[Buddha-l] what wld buddha buy

[Steve Hopkins]

Maybe he should get acquainted with David Loy's work.  Both 'A  
Buddhist History of the West' and 'The Great Awakening' contain much  
of use at this time. And although I agree with you about the likely  
perception of resources as  limitless amongst some historical  
communities, it's clear that, for example, at least some Indians in  
the Americas didn't see things quite that way, in fact they  
understood pretty early on in their encounter with European  
colonisation that trouble was on the way.  I find Loy's theory of  
'lack'  very helpful in understanding why that's turned out to be the  
case, not just now, when the crisis is so big no-one can deny it, but  
the rest of the time too.

Steve
On 11 Dec 2008, at 15:18, jkirk wrote:

> 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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