Transcending above Spirituality and Materiality of Buddhist Economics: Past, Present, and Future

Abstract

Defining Buddhist Economics properly as an inter-disciplinary field of study could be challenging for the intertwining discussions between the dichotomy of spirituality and materiality. Buddhist Economics comprises not only debates about material considerations of the spiritual developments such as the economics of spiritual organizations, but also spiritual perspectives of economic activities such as the application and relevance of spiritual ideals in daily life, for example Buddhist definition of wealth, as well as teachings on the proper generation and use of wealth. Even more controversial areas of the subject associate with the materialization or commercialization of spirituality, which involve applying material motivation and evaluation on spiritual values—spiritual materialism. On the one hand, it could involve the application of spiritual practice on materialistic pursuits such as work stress reduction and productivity enhancement. On the other hand, spirituality might be channelled to empower an even more materialistic and egoistic individual. This paper first revisits some of the seminal work on materialism relating to spirituality in general and then spiritual materialism specifically. It further explores the probable threats of spiritual materialism and attempts to shed light on the potential challenges on the development of Buddhism Economics as an interdisciplinary subject. This research aims to address how Buddhist Economics as a subject could be developed and applied so that the essence of Buddhist values could be relevant in a society where the market is unavoidably the most critical mechanism—how can we contribute to human well-being by applying Buddhist Economic ideals as a strategy in a market-oriented society? How can we maintain focus on holistic human developments and values in the midst of money and price? This study concludes with some suggestions on further research on Buddhist Economics and thoughts on potential implications.