A Buddhist Approach to Consumption
tandfonline.com
tandfonline.com
I love the irony of an author speaking about the Buddhist approach to consumption while engaging in the most consumptive act imaginable: international flights to a meditation retreat. We need to get consumption under control. We need to reduce not only our carbon footprints but our overall impact on the natural world. Buddhism, or any other approach, isn't useful if it promotes excess. Flying to Ireland to discuss philosophy, or to indulge in a better or more pure mode of eating, is exactly the type of excessive consumption we need to curtail.
>> In the photos taken during our day at Universal Studios,
>> In October 2015, I was walking around in New York City.
>> It reminded me of a talk our teacher gave when we were travelling in China
We get it. You like to travel and have the time+money to do it. What does Buddhism say about boasting?
Alternatively, every good idea that came from Buddhism doesn't need to be a Buddhist idea to be a good idea, so there's no point in selling good ideas using Buddhism unless you're trying to promote the bad ideas as well. Good ideas stand on their quality of impact, not on the quality of their source.
I also find that in the West, most people go about religion by finding that which fits the lifestyle they already have. Very few are willing to sacrifice anything meaningful or make serious changes to fit a religion's teachings. It is much easier for them to find the sect of X religion that also allows them to Y and Z.
Most religions will associate the promotion of their religion as a good deed, and they are willing to overlook many bad deeds that lead to it for those reasons.
It is a review of work in mindfulness and consumption. It is slightly deeper (but also academic).