Fw: [Buddha-l] Karma and capitalism

[jkirk]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "jkirk" <jkirk at spro.net>
To: "Erik Hoogcarspel" <jehms at xs4all.nl>
Sent: Sunday, October 02, 2005 4:08 PM
Subject: Re: [Buddha-l] Karma and capitalism



>>> A second thought about capitalism and Buddhism. I find that the
>>> karmatheory in the vaipulyasuutras has become very capitalistic. All the 
>>> elements are there: interest, investment and logaritmic increase if you 
>>> 'buy'stock in the right mantra or teaching. I wonder what caused this, 
>>> it must have been the economic system in India at the time.
 Eric H.
 ========================
 Kim Gutschow shows how this economy of merit works in Ladakh.
 However, I'm not sure that "banking" merit leads to its accruing interest,
 so to speak-- it just sits there and grows like an account with no 
interest,
or a pile of  gold, a savings account for future reference. Thus, I see the
merit economy  as a form of economic exchange, but not necessarily an
example of  capitalistic exchange per se, even though the term capital
could be used to describe accumulated merit.

 As for the way holiness increases merit -- ergo the more one donates to
 holier people the more merit one accrues than donating to a beggar, e.g.,--
 one could substitute the old adage, "money runs to money"!

 Joanna