The
Buddha considered economic welfare as a requisite for human happiness, but
moral and spiritual development for a happy, peaceful and contented life.
A man named Dighajanu once visited the Buddha and said, 'Venerable Sir, we are ordinary
laymen, leading a family life with wife and children. Would the Blessed One
teach us some doctrines which will be conducive to our happiness in this world
and hereafter?
The Buddha told him that there are four things which are conducive
to a man's
happiness in this world. First: he should be skilled, efficient, earnest, and
energetic in whatever profession he is engaged, and he should know it well (utthana-sampada);
second: he should protect his income, which he has thus earned righteously,
with the sweat of his brow (arakkha-sampada); third: he should have good
friends (kalyana-mitta) who are faithful, learned, virtuous, liberal and
intelligent, who will help him along the right path away from evil; fourth: he
should spend reasonably, in proportion to his income, neither too much nor too
little, i.e., he should not hoard wealth avariciously nor should he be
extravagant?in
other words he should live within his means (sama-jivikata).
Then the Buddha expounds the four virtues conducive to a layman's happiness
hereafter: (1)Saddha: he
should have faith and confidence in moral, spiritual and intellectual values;
(2)Sila: he should abstain
from destroying and harming life, from stealing and cheating, from adultery,
from falsehood, and from intoxicating drinks; (3)Caga: he should practise charity,
generosity, without attachment and craving for his wealth;(4)Panna: he should develop wisdom which leads
to the complete destruction of suffering, to the realization of Nibbana.
Sometimes the Buddha even went into details about saving money and
spending it, as, for instance, when he told the young man Sigala that he should spend on fourth of his
income on his daily expenses, invest half in his business and put aside one
fourth for any emergency.
Once the Buddha told Anathapindika, the great banker, one of His
most devoted lay disciples who founded for Him the celebrated Jetavana
monastery at Savatthi, that a layman who leads an ordinary family life has four
kinds of happiness. The first happiness is to enjoy economic security or
sufficient wealth acquired by just and righteous means (atthi-sukha); the second is
spending that wealth liberally on himself, his family, his friends and
relatives, and on meritorious deeds (bhogo-sukha); the third to be free
from debts (anana-sukha);
the fourth happiness is to live a faultless, and a pure life without committing
evil in thought, word or deed (anavajja-sukha).
It must be noted here that first three are economic and material
happiness which is 'not worth part' of
the spiritual happiness arising out of a faultless and good life.
From the few examples given above, one can see that the Buddha
considered economic welfare as a requisite for human happiness, but that He did
not recognize progress as real and true if it was only material, devoid of a
spiritual and moral foundation. While encouraging material progress, Buddhism
always lays great stress on the development of the moral and spiritual
character for a happy, peaceful and contented society.
Many people think that to be a good Buddhist one must have
absolutely nothing to do with the materialistic life. This is not correct. What
the Buddha teaches is that while we can enjoy material comforts without going
to extremes, we must also conscientiously develop the spiritual aspects of our
lives. While we can enjoy sensual pleasures as laymen, we should never be
unduly attached to them to the extent that they hinder our spiritual progress.
Buddhism emphasizes the need for a man to follow the Middle Path.
Extract from What Buddhist Believe written by K.Sri Dhammananda
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