Business to the Buddha

Search results for: “interdependent co-arising”

  • Interdependent co-arising in long run

    Last week I was in the US. I spoke with a friend of mine he is a professor in a college in USA. We discussed many things, what got our attention was the dependence of many moving parts of our society such that everything impacts everything else. This is nothing but interdependent co-arising.

    Related blogs –

    Vaccination and interdependence (pulse polio elimination initiate of Govt of India)
    Societal impact
    Interdependent co-arising a farmers example
    Entrepreneurship
    All interdependent co-arising related blogs

    We discussed the school system of USA, how the impact of 2008 great recession is going to impact funding of schools in coming time. The story is like this – during the collapse of late 2007 early 2008, birth rate in USA reduced. This is researched and published fact refer here “…the college-going population will drop by 15 percent between 2025 and 2029 and continue to decline by another percentage point or two thereafter…”. The researcher states birthrate as the factor, quote from the same source “…When the financial crisis hit in 2008, young people viewed that economic uncertainty as a cause for reducing fertility,” said Grawe. “The number of kids born from 2008 to 2011 fell precipitously. Fast forward 18 years to 2026 and we see that there are fewer kids reaching college-going age…”

    After 17 years when expected students those who could go to college have reduced this is impacting overall finances and the operations of schools. Look at the impact, how one things affects other. This is interdependent co-arising. What goes around comes around, impact on education may cause other impacts example – job market, sustainability of businesses and resulting in another possible economic crisis – it is a loop.

    Abstraction of this scenario

    You must have heard – if a butterfly flutters its wings in Amazon forest, it may cause a hurricane in Japan. We at times miss the power of small things and ignore them. This understanding of sensitivity of impact of one thing on a larger scale makes a person compassionate. Currently the world needs compassion more than the mad rush to reach somewhere. In the long term, impacts are what are left behind not the individual goals we kept in our mind.

    Image source – NeedPix

  • Entrepreneurship and interdependent co-arising

    Over time, I have been analyzing socialism and capitalism from the lense of spiritual professional. Mostly, people think combination of words “spiritual” and “professional” sound as an oxymoron. No it is not. A spiritual person can be more thoughtful, it is not necessary that a spiritual approach only suits in Himalayas. On a lighter note – I do not intend to state that I am thoughtful. My looking at socialism and capitalism has also come from practically looking at people be it Aarti Amma or Shaku bai.

    • Business-to-the-Buddha

    Well, slowly I have made a centrist approach, though leaning right. At least capitalism gives everyone an opportunity to become rich, understand the futility of being ultra rich and become a philanthropist. We can argue till cows come home about the eyewash of this philanthropy in many cases. There are many of these new gen millionaires in India, they are doing their bit of philanthropy in a different manner. They are helping other startups with funding or advice.

    In last more than a decade, India probably has seen many young, competitive, hungry for more and problem solver millionaire. The list is long from Bansals of Flipkart, Ritesh Agarwal of Oyo, Vijay Sharma of PayTm, Byju Raveendran of Byju’s to others. The best part is, the list is very long. This kind of opportunity was less likely in India before 1990’s. This new entrepreneurial energy and problem solving for Indian and global context lets me lean to the right.

    If we take examples of Sarla or Kishore, there is surely a better way of making everyone work towards becoming self dependent. This opportunity is better offered by capitalism – as much good as you can make good for yourself and society you can be better off and in return you are helping the society too. In a way capitalism gives you an opportunity to be more practical in implementing interdependent co-arising. If you are solving a pressing problem you will get buyers, you make buyers life easy, they will pay you.

    Now, I see entrepreneurship also from an spiritual perspective. I believe that there will be someway and someone who will help Aarti Amma and Shaku Bai to grow beyond their limited means. Though when I look at socialism and capitalism I still emphasis, socialistic approach is needed in some cases such as healthcare, education and food safety. Here too a Public Private Partnership is fine. At one time or the other interdependent co-arising will work for Aarti Amma and Shaku Bai too with some entrepreneur helping them and make a financially viable business solution.

  • Societal impact of Interdependent Co-arising

    Interdependent co-arising is a very fascinating concept of Buddhism. I could relate to it deeply, in fact inception of this blog website lies in that. We are “social animals” and thus interdependent co-arising is no foreign concept to us. However, off late many of us have become too greedy, self-centric and indifferent to others that we forget we are social animal, we create hierarchy in society itself or we create a circle of community, economic strata or any other such characteristic be it race, religion or for that matter line of thoughts (left vs right) etc.

    On 31st May, we concluded a Bal Chetna shivir. It is an Art of living initiative for under privileged children. The volunteers involved in the course included Nalini, Siddharth, Dhruv, Deepshikha, Soumya, Megha and Shweta. This course was conducted at Durgadevi Sharma Marathi School. The energy of these kids is outstanding. It becomes difficult at times to manage them! It was a wonderful experience. Thanks to the social service initiatives of Ms Gauri Bhasin who is founder and president of the Seed Foundation that we could do the course there. She has been engaged in social service for a long time now, her dedication speaks through her work, action and words. I heard her on 30th May and that clicked me to write this blog.

    Bal Chetna Shivir Art of living

    We were discussing about the initiative, our background and what we are trying to achieve. She very eloquently said that “If we want a peaceful society, we must help each other, more so to these underprivileged children. If we impart right education and involve them in our society, chances of them becoming antisocial reduce significantly. We must work towards inclusion and helping them feel we are there and we – as a society – care. It is good for our social well-being at large to help these kids.”

    I could instantly relate to these words with interdependent co-arising. Everything is dependent on another. My definition of interdependent co-arising is – “we all grow when we help each other to grow whether it is our subordinates or our competitors.” A more technically correct (according to the philosophy of Buddhism) meaning is “everything depends on something else for its existence”.

    As a society we are all dependent on each other, none of us as an individual can exist without the others support him/her. Ms Bhasin very easily put it out in a societal context. A peaceful society needs a peaceful, socially accepted and involved individual. We need to make everyone feel that they are part of us be it from any social strata, race, religion or line of thought.

  • Interdependent co-arising in Ecosystem

    As I have been writing a lot about interdependent co-arising, I came across this video and thought to share it without delay on my blog.

    If you can understand this video you can understand the concept of Buddhism on interdependent co-arising. Please watch this small <5 min video a wonderful experiment. According to the description of the video – When wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in the United States after being absent nearly 70 years, the most remarkable “trophic cascade” occurred. What is a trophic cascade and how exactly do wolves change rivers?

    “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.” – John Muir

    An interesting way to explain interdependence. Hope we learn this sooner rather than later that ecology has to be balanced, political, social and religious ideas should also be balanced because perhaps nothing is perfect! I think therefore Mahavir used the concept of Syadvada (doctorine of postulation) and the Buddha middle path.

    Source – Youtube channel Sustainable Human http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYv_csqWJTSfQK3vOZDJKQw

  • Interdependent co-arising intra-country example

    In previous blog “Coalgate…” I touched on the topic of Dutch Disease. The concept of Dutch disease rebounds me to the interdependent co-arising once again (interdependent co-arising means – we are all dependent on each other.). This concept of Buddhism is applicable in every walk of life. If we (each individual) do not understand it we are going to remain in the problems we face. Check previous blogs on the same below.

    Interdependent co-arising farmers example (ground level example) – this blog is about how interdependent co-arising relates to a smaller level of activity of one businessman / farmer. This could be you or me in our regular work environment.

    Interdependent co-arising macroeconomic example (world level example) – this blog is about how interdependent co-arising relates to macro-economics.

    This blog is a country level example of interdependent co-arising (Pali original concept – Pratītyasamutpāda – at Wikipedia).

    What is Dutch disease?

    The inflow of capital leads to an appreciation of the currency, making imports cheap and export expensive. The name comes from the Netherlands experience following the discovery of gas in the north sea. Natural gas sales drove Dutch currency up, seriously hurting the country’s other expdutch-diseaseort industries.

    In late 50’s Netherlands found huge source of natural gases. This resulted in 1. investments (largely foreign direct investments) in that sector 2. decline in other sectors e.g. one example could be people moving for jobs in that sector (consider Indian IT sector as reference) 3. investments (specially foreign investments) in that sector resulted in stronger currency. The excessive investment made Netherlands currency stronger resulting in making exports expensive eventually resulting in decline of export from Netherlands. Manufacturing suffered and thus jobs in manufacturing too go to step 2.

    This convoluted – action/reaction and impact at not so obvious industries – example again suggests to us that even if industries are not linked directly they are linked in some way. This link is interdependence. This interdependence should make one value the existence.

    The  “Dutch disease” should make us once again think about the invisible connections we share with each other.

    Image source – http://globalprosperity.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/oiling-africas-gears-for-democratic-change/

  • Interdependent co-arising – macro-economics example

    I hae written on Interdependent co-arising (older blogs at the link) earlier.  The concept simply means – we are all dependent on each other.

    Those who want to know the concept in layman term follow this blog – interdependent co-arising example of a farmer.

    Definintion of interdependent co-arising is below with a macro-economics example. In late 90’s the East Asian countries faced a very serious economic challenge of decades. The financial system came down like a house of cards. Dr Joseph Stiglitz – Economics Nobel Prize winner of 2001 – shares the concept of interdependent co-arising (dooming in otherwords) in his book  – “Globalization and its discontent“. On Page 106-107 he invariably – and inadvertently perhaps – explains what is interdependent co-arising. Hope economists would understand this lesson, if not from the Buddha then from Dr Stiglitz.

    Beggar-Thyself Policies

    Of all the mistakes the IMF committed as the East Asian crisis spread from one conuntry to another in 1997 and 1998, one of the hardest to fathom was the Fund’s failure to recognize the important interactions amont the policeis pursued in the different countries. Contractionary policies in one country not only deepened that country’s economy but had adverse effects on its neighbors. By continuing to advocate contractionary policies the IMF exacerbated the contagion, the spread of the downturn from one country to the next. As each country weakened, it reduced its imports from its neighbors, thereby pulling its neighbors down.

    The beggar-thy-neighbor policies of the 1930s are generally thought to have played an important role in the spread of the Great Depression. Each country hit by a downturn bolster its own economy by cutting back on exports and thus shifting consumer demands to its own products.A country would cut back on export by imposing tariffs and by making competitive devaluation of its currency, which made its own goods cheaper and others countries’ more expensive. Howeer, as each country cut back on imports it suceeded in “exporting” the economic downturn to its neighbors. Hence the term bagger-thy-neighbor.

    …

    Solution to all these economic, social, personal, spiritual or other problems?

    Its interdependent co-arising itself. We all need to help each other grow – grow the pie and share it well, if not equally!

  • Interdependent co-arising – a farmer’s example

    Recently Dr Raghunathan shared a link of his interview with Wharton with me We are individually very smart but collectively dumb. The very first paragraph of the interview has an example of a farmer. A farmer whose corn won top awards year after year. When a reporter asked about the secret of his success, the farmer attributed it to the fact that he shared his corn with his neighbors. Why, the reporter wondered, would the farmer want to share his seed when those neighbors also competed with him for the prize? The farmer’s reply was, “The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grew inferior corn, cross-pollination would steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors do the same.”

    I am writing time and again on interdependent co-arising and how it applies to businesses, I think this small story on BUSINESS – a winning business – states a lot about ‘interdependent co-arising’. This example applies beyond India, the long term gain for world economy would be working on the concepts of interdependent co-arising.

    Related blogs on interdependent co-arising

  • Dependent co-arising

    Interdependent co-arising is a very key concept of The Buddha’s teachings. The other interesting names of this concept are dependent co-arising and dependent origination. Dependent co-arising is a deep concept. The depth requires an understanding of the concepts of Buddhism. So, I keep writing at a very shallow level examples to drive home the point. Whenever I read the book – Old path white clouds by Thich Nhat Hanh I get itched to this very concept. He explains this concept in easy words – “From interdependent origins, all things arise and all things pass away.”

    Thich Nhat Hanh

    I have shared multiple examples specifically for dependent co-arising on my blog. These examples were shallow yet practical relationship between the teachings of the Buddha and the present-day Business.

    Here are some examples

    Vaccination and interdependence (pulse polio elimination initiate of Govt of India)
    Societal impact
    Interdependent co-arising a farmers example
    Entrepreneurship
    Intra-country example and macro-economic example

    Whenever I try to interpret this concept; besides the interdependence, this concept touches on another concept of Hinduism (or Indic religions) – the concept of Karma. Karma gives us a guiding principle of cause and effect. It is easy to understand with the help of an English proverb – as you sow; so shall you reap. A very easy example of the cycle of Karma can be seen in an episode – Lucky penny – of How I met your mother.

    However small we think we’re as an individual, we’ve the power to make an immense impact on the world. You may have heard – if a butterfly flutters its wings in Amazon forest, it may cause a hurricane in Japan. I came across this interesting Domino effect video. I could relate it to the butterfly effect and thus to dependent origination.

    Watch this and relate the accumulated energy of the bar to Karma, the first piece as the butterfly fluttering wing and in effect interdependence of everything as a cycle.

  • Dont divide – we are all interdependent

    Yes I know you must be wondering as if the topic is not complete or I missed something? This blog is not related with politics or religious division either. No, no I am not going to write about terrorist attacks again. They are becoming something very common now a days. We do need a solution to that with Talks, if that does not work perhaps force.

    Look inwardsThe year started on a very strange note – people wrote if 2016 is similar to 2008? The world bank reduced forecast of world GDP growth rate to 2.9% however had a positive outlook on growth of India. However, as we read news like this, we tend to think – ok make this strata analyse this. How about the developing countries as a whole? How is Europe doing? How about China? So we try to divide and look at each as individual or strata or country, isnt it? We are all interdependent, we must think of the whole world. If we look at worldwide trend, we realize that 2.9% is lowered expectation, that is a cause of concern. When such concerns are raised we must do one thing – turn inwards. This inwards is applied on an individual level as well as a local level e.g. the smallest strata we are considering for growth for example country. Look for options for improvement locally. When we see troubles in GDP growth worldwide – the best option to consider is looking for improving economy at country level – increasing local consumption, improving livelihood of the citizen by infrastructure or other basic needs. Because these small steps add to the monolith of global GDP, isnt it?

    The other thing to keep in mind is – when a hungry person eats, that adds to his/her health. If a stuffed person eats extra, his/her health may deteriorate, isnt it? When we are seeing world GDP, we must concentrate on the underdeveloped not on developed world as the driving force for growth. In the end once again – we are all interdependent.

    Image source – Petfinder.com

  • Pulse polio and dependent co-arising

    Its been three weeks I did not write anything on blog. I felt as if I am not doing justice with my blogging. However, I was too busy with work and therefore could not fulfill this commitment. This passion when put on hold by professional responsibilities, I can understand how difficult would it be for us to think of some lesser important things which may hamper our personal life. Well, whom to apologies for this – to myself?

    Since 1995-96 India is on a mission – Remove Polio from India. I remember I – as a student – had to participate in a speech on the same in 1995-96. Daughter of one of my acquaintance herself went to a stall of Pulse Polio mission and got administered these drops (she was quite adventurous!). This mission is still running, apparently every year February to April the activities are quite high. Last Sunday my niece was administered these drops. This initiative made me think.

    I remembered my MBA class of economics. In that class Prof asked – what if I alone have a Fax Machine in the whole world? There is no use of such device when one cannot send or receive faxes, right? I tried extended this concept of network effect on the Polio issue. Even if a child is left without treatment for polio chances are that the decease may extend to coming generations. I could also connect this network effect and treatment of polio to interdependent co-arising. Needless to say, Polio virus would not see if a child is born rich or poor, belongs to which caste, color or religion. Therefore, the important thing is – we need to help each other as a society and get rid of things such as Polio or let us go beyond Polio – corruption, greed and selfishness etc etc. Because we are all connected to each other.

More posts