In Mahayana Buddhism, there is bodhichitta, the aspiration for Buddhahood for the sake of bringing all sentient beings to enlightenment.
In this post I want to consider the possibility that many of the Buddhas existing today are capitalists working towards one goal for humanity:
To generate as much wealth as possible for all.
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In the teachings on the Four Thoughts, this precious human rebirth is emphasised as well a life endowed with leisure and opportunity. A human rebirth is seen as the most advantageous for becoming enlightened. Then, a life of leisure and opportunity is what’s needed in order to practice. The combination of the two: being born human and having a life of leisure and opportunity is incredibly rare. Hence such a human life is called precious.
This combination is said to be as rare as a turtle that comes up for air once every hundred years – and when he surfaces, happens to pop his head through a floating tire in the vast ocean. When compared to the 20 billion billion animals that inhabit this Earth, and not counting the countless other sentient beings throughout the universe, the analogy starts to make sense.
If Buddhists are actually serious about actualising their wish for all sentient beings to become enlightened, humanity must grow. A LOT more. We must grow in wealth, in population and in wisdom. So that what was once a precious human life can actually be very common.
The people I see in the world today who are working towards increasing the human population and creating a life of leisure and opportunity for more people are capitalists.
The only system I see that has delivered real results for growing the human population and creating more material wealth for everyone is capitalism. Pretty much everyone living today owes their existence to capitalism.
But what about sustainability? It makes no sense to grow if we’ll be wiped out by climate change right?
That’s for another blogpost ha.
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