Rebalancing economic growth toward green and sustainable development cannot be achieved merely through the law and regulations or administrative and bureaucratic measures.
As long as people's brains fail to automatically operate in line with what is necessary to create an eco-civilisation, we will face a difficult time on our paths toward green development.
We cannot just rely on law enforcement since it, more often than not, deals with what we do, not what the mind thinks. That's exactly why our oriental ways, wisdom and Buddhist principles should be used to guide us in creating an eco-friendly society.
In the East, our oriental wisdom can be found in many religions and ways of life.
Mahatma Gandhi once said: “The world has enough for everyone’s need but not enough for everyone’s greed.” Confucius wrote: “He who will not economise will have to agonise.” In Buddhism, the middle path or moderation, and being aware of one’s proper consumption are found amongst some of the basic guiding principles.
In short, this wisdom teaches us to train our hearts and brains to be mindful of what we are doing at all time, to ensure that the way we live does not create man-made problems for ourselves and the society we live in.
Buddhism as a philosophy stresses the middle path or moderation as a discipline of life, a discipline of how to live in a society and make it a peaceful one. Its achievement depends on the condition of the mind.
That is why Buddhism believes that we must be mindful of what we do all the time. Mindfulness is the key to successfully practising Buddhism and the key to achieving that middle path and moderation. Only the trained mind can tame human greed.
The middle path consists of eight factors: righteousness in perception, thought, speech, action, work, diligence or perseverance, mindfulness and concentration. These factors are key to finding the middle path or moderation.
The middle path is not against development, nor is it against profit-making or modernisation. On the contrary the middle path is a way to approach economic development without destroying the environment in such a way that barely anything is left.
The Buddhist approach of the middle path is also reflected in His Majesty the King’s philosophy to guide economic development. His Majesty, for more than 60 years of his reign, has worked hard through real experience on the ground. He has stressed the importance of a “sufficiency economy philosophy”.
There are three major principles involved: moderation, reasonableness and immunity — to protect oneself from possible negative consequences.
The three principles rely on knowledge and good morality. One must have the knowledge of how to do things in a moderate and reasonable way, to be morally responsible, and to create immunity to protect oneself from negative consequences.
His Majesty’s work and philosophy have been recognised by the United Nations which presented him with the first Human Development Lifetime Achievement Award.
In the economic world, a sufficiency economy philosophy, therefore, teaches us not to over-spend, nor-under spend, not to over invest nor under-invest, but to spend and invest moderately, with good reason, in a way that will not hurt us in the future.
For example, if one has US$100,000 (3.2 million baht) in savings but decides to buy a house which costs $2 million, even with a mortgage, that is not the middle path, not moderate, not reasonable, and leaves no immunity in case of unexpected mishaps.
But if one has US$10 million and decides to buy US$2 million house, then it’s reasonable, and still offers immunity against negative consequences in the future. The same logic applies to investment in stocks, bonds, buying luxury goods or industrialisation.
The middle path or moderation does not mean no progress, or closing the door to modernisation. Rather it means doing things with reasons. In economic terms, moderation means not to over spend, not to under spend, not to over invest nor to under invest.
One should not make decisions to do things that are far beyond what one can afford or far beyond what the society can afford, thus damaging financial security, resources and the environment for the next generation.
Therefore, moderation is a form of anti-economic cycle, because one should invest reasonably during crisis and not over-invest during boom time. Moderation provides immunity against financial mishaps. Moderation guarantees sustainability.
The spending choices we make in this free market economy are wrong not because they are illegal but rather because they involve too much or too little. The choices involve too much economic development and too little concern about the condition of the environment. The choices involve greed. This means the choices are made without due regard to moderation.
The global financial crisis is the product of financial extremists. The climate change crisis is the product of economic advancement extremists.
These crises take place because one ignores the value of oriental wisdom, of Buddhist philosophy relating to the middle path and mindfulness, and the value of sufficiency economy, moderation and reasonableness.
These values are overlooked and overtaken by the idea of extreme economic advancement and profit maximisation. It occurs without any due regard to the possible negative consequences to us and to our society.
Indeed, profit maximisation driven by greed is not sustainable. We have tried to invent new laws and regulations to curb human behaviour. However, law and regulations alone cannot control greed. Greed always finds loopholes in law and its application.
We need to control greed from within, from our hearts and minds, to learn to be moderate, sufficient, reasonable and create immunity against potential negative outcomes.
We need to constantly train our minds to be moderate, reasonable, and aware of what we do at all time. We need to chart a common cause, walk a common path, create a coalition of economic moderation today. Tomorrow, it may be too late.
Excerpts from a speech by Surakiart Sathirathai, chairman of the Asian Peace and Reconciliation Council (APRC) and former deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, at Fanjing Mountain Ecological Civilisation and Buddhist Culture Forum in China on July 12.