Buddhist Economics: Invest "Like a Monk"?

Anathapindika, the richest merchant in Savatthi at the time, pays homage to the Buddha. Being wealthy and successful is not evil if one's actions are blameless.

Well, I think the title sounds a bit misleading since monks don't invest in the material sense, but the article Invest Like a Buddhist Monk looks pretty good. I think what he means is, invest your money the way a monk invests in the Four Noble Truths, by seeing things as they really are.

Note that I linked to the article at The Buddhist Channel just to show that I'm not the only one who thinks it looks valid from the Buddhist perspective, but the article actually originates from a non-Buddhist investment site called GuruFocus.com.

The author (Jonathan Herson) manages to draw more valid parallels with Buddhism than E. F. Schumaker if you ask me. (E. F. Schumaker claims to be talking about Buddhism but fails to quote a single Buddhist text or writer.) Quoting from the article:

I noticed that a lot of the characteristics that showed up in successful investors also showed up in Buddhist philosophy. By looking through the lens of Buddhism on stock investing, I was not only able to dramatically improve my investment results, but my life as well.

Isn't that interesting. Perhaps he was reading the Buddha's advice to Sigala among other things. Anyway, quoting from the article again:

Buddhism

• Rationality: Thinking clearly


• Empiricism: The Buddha found his way through his own direct experience


• Pragmatism: “Strictly speaking in Buddhism scriptural authority cannot outweigh an understanding based on reason and experience” – Dalai Lama


• Skepticism
  
  
  
  • The Buddha told his followers not to just believe him
  
  
  • They should test out his beliefs and see if they actually work
  
  

Successful Investing

• Rationality
  
  
  • “Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful” - Warren Buffett
  
  
  • Do not let your emotions get control of you-invest with reason and logic
  
  
• Empirical
  
  
  • Peter Lynch unlearning the theories he learned at Wharton, and relearning how to invest though his own direct experience
  
  
  • Most of the great investors (Buffett, Lynch, Soros) have borrowed their ideas from others, but before accepting them they tested them out. They learned how to invest mainly through their own direct experience
  
  
• Pragmatism: “Ben's Mr. Market allegory may seem out-of-date in today's investment world, in which most professionals and academicians talk of efficient markets, dynamic hedging and betas. Their interest in such matters is understandable, since techniques shrouded in mystery clearly have value to the purveyor of investment advice. After all, what witch doctor has ever achieved fame and fortune by simply advising 'Take two aspirins?” – Warren Buffett


• Skepticism: “Ships will sail around the world but the Flat Earth Society will flourish” – Warren Buffett

As you can see both Buddhism and successful investing have much in common.

My latticework really started to come together after I read the Kalama Sutra (a sermon given by the Buddha to his followers). After reading it, it seemed like I was reading a Berkshire Hathaway Annual Report!!! Whether he knows it or not, Mr. Buffett’s philosophy is very similar to that of a Buddhist monk (the bold wording comes from the Kalama Sutra):

Don't believe in anything simply because you heard.
“You have to think for yourself. It always amazes me how high- IQ people mindlessly imitate. I never get good ideas talking to other people.” – Warren Buffett

Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.
“After all, if you are in the shipping business, it’s helpful to have all your potential competitors be taught that the earth is flat,” comments Buffett about the current state of college financial training.

Do not believe in anything because it is spoken and rumored by many.
“ A public opinion poll is no substitute for thought” – Buffett

Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.
“If EMT were true I would be a bum on the street” – Buffett

Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
“Forecasts usually tell us more of the forecaster than of the forecast.” –Buffett

But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all then accept it and live up to it.
“ When proper temperament joins up with the proper intellectual framework, then you get rational behavior.” – Buffett

About the only thing objectionable that I see here is the comment about "be greedy when others are fearful." I hope what he really meant was "look for opportunity where/when others are fearful." The author seems to like Warren Buffett who is not exactly my hero or anything, but he is looked to as an authority on investing and thus seems like a valid expert to cite.

I think that the greatest most important thing that people miss about Buddhism is the real meaning of pañña which is often translated as "wisdom." The problem with this is that it seems that everyone thinks that they're wise, and that whatever fluffy, fuzzy, nice-sounding things they already believe are what pañña is referring to. The Dalai Lama loves to talk about "wisdom", but is that really a good translation?

Thanissaro Bhikkhu translates pañña as discernment. Access to Insight's glossary defines it as "Discernment; insight; wisdom; intelligence; common sense; ingenuity." I think that's an infinitely better definition that "wisdom."

If I understand the term pañña properly then I think it also refers to "seeing things as they really are." Now the most important things to see as they really are for Buddhists are the Four Noble Truths, but as a Buddhist I try to see absolutely everything as it really is, even if it's something comparatively trivial like economics or politics.