Buddhist economic model in which Buddhist principles of growth, compassion, wisdom and right living are shown to work successfully in practice to generate human growth and economic productivity, sufficiency, security and general wellness of a community and a region. The workability of the model shows the potential for developing and maintaining a conflict-free world.

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An Empowering Merit-based Buddhist Economy – the Asoke Model in Thailand1
Bong C.L.
Malaysia
This paper presents observations on a model of a vibrant merit-based Buddhist economy generated through right livelihood as practised by the Asoke Buddhist community of Thailand. The Asoke community was founded by Venerable Bodhiraksa more than thirty years ago. It now has at least nine well-established major centres and many smaller communities spread throughout Thailand. Its rapid yet sustainable growth as a socio- economically successful independent and upright community that serves humanity, nurtures and replenishes rather than selfishly exploits man, resources and nature as seen in traditional economy is based on their advocacy and practice of a return to Buddhist way of life, the purpose and goal of which is spiritual liberation. This contrasts sharply with what is commonly occurring now, in which the pursuit or goal of life is the mindless accumulation of material wealth as top priority above everything else, and in the process man destroys the environment and loses the meaning and direction of life so that a society of social ills prevails and dominates, where greed feeds on more greed, where aversion burns ever so strongly, and delusions are so blinding. Countries are invaded, hundreds of thousands of lives can be sacrificed, millions more lives put in misery, nature and environment mercilessly destroyed just because some deluding and greedy groups of people want control of certain resources. Lately one sees financial crisis hitting one country after another, one region after another. Obviously there is something fundamentally wrong that drives this world and its economy. This ‘something’ can be traced to the three poisons identified in Buddhist teaching, greed (lobha), aversion (dosa) and delusion (moha). The endless and mindless pursuit and accumulation of material wealth without giving back is not only unsustainable but destructive to mind and body.
A return to the Buddhist way of life, the goal of which is attainment of liberation as the priority is one way of treating this ill world. An economy that is built based on Buddhist teachings and values can thrive sustainably for the well-being of humanity, nature and environment and where win-win situation prevails for everyone and everything else. The Asoke model of merit-based economy that supports the primary goal of spiritual pursuit of attaining liberation from saṁsāra shows that such economy is workable and achievable. The Srisa Asoke model as an example of this merit-based Buddhist economy is presented here. Through their practice of right livelihood, abundance is created. Through generosity of sharing this abundance without seeking returns, merits are accumulated in support of their pursuit of spiritual life. From their generosity of sharing their produce and technological innovations freely, people and communities benefit and are empowered to achieve financial independence and contribute further to expand the size and influence of an economy built on wholesomeness of hearts and goodwill. Through rippling effect of this practice, a special
1 This paper is adapted from the original presented by the author at the World Buddhist Fellowship forum, held from 22-15 December, 2011 at Taipei, Taiwan.

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niche market for products and services produced based on wholesome spirit (ethics), generosity and appreciation of humanity and environment has been created and is gradually and surely expanding.
The Asoke community consists of monks and nuns as the core of the community and the householders or lay people. All members, monastic or lay contribute to the building of the community. While the monastic core provides spiritual leadership and guidance, capable members of the lay community are often elected leaders to provide collective leadership on the planning, building and developing the community. Their primary goal and purpose of life is attaining liberation from saṁsāra, all other activities are secondary in support of this effort towards attaining this goal. The lay members are holders of five or eight precepts. They practice right livelihood.
Through their practice of right livelihood guided by the precepts they undertake and the Dharma learned and put into practice in daily life, they create a merit-based economy where abundance is produced, prosperity grows and spiritual life is cultivated and enriched. The Asoke people adopt a simple, relatively austere lifestyle that trains in reducing and curbing greed, aversion and delusion; that denounces consumerism and abhors wastages of resources; that promotes and celebrates Buddhist values such as generosity, diligence and self-reliance, that cultivates and nurtures Brahmavihara in community living and development. For community unity and development, they are guided by the six principles of harmony taught by the Buddha:
1. The first is Mettākāyakamma: to be amiable in deed, willing to work in any kind of business of the community politely with respect for one other, openly and in private.
2. The second is Mettāvacīkamma: to be amiable in word, to speak kind words, advise with good intention, politely with respect for one other, openly and in private.
3. The third is Mettāmanokamma: to be amiable in thought, well-wishes, think good and positive thoughts of others, be kind and greet one another with smiles, openly and in private.
4. The fourth is Sādhāraṇabhogī: to share any lawful gains with virtuous fellows, openly and in private.
5. The fifth virtue is Sīlasāmaññatā: to practice Buddhist’s precepts as virtuous ones do, to keep without blemish the rules of conduct along with one’s fellows, openly and in private.
6. The sixth virtue is Diṭṭhisāmaññatā: to be endowed with the right views to practice along with others on the path to liberation, to end sufferings and to solve problems, openly and in private.
A family, a commercial company, a private or public corporation can be run using these principles too to the benefits of all members. Such goodwill, friendliness, transparency and ‘profit-sharing’ would make a happier family or corporation, reduce and keep out interpersonal conflicts and sense of injustice, and engender high motivation to work harder for higher productivity.

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In denouncing consumerism, they not only train in a spiritual life of renouncing pursuit of unnecessary sense pleasures but also cultivate the wisdom of non-greed. In worldly material and monetary terms, they do not waste their wealth/money on non-productive sense/material pursuits/possessions. In this way, they therefore reject conventional consumerist lifestyle and do not participate in the conventional economy or market that not only exploits human weaknesses for material gains but which is also adverse to the pursuit of spiritual cultivation. Here, there is accumulation in at least two aspects of one’s personal life, accumulation of merits in pursuing right living that supports spiritual cultivation (particularly of non-greed) and accumulation of material wealth by not wasting what one has gained from right living. Extending further, in rejecting consumerism, they reduce unnecessary wastage of funds, energy and resources which can be and are diverted for other more useful purposes.
They adopt and practice simplicity of life style in their daily needs and also in their attires, relatively austere but fully adequate and not lacking in any sense. They are vegetarians, taking one meal a day as practiced in the olden times, in part to keep the precept of refraining from killing, and in part to reduce the amount of time spent on preparing and taking meals. They give up footwear where it is unnecessary. In not using footwear, the community has to keep their living space and ground clean and free of harmful debris and materials. They advocate and achieve independence or self-reliance through diligence and keeping with their motto on ‘use what we produce; produce what we need’. They grow their own foods, rice, mushroom, vegetables, fruits, bamboo shoot, herbs and spices. They maintain a herbal garden to produce local herbs for health and traditional medicines. They operate a small clinic promoting traditional practices (massage; chiropractics). They establish and maintain areas of renewable resources such as forests of various local species of timber trees and bamboos for housing materials and fuels (bamboo for making charcoal).
Recognising the importance of green resources in providing their needs and others’ needs in the future, they have long embarked on conserving resources and establishing germplasm gardens.
The Asoke community recognised that ‘conventional commercial agricultural practices’ are high in chemical inputs which eventually lead to the degradation of the soil, making it unfit for growing food crops. They adopt organic farming and practices which recondition and enrich the soil organically. They adopt and practice organic farming for their own health and for the health of the environment and population in general. The Asoke model recognises the importance of nature and its resources and gives priority to taking care of nature so that nature can take care of the beings that it supports.
They design and fabricate their own farm machineries. They produce organic fertilizers for their own needs and distribution to surrounding farmers. Now they have started working on producing biogas. They also act as agents or conservators of local and traditional arts and crafts and practices. They support a small local cottage industry of weaving cloth by traditional method and teach others the skills. They start and operate primary and secondary schools of their own to give children a comprehensive education on theory and practice of not only conventional subjects of arts and science but more importantly on right

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living based on Buddhist values such as ethics, diligence, independence or self-reliance, contributions to others and community living, and the overriding importance of spiritual pursuit. While students learn the theories of arts and sciences, Buddhist ethics and teachings and apply what they learn in determining and working on the community’s needs and resolving the community’s problems at various work stations assigned, they contribute to the community’s growth and development. Thus built into their education system is the process of building up the capability, confidence and a fierce spirit of independence of the students in solving problems constructively. Through opportunities and support given to them by their community’s seniors or teachers, the students feel and are empowered to contribute as useful members to their community’s growth and welfare.
The Asoke people focus not only on developing themselves or their own community. They are open to anyone interested in what they do and in learning from them. They conduct farmer training camps. They conduct training in making organic fertilizers. They conduct training in fabricating machineries. They conduct detoxification and other traditional health programs. They conduct courses in making organic shampoo. They offer free board and education to children who attend their schools. These courses are mostly residential. The Asoke community provides lodging and foods to the trainees without charging or expecting anything in return. Such transfer of knowledge and technology is given with goodwill to enable the trainees to learn and acquire useful living skills to empower them to make an independent living based on right livelihood. In so doing, they contribute to training local workforce to serve the local community’s needs. This also contributes to giving the people a choice to work on their own as entrepreneurs and to move away from seeking employment in large or transnational companies which tend to be more exploitative than nurturing of human potential. Through their transfer of technology and skills, the Asoke community helps develop human potential and empower them to seek independent means of living based on right livelihood.
Being a resourceful community, the Asoke people also share their resources with the local population. They share the surplus of their products by giving them away or selling them at below or at cost and at a small profit that is clearly indicated in the label of the product. They also share the raw materials with the smaller farmers in surrounding villages. Being a bigger operator, the Asoke community buys raw materials in bulks at cheaper prices. Surrounding farmers who need these materials could source them from the Asoke store at lower cost. To lower the cost further, the local farmer-buyers are encouraged to package the raw materials themselves and transport them away. In various small ways, local farmers are taught how to lower their cost of production. These services are provided free.
Through sheer honest hard work and determination to live by BuddhaDhamma, humility, respect, a sense of sharing and fairness to oneself, others and nature, the Asoke people produce more than their needs and conserve and protect resources. Through simplification of wants and needs (austerity), the practice of diligence in producing what the community needs, the practice of frugality in consumption to generate surplus for the community; the practice of generosity in distributing the surplus to the surrounding communities and public either by giving away, or selling the products at or below cost or at the lowest profit possible,

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a Buddhist merit-based economy is being established. The purpose here is to generate merits by sharing, a spiritual aspect of living rather than simply making profit for oneself. The community is highly innovative in developing the right technology that makes use of local resources to produce products the community needs. These products include organic produce (rice, mushroom, fruits) and toiletries (soap, shampoo), and organic fertilizers. Their organic products have become quite well-known and they have their own niche markets, markets that sell ‘nature’, ‘health’ and ‘right living’ to ethically and environmentally conscious customers. True to their principle of right living and Buddhist practice of merit- economy, the Asoke community does not impose ‘monetary premiums’ in their products, they distribute and share their products as an act of generosity, thus either giving them away for free or selling it at the lowest price possible (below or at or slightly higher than the cost of production). They share the technology they developed freely with whoever wants to make use of it. The community even gives away the design of the agricultural machineries or the formulae of their organic shampoo to whoever wish to have them. They do not collect any fees or commissions. They train farmers how to make organic fertilizers, and entrepreneurs on how to make organic shampoo or particular machineries they design, fabricate and use. They transfer the technology and train whoever want to learn without charging them any fees. The Asoke community also operates a large supply store where merhandises are sold at prices way lower than those out in the conventional markets. The store also provides spaces for local home industries to sell their products. Thus the Asoke through their free transfer of technology and skills, and in facilitating the marketing of home products of the local small entrepreneurs and cottage industries empowers the local communities in becoming active agents of economic growth of their communities. Ecologically, the Asoke community also establishes gardens of green resources such as conservation of local plants, trees and herbs, timber forests, bamboo groves of different species for food and fuel (making charcoal), and fruit orchards. They are also looking into resources and technology for generation of biofuel. Now they are producing biogas. Srisa Asoke community started with a few individuals who gave up their professional lives to restart living the Buddhist life and reclaiming the purpose of this human life, that of attaining the goal of liberation from samsara with all other activities as supporting the effort towards this end. Along the way, they work and build up merits to support this effort. In so doing they start a self-sufficient and self-reliant economy that extends beyond their immediate community to benefit and empower the other communities or non-Asoke people to do the same. The Asoke community has shown that there is no need to be selfish to serve self- interests to make profits that benefit only a few individuals. Instead of selfishly patenting their innovations, they share their innovations freely to benefit not only the entrepreneurs who use their innovative designs at no cost, their products do not have the added licensing cost and can be priced lower to benefit the consumers of the products.
By comparison to conventional commercial or business practices which are impersonal and profit-oriented if not blatantly mercenary or profiteering, all products and services would never be ‘free’ and distributed at or below cost or at a profit clearly and honestly indicated. Generally the profits would be more than 5% at each point. For example, the design of a farm machinery would be patented, training fee would be charged for building and operating the machine, licensing fee would be charged for anyone using the design to

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manufacture the machinery, a commission would be charged for each unit sold. All these fees and charges add up and are passed onto the customers, the farmers’ products are sold at prices that are inflated with all those fees and charges. The conventional economy thus just grows and expands and inflates like that – just the multiplication of dollar bills. This is ‘accepted as economic or business growth’. Human beings are just parts or components of this huge wheel called ‘economy’. The other parts are the natural resources and the environment which are continuously exploited and transformed into more and more dollar bills whose values seem to keep depreciating. Human beings are driven harder to make more of these dollar bills to spend on things that they may or may not need, and along the way, more sufferings are generated and the sea of samsara becomes overwhelming. This money-based economy is just sheer wrong.
The ethically built humanity-based Asoke Buddhist model provides an alternative economy that is workable not only in theory but has been shown to be practical and effective in generating growth, materially and spiritually. It is also good for the world and conducive to peace because it works on a win-win situation for man and nature everywhere. The Asoke economic growth model shows that one does not have to be selfish and self-serving in every way in order to grow and prosper. In fact the Asoke economic model demonstrates that wisdom and compassion when practiced correctly are selflessly productive and that altruism works to the benefit of mankind, oneself and others and nature. Buddhist teachings can be applied correctly and when practiced rightly builds a conflict-free world where there is sufficiency and security for one and all, including this precious nature and the environment.
We should be brave enough not to be boxed in (and incapacitated) by the economic theories of big names or Nobel prize winners if the current world economic/political situation is any indication of the workability of their economic/political theories. There are movers and shakers at ground level, like the Asoke people, who demonstrate that humanity-centred and nature-friendly way of economic/human growth model works, that altruism works, that we don’t have to rob James to pay Joe, that compassion, wisdom and sharing are actually some of the keys to conflict-free growth of the economy, of the world.