[Buddha-l] what wld buddha buy

[jkirk]

Too bad the extensive observations on greed in Buddhism were left
out. You may have discerned the reason :)  "Perhaps he was too
worried by the fact that the five basic precepts mention nothing
about abstaining from wealth or property. If he was, should he
have been?"

Doesn't Buddhism attack greed and attachment, not wealth? 
Since the early and later sanghas for centuries relied on
material donations for survival (rich persons and royals playing
big roles), support for the mission and the building of viharas,
etc., it's not suprising that wealth and property got little
negative press. Asian Buddhist nations have continued to operate
in this fashion up to present times, even as Deng Shao Ping said,
making money is good.   In those ancient days of the 7th c BCE,
as in the early days of the takeover of the Americas from the
Indians, resources must have seemed to be in unlimited supply
(except to the America's Indians, who were close to Gandhi's
views on the earth), so aphorisms such as Gandhi's would not have
occurred to any thinking subject. Gandhi of course was a man of
the twentieth c., when resources were finally beginning to be
perceived as in limited supply, thanks to the ravages of
corporate capitalism.

Tentatively,
Joanna K.
=========================


 As we all should be.  A rather good article on 'Greed' , by a
Brit who's a Professor of, perhaps surprisingly, Design at New
York's New School, appeared in Britain's 'New Statesman' this
week (http://
www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2008/12/greed-economy-crime-essay),
one of an increasing number of pieces I've seen on this theme.
But whilst Dilnot finds time for Hindu, Marxist and, of course,
capitalist perspectives on the mess that we're in, he doesn't
mention either Gandhi's "Earth provides enough to satisfy every
man's need, but not every man's greed" or the extensive Buddhist
commentary, if I can call it that, concerning greed.  Perhaps he
was too worried by the fact that the five basic precepts mention
nothing about abstaining from wealth or property. If he was,
should he have been?

Penuriously,

Steve Hopkins

On 9 Dec 2008, at 18:44, Gary Gach wrote:

> I am
> reluctant to say "paradigm shift" but there seems a seismic
upheaval 
> affecting all frameworks at hand (or afoot) ...

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