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The investor Warren Buffet once said, 'if you don't know how to manage $100 you won't know how to manage $100,000'. With a little transcendent accounting we can restate this from the Buddhist perspective to say, "if you know how to appreciate a moment, you will know how to appreciate a lifetime".
The Buddhist advice for economic life is the same as for every other aspect of life: start with the view. The idea is that understanding the foundations of a situation, in this case the human condition, helps us to make better choices going forward. All human beings wish to be happy and free from suffering. The Buddhist approach is to contemplate the nature of happiness and suffering themselves as the means to navigate toward a more joyful existence and the elimination of suffering. Here suffering is distinguished from pain as the misery that comes from being habitually unable to appreciate things as they are.
Economic life is often regarded as a necessary evil to support true spirituality or material comfort, but that is a shame because seeing the economic aspect of life as a spiritual path has great potential to help us cheer up. Economic setbacks can even be opportune for contemplating the nature of economic life and wealth itself. It's much easier to overlook the subtleties of our experience when times are good, and taming the mind in the face of uncertainty has profound benefits for oneself and others.
This book is based on a series of five public talks given at the Hope Lutheran Church in Nanaimo, B.C. beginning in the autumn of 2008; and one open house talk at the Victoria Shambhala Centre in July 2012. The introductory talk in the Nanaimo series went unrecorded, so the Victoria talk is included to take its place. All of these were offered as public talks without prerequisites; as such, each one starts with an introduction or review. I hope that you will find this iterative approach clarifying and reinforcing as we comb through the key ideas with different examples again and again. Buddhist teachings are sometimes divided into the stages of view, practice, and action. View is the most fundamental of these because the other stages depend on it. This book provides an introduction to meditation as the highest best vehicle to establish a wealthy outlook, which is the first step and the fruition of genuine prosperity.
Four Noble Truths of Wealth: A Buddhist View of Economic Life, Layth Matthews, Enlightened Economic Books, Paperback, 153 pages, $17.95
Layth Matthews has been studying Buddhism and economics since 1979. He has been an authorized teacher and meditation instructor in the Shambhala Buddhist tradition since 1989. He is an active Shambhala Training director and leads meditation retreats across North America. He is also a former Centre Director of the Victoria Shambhala Centre in Victoria, British Columbia where he lives with his wife and three children.
Layth is Senior Mortgage Advisor & CEO of RateMiser Mortgage Advisors, a Canadian mortgage brokerage. He has also been a business development manager, financial journalist, and an investment advisor. He has taught finance at Dalhousie Business School and mortgage brokerage at Nova Scotia Community College.
Layth studied economics at the University of Washington and Harvard and has an MBA from Dalhousie University. He is often recognized for economic insight and leadership within the Shambhala community. He is an active member of the Shambhala Business Model Optimization Team and the Enlightened Economy Group.
It is hoped that The Four Noble Truths of Wealth: a Buddhist view of economic life will open the door to a wealthy outlook for people of every faith and persuasion.
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Contents:
Four Noble Truths of Wealth |
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| Introduction |
vii |
| Inherent Wealth |
1 |
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| The First Noble Truth of Wealth |
19 |
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| The Second Noble Truth of Wealth |
39 |
| The Third Noble Truth of Wealth |
63 |
| The Fourth Noble Truth of Wealth |
75 |
| Conclusion |
107 |
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| Appendix A: Meditation Instruction |
111 |
| Appendix B: The Context of Shamatha Meditation |
121 |
| Appendix C: Suggested Websites |
129 |
| Afterword about Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and Shambhala |
131 |
| Afterword about Economics |
135 |
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| Acknowledgements |
149 |
| About the Author |
153 |
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