[Buddha-l] Karma and capitalism

[Dan Lusthaus]

Joanna write:
>  However, I'm not sure that "banking" merit leads to its accruing
interest,
>  so to speak-- it just sits there and grows like an account with no
> interest,

That's why Buddhists talk about transference of merit (parinama) -- 
receiving a basically undeserved loan (especially in its Pure Land
variety -- but a matter of asking for rather than earning in any form) that
should be used to raise oneself up by one's bootstraps so that one can
become a sambhoga-kaya and thereby distribute undeserved merit loans to
others.

So it seems some are willing to concede (as 2000+ years of Buddhist history
would compellingly and decisively indicate) that Buddhism is compatible with
mercantilism, but for some reason, not capitalism. Unfortunately the ad hoc
definition of capitalism they rely on for this already questionable
distinction seems drawn more from Michael Douglas in "Wall Street" (with a
dose of Ayn Rand) than from Adam Smith or basic capitalist theory, which
aims at the sublimation and redirection of desire for the general good -- 
just as Buddhism does when it promotes the marga as a desirable path, a path
driven by the engine of desire for anuttara-samyak-sambodhi for oneself and
others (substitute the word "wealth" for anuttara-samyak-sambodhi in that
phrase and the isomorphism should be obvious). Compassion is a sublimated
form of desire, but a desire nonetheless, as numerous classical Buddhist
texts attest.

But, one might object, Buddhism aims at ultimately eradicating desire, while
capitalism does not. That eradication, however, is so far off in the
distance (and not achieved until post-tenth bhumi practice) that in
practical terms Buddhism remains a system of displacing one set of desires
and objectives for another. Buddhists acknowledge that when they classify
even the giants such as Nagarjuna and Asanga, et al. as no better than
first-bhumi Bodhisattvas. When Buddhists ignore or shortcut such evaluative
criteria, we get all the issues that Brian Victoria exposed concerning 20th
century Japanese Zen. Or western Buddhists.

Dan Lusthaus