What
Buddhists Believe
Venerable K. Sri Dhammananda Maha Thera
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The
Buddhist Way of Life for Householders
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.
-ooOoo-
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Source: Buddhist
Study and Practice Group, http://www.sinc.sunysb.edu/Clubs/buddhism/
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Layout: Chan Duc - Nguyen Thao
Update : 01-11-2002
