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An Empowering Merit-based Buddhist Economy – the Asoke Model in Thailand1

Bong C.L.

Malaysia

This paper presents observations on a model of a vibrant merit-based Buddhist economy

generated through right livelihood as practised by the Asoke Buddhist community of

Thailand. The Asoke community was founded by Venerable Bodhiraksa more than thirty

years ago. It now has at least nine well-established major centres and many smaller

communities spread throughout Thailand. Its rapid yet sustainable growth as a socio-

economically successful independent and upright community that serves humanity, nurtures

and replenishes rather than selfishly exploits man, resources and nature as seen in

traditional economy is based on their advocacy and practice of a return to Buddhist way of

life, the purpose and goal of which is spiritual liberation. This contrasts sharply with what is

commonly occurring now, in which the pursuit or goal of life is the mindless accumulation of

material wealth as top priority above everything else, and in the process man destroys the

environment and loses the meaning and direction of life so that a society of social ills

prevails and dominates, where greed feeds on more greed, where aversion burns ever so

strongly, and delusions are so blinding. Countries are invaded, hundreds of thousands of

lives can be sacrificed, millions more lives put in misery, nature and environment mercilessly

destroyed just because some deluding and greedy groups of people want control of certain

resources. Lately one sees financial crisis hitting one country after another, one region after

another. Obviously there is something fundamentally wrong that drives this world and its

economy. This ‘something’ can be traced to the three poisons identified in Buddhist

teaching, greed (lobha), aversion (dosa) and delusion (moha). The endless and mindless

pursuit and accumulation of material wealth without giving back is not only unsustainable

but destructive to mind and body.

A return to the Buddhist way of life, the goal of which is attainment of liberation as the

priority is one way of treating this ill world. An economy that is built based on Buddhist

teachings and values can thrive sustainably for the well-being of humanity, nature and

environment and where win-win situation prevails for everyone and everything else. The

Asoke model of merit-based economy that supports the primary goal of spiritual pursuit of

attaining liberation from saṁsāra shows that such economy is workable and achievable. The

Srisa Asoke model as an example of this merit-based Buddhist economy is presented here.

Through their practice of right livelihood, abundance is created. Through generosity of

sharing this abundance without seeking returns, merits are accumulated in support of their

pursuit of spiritual life. From their generosity of sharing their produce and technological

innovations freely, people and communities benefit and are empowered to achieve financial

independence and contribute further to expand the size and influence of an economy built

on wholesomeness of hearts and goodwill. Through rippling effect of this practice, a special

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This paper is adapted from the original presented by the author at the World Buddhist Fellowship

forum, held from 22-15 December, 2011 at Taipei, Taiwan.

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niche market for products and services produced based on wholesome spirit (ethics),

generosity and appreciation of humanity and environment has been created and is gradually

and surely expanding.

The Asoke community consists of monks and nuns as the core of the community and the

householders or lay people. All members, monastic or lay contribute to the building of the

community. While the monastic core provides spiritual leadership and guidance, capable

members of the lay community are often elected leaders to provide collective leadership on

the planning, building and developing the community. Their primary goal and purpose of life

is attaining liberation from saṁsāra, all other activities are secondary in support of this effort

towards attaining this goal. The lay members are holders of five or eight precepts. They

practice right livelihood.

Through their practice of right livelihood guided by the precepts they undertake and the

Dharma learned and put into practice in daily life, they create a merit-based economy where

abundance is produced, prosperity grows and spiritual life is cultivated and enriched. The

Asoke people adopt a simple, relatively austere lifestyle that trains in reducing and curbing

greed, aversion and delusion; that denounces consumerism and abhors wastages of

resources; that promotes and celebrates Buddhist values such as generosity, diligence and

self-reliance, that cultivates and nurtures Brahmavihara in community living and

development. For community unity and development, they are guided by the six principles

of harmony taught by the Buddha:

1. The first is Mettākāyakamma: to be amiable in deed, willing to work in any kind of

business of the community politely with respect for one other, openly and in private.

2. The second is Mettāvacīkamma: to be amiable in word, to speak kind words, advise

with good intention, politely with respect for one other, openly and in private.

3. The third is Mettāmanokamma: to be amiable in thought, well-wishes, think good and

positive thoughts of others, be kind and greet one another with smiles, openly and in

private.

4. The fourth is Sādhāraṇabhogī: to share any lawful gains with virtuous fellows, openly

and in private.

5. The fifth virtue is Sīlasāmaññatā: to practice Buddhist’s precepts as virtuous ones do,

to keep without blemish the rules of conduct along with one’s fellows, openly and in

private.

6. The sixth virtue is Diṭṭhisāmaññatā: to be endowed with the right views to practice

along with others on the path to liberation, to end sufferings and to solve problems,

openly and in private.

A family, a commercial company, a private or public corporation can be run using these

principles too to the benefits of all members. Such goodwill, friendliness, transparency and

‘profit-sharing’ would make a happier family or corporation, reduce and keep out

interpersonal conflicts and sense of injustice, and engender high motivation to work harder

for higher productivity.

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In denouncing consumerism, they not only train in a spiritual life of renouncing pursuit of

unnecessary sense pleasures but also cultivate the wisdom of non-greed. In worldly

material and monetary terms, they do not waste their wealth/money on non-productive

sense/material pursuits/possessions. In this way, they therefore reject conventional

consumerist lifestyle and do not participate in the conventional economy or market that not

only exploits human weaknesses for material gains but which is also adverse to the pursuit

of spiritual cultivation. Here, there is accumulation in at least two aspects of one’s personal

life, accumulation of merits in pursuing right living that supports spiritual cultivation

(particularly of non-greed) and accumulation of material wealth by not wasting what one

has gained from right living. Extending further, in rejecting consumerism, they reduce

unnecessary wastage of funds, energy and resources which can be and are diverted for

other more useful purposes.

They adopt and practice simplicity of life style in their daily needs and also in their attires,

relatively austere but fully adequate and not lacking in any sense. They are vegetarians,

taking one meal a day as practiced in the olden times, in part to keep the precept of

refraining from killing, and in part to reduce the amount of time spent on preparing and

taking meals. They give up footwear where it is unnecessary. In not using footwear, the

community has to keep their living space and ground clean and free of harmful debris and

materials. They advocate and achieve independence or self-reliance through diligence and

keeping with their motto on ‘use what we produce; produce what we need’. They grow

their own foods, rice, mushroom, vegetables, fruits, bamboo shoot, herbs and spices. They

maintain a herbal garden to produce local herbs for health and traditional medicines. They

operate a small clinic promoting traditional practices (massage; chiropractics). They

establish and maintain areas of renewable resources such as forests of various local species

of timber trees and bamboos for housing materials and fuels (bamboo for making charcoal).

Recognising the importance of green resources in providing their needs and others’ needs in

the future, they have long embarked on conserving resources and establishing germplasm

gardens.

The Asoke community recognised that ‘conventional commercial agricultural practices’ are

high in chemical inputs which eventually lead to the degradation of the soil, making it unfit

for growing food crops. They adopt organic farming and practices which recondition and

enrich the soil organically. They adopt and practice organic farming for their own health

and for the health of the environment and population in general. The Asoke model

recognises the importance of nature and its resources and gives priority to taking care of

nature so that nature can take care of the beings that it supports.

They design and fabricate their own farm machineries. They produce organic fertilizers for

their own needs and distribution to surrounding farmers. Now they have started working on

producing biogas. They also act as agents or conservators of local and traditional arts and

crafts and practices. They support a small local cottage industry of weaving cloth by

traditional method and teach others the skills. They start and operate primary and

secondary schools of their own to give children a comprehensive education on theory and

practice of not only conventional subjects of arts and science but more importantly on right

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living based on Buddhist values such as ethics, diligence, independence or self-reliance,

contributions to others and community living, and the overriding importance of spiritual

pursuit. While students learn the theories of arts and sciences, Buddhist ethics and

teachings and apply what they learn in determining and working on the community’s needs

and resolving the community’s problems at various work stations assigned, they contribute

to the community’s growth and development. Thus built into their education system is the

process of building up the capability, confidence and a fierce spirit of independence of the

students in solving problems constructively. Through opportunities and support given to

them by their community’s seniors or teachers, the students feel and are empowered to

contribute as useful members to their community’s growth and welfare.

The Asoke people focus not only on developing themselves or their own community. They

are open to anyone interested in what they do and in learning from them. They conduct

farmer training camps. They conduct training in making organic fertilizers. They conduct

training in fabricating machineries. They conduct detoxification and other traditional health

programs. They conduct courses in making organic shampoo. They offer free board and

education to children who attend their schools. These courses are mostly residential. The

Asoke community provides lodging and foods to the trainees without charging or expecting

anything in return. Such transfer of knowledge and technology is given with goodwill to

enable the trainees to learn and acquire useful living skills to empower them to make an

independent living based on right livelihood. In so doing, they contribute to training local

workforce to serve the local community’s needs. This also contributes to giving the people a

choice to work on their own as entrepreneurs and to move away from seeking employment

in large or transnational companies which tend to be more exploitative than nurturing of

human potential. Through their transfer of technology and skills, the Asoke community helps

develop human potential and empower them to seek independent means of living based on

right livelihood.

Being a resourceful community, the Asoke people also share their resources with the local

population. They share the surplus of their products by giving them away or selling them at

below or at cost and at a small profit that is clearly indicated in the label of the product.

They also share the raw materials with the smaller farmers in surrounding villages. Being a

bigger operator, the Asoke community buys raw materials in bulks at cheaper prices.

Surrounding farmers who need these materials could source them from the Asoke store at

lower cost. To lower the cost further, the local farmer-buyers are encouraged to package

the raw materials themselves and transport them away. In various small ways, local farmers

are taught how to lower their cost of production. These services are provided free.

Through sheer honest hard work and determination to live by BuddhaDhamma, humility,

respect, a sense of sharing and fairness to oneself, others and nature, the Asoke people

produce more than their needs and conserve and protect resources. Through simplification

of wants and needs (austerity), the practice of diligence in producing what the community

needs, the practice of frugality in consumption to generate surplus for the community; the

practice of generosity in distributing the surplus to the surrounding communities and public

either by giving away, or selling the products at or below cost or at the lowest profit possible,

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a Buddhist merit-based economy is being established. The purpose here is to generate

merits by sharing, a spiritual aspect of living rather than simply making profit for oneself.

The community is highly innovative in developing the right technology that makes use of

local resources to produce products the community needs. These products include organic

produce (rice, mushroom, fruits) and toiletries (soap, shampoo), and organic fertilizers.

Their organic products have become quite well-known and they have their own niche

markets, markets that sell ‘nature’, ‘health’ and ‘right living’ to ethically and environmentally

conscious customers. True to their principle of right living and Buddhist practice of merit-

economy, the Asoke community does not impose ‘monetary premiums’ in their products,

they distribute and share their products as an act of generosity, thus either giving them

away for free or selling it at the lowest price possible (below or at or slightly higher than the

cost of production). They share the technology they developed freely with whoever wants

to make use of it. The community even gives away the design of the agricultural

machineries or the formulae of their organic shampoo to whoever wish to have them. They

do not collect any fees or commissions. They train farmers how to make organic fertilizers,

and entrepreneurs on how to make organic shampoo or particular machineries they design,

fabricate and use. They transfer the technology and train whoever want to learn without

charging them any fees. The Asoke community also operates a large supply store where

merhandises are sold at prices way lower than those out in the conventional markets. The

store also provides spaces for local home industries to sell their products. Thus the Asoke

through their free transfer of technology and skills, and in facilitating the marketing of home

products of the local small entrepreneurs and cottage industries empowers the local

communities in becoming active agents of economic growth of their communities.

Ecologically, the Asoke community also establishes gardens of green resources such as

conservation of local plants, trees and herbs, timber forests, bamboo groves of different

species for food and fuel (making charcoal), and fruit orchards. They are also looking into

resources and technology for generation of biofuel. Now they are producing biogas. Srisa

Asoke community started with a few individuals who gave up their professional lives to

restart living the Buddhist life and reclaiming the purpose of this human life, that of attaining

the goal of liberation from samsara with all other activities as supporting the effort towards

this end. Along the way, they work and build up merits to support this effort. In so doing

they start a self-sufficient and self-reliant economy that extends beyond their immediate

community to benefit and empower the other communities or non-Asoke people to do the

same. The Asoke community has shown that there is no need to be selfish to serve self-

interests to make profits that benefit only a few individuals. Instead of selfishly patenting

their innovations, they share their innovations freely to benefit not only the entrepreneurs

who use their innovative designs at no cost, their products do not have the added licensing

cost and can be priced lower to benefit the consumers of the products.

By comparison to conventional commercial or business practices which are impersonal and

profit-oriented if not blatantly mercenary or profiteering, all products and services would

never be ‘free’ and distributed at or below cost or at a profit clearly and honestly indicated.

Generally the profits would be more than 5% at each point. For example, the design of a

farm machinery would be patented, training fee would be charged for building and

operating the machine, licensing fee would be charged for anyone using the design to

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manufacture the machinery, a commission would be charged for each unit sold. All these

fees and charges add up and are passed onto the customers, the farmers’ products are sold

at prices that are inflated with all those fees and charges. The conventional economy thus

just grows and expands and inflates like that – just the multiplication of dollar bills. This is

‘accepted as economic or business growth’. Human beings are just parts or components of

this huge wheel called ‘economy’. The other parts are the natural resources and the

environment which are continuously exploited and transformed into more and more dollar

bills whose values seem to keep depreciating. Human beings are driven harder to make

more of these dollar bills to spend on things that they may or may not need, and along the

way, more sufferings are generated and the sea of samsara becomes overwhelming. This

money-based economy is just sheer wrong.

The ethically built humanity-based Asoke Buddhist model provides an alternative economy

that is workable not only in theory but has been shown to be practical and effective in

generating growth, materially and spiritually. It is also good for the world and conducive to

peace because it works on a win-win situation for man and nature everywhere. The Asoke

economic growth model shows that one does not have to be selfish and self-serving in every

way in order to grow and prosper. In fact the Asoke economic model demonstrates that

wisdom and compassion when practiced correctly are selflessly productive and that altruism

works to the benefit of mankind, oneself and others and nature. Buddhist teachings can be

applied correctly and when practiced rightly builds a conflict-free world where there is

sufficiency and security for one and all, including this precious nature and the environment.

We should be brave enough not to be boxed in (and incapacitated) by the economic theories

of big names or Nobel prize winners if the current world economic/political situation is any

indication of the workability of their economic/political theories. There are movers and

shakers at ground level, like the Asoke people, who demonstrate that humanity-centred and

nature-friendly way of economic/human growth model works, that altruism works, that we

don’t have to rob James to pay Joe, that compassion, wisdom and sharing are actually some

of the keys to conflict-free growth of the economy, of the world.