ECONOMICS
Before trying to determine whether it is possible to
identify a specifically Buddhist approach to the eco-
nomic realm, one must keep in mind that religions and
the economic sphere interact at various levels. At the
most elementary level, religions open up a space, both
symbolic and physical, within which economic activi-
ties can take place. In the Buddhist world this has in-
volved establishing through RITUAL means a space
protected by Buddhist DIVINITIESor by the supernat-
ural beings with whom these divinities coexist. Besides
creating a space for agriculture, these ritual resources,
generally labeled as “magic,” have to be mobilized in
order to ensure the fertility of the land. Practices that
mobilize the ritual or magical component of religion
can be found not just in agricultural societies, but also
in industrial societies, such as that of Japan, the “com-
mon religion” of Japan being concerned above all with
worldly benefits (genze riyaku), whose pursuit involves
the mobilization of Buddhist doctrines, images, ritu-
als, and sacred scriptures, such as the LOTUSSUTRA
(SADDHARMAPUNDARIKA-SUTRA).
Need, work, and religion
From the time of the nikayasto the present, Buddhists
have been concerned with the reality of the economic
sphere, especially with the reality of work. This con-
cern can already be seen in the Agañña-suttaof the
Dlghanikaya,in which the Buddha tells a story about
the emergence of social order, political authority, and
kingship. According to the Agañña-sutta,the greed of
the primordial beings causes a process of coarsening
and differentiation to take place, a process that results
in the appearance of matter, food, unequally endowed
bodies, stratification, sex, work, authority, and priests.
As the story unfolds, a peculiar interaction between la-
bor and the avoidance of labor develops. Gathering the
primordial rice twice a day constitutes work of sorts,
so much so that in order to avoid this labor, a being
that is given to laziness engages in the work of storing
foodstuffs. However, once rice for two meals is gath-
ered there is no way to stop the process, and so the
work of gathering increases. Laziness leads to work,
work causes the scarcity of rice, laziness and work beget
private property, theft, authority, and religion. We find
moreover the recognition that in order to avoid chaos
it is necessary to have kings, and in order to have kings
and people who, by meditating, “put aside evil and un-
wholesome things,” it is necessary to produce the sur-
plus that will feed them. Work is therefore both curse
and blessing, for without the disturbance brought
about by work, it would not have been necessary to
have kings and priests; whereas in order to support
them, it is necessary to work even more.
Although in the Agañña-suttawe encounter a story
of greed that causes an increase in materiality, sex, and
rice, in stories collected in Laos, Thailand, and Cam-
bodia we find that rice appears as the result of merito-
rious acts, then grows as long as Buddhism spreads.
Despite the differences, the two myths involve a process
of degeneration, both in terms of the length of the lives
of the buddhas and the size of the grains of rice. In gen-
eral, the two myths betray unease toward economic
transactions; in fact, according to the Southeast Asian
myth, storage and above all exchange—in other words,
economic activities—lead to the disappearance of the
personified rice. Eventually, the rice returns, only this
time, instead of one variety of rice, there are many va-
rieties. Desirable as the varieties of rice are, however,243