Compassion for the Poor: A Buddhist View
by Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi
Buddhism regards compassion as the heart and soul of the religious life, but it does not grant compassion a unique place of honor. Rather, it links compassion to another quality needed to give it a sense of direction and to bring its objectives to fruition. That quality is wisdom. Compassion makes the heart shake with the suffering of others, but compassion on its own is blind. Wisdom provides the eye of understanding that enables us to act in effective ways to alleviate the pain and misery of others. When compassion and wisdom work together, we can bring to those afflicted with poverty something more durable than mere symptomatic relief. We can make fundamental changes in the underlying network of causes that engender and sustain the poverty that brings so much suffering at so many different levels.
With the ready knowledge we have today about the conditions of people throughout the world, it is natural that the problem of global poverty should arrest our attention as it has never done before. For Buddhism, poverty is a particularly degrading type of suffering both intrinsically and because it is the breeding ground of many other problems as well, particularly crime. Already in the ancient sutras (teachings) dating from the fifth century B.C., the Buddha taught that when poverty becomes rampant in society, it leads to the spread of criminal activity such as theft, falsehood, and murder. He thus teaches that the way to eliminate crime is not through sterner punishments but through more benign state policies. The Buddha therefore makes it the responsibility of the state to eliminate poverty by providing the poor with the means to earn their own livelihood.
The Buddhist approach to poverty, however, is by no means patronizing or sentimental. As an Enlightened One, the Buddha has penetrated through to the deep laws underlying all aspects of human life. As a spiritual teacher, he affirms the enormous human potential for personal and social transformation. Buddhist compassion for the poor is not intended to lock the poor into their poverty and force them to adopt a stance of passive servility and dependence. Rather, it ultimately aims to uplift them and enable them to fulfill their latent potential.
Buddhism approaches this task in a twofold way. On the one hand, it enjoins those living in material affluence to develop compassion and to express compassion by generosity, by giving to the poor the basic material requisites needed to live a respectable and secure existence, such as clothing, food, housing, and medicines. On the other, it instructs the poor not to remain mired in their poverty. It enjoins them to take their destinies into their own hands by diligence, hard work, and the prudent use of their assets. In many ways, Buddhism affirms that energy and thoughtfulness, combined, can produce remarkable results.
Buddhism regards generosity as the fundamental practice of the religious life and the mark of the superior person. It is the first step in the higher evolution towards the ultimate goal of enlightenment. Through generosity, those who are materially secure share their wealth and assets with the disadvantaged, thus reducing the gap between rich and poor. While Buddhism does not envisage any ideal of a “classless society” based on complete economic equality, its emphasis on generosity helps to ensure a fairer standard of economic justice, at least to the extent that no one is deprived of the basic requisites of a decent life.
But giving serves another function as well. The Buddha teaches that our volitional actions – that is, our karma – determines the course we take as we move from life to life within the cycle of rebirths, called samsara. The karmic cause for poverty, according to the Buddha, is miserliness in previous lives. Thus by encouraging people to give now, in their present life, Buddhism teaches them to establish the karmic causes for material prosperity in future lives. Buddhism enjoins this same attitude in everyone, whether rich or poor. It teaches even the poorest that they should share the little they possess, and by doing so, they will be building up the karmic causes for future wealth and abundance.
The lesson we should learn is that by benefiting others we ultimately benefit ourselves, while the guiding purpose in achieving our own benefit is to make ourselves more effective channels for promoting the true benefit of others. A Buddha is one who has achieved this twofold good to the optimal degree. He himself realizes supreme enlightenment and the peace of Nirvana; and he works selflessly and untiringly to bring others the “true wealth of the noble ones,” the wealth of virtue, purity, wisdom, and inner peace.
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