Buddhism and Government:Venerable K.Sri Dhammananda Maha Thera

The thrust of the Buddha Dhamma is not directed to the creation of new political institutions and establishing political arrangements. Basically, it seeks to approach the problems of society by reforming the individuals constituting that society and by suggesting some general principles through which the society can be guided towards greater humanism, improved welfare of its members, and more equitable sharing of resources.

The Buddha encouraged the spirit of consultation and the democratic process. This is shown within the community of the Order in which all members have the right to decide on matters of general concern. When a serious question arose demanding attention, the issues were put before the monks and discussed in a manner similar to the democratic parliamentary system used today. This self-governing procedure may come as a surprise to many to learn that in the assemblies of Buddhists in India 2,500 years and more ago are to be found the rudiments of the parliamentary practice of the present day. A special officer similar to 'Mr. Speaker' was appointed to preserve the dignity of the Parliamentary Chief Whip, was also appointed to see if the quorum was secured. Matters were put forward in the form of a motion which was open to discussion. In some cases it was done once, in others three times, thus anticipating the practice of Parliament in requiring that a bill be read a third time before it becomes law. If the discussion showed a difference of opinion, it was to be settled by the vote of the majority through balloting.

In the Kutadanta Sutta, the Buddha suggested economic development instead of force to reduce crime. The government should use the country's resources to improve the economic conditions of the country. It could embark on agricultural and rural development, provide financial support to entrepreneurs and business, provide adequate wages for workers to maintain a decent life with human dignity.

In the Jataka, the Buddha had given to rules for Good Government, known as 'Dasa Raja Dharma'. These ten rules can be applied even today by any government which wishes to rule the country peacefully. The rules are as follows:

1) be liberal and avoid selfishness,
2) maintain a high moral character,
3) be prepared to sacrifice one's own pleasure for the well-being of the subjects,4) be honest and maintain absolute integrity,
5) be kind and gentle,
6) lead a simple life for the subjects to emulate,
7) be free from hatred of any kind,
8) exercise non-violence,
9) practice patience, and
10) respect public opinion to promote peace and harmony.

Regarding the behavior of rulers, He further advised:

- A good ruler should act impartially and should not be biased and discriminate between one particular group of subjects against another.
- A good ruler should not harbor any form of hatred against any of his subjects.
- A good ruler should show no fear whatsoever in the enforcement of the law, if it is justifiable.
- A good ruler must possess a clear understanding of the law to be enforced. It should not be enforced just because the ruler has the authority to enforce the law. It must be done in a reasonable manner and with common sense. -- (Cakkavatti Sihananda Sutta)

 Sometimes the Buddha is said to be a social reformer. Among other things, He condemned the caste system, recognized the equality of people, spoke on the need to improve socio-economic conditions, recognized the importance of a more equitable distribution of wealth among the rich and the poor, raised the status of women, recommended the incorporation of humanism in government and administration, and taught that a society should not be run by greed but with consideration and compassion for the people. Despite all these, His contribution to mankind is much greater because He took off at a point which no other social reformer before or ever since had done, that is, by going to the deepest roots of human ill which are found in the human mind. It is only in the human mind that true reform can be effected. Reforms imposed by force upon the external world have a very short life because they have no roots. But those reforms which spring as a result of the transformation of man's inner consciousness remain rooted. While their branches spread outwards, they draw their nourishment from an unfailing source -- the subconscious imperatives of the life-stream itself. So reforms come about when men's minds have prepared the way for them, and they live as long as men revitalize them out of their own love of truth, justice and their fellow men.

End This Depression Now,Stimulate the Economy Today

Paul Krugman's new book"End This Depression Now" reviews the banking system that went wild,the dismantling of the 1930 laws that protected consumers against new banking crises,the big lie the right has filtered down to the citizenship on the crises and the way to reverse the destructive austerity conditions that has been imposed by the federal,state and local governments.

Bankers gone wild is his catch phrase for the financial instruments that led to the bursting of the financial,housing bubble and the collapse of the economy. As late as 2005,Alan Greenspan stated that complex financial instruments have contributed to the development of a far more flexible,efficient, and hence resilient financial system than the one that existed just a quarter century ago. The innovations Greenspan adored brought the financial system to the brink of collapse. Asset-backed securities, collateralized loan obligations and credit default swaps all contributed to the collapse by encouraging  reckless lending, slicing bad debt(with the help of debt rating companies),and insuring bad debt(AIG) without the money to pay for losses.The bailout cost $4.6 trillion.

Step by step, the rules and regulations that had been put in place in the 1930's to protect against a banking crises were dismantled and by 2008, the capital backing for banks were only a few percent of their assets and small losses could break them.Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 limited the amount of risk a bank could take.It was repealed by the Gramm-Leach-Blilely Act in 1999 .It repealed part of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, removing barriers in the market among banking companies, securities companies and insurance companies that prohibited any one institution from acting as any combination of an investment bank, a commercial bank, and an insurance company. With the passage of the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act, commercial banks, investment banks, securities firms, and insurance companies were allowed to consolidate. The legislation was signed into law by President Bill Clinton. Citicorp and Travelers merger joined investments with insurance to form Citigroup shortly after the bill was signed. Previously,the Monetary Control Act of 1980 ended the regulations preventing banks from paying interest on many kinds of deposits. Under Reagan, The Garn-St.Germain Act of 1982 relaxed restrictions on the kinds of loans banks could make and encouraged risk taking..survival of the most reckless ensued.There was no limits on interest rates or loans to customers that might not honor their promises.Banks financed their leading by borrowing from other banks. A "shadow banking" system developed that is bigger than the old-fashioned banking we knew before deregulation that was highly leveraged without regulation that could take even larger risks(Lehman Brothers).Money dominated the political system when all the deregulation began and continues to this day.

After the collapse,the right blamed the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 on the crises.This lie blamed the poor instead of the banks with their risk taking.The bubble was widespread and the biggest booms and busts were in the suburbs and exurbs rather than the inner-city owners. There was a similar housing crises in Europe with no Reinvestment Act. Commercial real estate on both continents defaulted. The risk taking was primarily done by private lenders. Subprime loans were made overwhelmingly by private firms that were not covered by the Community Reinvestment Act,nor supervised by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In fact, Fannie/Freddie were losing market share because private lenders would take on borrowers the government sponsored agencies wouldn't. Fannie and Freddie did buy subprime mortgages from loan originators but it was late in the game.

Krugman feels we have to fund state and local governments by $300 billion to bring back the half a million jobs that were lost and employ a total of 1.3 million state and local workers.The austerity measures hinder the recovery and diminishes consumer spending. There should be a restarting of all projects that were postponed or cancelled by state and federal governments. An increase in the safety net programs and unemployment insurance should also start as soon as possible.The Federal Reserve should let inflation grow modestly higher to 4% for the next five years and buy "unconventional" assets like long term bonds and private debts.The Fed could also keep interest rates on ten year bonds below 2.5% for five years while intervene on the Foreign Exchange Market to push down the value of the currency that would strengthen the export sector. He wants homeowners to have the chance to refinance their home debt to below 4% and sees the Home Affordable Refinance Program as too restrictive. The U.S should get tougher on China's manipulation of the currency and create incentives for business to upgrade their emission of greenhouse gases by announcing stricter targets.
  

The Reformation Will Come In The Twilight Of The Elites

The reformation of income inequality in the U.S. will come from the loving elites who will finally escape from their illusion of self and extend their transformed hands/hearts to the brothers and sisters of this broken land and the body of life will swim in this new sea of interdependence, with beautiful equality in every stroke. They will come down from the mountains to the the valleys where no longer will the impoverish seek refuge in cheap beer,drugs and food pantries.

In "Twilight of the Elites" by Chris Hayes,the reformation will come in the redistribution of wealth from the top ten percent income earners who will accept tax rate increases(was 70% under Carter,now 35% and falling) but will also increase the minimum wage by 50% and pension payouts(Social Security).The legislatures will give cash subsidies to the lower 10% income earners as long as parents send their kids to school and go for regular checkups at free clinics throughout our country.According to Hayes this will stimulate the economy and bring a 11% income increase to the top 10% and an additional 72% increase to the lower 10%.

Hayes was really writing about Brazil's statistics that was a reality from 2003 to 2008 due to the Lula government that made this transformation possible.The Bolsa Familia progressive tax did change the social outcomes for many of it's citizens by being rational and having common sense compassion, so lacking in our own country today.Every Keynesian approach to our various recessions have been successful because spending is always greater for the poor because they need every cent to survive and maintain their meager standard of living. By placing money in the hands of the poor and the upper lower class, it generates demand that leads to increase profits and expansion for companies. The rich continue to increase their earnings while the lower classes bring stability to their lives and the health of the country. From 1947 to 1979, our employment statistics show that 34% of the workforce were in unions. Unions, like the increase in the minimum wage,  influences rates of pay in all sectors of the workforce. During that time period(Great Compression), family income grew by 20% for the poorest income earners. As we know today, 10% of the top income earners captured all of the income gains while the bottom 90% declined.Wages,benefits and work opportunities have been diminished considerably since 1979. Government spending creates an environment of consumption and demand that increases incomes of businesses that will promote expansion and the creation of more quality jobs with incomes to spend on more goods and services.Austerity slows this process down and  hinders the expansion of business because the aggregate demand declines and incomes are depressed.

In our present political environment,Hayes feels the only hope for a transformation of this kind will come if the left(Wall St.insurrectionists) and the right(Tea Party) come together against the special interests that distort the priorities of our citizens and control our politics with money and influence.Both groups united against the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq because they cost too much in money and lives. If our economy declines more and the upper middle class starts to really feel the effects through the eyes of their children ,with denied access to appropriate work with their educational background , political combat might be waged at the polling stations and in the halls of congress. Selfishness will lose in the end because Americans want equal opportunity and outcomes.

Alvin Lee,Charles Mingus and the Twilight of the Elites

I'm listening to Charles Mingus"Blues and Roots" playing Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting and thinking about income inequality,Vermont Castings wood stoves and the blues of Alvin Lee. If I followed my Buddhist teachings more closely,I would be sitting silently on my red sofa watching my breath and practicing insight meditation(which I've done for 15 months months) and appreciate the snow that falls from heaven.I'm really doing all of the above and starting my insurrectionist playlist because that is where it's at today and I'm flowing with, instead of restricting,my reality in any way. I'm very open, free and in a zone like Amare carrying the Knicks. I wish the elites that made important decisions for the untouchables(lower 90% income level) were open and engulfed in empathy, awareness and compassion but they are socially vertical distant and blinded like Stevie Wonder at the Met.

Chris Hayes in his book "Twilight of the Elites" writes a lot about social vertical distance and the dire effects on the poor in our country. I saw it firsthand, in my own educational system, where administrators were too distant from the students and relied on secondhand information(from other administrators) to make decisions that were injurious to both the staff and students.They did so because they thought they were smarter than the average teacher or parent who interacted with the students on a daily basis.This viewpoint of being "smarter" than non-elites,according to Hayes, is a key component in the meritocratic perspective that has come to dominate the upper class in America today.Hayes writes about this perspective in his" Iron Law of Meritocracy" that states that eventually the inequality produced by the meritocratic system will grow large enough to subvert the mechanisms of mobility.Unequal outcomes(47% don't have to pay Fed. taxes due to low income levels) make equal opportunities impossible. The principle of difference will come to overwhelm the principle of mobility(only 6% of lowest quintile made it to the top quintile). Those who are able to climb up the ladder will find ways to pull it up after them,or to selectively lower it down(admission policies) to allow their friends,allies and kin to scramble up. Whoever says meritocracy say oligarchy( even 60% of our representatives are millionaires).Germany is 1.5 times more mobile,Canada 2.5,Denmark 3 times more mobile than the U.S and it has 48.2% total tax rate of GNP( the U.S has a 24.8 rate)

Between 1979-2007, 88% of the entire economy's income gains went to the top 1%. The top .01% had a nine-fold increase in income from $4 million to $35 million. 400 of our richest taxpayers had an average income more than ten thousand times the average income of the bottom 90% of the taxpayers.The top 10% captured all the income gains while the bottom 90% declined.

One of the eight-fold pathway in Buddhism is right viewpoint.This viewpoint has others(body of life as equals) as the focus of our actions and decisions.If suffering is occurring,it is our obligation to help and alleviate it.This is the focus of every religion or humanistic perspective man has developed.Hayes has proposed that we listen to Mingus and move toward Wednesday Night Prayer Meetings in the halls our our elite institutions that are out of touch with the misery income inequality has created.Isolation,segregation and continuous self concern rewards nobody in the end.

More from this book soon.

Insurrection on High Street

I just completed reading "Twilight of the Elites" by Chris Hayes,an insurrectionist, who stands up to  institutional elites like a doe protecting a fawn from a coyote.He starts the book by reviewing America's lack of trust in our institutions.Twelve percent trust Congress,twenty-five percent for the banks and corporations,thirty-one percent for news media were some examples that were provided to illustrate the crisis in authority.The country's median income fell 7% from 1990 to 2010 while CEO's  incomes as a ratio are 185 times larger than the average worker(was 25 times larger in the 70's).He states that institutionalists,our meritocratic elites, live in fear of a society without central responsibilities of authority,one that could collapse into mob rule (the majority of Americans without advanced degrees from elite education institutes)at any time.Meritocracy,according to Hayes, has accelerated extreme economic inequality and lead to corruption and malfeasance in MLB, Enron, Iraq, Great Depression of 2008 and in many other institutions.Meritocracy has replaced the WASP establishment and has been trying to equalize opportunity, in theory, but has no compassion or expectation for the equality of economic outcomes that is the cornerstone of an enlightened society(71% of  American families combined income is less than $50,000).

Hayes went to Hunter H.S in Manhattan which is an elite public school that has an entrance exam in the seventh grade for anyone in NYC to gain admission.He claims that this merit admission policy is flawed because there is no such thing as a level playing field(equal opportunity).Since 1995, the school's Black and Latino population has declined considerably over the past fourteen years(12% to  3%  for Black students and 6% to 3% for Latino students). Currently,the Black population in NYC is 25% and the Latino population is 27.5%. Moreover, income levels of parents play a tremendous part in the success of students applying to Hunter.It also is a great predictor of SAT scores.High income households can pay for elite academies that prepare for the Hunter test($2,550 for fourteen weekends or $90/hr for one on one tutoring).This data is contrasted by the fact that 75% of the NYC students qualify for free or reduced lunch.

Today,America's primary and secondary educational systems have been used to expiate the sins of our society. Institutionalists,as a whole, have ignored economic outcomes and believe that if only we could improve our educational systems,our society would once again return to economic greatness.Hayes argues that even the children of the  upper middle class,with degrees from the world's finest colleges, are having trouble finding jobs in their field of study.He states that elite universities and Wall St. have fused into a sort of educational industrial complex where 40% of the students from Harvard and Princeton seek and find their leadership roles in the growing world of finance.

More to come from this book.

Wes Montgomery - Round Midnight

Awareness

 The phrase"Be Here Now" was a book I read in 1971 by Ram Dass who left Harvard(friend of Tim Leary) to study and live in India.I took from it some elements that has shaped my thinking but until yesterday didn't fully understand the significance of that simple statement."Be Here Now" simple means to be aware of the present without letting your mind wander to thoughts that are created by you.Stay with what you experience ...or as much as you can without reverting to old habits.Our thoughts are created by our mind that tells(fabricates) stories about who we are and what we want.We often want a lot of things and the ego part of the mind wants it all without any pain.It discriminates all the time.It takes us down avenues that is secure and pleasurable,avoiding anything that is designated by the mind as unpleasant.We avoid half our present experiences because they have a negative designation.Ram Dass and Ajahn Sumedho(The Sound of Silence) and every book I've read on Buddhism wants us to accept our experiences without movement to the pleasant or unpleasant.In their psychology,we are letting our egos dictate and limit our joy by having duality in our thinking.Accepting the present "as it is",without designating and identifying,embraces all of life with both extremes represented and honored.

Awareness of the present is a difficult task to follow for someone who has let the mind wander and seek pleasure at every turn.One has to practice it as if they are practicing foul shots.You get better at it if you put the time in.By being aware,one can be present for others and listen to them more closely.Listening to another and putting them first before yourself reinforces awareness because your focus(mindfulness) is off your own thoughts and desires which deflates the ego and brings an openness to all experience without aversion.From practicing awareness, one fully accepts,dispassionately, all experience as joyful because it is part of nature and admired as it appears to us. Discernment of experiences provides the foundation for wisdom that comes from being aware in each moment and reacting with metta(loving-kindness) whenever it calls.The first noble truth in Buddhism is all life is suffering(stress,anxiety,dissatisfaction).Awareness interferes in that process because you are no longer creating suffering by listening to your thoughts that has become dualistic and lives in the extremes of pleasure and aversion.