Buddhist Lessons for Business

Posted on | March 21, 2011 | 3 Comments

What can we learn from ancient wisdoms and the major religions? Last week (March 16th, 2011), I was at a ‘lecture’, organised by the company Heart Selling. It was there first, so called HHH Event, where the three H’s stand for: Head, Heart and Hand.

Theme of the evening was: “How can Buddhism help to get business at a sustainable level, after these years of crisis and chaos?” Speaker of the evening was Tulku Lobsang Rinpoche, a contemporary Tibetan Buddhist teacher, who travels around the world, 11 months a year.

In one of the most beautiful rooms of ancient ‘Slot Zeist‘ about 100 (business) people where gathered to hear what this man had to say about our Western business world and our personal influence on it. Would he have the answer to the question above?

Well, sure he had some wise lessons. And after his entrance and taking his place in front of the audience in lotus position, he began to talk about the Buddhist vision on what the world needs in the 21st Century … and business in particular.

Human existence and also that of business is about dependency. People need each other and business need each other. In practice, and particular in the past years, business has a very individual character. One needs to win, others have to loose.

Doing business in itself is good. It is about trade. You have some I need and I have some you need. But it should be done with love and compassion. Our conditional existing is getting bigger and bigger. We are more and more dependent on each other. Therefore we need to join business with love.

Nature is love, Love is wisdom. If you want to change others, you have to first change yourself. Once you change yourself, you will find out that others will change as well. The challenge is to open yourself and to give and to take. Change now !!!

It is not about physical giving and taking. It is about giving the love in your self to others, no matter who they are. And it is about taking (and accepting) whatever you don’t like in others. How you think, how you see, What you are told is what you hear. Today it is all about concessional love.

Many people first want all there problems solved. When all problems are away, then there will be time to be happy. And of course, when all problems are solved, happiness is not there anymore. If think a human life lasts long, then you have a perfect excuse to waste your time. Be happy now !!!

We all live in Hotel Earth. We have only about 25.000 days (of which we sleep one third) and then we have to check out. Nothing belongs to us in this hotel. We can use it, but not take it. And the strange thing is that as long as you don’t have something, you want it. And when you have it, you don’t use it.

Finally he talked about decision making. We like to know all the facts before we decide. We are scared of making mistakes. We do not know what we know. We always want to know more. But as Tulku Lobsang says: “Until you know everything, there is only one way to make life clear. To decide.”

Are these lessons new to us? After the lecture, most people concluded that we already know them. And also that they are so very true. And that the same lessons are told by Buddhist teachers, by the Andean Altomisayoqs, by our own Saint Benedict, by probably any ancient wisdom or religion.

But how difficult it is to live by those lessons in daily practice. Not only when doing business, but also in your relationship, with your children. Yes, sitting in front of my cottage, staring out over the lake, I can feel the love connection with myself and the whole Universe … but when I stand up and turn around, I am just human again ..

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