Ontological Perception of Ongoing 2008-2009 Financial Crisis

Wong Weng Hon

Introduction

The 2008 financial meltdown commenced in U.S in September, 2008. It erupted with the shocking news of the bankruptcies of some renowned giant financial corporations in U.S. The financial turmoil was aggravated further with grave problems of unemployment, foreclosures or subprime  mortgage crisis, clogged flow of credit, plummeting stock prices, dissipation of retirement income, toxic investments, toxic balanced sheets, bailouts and the like.  The financial woes and faltering economy continue to batter the U.S. EU economies and global economy in 2009. The consequence is the dire 2008-2009 ongoing global financial crisis depleting financial interests of households, domestic businesses and international trades. The closures of branches of many giant business corporations in the auto manufacturing  industries, retrenchment of workers, increasing numbers of bailouts and heavy injection of capitals into the faltering financial institutions and automakers in U.S and even  Japan  have plunged the global villagers into a deep pit of global financial crisis and economic downturn. When the west sneezes, the east catches the cold. The world is innately and increasingly interconnected and interrelated in a human family of a global village pulled together by liberalization and globalization.  

Rescue Packages

Economic savants and political elites from the victim governments advise their respective political leaders – prime ministers or presidents. They put fowards brilliant recommendations to rescue the faltering global economy of the severely affected nations especially those nations in U.S and EU. The best and the most brilliant brains have been summoned to devise economic strategies and financial rescue packages to stimulate the faltering economies of victim nations. The  economic rescue stimulus packages comprise enormous bailouts, heavy injection of capitals, establishment of strict oversight committees or boards and demand for greater transparency and accountability, stricter regulation of credit rating or investment consultancy agencies and other strategies or measures of economic recovery.

Succinctly put, the Total Quality Management (TQM) of the financial institutions and business corporations must be comprehensively executed to oversee management functions and business transactions. TQM is actual a comprehensive performance audit. Performance audit can only be carried out by the auditors through random samplings. The world of financial or economic institutions is none other than an integral part of the process reality of dynamic becoming. The dynamic process flow of the unity of causes and conditions is currently obstructed because its cash flow is being clogged.

 It is caused by some of the toxic contigent conditions created by human greed and irresponsibility of some the clientele and administrative and management staff. The toxic contigent  conditions have shattered the mould or unity of God or consummate Emptiness. The Unity of the financial or business institutions has been shattered by sinful human behaviours. Monotheistically put, sinful human behaviour has disfigured the face of God in the financial world. Buddhistly put , the harmony of cause and conditions or Emptiness of the global financial market has not been consummated. When Man makes himself absent from God, God makes His presence through the eruption of a major crisis or disaster. We thus see that even the business world is not divorced from the Truth of God or Emptiness. Secularity and spirituality are intimately related,  reciprocal and holistic. Financial crisis is disunity of existence because of some of the deficient contigent conditions. God or Emptiness is the Unity of Existence of harmonious contigent conditions.

Process Reality

Ontologically perceived, every business system is a process reality of dynamic  process becoming. A dynamic process becoming is a series of unity of countless flow of contigent conditions of administration, management, marketing  and other subsystems constituting the total business system. If the business organization is a trans-national corporation, the contigent conditions are complex and countless. As the contigent conditions of business transactions are moving dynamically and unceasingly, it is not possible to audit the business activities comprehensively. Performance audit through random sampling is obviously not a comprehensive method of overseeing the transparency and accountability of the general labour force, administration and management executives and company board members.

Limited Power of Audit

 For instance, the performance audit cannot afford to  follow the transaction of every salesman on the field of marketing and sales. Likewise, the performance audit cannot afford to  attend each and every business meeting of every department  or subsystem of a very large business corporation with a multiple departments or subsystems. But every contigent condition in the process becoming of any business actual entity affects the Unity of Existence of the entire commercial actual entity. Process theistically put, every Unity of Existence is  the existence of God . Buddhistly put, every Unity of Existence is the existence of Emptiness. God is Emptiness and Emptiness is God. Thus, every business organization, small or large is the existence of God or Emptiness.

In fact, every phenomenon, profit or non-profit organization or system is the existence of God  or Emptiness. Therefore, every profit or non-profit entity is sacred and divine. It  should be duely venerated by performing one’s duty well. Since God is immanent in every entity, every entity must be worshipped as God. Therefore, we have to perform our work responsibly and respect every individual as one’s brother  or sister. Buddhist teaching also advocates that Buddha-nature is immanent everywhere. Therefore, every individual must be respected as sacred and divine. The paraphrases may be externally dissimilar but the message is esoterically  identical. I opine this truth to be the beauty part of religion.

 A process becoming is an organic system. Any flaw or defect occurring in any contigent condition of the entity affects the entire organic system of the commercial entity negatively. If one of the contigent conditions is disastrously flawed or defective, it becomes cancerous and the entire business system will adversely be affected .

Collapse of God

For instance, a bankrupted corporation is shattered by one of its cancerous contigent condition, such as grave corruption or criminal breach of trust. The 2008 financial crisis is  resulted from  some  toxic and cancerous  contigent conditions caused by greedy or irresponsible human behaviours  of the clientele or the staff or usually   both. The moral fallibility of Man obliterates the Unity of Existence of God or Emptiness. It causes the collapse of the mould of God or Emptiness. The collapse of a business entity is the collapse of the unity or mould of God or Emptiness. If a worker is piously  religious, his or her conscience of duty derived from the Mind of God or the Buddha-mind will insure that he or she will execute his or her work to the utmost  perfection. Under such a situation, a performance audit is not required to supervise or audit his or her work performance. 

Mind of God/ Buddha

Whoever has the Mind of God or the Buddha-mind possesses the esoteric wisdom and virtue. The wise believe the Lord or  Truth rightly, view the world rightly, think rightly and do things rightly. Sufily put, the wise has acquired  the Ihsān to monitor or oversee his or her  moral conduct. Ihsān is the Islamic wisdom to perform a duty excellently and perfectly because it is directed and empowered by the perfect Love of God.  Buddhistly put, the wise has developed the  Wisdom (Prajñā) to regulate his or her  moral conduct. The man of Ihsān or prajñā is able to draw out the sincerity , conscience, selflessness and  perfection of the inner Heart so that he or she is able to annihilate his or her  individual self in the selfless service for the larger whole – the business organization in which he or she works. 

The key point that I’m driving home is that being religiously pious and wise esoterically  helps in ensuring business success of a commercial organization. In other words, the cause of financial crisis is rooted in the spiritual desert existing in the secular state of modern civilization today. It is the alienation from religion or the inner Heart of God or Buddha-nature that global crises have erupted . The 2008-2009 financial crisis is fundamentally an issue of human alienation from God or Emptiness .

Bipolarity of Process Becoming

Any secular activity, such as business enterprise is a process reality of dynamic process becoming (sanātana dharma; Tao道). Any process becoming is constituted from bipolar reality of the multiplicity of the phenomenal world, such as the world of business, and the Unity of the absolute Truth or Principle. The absolute Truth is generally designated as God (Ḥaqq) and Buddhistly designated as Emptiness (‘Sūnyatā) or Dependently co-arisen Unity of Existence (Pratītyasamutpanna-dharma).

Accomplishment

 Accomplishment involves the harmonious interpenetration between the conventional truth (saṃvṛti satya) of the empirical phenomena and the ultimate truth (paramārtha Satya) of the Principle. The former is secularity and the latter is spirituality. Accomplishment  is the manifest of the Middle Path (Madhyama Pratipat) of the interpenetration between the phenomena and the Principle or between the world and God. The interpenetration is mirrored in the manifest of harmony and unity of perfect team spirit and teamwork.

Phenomenon and  Principle

Lao-tzu (老子)  depicts any  accomplishment  in the world as the dynamic process becoming dependently co-arisen from the unity of Yin (陰) and Yang (陽). Hua-yen Bhikkhu Fa-tsang (法藏比丘) depicts any accomplishment as the non-obstruction between phenomenon and principle (li shih wu ai理事無礙). The perfection of accomplishment is  the middle path that is  the non-obstruction between phenomenon and phenomenon (shih shih wu ai事事無礙). The Principle designated as either God, Emptiness or Tao is the unifying force or creator which conglomerates the contigent conditions from the phenomenal world to actualize the potentialities or possibilities into actualities of accomplishments. The financial crisis mirrors that the collapse of the mould of God , Emptiness or Tao has failed to preserve the global economic concrescence.

The economic stimulus packages are imposition of additional contigent conditions to resurrect global economic concrescence. God, Emptiness or Tao will help if and only if Man performs his duty or responsibility well on the basis of Ihsān or Prajñā. Mere human economic or management prudence does not suffice. Financial meltdown implies that the primordial potentialities of God, Emptiness or Tao are aborted by ugly human behaviour  and economic growth is consequentially retarded. According to Whitehead’s process philosophy, if an actual entity like the business entity is  determinate , the entity is a complete mould of God. Buddhistly put, Emptiness of a business entity exists in the harmony (sāmagryā) of cause and conditions (hetoḥ pratyayānāṃ ca ; MMK20.2).  Such an entity or harmony is called the accomplishment and satisfaction of God or the consummation of Emptiness.

Cause of Financial Crisis

Likewise, the financial crisis can only be halted when  God has accomplished and is satisfied with contigent conditions imposed by Man. The occurrence of the ongoing financial turmoil is due to the non-accomplishment and dissatisfaction of God (Unity of Existence or Emptiness) due to human moral fallibilities and vulnerabilities . It is due non-consummation of Emptiness.  The pains and sufferings from the ongoing 2008-2009 financial woes are God’s punishments on mankind for inaproppriate moral  behaviour and human alienation from the intrinsic Unity of God or the harmony of Emptiness.

God’s wrath ought to be interpreted that one or some of the contigent conditions of the Unity of Existence has or have been flawed by human behavior. God expresses His wrath through human failure, defeat or disaster. Buddhitsly put, Emptiness is not determinate or complete.  Thus, Man reaps exactly what Man has sowed. God’s  reward and retributive system is operated precisely on the basis of  the law of moral accountability. Buddhistly put, reciprocity is manifested through the Law of Karma and Vipāka.

In the case of 2008-2009 global financial crisis, when Man makes himself alienated or separated from God, God makes Himself present in the world. For instance, God has appeared as financial crisis to penalize us currently. Financial crisis is the evil consequence of  human collective karmas. Likewise,  God (or Vipāka) has also emerged as ecocrisis manifested  in the forms of adversity of global warming and climate change. Both the good and the bad come from God or Emptiness through the  law of moral accountability. What I’m writing now is not my personal dogmatic belief.  I’m not pening down my thought in terms of superstition because I’m fearful of retributive Truth of process becoming.

Many Religions but One Truth

I’m describing the Truth of God (Ḥaqq = Ḥaqīqah) or Emptiness (Buddha-nature) as It really is . This is the quintessence of the esoteric religion – the Process Theism or Sufism and Buddhism. Sufism, Mahāyānism and Hinduism are esoterically  identical though they are exoterically dissimilar. There is only one truth (ekaṃ saccaṃ) of moral accountability in the cosmos. It can not be two (na dutīyam). As long as a member of a teamwork does not see himself or herself as an integral part of the larger Whole, he or she can affect the team performance because of the  absence of Ihsān or Prajñā. This is the fundamental religious insight or gnosis  to be realized by all believers.

Conclusion

If one is wise enough to see oneself as an inseparable part of the larger Whole, he sees Anattā. Anattā is the Truth of God (Ḥaqq), Insubstantiality  or Emptiness (‘Sūnyatā). All world’s religions seek wisdom through the inner Heart. All esoteric religions are esoterically infinite and beyond designation. If one  discredits other religions, one demeans one’s own Lord. All believers and non-believers are encompassed by the Lord without exception. There is only one eternal Truth or one Lord in the cosmos. God shepherds both believers and non-believers towards the inner Heart – the temple of God or Buddha. When the world functions with the inner Heart rather than with mere intellect and emotion, any global crisis can be fixed. Intellect and emotion are the domains of the left-brain function; the inner Heart is the domain of the right-brain function. Both the left and right brains functions must be utilized balancedly in order to  mitigate and finally fix the 2008-2009 global financial crisis and all other global crises. When all act positively together in unity, the financial crisis can be addressed. Together we can make the change in the process Reality of the world including the financial reality.