Dharma Consumerist
lobster
Crusty Veteran
Living as a consumerist we often gain wisdom, understanding and accumulate beneficial attributes. A sort of patchwork dharma. However the way of dharma often entails leaving such attachments. Making breakthroughs that leave behind poor little me and my drama, life and dukkha. In other words the circumstances of existence are neither here nor there, no matter their apparent appearance. The real qualities are in some senses subtle and dependent on dissolving the attachments, rather than accumulating.
We do not have to leave our impoverishment or riches, our practices or norms, they after all are just the wood we chop and the water we carry. You have probably read that or similar. I have found it to be true, how about you?
http://www.buddhistgeeks.com/2010/03/being-ordinary/
Comments
But ultimately, the direction is to save all beings and it is in the mainstream society that beings need the most saving. I think the awesomeness of Western Buddhism is in that it seeks to integrate what used to be exclusively Monastic practices in Asia into the hustle and bustle of modern life. To be successful it needs to adapt and evolve greatly. It is a great experiment with an uncertain outcome and I am grateful to somehow be a part of it.
I always look for the special offers in Tescos, as I am a financial minimalist. I never buy on impulse in supermarkets, despite the clever placement of products designed to ensnare the unwary shopper in moments of craving.
"Every little helps" as they say.
I feel you are right @shadowleaver both of the need to simplify our hurly burly lives, partly through retreats or perhaps only the 'mini retreat' of formal practice. We can practice mindfulness in relatively simple single effort activity slowed down in practices such as:
is relatively easy. Good places to start.
To pet a purring cat (I still mis her).
I consume a lot, do retail therapy, splurge... name any financially-related volitional kammic action and, yes, I do it.
But I also give a lot.
Keeps the balance right.
@Lobster
Dharma consumerism for a Buddhist simply points out the path towards sufferings cessation.
The manifestation of 4 NT & 8FP.
The real consumption offered is just of the consumer.
Special offers. Must be an ego sale.
I iz melting
. . . and now back to the market . . .
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/robert-reich-in-our-horrifying-future-very-few-people-will-have-work-or-make-money/
Found this an interesting read, related to the topic of consumerism. It used to be that consumers drove the economy. But in today's world, that is less and less the truth. Consumers make a handful of people rich, and everyone else gets next to nothing.
I'm not entirely sure this is a bad thing, but people better start brushing up on their gardening, food storage, water gathering and so on. My son tells me often that in the not too distant future, robots will do virtually every job and only for a while will people hold the jobs of building and programming the robots. Skynet is coming! Look out for Ahnold!
"I'll be back"....
I consume -a lot- of rare books from antique book sellers all over the UK and USA; crafts and handmade malas and Buddhist talismans from sellers on Etsy or Nepal or India, who tend to be mostly artisans; essential oils from organic shops; organic food from local farmers...
I'm not sure how the process would narrow down to make only a handful of people rich.
I see several individuals living on my purchases and making a living thanks to people who buy.
These sellers are not the kind of people who drive back home in a Ferrari when they close their shop.
@DhammaDragon I feel the ultra spiritual 'lifestyle' can be bought into. Generally a healthy direction . . .
As as a trainee renunciate I like to be generous . . . I wonder if you can buy it
http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/essays/buddhism-on-wealth-and-poverty
My 'buy a tin of sardines for a destitute cructacean' funding is going well . . . mostly I eat the donations
Have to check fabulous special offers of the best selling spiritual teachers.
Just to make sure I'm not making myself misunderstood, let's get this clear: I am a normal middle-class housewife who, whenever I have to open my wallet, I try to buy as many organic products as my budget allows and lead as healthy a lifestyle as I can possibly manage.
And have, well, a passion -or vice, my husband would say- for antique Dharma books.
It's not as if I were the ultimate Paris Hilton gone organic and new age, who conmutes between Monaco and Marbella splurging in a wealthy healthy lifestyle when she's done stripping Hermès and Louis Vuitton.
...I wish....!
(J/K)
@dhammadragon I think it's pretty clear I was not talking about any one person. But about what drives the major portion of our economy as a country (mostly the US since that is where I am). When you look at major economic indicators they are not talking about individual artisans in Nepal. They are talking about what keeps our economy humming, which is mostly large corporations, contractors, service and retail, and so on. That is the focus of the US economy for the most part. And in that case, consumers who feel the need to run out for the cheapest bargain on the 5 gallon of pickles that they don't even need, are making the pickle people and the warehouse company CEO quite rich in the process. That is what I was talking about. Versus the economy that was similar but quite different, say, 60 years ago when it was mostly mom and pop shops that made the country go round. Not gigantic, tax dodging corporations who are beholden to shareholders and screw over their employees and communities to make a small handful of people rich while the rest barely scrape by. That's what I meant when I said consumerism has changed.
Just in our small town, we had 3 great pharmacies. Then ShopKo moved in, and dropped prices too low for the locally owned ones to survive. They closed, and then ShopKo raised the prices to more than what the local places used to cost. They are still that way, 20 years later. The only game in town. They charge $30 for a manual hand-turned can opener, and then put it on sale for 50% off to make it look like a deal because they know most people can't afford (or the elderly are unable) to drive the 50 miles to a bigger town to get the item for cheaper so they either pay twice as much or go without. And it played out across the country the past decades. It's like that in most smaller towns now.
I think most of us can do better. Some people can't, their dollars have to stretch too far. But I also think that the majority of people who have the opportunity to be educated, informed consumers just don't care. Not all of them. But most. In too much of a hurry to get the brand new gadget to take the time to think where it comes from and at what cost, and then shake their heads in disbelief when horrible labor practices come to light, yet they still pretend they have no part in it.
The point I was trying to make is that I consume a lot but mostly among artisans and small organic farmers and producers, whenever possible.
I'll only feed the leviathan supermarkets and big corporations when my budget is in the last throes of the month and I have little money left.
I don't really see what needs to be added to my comment to make it more clear than it is.
Do I really need to belabour my point?
Do I look like a Dharma capitalist or something?
I did not say anything against anyone.
If someone got killed it wasn't me this time...
Indeed. I tend towards voluntary simplicity.
In my local market a shop with many Buddhas has opened. Fortunately it is always closed. Even if open, I prefer to spend on my Daily Bread
Forgive me Buddha for I have consumed/sinned/strayed from the path of mindfulness ...
Light-hearted thread begun by @lobster... @karasti, let's not get too deep on this. After all, it's only in the philosophy sub-forum, and I for one never dig too deep for fear of disturbing the cobwebs and crawly-bakers...
ease up guys, it's just chatting, after all...
You seem to be rather hooked on Tara's body, @lobster, or is it that devilish yoga practice messing up your second chakra again??
I likes my greens . . .
Living on a small island in the Atlantic has its advantages- we have to make our own bread and most meals are cooked from fresh, ready meals etc are few and far between here. We live in the country, well semi desert I suppose, and there are no big commercial centers nearby. Having been forced, in a way, to reduce consumerism, we both ( the wife and I) find that our lives are more open and real as we are not driven to spend. Moreover, we seem to have lost the desire for things. Contentment sprouts.
I tend to be quite a heavy consumer, also thinking that only expensive things deliver good results. The people I hang out with also have huge impact on me. But older me teaches me that all those exciting new stuffs can get quite boring after a while.
Of course, I think we still need to spend money on essentials like foods and bills. Absolute minimum limit, we can possibly get to, sounds like a way to go for us on the spiritual path.
I'm pretty much a minimalist and always have been. Influences? Thoreau's Walden (I was one of the weird kids who loved the book in high school). Coming of age in the '70s amid the post Vietnam back to the land ethos. Dropping out of college and living well on not much in an old 8x35 ft (2.4x10.7 m) trailer for 3 years. There is really nothing all that unusual about my current lifestyle, it is just not driven by ego, I guess. I have what I want, which is not all that much, not what the culture and Madison Avenue say I should want. I pass no moral judgement on consumers, but living in the US, which may well be the most consumption oriented society on earth, it is easy to see how much suffering many people inadvertently create for themselves and others by buying into the consumer culture.
I consume very little, partly it's being a Buddhist and partly it's being a skin-flint.
@DhammaDragon I only addressed you because you quoted me above and said "I'm not sure how the process would narrow down to make only a handful of people rich.
I see several individuals living on my purchases and making a living thanks to people who buy.
These sellers are not the kind of people who drive back home in a Ferrari when they close their shop."
I realize that that applies to your choices in how you spend your money, and I think that's great. I'm just saying that that isn't how the majority of the world works, especially in the US, and that it results in a handful of people at the top getting filthy rich on the backs of those who work for them and the rest of society.
Anyone?
Thanks guys for all your comments.
My feeling is that just as meditation is a simplifying or acceptance of our dialogue mind so too can we simplify our life style if we choose. In a sense less gives us more space. A space rich in reminders of the spiritual/dharmic life I feel is often helpful ...