Business leaders are increasingly discussing on the need for incorporating fundamentals of Buddhist teaching with business strategies as a solution to empower the poor and powerless people in society.
The forum on ‘Buddhist Leadership Practices in Business’ at the BMICH in Colombo on Tuesday was the venue to take this discussion forward and the panel members, mainly business leaders, emphasized on the need for practicing Buddhist concepts within their work places.
The forum was organized by the National Council for International Affairs of the All Ceylon Buddhist Congress (ACBC).
Managing Director of Lanka Tiles, Mahendra Jayasekara expressing his personal views under the theme, ‘Business Success Based on Buddhist Values’ at the forum said, there is no religion that encourages the creation of wealth as much as Buddhism does. “Many people believe that Buddhism discourages the creation of wealth and it is all about suffering. For me, there is no religion that encourages the creation of wealth as much as Buddhism does. Buddhism is based on creation of wealth. In my view, Buddhism is for the rich and the intelligent,” Jayasekara noted.
“Poverty itself is the suffering for the poor. You can’t understand Dukkha and Dukkha Samudaya Satya unless you are rich. To understand that, you have to be rich,” he said.
Quoting some of the suttas in Buddhism, he pointed out that Buddha’s teaching has clearly mentioned that poverty leads to poverty; he said adding that Buddha has preached that the poor people can’t understand the doctrines of Buddhism if they remain poor.
He further said that Buddha spoke about how to create money, wealth, how to do business, and conditions for successful businesses and noted that fundamentals of Buddhist teaching could also be incorporated into corporate sector to deal with problematic employees at any workplace.
Speaking at a separate session under the theme, ‘Social And Environmental Responsibility For A Sustainable Corporate World’, at the forum, General Secretary of Sarvodaya, Dr. Vinya Ariyaratne stressed that local businesses should adopt a transformative approach thereby voluntarily giving up wasteful styles of living, sharing part of their wealth to enable the poor to generate enough income to meet their minimum needs.
While taking steps to remove structural injustices that keep majority powerless and poor, he said businesses should also regard spiritual activities as ‘uneconomical’.
“More importantly, business should not incite religious hatred among ethnic communities or batter businesses run by non-Buddhists in the name of protecting Buddhism. Religions should be used as a tool not as a weapon,” he said.
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