they are not in any way of a lower or marginal order of priority, simply for being material. Wanting things is part of our basic humanity, and has been ever since there have been things to want, from sharp stone hand axes and pretty cowrie shells for our homo sapiens ancestors, to these days, a better paid or more satisfying job and a more comfortable home and a car big enough to take the whole family and the dog, and a bit of spare cash for an enjoyable holiday. Buddhism is ordinary daily life.
So Buddhism makes clear that we shouldn't in any way try to reject, or struggle not to think about these wholly natural wants in our life, or see them as somehow separate from, or in conflict with our spiritual life, because there is no conflict, not at this level of wanting. It doesn't really matter what it is that launches us down the road of establishing goals for our life, both material and spiritual, and then committing ourselves to a Buddhist practice as a way of strengthening our lives and setting out to achieve them. The understanding that lies at the very heart of Buddhism, and proven over countless generations, is that once we set off down this road, it will inevitably draw out the perception that what we are really seeking in life is meaning and purpose, and a sense of self-worth, and the durable sense of well-being that comes from the exercise of altruism and compassion, whether or not we happen to achieve those material goals that we set out with. '
Well that's it for today.
Thanks for reading this far.
Hope it makes sense.
See you next time ,
William
PS
Hope all is well with you. Last week was great for me I have to say, on two counts. One I broke through a bit of a writer's block I've been having with the new book, and managed to write a few thousand words, most of which I was pleased with. And then Jason Jarrett rang from Vancouver to say that his determination this year is to get 12 podcasts out on the buddhist podcast, and the first one was Chapter 1 of...The Case for Buddhism!! It went out last week and the feedback from so many different parts of the world has been amazing. So that is just a great start to the year. It is so encouraging to get messages on facebook from so many different parts of the world, saying basically that the book and the podcasts are helpful and useful and make a difference to their lives. That is huge. How often can we really make a difference to people's lives?
Anyway, we are in the middle of Chapter 11, which is about Buddhism and Money. Not an easy subject, but a really important one I think for all of us, since we're all caught up in this desire to get more of the stuff. We pick it up on page 202.
' As I mentioned earlier, since Buddhism claims to be about our ordinary daily lives, and since money undoubtedly has a very important part to play in those daily lives, Buddhism somehow has to embrace that fact in its teachings. Man may not be able to live by bread alone, as the Christian scriptures tell us, but he certainly has to be able to buy bread pretty regularly. That is to say, man needs money. The fact is that Buddhism has a lot to say tha tis refreshingly direct about wealth and how we might best relate to it. Perhaps the crucial point we need to grasp, mainly because it runs directly counter to a widely held stereotype, is that Nichiren Buddhism is not in any way about not wanting things, or not having things or indeed about giving up lots of things. How could it be, since it is about the reality of daily life, and part of that reality for all of us, is to want things and to have things.
So Nichiren Buddhism is not about diminishing or reducing, or setting arbitrary limits on what we might or might not possess. Not at all. It teaches simply that since we clearly have extensive physical as well as spiritual needs, we have to attend to both if we are to achieve the most meaningful and the most fulfilling and value-creating lives of which we are capable. That it teaches, is the very purpose of our lives, and the key to achieving success in this, as in so many things Buddhism argues, is establishing a keen sense of balance.
Earthly Desires
These physical needs are often described in Buddhism as earthly desires, not earthly in any pejorative or derogatory sense, but simply in the sense that they are needs and wants that relate to the material aspects of our life. And Buddhism clearly accepts them as playing an essential role in our sense of well-being. That is to say, they are not in any way of a lower or marginal order of priority, simply for being material. Wanting things is part of our basic humanity, and has been ever since there have been things to want, from sharp stone hand axes and pretty cowrie shells for our homo sapiens ancestors, to these days, a better paid or more satisfying job and a more comfortable home and a car big enough to take the whole family and the dog, and a bit of spare cash for an enjoyable holiday. Buddhism is ordinary daily life.
So Buddhism makes clear that we shouldn't in any way try to reject, or struggle not to think about these wholly natural wants in our life, or see them as somehow separate from, or in conflict with our spiritual life, because there is no conflict, not at this level of wanting. It doesn't really matter what it is that launches us down the road of establishing goals for our life, both material and spiritual, and then committing ourselves to a Buddhist practice as a way of strengthening our lives and setting out to achieve them. The understanding that lies at the very heart of Buddhism, and proven over countless generations, is that once we set off down this road, it will inevitably draw out the perception that what we are really seeking in life is meaning and purpose, and a sense of self-worth, and the durable sense of well-being that comes from the exercise of altruism and compassion, whether or not we happen to achieve those material goals that we set out with. '
Well that's it for today.
Thanks for reading this far.
Hope it makes sense.
See you next time ,
William
PS
Sunday, 18 January 2015
my buddhist blog number 78
Hi Everybody,
How time flies. I look at the date of the last episode and it's the 2nd Jan. I had an urgent script commission that had to be completed by 15th. Anyway I'm back. I hope I've been missed!! I think I'd decided in this period of the year that is conspicuous for spending; all those Xmas presents for other people, and then the sales orgy of presents for ourselves. A lot of money flows out of our accounts at this time of the year, so I moved on to Chapter Eleven, Buddhism and Money, because it's an interesting and illuminating subject isn't it, that we rarely dig down into. When did you, last go to a discussion meeting for example, where that was the subject? Never in my experience. Or a Chapter Study. Or a Taplow seminar. And yet of course, as we all know so well, money is a hugely important dimension in our lives, and the source of a lot of agony. So, ww pick it up on page 200 precisely.
' In thinking about our relationship to money, to wealth, the accumulation of wealth in all its forms, we are dealing with something that undoubtedly can have the most profound effect on how we see ourselves, to the point indeed of changing who we believe we are. and whether or not we have ever thought about it, or are prepared to ackowledge it, it would be very strange wouldn't it, if all of us haven't been shaped and conditioned and affected, in some measure, by this long-running, supremely acquisitive, materialist environment that we all inhabit.
If we ask ourselves the direct question, how have we been affected by it, we might find it difficult to give a clear answer, but that doesn't really undermine the validity of the question does it? Certainly it's a debate that those of us who live in the western-way-of-life parts of the world can't really duck out of. Nor should we want to I suggest, given that the impact that money has on our general sense of satisfaction and contentedness with life, is such a big deal. On the face of it, it seems to mplay a very big role indeed in any picture of happiness we paint for ourselves. The longing for the kind of life-style that only money can buy seems to be very deeply embedded in the western psyche.
So how might we define the issue itself, since it's clearly a complex one?
Put at its simplest, the crux of the argument put forward by the sociologists seems to be that we have allowed the endless cycle of earning and spending, buying and acquiring, to become pretty much what our lives are about. It has been called the distinctive signature of our time, although it doesn't sound in the least distinguished does it? let alone desirable. Is that what we really want this time we live in to be remembered for? The sociologosts talk for example about our replacing meaning in our lives, for the mere pursuit of money, and exchanging genuine quality of life, for mere standard of living. As one commentator puts it for example, writing about some of the obvious dysfunctions of the materialist culture,
' One of those shortcomings may be that we chase money at the expense of meaning. Too many in the western world have made materialism and the cycle of work and spend as their principal goals. Then they wonder why they don't feel happy. That's Gregg Easterbrook, an American economist and writer. And elsewhere in the same essay he raises a key cause of the dissatisfaction that many people feel in their lives, comparison with others. He writes,
'Paradoxically, it is the very increase in money...which creates the wealth so visible in today's society...that triggers dissatisfaction. As material expectations keep rising, more money may engender only more desires.'
And, he might well have gone on, more dissatisfaction! So in a sense you could say that we're all chasing our tails. Dr. Edward Diener from the University of Illinois, and one of the prime movers in the field of positive psychology, has expressed very similar views. He talks of our being so conditioned by the materialist environment we live in that we constantly focus on what we haven't got, as opposed to what we already have. So he argues, as men and women move up the economic ladder, most of us immediately stop thinking about, and feeling in any way grateful for our newly improved circumstances. They simply become the new staus quo, the new base line, and our thoughts switch to what we don't have and need to acquire. So in a sense the itch to acquire becomes a constant dimension in our lives. And that's by no means the only scary paradox that research into this issue has revealed. But let's change direction for a moment, and try to determine what Buddhism has to say about this complex issue.'
And that's where we go next time. about Thursday I would hope.
Thank you for reading thus far.
Please pass the blog onto friends if you think they might be interested.
The book The Case for Buddhism is of course available on Amazon, or Kindle as a download.
Hope to see you next time,
William x
How time flies. I look at the date of the last episode and it's the 2nd Jan. I had an urgent script commission that had to be completed by 15th. Anyway I'm back. I hope I've been missed!! I think I'd decided in this period of the year that is conspicuous for spending; all those Xmas presents for other people, and then the sales orgy of presents for ourselves. A lot of money flows out of our accounts at this time of the year, so I moved on to Chapter Eleven, Buddhism and Money, because it's an interesting and illuminating subject isn't it, that we rarely dig down into. When did you, last go to a discussion meeting for example, where that was the subject? Never in my experience. Or a Chapter Study. Or a Taplow seminar. And yet of course, as we all know so well, money is a hugely important dimension in our lives, and the source of a lot of agony. So, ww pick it up on page 200 precisely.
' In thinking about our relationship to money, to wealth, the accumulation of wealth in all its forms, we are dealing with something that undoubtedly can have the most profound effect on how we see ourselves, to the point indeed of changing who we believe we are. and whether or not we have ever thought about it, or are prepared to ackowledge it, it would be very strange wouldn't it, if all of us haven't been shaped and conditioned and affected, in some measure, by this long-running, supremely acquisitive, materialist environment that we all inhabit.
If we ask ourselves the direct question, how have we been affected by it, we might find it difficult to give a clear answer, but that doesn't really undermine the validity of the question does it? Certainly it's a debate that those of us who live in the western-way-of-life parts of the world can't really duck out of. Nor should we want to I suggest, given that the impact that money has on our general sense of satisfaction and contentedness with life, is such a big deal. On the face of it, it seems to mplay a very big role indeed in any picture of happiness we paint for ourselves. The longing for the kind of life-style that only money can buy seems to be very deeply embedded in the western psyche.
So how might we define the issue itself, since it's clearly a complex one?
Put at its simplest, the crux of the argument put forward by the sociologists seems to be that we have allowed the endless cycle of earning and spending, buying and acquiring, to become pretty much what our lives are about. It has been called the distinctive signature of our time, although it doesn't sound in the least distinguished does it? let alone desirable. Is that what we really want this time we live in to be remembered for? The sociologosts talk for example about our replacing meaning in our lives, for the mere pursuit of money, and exchanging genuine quality of life, for mere standard of living. As one commentator puts it for example, writing about some of the obvious dysfunctions of the materialist culture,
' One of those shortcomings may be that we chase money at the expense of meaning. Too many in the western world have made materialism and the cycle of work and spend as their principal goals. Then they wonder why they don't feel happy. That's Gregg Easterbrook, an American economist and writer. And elsewhere in the same essay he raises a key cause of the dissatisfaction that many people feel in their lives, comparison with others. He writes,
'Paradoxically, it is the very increase in money...which creates the wealth so visible in today's society...that triggers dissatisfaction. As material expectations keep rising, more money may engender only more desires.'
And, he might well have gone on, more dissatisfaction! So in a sense you could say that we're all chasing our tails. Dr. Edward Diener from the University of Illinois, and one of the prime movers in the field of positive psychology, has expressed very similar views. He talks of our being so conditioned by the materialist environment we live in that we constantly focus on what we haven't got, as opposed to what we already have. So he argues, as men and women move up the economic ladder, most of us immediately stop thinking about, and feeling in any way grateful for our newly improved circumstances. They simply become the new staus quo, the new base line, and our thoughts switch to what we don't have and need to acquire. So in a sense the itch to acquire becomes a constant dimension in our lives. And that's by no means the only scary paradox that research into this issue has revealed. But let's change direction for a moment, and try to determine what Buddhism has to say about this complex issue.'
And that's where we go next time. about Thursday I would hope.
Thank you for reading thus far.
Please pass the blog onto friends if you think they might be interested.
The book The Case for Buddhism is of course available on Amazon, or Kindle as a download.
Hope to see you next time,
William x
Friday, 2 January 2015
my buddhist blog number 77
Hi Everybody,
Hope you had a great xmas break. It seemed so long this year don't you think, from xmas eve to new years day? Perhaps because it streteched over two weekends. Anyway, we had a really warm and loving and generous time. Its at xmas that I realise how large my family has become, with children and their partners and in-laws and grandchildren it's become a regular tribe. And they're all such nice people!! Any back to blog. I started doing chapter 10 on Buddhism and Anger, but it seems so out of kilter with the period of peace and family love that I don't want to continue with it. I'll go back to later on. So I've leap frogged over ten, to chapter eleven, on the very seasonally appropriate title of Buddhism and money. Very appropriate don't you think with sales and all that stuff going on? So heads down here goes...
' Since Buddhism claims to be about daily life, and since money is an integral part of the complexity of all our lives, we all have bills to pay and ambitions to realise, it's obviously important that we have a clear idea of what it is that Buddhism has to say about our relationship to the stuff. Indeed as it happens, money, money that is in a slightly different form, but fulfilling precisely the same function as we know it today, actually came into being and started to have its effects on the way people behave, at about the same time as Shakyamuni was travelling around teaching, and in a place not all that far away from where he was in Northern India.
It was actually created by someone whose name is still very familiar to us in relation to money even today, King Croesus, who ruled the ancient kingdom of Lydia, in Asia Minor, roughly where modern day Turkey is, during the 6th Century BCE. Up to that ime, leaving aside the role of barter, goods were paid for by bits and pieces of metal, mainly gold and silver of course, that had to be carefully weighed and assessed for purity at every trade. So not only a very laborious and cumbersome proces, but one that was clearly open to all sorts of manipulation and corruption , and the cause of much conflict and controversy. So, the story goes, it was the smart financial advisors at the court of King Croesus, who came up with the simple but brillaintly practical idea of churning out small pieces of gold and silver ( shaped as it happened as parts of a lions body) that were already stamped with marks to validate their weight and purity, and so carrying in a sense, the authority and guarantee of the Lydian treasury as to their relative value. It was awhole new paradigm, and it's held by historians to be the birth of coinage as we know it.
Sardis, Lydia's capital, rapidly became a mecca for traders from all over the world, because of the surety of its coins, and Croesus gained the reputation for his fabulous wealth that has echoed across the centuries right down to modern times. We still use the phrase, 'to be as rich as Croesus,' to indicate when someone is very rich indeed, even today. I notice in fact that in the Wikipedia entry on him, Bill Gates is cited as the modern example of the Croesus phenomneon! Although Croesus soon lost his kingdom to the warlike Persians, they too thought that minted money was such a brilliant idea that they just carried on doing what he had started, and you could say with some truth that his coins travelled throughout the world; they've been found for example, in Viking hoards buried as far away from Lydia as York, in Anglo Saxon England.
And basically that same model, that systemm of minted money, guaranteed by a national treasury, has continued right down to the present day. Economists still generally go on regarding money pretty dispassionately as this sort of lubricating device, an impersonal medium of exchange that goes on doingn very much what Croesus invented it to do, namely to make the whole business of trade and markets, and buying and selling, flow more smoothly.
But we all know that it has come to mean much more than that don't we? Much more personal, and mor einfluential in all sorts of ways. We may not actually think about it too often, or too deeply, we may not ever put it into words, but we all recognise in some subliminal way, that money is right in there close to our sens eof self-worth for example. And that personal view is very much confirmed by what the sociologists tell us.
An article in a popular but genuinely scientific journal for example, triggered by the effects on so many people of the on-going financial crisis, actually carried the sub-heading, ' Why money messes with your mind.' The article went on to explain in some detail just how far that messing with the mind could go,
' Some studies even suggest that the desire for money somehow gets cross-wired with our appetite for food. And of course, because having apile of money means that you can buy more thingd, it is virtually synonomous with status..so much so that losingn it can lead to depression and even suicide.'
And although that statement migth seem at first glance to be way over the top... ' it couldn't possibly ever affect me in that way ' we say to ourselves. But if we think about it even briefly, the evidence is clearly there. We're well aware for example of the literally hundreds of suicides following the Great Crash of 1929 in America, people willing to throw away their very lives because their stock values had crashed overnight. Something very similar happened in the UK, albeit on a much smaller scale, with the crash in the Lloyds Insurance market as recently as the 1990's. And as I was actually researching this book, the press and television were all covering the truly tragic story of a 50 year old businessman who was it seems a loving and thoughtful husband and father, who became so mentally disabled by the thought of the impending bankruptcy and the fear of losing all the wealth and possessions that he had accumulated over the years, that he simply couldn't face the thought of living a life without them. So he became virtually a diferetn person, capable of shooting his wife and daughter and then dying himself in the fire he lit to destroy thier family home. His money tha tis had somehow become more meaningful to him than his life or his loved ones. An immensely tragic messing with the mind indeed.
That is of course an extreme case and I mention it only with very considerable difficulty because it is so utterly saddening ( in fact as I was writing this at this moment I didn't want to go on , it's so painful and distressing ). But the fact that these things can happen at all underlines the key point we're seeking to establish, namely that whatever we think may be the case, our emotional relationship with money is cleary not a marginal issue.'
OK that's it for starters. I did find that difficult I must say. It is a tough subject, but one that needs tackling I think. Anyway, hope to see you next time.
Happy New Year,
William
Hope you had a great xmas break. It seemed so long this year don't you think, from xmas eve to new years day? Perhaps because it streteched over two weekends. Anyway, we had a really warm and loving and generous time. Its at xmas that I realise how large my family has become, with children and their partners and in-laws and grandchildren it's become a regular tribe. And they're all such nice people!! Any back to blog. I started doing chapter 10 on Buddhism and Anger, but it seems so out of kilter with the period of peace and family love that I don't want to continue with it. I'll go back to later on. So I've leap frogged over ten, to chapter eleven, on the very seasonally appropriate title of Buddhism and money. Very appropriate don't you think with sales and all that stuff going on? So heads down here goes...
' Since Buddhism claims to be about daily life, and since money is an integral part of the complexity of all our lives, we all have bills to pay and ambitions to realise, it's obviously important that we have a clear idea of what it is that Buddhism has to say about our relationship to the stuff. Indeed as it happens, money, money that is in a slightly different form, but fulfilling precisely the same function as we know it today, actually came into being and started to have its effects on the way people behave, at about the same time as Shakyamuni was travelling around teaching, and in a place not all that far away from where he was in Northern India.
It was actually created by someone whose name is still very familiar to us in relation to money even today, King Croesus, who ruled the ancient kingdom of Lydia, in Asia Minor, roughly where modern day Turkey is, during the 6th Century BCE. Up to that ime, leaving aside the role of barter, goods were paid for by bits and pieces of metal, mainly gold and silver of course, that had to be carefully weighed and assessed for purity at every trade. So not only a very laborious and cumbersome proces, but one that was clearly open to all sorts of manipulation and corruption , and the cause of much conflict and controversy. So, the story goes, it was the smart financial advisors at the court of King Croesus, who came up with the simple but brillaintly practical idea of churning out small pieces of gold and silver ( shaped as it happened as parts of a lions body) that were already stamped with marks to validate their weight and purity, and so carrying in a sense, the authority and guarantee of the Lydian treasury as to their relative value. It was awhole new paradigm, and it's held by historians to be the birth of coinage as we know it.
Sardis, Lydia's capital, rapidly became a mecca for traders from all over the world, because of the surety of its coins, and Croesus gained the reputation for his fabulous wealth that has echoed across the centuries right down to modern times. We still use the phrase, 'to be as rich as Croesus,' to indicate when someone is very rich indeed, even today. I notice in fact that in the Wikipedia entry on him, Bill Gates is cited as the modern example of the Croesus phenomneon! Although Croesus soon lost his kingdom to the warlike Persians, they too thought that minted money was such a brilliant idea that they just carried on doing what he had started, and you could say with some truth that his coins travelled throughout the world; they've been found for example, in Viking hoards buried as far away from Lydia as York, in Anglo Saxon England.
And basically that same model, that systemm of minted money, guaranteed by a national treasury, has continued right down to the present day. Economists still generally go on regarding money pretty dispassionately as this sort of lubricating device, an impersonal medium of exchange that goes on doingn very much what Croesus invented it to do, namely to make the whole business of trade and markets, and buying and selling, flow more smoothly.
But we all know that it has come to mean much more than that don't we? Much more personal, and mor einfluential in all sorts of ways. We may not actually think about it too often, or too deeply, we may not ever put it into words, but we all recognise in some subliminal way, that money is right in there close to our sens eof self-worth for example. And that personal view is very much confirmed by what the sociologists tell us.
An article in a popular but genuinely scientific journal for example, triggered by the effects on so many people of the on-going financial crisis, actually carried the sub-heading, ' Why money messes with your mind.' The article went on to explain in some detail just how far that messing with the mind could go,
' Some studies even suggest that the desire for money somehow gets cross-wired with our appetite for food. And of course, because having apile of money means that you can buy more thingd, it is virtually synonomous with status..so much so that losingn it can lead to depression and even suicide.'
And although that statement migth seem at first glance to be way over the top... ' it couldn't possibly ever affect me in that way ' we say to ourselves. But if we think about it even briefly, the evidence is clearly there. We're well aware for example of the literally hundreds of suicides following the Great Crash of 1929 in America, people willing to throw away their very lives because their stock values had crashed overnight. Something very similar happened in the UK, albeit on a much smaller scale, with the crash in the Lloyds Insurance market as recently as the 1990's. And as I was actually researching this book, the press and television were all covering the truly tragic story of a 50 year old businessman who was it seems a loving and thoughtful husband and father, who became so mentally disabled by the thought of the impending bankruptcy and the fear of losing all the wealth and possessions that he had accumulated over the years, that he simply couldn't face the thought of living a life without them. So he became virtually a diferetn person, capable of shooting his wife and daughter and then dying himself in the fire he lit to destroy thier family home. His money tha tis had somehow become more meaningful to him than his life or his loved ones. An immensely tragic messing with the mind indeed.
That is of course an extreme case and I mention it only with very considerable difficulty because it is so utterly saddening ( in fact as I was writing this at this moment I didn't want to go on , it's so painful and distressing ). But the fact that these things can happen at all underlines the key point we're seeking to establish, namely that whatever we think may be the case, our emotional relationship with money is cleary not a marginal issue.'
OK that's it for starters. I did find that difficult I must say. It is a tough subject, but one that needs tackling I think. Anyway, hope to see you next time.
Happy New Year,
William
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