These are some very interesting
Buddhist concepts to ponder this holiday season. This is a portion of an
interview by John Elder of Stephanie Kaza. It was sent to me by a friend. I
found these thoughts very helpful.
A student of Zen for over thirty years,
Stephanie Kaza has been … a professor [since 1991] in the Environmental Program
at the University of Vermont. Buddhist environmental thought and the role of
activism in social change have been central both to her teaching there and to
her writing…. Her most recent book, “Hooked! Buddhist Writings on Greed,
Desire, and the Urge to Consume” (2005), is an anthology of provocative essays
from dharma teachers and writers that explore Buddhist tools for engaging the
challenges of modern consumerism.
I spoke with Kaza last January over tea
in my living room in Bristol, Vermont.—JOHN ELDER
How would you define consumerism? In a practical sense, consumerism is a belief system
and culture that promotes consuming as the path to self- and social improvement.
It’s a complete political and economic ideology, sponsored by sophisticated
marketing techniques that generate significant profits while stripping the
earth of resources. As a dominant cultural force, consumerism offers products
to address every dissatisfaction, while actually creating social conditions
that undermine equity and environmental stability….
And do you view this as a new ideology,
above and beyond the impulse to buy, sell, and trade goods that has always
existed in human society? I won’t say
it’s new, it’s just more exaggerated now. It’s much more sophisticated, more
technological, more effective, more codified. And it’s much more accepted as an
established way of doing business. So that now elections, for example, have a
lot of the hallmarks of the consumer society, as evidenced by how candidates
sell themselves through sound bytes and advertising. Military recruiting is
about selling the army to young men. A lot of fairly complicated ethical
dilemmas—public dilemmas that could be discussed in public forums—have been
boiled down to what seem like competing consumer products.
If consumerism is indeed on the rise,
why is that? Did consumerism as an ideology increase along with the rise of
capitalism? For one thing, extraction
and production technologies have become extremely efficient at harvesting
resources and generating material goods. In early history, most people did not
have disposable income. There was not an option to go and buy luxury goods. You
were happy if you got some salt and butter, or something like that. But with
the acceleration of communication and transportation in the twentieth century,
even a small amount of discretionary income could then be spent on things like
TVs, autos, trinkets—goods that reduce our discomfort in life, and that are
attractive and entertaining. So the scale of consumption, and its acceleration,
is more rapid in the last quarter century than any other time before….
How has the increase in consumerism
affected the human psyche or consciousness? Kalle Lasn, the author of a book called Culture Jam, speaks of
“microjolts of commercial pollution” that flood our brains—about three thousand
marketing messages per day. This has a tremendous impact on our consciousness.
It’s a mass cultural experiment that may have penetrating effects we can barely
imagine. One of the biggest impacts is the widespread disease of greed, status
envy, overstimulation, and dissatisfaction. Children are especially vulnerable
to brainwashing from commercials. We find them developing a sense of identity
based on brands before they can barely read. The Buddhist writer and scholar
David Loy suggests that the drive to consume has displaced the psychic space
once filled by religion, family, and community. More time spent on personal lifestyle
pleasures tends to mean less time spent in civic engagement and public life….
So what unique insights does Buddhism
have to offer in critiquing and countering consumerism? … I suggest three fundamental Buddhist critiques…. The
first
focuses on the process of personal-identity formation. The usual idea of self
is seen as a significant delusion in Buddhist thought, yet consumers are
constantly urged to build a sense of self around what they buy. Consumer goods
become symbols of status, political or religious views, social group, and
sexuality—all of which solidify a sense of self….
What are the other two? The second leg of the Buddhist critique of consumerism is that
consumerism promotes and condones harming. The foundational principle behind
all Buddhist ethics is non-harming or ahimsa,
expressed in the first precept as “Do not kill” or “Do no harm.” While consumer
goods manufacturers may not intend to cause harm, the extraction and production
processes often leave death and injury in their wake—clear-cutting forests,
polluting waterways, abusing workers. Producers justify tremendous harm to many
forms of life to meet the bottom line of profit and gain.
But any time we consume anything we are
harming to a certain extent. We eat animals and plants, cut down trees, mine
ore. Does that mean that consuming anything is problematic? Or are we again
just talking about a matter of scale?
It’s the conundrum of the precepts: A human being cannot survive without
causing harm. But you try to cause as little as possible. If your bodhisattva
vows are to reduce suffering, then you don’t want to cause excess suffering.
And the third aspect? The third aspect of the Buddhist
critique is that consumerism promotes desire and dissatisfaction, the very
source of suffering, as explained in the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths. The state
of dissatisfaction—clinging, craving, impulse, thirst, attachment,
compulsion—is the very opposite of contentment and equanimity. Marketers
stimulate desire and dissatisfaction very effectively, offering a plethora of
products to relieve almost every form of human suffering. What is unique about
the Buddhist approach is that it goes to the very root of the urge for more,
the desire, the hook that keeps us constantly searching for what will relieve our
dissatisfaction.
What kinds of changes do you suggest
that people make in their consuming habits? I did not want this book to be prescriptive. I didn't want people to
seize on some standard that any of the authors put out there as the only
standard. Because I don't think that's skillful means. I think it's much more
skillful just to enter the struggle. Don't just adopt some easy thing like
"I'll be a vegetarian," because then you won't look at the source of
your plant food. And you won't really think about the ecological impact of
shipping your mangoes, say, from South America so you can enjoy them in
Seattle. So if there's one recommendation that's consistent throughout the
whole book, it's "investigate, go deeper, ask questions about every single
thing you consume."
Although these messages are
mostly for me, thanks for listening. As always – feel free to forward this
message to your friends, family, and those accompanying you on your spiritual
journey.
Don
#2 December, 2013
Copyright, 2013
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