Hologram Thoughts

I wonder how many CEO’s would consider the companies they run as compassionate? How many corporations would be classified as ‘right’, as in, the Eightfold Path right?

1. Right View
2. Right Intention
3. Right Speech
4. Right Action
5. Right Livelihood
6. Right Effort
7. Right Mindfulness
8. Right Concentration.

I won’t go in to what the Eightfold Path means, because I am not a teacher and because there are very eloquent commentaries on the net already. (links: Google, big view) And I like this answer that Za Choeje Rinpoche gave:

Q: What is the Eightfold Path?

Rinpoche: The Eightfold Path is right view, right part, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. The right view is understanding the world and oneself in a realistic way. Right part is positive ideas or notions within our mental state. Right speech is speaking with respectful truth and for the welfare of others. Right action is acting with the respect for life, property, and relationships. Right livelihood is living virtuously and meditatively. Right effort is cultivating positive attitudes in our study, and practice. Right mindfulness is maintaining full awareness of our inner and outer environment. Right concentration is observing an object with full attention.

from A Buddhist Library at this link

OK, so back to my initial musings about companies and business in general. Looking around at the market place today I am hard pressed to find companies that take a respectful approach to consumers. Maybe that is the reason though, companies today do not see people as a ‘person’, but rather as numbers, just ‘consumers’.

I wonder what kind of company Shakyamuni Buddha would start today? Healthcare, nutrition, media maybe, I don’t know. But I would invest, and I bet others would too.

That is the answer! I got it. We need to invest in companies that practice compassion. I just Googled that and found some companies who do not test on animals, so that is a start.

The I saw this book in the search results and read about it at Amazon: Compassionate Capitalism: How Corporations Can Make Doing Good an Integral Part of Doing Well. How cool is that? Gonna buy it.

Enough ranting today, I just think we can do better. Instead of spending $339 million dollars on another F-22 Raptor, maybe we can build a school?

I copied in whole this document from another site; http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/96jun/buddha2.html. I did so because all too often web pages that I enjoy and frequent are suddenly gone, and with the web being what it is technologically this should not happen. Once a page is available, the net should insure that the information contained on that document is always available.

Buddha set forth his teaching in the following doctrine.

The Four Noble Truths:

1. All things and experiences are marked by suffering/ disharmony/ frustration (dukkha)

2. The arising of suffering/ disharmony/ frustration comes from desire/ craving/ clinging.

3. To achieve the cessation/ end of suffering/ disharmony/ frustration, let go of desire/ craving/ clinging.

4. The way to achieve that cessation of suffering/ disharmony/ frustration, is walking the Eightfold Path.

The eightfold path to the cessation of suffering:

1. Right Understanding of the following facts:

• the truth about suffering … (The Four Truths);
• everything is impermanent and changes;
• there is no separate individual self- this is an illusion. (We are one!)

2. Right Determination to:

• give up what is wrong and evil;
• undertake what is good;
• abandon thoughts that have to do with bringing suffering to any conscious being; cultivate thoughts that are of loving kindness, that are based on caring for others’ suffering, and sympathetic joy in others’ happiness.

3. Right Speech:

• Abstain from telling lies.
• Abstain from talk that brings harm or discredit to others (such as backbiting or slander) or talk that creates hatred or disharmony between individuals and groups.
• Abstain from harsh, rude, impolite, malicious, or abusive language.
• Abstain from idle, useless, and foolish babble and gossip. Abstain from recrimination and negative statements.
• Abstain from harsh speech—practice kindly speech.
• Abstain from frivolous speech—practice meaningful speech.
• Abstain from slanderous speech—practice harmonious speech.
• Speak the truth if it is useful and timely. Practice only necessary speech. Let your speech be filled with loving kindness. Speak that which alleviates suffering.

4. Right Action:

• Peaceful, honorable conduct; abstain from dishonest dealings; take concrete steps necessary to foster what is good.
• Do things that are moral, honest, and alleviate suffering. Do not do things that will bring suffering to others or yourself.

5. Right Livelihood:

• Abstain from making your living from an occupation that brings harm and suffering to humans or animals, or diminish their well being. This includes: activities that directly harm conscious beings, and activities that indirectly harm sentient beings, e.g., making weapons or poisons.

6. Right Effort:

• Foster good and prevent evil;
• Work on yourself—be engaged in appropriate self-improvement. The essence of right effort is that everything must be done with a sense of proper balance that fits the situation. Effort should be properly balanced between trying too hard and not trying hard enough. For example, strike the balance between excessive fasting and over-indulgence in food. Trying hard to progress too rapidly gets poor results, as does not trying hard enough.

7. Right Mindfulness or wakefulness:

• Foster right attention.
• Avoid whatever clouds our mental awareness (e.g., drugs).
• Systematically and intentionally develop awareness.

8. Right Concentration:

• Developed by practicing meditation and/or mental focusing. Proper meditation must be done continuously while awake, and should include work on awareness of body, emotions, thought, and mind objects.

Five basic precepts:

1. Abstain from killing living beings (from destroying/taking life)—or practice love.

2. Abstain from taking the not-given (from stealing)—or practice generosity, practice giving.

3. Abstain from sexual misconduct—or practice contentment.

4. Abstain from false speech (from lying)—or practice truthfulness.

5. Abstain from taking intoxicating drinks—or practice awareness and mental clarity.

Buddha said:

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. Do not believe anything because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything because it is written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and the benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.

The following prose, attributed to Buddha, is a poetic expression of the way he saw the world.

Buddha said:

• I consider the positions of kings and rulers as that of dust motes.
• I observe treasures of gold and gems as so many bricks and pebbles.
• I look upon the finest silken robes as tattered rags.
• I see myriad worlds of the universe as small seeds of fruit, and the greatest lake in India as a drop of oil upon my foot.
• I perceive the teachings of the world as the illusions of magicians.
• I discern the highest conception of emancipation as a golden brocade in a dream, and view the holy path of the illuminated ones as flowers appearing in one’s eyes.
• I see meditation as a pillar of a mountain, nirvana as a nightmare of daytime.
• I look upon the judgments of right and wrong as the serpentine dance of a dragon, and the rise and fall of belief as traces left by the four seasons.