A Buddhist Perspective on Humanizing Business

Abstract

For a Buddhist, the ultimate goal in this life is enlightenment—a state of mind characterized by compassion and selflessness. Every activity or endeavor in this life as a human, including business or career activity, is carried out with the intention to achieve this goal. Both business activities and non-business activities (such as leisure activities) are important vehicles to practice Buddhism. In the Mahayana tradition of Buddhism as reflected in the Vimalakirti Sutra, it is argued that practicing Buddhism in the business environment is a more effective and higher-level approach to achieve enlightenment than practicing Buddhism in the traditionally monastic life style. The basic or fundamental belief for all Buddhists is that the highest form of human wellbeing or happiness cannot be achieved only by money, profit, or wealth. The pursuit of money, profit, or wealth, on the contrary, brings unhappiness and harmful consequences to humans, as frequently observed by modern psychologists and environmental scientists. For Buddhists, practicing compassion and selflessness in a business environment mandates all Buddhists to adopt the stakeholder approach to business operations. In all Mahayana Buddhist traditions, it is commonly believed that a Buddhist practitioner will not achieve enlightenment until he or she can make others (all the stakeholders) enlightened as well. For Buddhists, the only way to run or manage a business is to humanize the business. This means: (1) to treat everyone related to the business as a human being with a Buddha nature (a potential to become a Buddha), (2) to treat everyone as an end, not as a means, (3) to bring out the best of human nature, and (4) to assist and support everyone economically and spiritually to attain enlightenment. There is no other way to run or manage a business.