The Pragmatic Buddhist Approach to Politics and Economics

The Buddha told us to interrogate our beliefs and discard those that aren’t helpful. This advice could radically change our politics.

The Buddha was a pragmatist. You can see this in the structure of the Four Noble Truths. He starts by stating the problem, then gives the cause of the problem, then notes that it can be solved, and finally offers a set of tools for succeeding in solving it. That the path to the end of stress is the fourth of the four truths tells us that what ultimately matters isn’t the path itself, but the existence, cause, and possible end of stress.

In other words, the Buddha began with the goal and then worked out a way to get there. We ought to keep that in mind when thinking about politics. Governments are tools for accomplishing an end. We have them because they’re for something. If we don’t keep a clear picture of what we’re trying to overcome, as well as the causes of it, we risk clinging to tools and methods that either aren’t as effective as alternatives, or actually make the problem worse.

So what does the Buddha say are the goals of government? What are the problems he wants to overcome? The best place to look for this is when he’s giving advice to kings on how to rule well.