I visited Fo Guang Shan Monastery in southern Taiwan in 2013. I was surprised to see a Starbucks and a 7-Eleven immediately after entering the welcome center. Clearly, there are vending machines for coffee, teas, and other beverages at other Chinese and Japanese Buddhist temples and monasteries, along with stalls that sell beads, amulets, and books, but this central placement of global corporate businesses caught me off-guard.

In the history of Chinese Buddhism, markets were set up in front of temples, and temples could be found next to markets, as the foot traffic benefitted both of them. Before the availability of loans from banks, merchants often secured loans from Buddhist institutions to open shops. Therefore, it is not Buddhist support of commercial activity itself that is remarkable, but rather the extent to which it has seemingly progressed in recent years.

My visit to Taiwan was a year after local officials representing one of the Four Great Buddhist Mountains of China, Mount Jiuhua, applied for an initial public offering (IPO) to be listed in China’s stock market as a Buddhist—at least in the eyes of the Chinese public—mountain tourism company. In 2012, officials representing two other Great Buddhist Mountains of China, Mount Putuo and Mount Wutai, also announced IPO plans, although these were never implemented.

All of these Buddhist companies were influenced by the successful IPO in 1997 of Emei Shan Tourism Co. Ltd., 峨眉山旅游股份有限公司, which rounds out the last of the Four Great Buddhist Mountains. Mount Emei and Mount Jihua’s tourism companies are listed as publicly traded stocks on China’s Shenzhen and Shanghai Stock Exchanges, respectively.

How can we understand this connection between Buddhists and the epitome of contemporary capitalism? Is investing in the stock market or mutual funds ethically right or wrong for Buddhists? Should one invest if one also thinks capitalism and its pursuit of constant growth and profit is unethical? Or does the specific company one invests in matter? Exactly how far does this responsibility go, in terms of being ethically responsible for how one’s funds are used by others?

As I summarized in my article “Merit, Karma, and Exchange: Chinese Buddhist Mountain Tourism Company Listings on the Stock Market:” The scholar of Buddhism Lionel Obadia differentiates Buddhism and economy (Buddhists and their interaction in the economy), from “Buddhist economics” (normative claims based on an idealized or a romanticized Buddhism), and from the economics of Buddhism (how it is consumed and how it makes money). (Cheung 2021, 935)

However, these distinctions don’t help us to see the ways that Buddhists actually use capital in various forms. For example, a large financial donation to a temple may be used to build a stunning statue, which attracts more visitors and improves the temple reputation, which in turn generates more donations. In other words, status and wealth may help to support each other in a virtuous cycle. All this is to say that Buddhists and their engagement with economics, money, and capitalism is complex and something that scholars and lay Buddhist have studied.

In contrast to the mainland Chinese Buddhist Mountains and their tourism companies, Taiwanese Buddhist institutions have not directly engaged in stock markets. Nevertheless, individual Buddhists have done so and some of them gained significant wealth from this participation. Bai Yun at Mount Qian Fo was able to purchase an auditorium in Kaohsiung primarily because of profits from stock investments. (Hou 2012, 63) Guo Ru, a disciple of Dong Chu, a former master at Nong Chan Temple, told me that Dong Chu had also made significant profits from the stock market. This likely had an impact on Dong Chu’s lineage holder, the influential Sheng Yen—also a teacher of Guo Ru—and on Sheng Yen’s views of money in general.

Sheng Yen wrote: “Buddhism does not advocate poverty or communism,” yet “strict capitalism, where people try to accumulate as much wealth as possible, is not in accordance with the Dharma. It is also quite destructive.” (Shengyan 2002, 288–99) In summary, he taught: “You need not be afraid of having or accumulating wealth, nor should you overly indulge in the pleasures brought about by wealth.” (ibid 300) He distinguishes greed as making money for selfish purposes from making money to help more than just the individual in order to return benefit to society.

Hsing Yun lamented “the greed inherent in capitalism and the suffering it entails” on the one hand, (Field 2007, x) but on the other he justified as “the primary reason for having Fo Guang Shan operate its business ventures” (which include Buddhist bookstores and gift shops, magazine offices, publishing houses, kindergartens, primary and high schools, and universities) is to “give something back to society.” (Fu 2008, 197) The scholar Stuart Chandler has labeled Hsing Yun and Fo Guang Shan as “paradigm[s] of Buddhist capitalism,” because of Hsing Yun’s business acumen and decisions. (2004, 103) Perhaps it was inevitable that a Starbucks would be found inside Fo Guang Shan’s welcome center.

I am unsure to what extent these Taiwanese Buddhists were aware of the implications and consequences of investing in stocks, especially the harms produced by contributing to corporations such as big oil companies, who use the money invested in ways that directly damage the environment. However, as shown by their statements above, a simple yes or no is not likely the final answer to the questions posed from the title and earlier in this article.

Engaging with global corporations such as Starbucks means being tied into potential social, economic, and environmental scandals that might befall such corporations. For decades, university students and activist groups have called attention to both large fossil fuel and firearms corporations and those associated with them.*

To be clear, investing in individual stocks is different from putting money into mutual funds. Although the former is a readily available option for individuals, many do not have the expertise to feel comfortable doing so. In contrast, the latter is a default option for many workers around the world as they put money toward their retirement accounts, which are managed by others who select the various companies to receive investments.

Returning to the Chinese Buddhist Mountain Tourism Companies, how different would investing in the Mount Emei stock be from investing in a fossil fuel company? This question assumes that investing in the former, which owns mountain hotels, cable cars, and bus lines, is a good thing because it supports tourism and pilgrimage to a Buddhist mountain, and therefore exposes more people to the Dharma. However, what if the Mount Emei stock loses money for the investor, as opposed to investing in a fossil fuel company that returns a profit?** In this hypothetical scenario, what would be the karmic consequences of someone choosing to profit off a fossil fuel stock in order to use such profits to donate directly to Buddhist causes? How does the intention of the person selecting which stock to invest in factor in the ethical blame or praise of the action?

Ultimately, how much choice do people without investing expertise have when they save for retirement? The ubiquitous 401(k) plans “have become the most common private employer-sponsored retirement program in the US.” (Investopedia) Employees who enroll are presented with choices among various stock, bond, and mutual fund combinations that adjust over time, typically reducing riskier options closer to the retirement age. In Canada, employees have public pension plans that also earn money through contributions that are invested into stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. Clearly, Buddhists participate in the economy. Monastics have hundreds of rules to follow, while lay people make more basic vows to observe the five precepts. The above examples of Bai Yun and Dong Chu profiting from investing in stocks does not necessarily give a free pass to laypeople as those monastics used their profit for their respective temples. Perhaps the question becomes: is saving for a comfortable retirement an appropriate end to use the means of supporting mutual funds that invest in numerous companies including ethical and unethical ones?

* History of Divestment on College Campuses (Everytown for Gun Safety)

** In reality, Emei Shan Tourism Co., Ltd., closely tracks the Shenzhen stock index, indicating that it performs on par with other stocks.

References

Chandler, Stuart. 2004. Establishing a Pure Land on Earth: The Foguang Buddhist Perspective on Modernization and Globalization. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.

Cheung, Kin. 2021. “Merit, Karma, and Exchange: Chinese Buddhist Mountain Tourism Company Listings on the Stock Market.” The Journal of the American Academy of Religion 86, no. 3: 931–955. Available at https://academic.oup.com/jaar/article/89/3/931/6377686

Field, Lloyd. 2007. Business and the Buddha: Doing Well by Doing Good. Boston, MA: Wisdom Publications.

Fu, Zhiying. 2008. Bright Star, Luminous Cloud: The Life of a Simple Monk. Edited by Venerable Yi Chao, Louvenia Ortega, and Sofia Chen. Translated by Dr Robert H. Smitheram. First Edition. Hacienda Heights, CA: Buddha’s Light Publishing.

Hou Kunhong 侯坤宏. 2012. Zhanhou taiwan fojiao siyuan jingji ji qi biange 战后台湾佛教寺院经济及其变革. Xinan minzu daxue xuebao (renwen shehui kexue ban)西南民族大学学报(人文社会科学版) (Journal of Southwest University for Nationalities [Humanities and Social Science]) 7: 61-68.

Shengyan. 2002. Zen Wisdom: Conversations on Buddhism. Elmhurst, NY: North Atlantic Books.

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