Putting Buddhist Principles to Business

Abstract

Putting Buddhist Principles to Business: A Case study on Indonesian Buddhist Businessmen

This paper will study about the behavior and interplay between Buddhist principles and Business activity, specifically observing closely how Buddhist businessmen in Indonesia attempt to synchronize Buddhist principles such as the idea of non-attachment and generosity, which are among the factors for one to be liberated in Buddhism, with Business activity which has the brand as being multiplying desire and profit maximization oriented. Buddhist principles, such as non-attachment and generosity are appeared to be paradoxical to commonly understood business behavior. Those seemingly contradictory ideas are what this paper will observe. Because in fact, there are many Buddhists who engage in business affair and not few of them understand about the core ideas such as non-attachment and generosity, yet understanding as such lead them to a more sustainable business. Therefore, it is urged here that Business which is inspired by Buddhist principles would lead to stability and business which benefit one-self and others.

This paper is the continuation of previous research which has been done by the author under the title: Crossing the Crisis: Success Stories of Indonesian Buddhist Businessmen. The paper related the stories of some Buddhist-principles-inspired businessmen in Indonesia who were able to survive the crisis and develop their business progressively. The paper was presented during the 1^st conference held by the Buddhist Economics Platform in Budapest, Hungary, on August 2007.

* This paper was presented at a conference held by IABU in Thailand (2008)