Ignorance of Universal Root and Process Reality: The Cause of Financial Meltdown(2/2)

Wong Weng Hon

National Cohesion

A political ruler or leader and his subjects or ordinary citizens are the collective contigent conditions of the unity of the national concrescence particularly economically. The national concrescence is the process reality of the dynamic process becoming. It is the ontology becoming  of national devlopment of a particular country. The national economic concrescence constitutes its GDP (Gross Domestic Product) . The GDP  is directly proportional to the GNH (Gross National Happiness) to some extent but not absolutely. Some nations may have   high level of GDPs but their GNHs are relatively low because they are internally and confusingly  chaostic or they are confronting internal  dire crises which injure their economies as well as their hearts.

The combined wealth of the GDPs of all interdependent nations constitutes the global economic concrescence. From the perspective of God or Tao or Emptiness, the interconnectedness, interdependence  and integration are the attributes of cosmic  unity of existence in all fields of endeavour which are finally canalized towards economic concrescence. Modern political, economic and social liberalization and globalization are further invigorated by the modern  political philosophy of global association and   consultation through global conferences  , such as UN organized global conferences, G20 , Global Economic Forum and so forthamong the heads of states or their ministers or secretaries. The agenda is aimed at  addressing  global issues on politics, economics, environment, education, medicine and so forth or to mitigate and fix global crises.  

The Whole

The Tathāgatas or  Kalyāṇamittas, and Prophets or Apostles reiterate that every Unity of Existence  is God or Tao or Emptiness. Global conferences are unity of existences. They are sacred and divine as long as sincerity of hearts dwell in the conferences to arrive at concensus. Besides conferences,  human associations , big or small are unities of existences . They are essences of God or Tao or Emptiness. Reality of holistically integrated co-existence is evident everywhere to preserve the existence of the world. God or Tao or Emptiness is immanent and pervasive everywhere. The sole function of religion is to make us aware that each and everyone of us is an integral part of the larger whole of totality. It is intrinsically and ethically necessary for each and everyone of us to play a responsible role as one is always a contigent condition of a larger whole. Responsibility promotes and fosters the Unity of Existence. Unity of Existence actualizes accomplishment and concrescence. When every one plays his or her role deontologically and ethically, systemic risk can be averted. Systemic unity is accomplishment. Accomplishment is the seed of incessant concrescence that constitutes the creative advance of the world.

The political and economic turmoils erupt  in many troubled spots of the world today because disunities of existence have  created the systemic risks resulting in  national or global crises .  Religion teaches that “I play my role well and you play your role well to actualize unity of existence.” Reciprocal relationship harmonizes human relationships through deontological ethics. Harmony is unity of existence.

Every unity of existence is an accomplishment. When there is unity of existence, there will not be any obstruction to impede the dynamic flow of process becoming. The entire world is a dynamic process Reality conglomerated from countless unities of existences at various levels of accomplishment and concrescence. This Reality of dynamic of cosmic Unity of Existence  is dissimilarly designated as Brahman, Tao, Buddha, God  and Allah. In fact, every substantial actual entity of conditioned phenomenon, either material or spiritual  phenomenon  prehended by Man is a dynamic process becoming of unity of existence .

Prehension is the substantial perception of all phenomena. It is an object reification derived from human conceptualization constructed upon the ontology of substantiality. The entire universe is constituted from the integration of all substantial actual entities prehended or reified  by Man.  The entire universe is an infinite process Reality of dynamic process becoming in which the reified actual entities are impermanent and mutable. If one can comprehend the impermanent and mutable multiplicity of the process Reality, one would have comprehended the ultimate Reality of God, Tao or Emptiness. Such ontological apprehension obliterates the self-centric ego illusively superimposed by ordinary worldlings. Intuitive comprehension of Process Reality is perennial wisdom. From Mahāyāna perspective,  perennial wisdom is the perfection of wisdom.

Be Responsible

Everyone is a role-player. Everyone has a duty to perform.  Both big or small players are equally important as contigent conditions of the unity of totality. All screws and nuts, either big or small, in the structure of a ocean liner  are equally important in supporting the engineering or architectural structure of the liner. Every accomplishment is the satisfaction of Man. The satisfaction of Man is also the satisfaction of God or Tao or Emptiness. The satisfaction of the Absolute is harmonious association of all contigent conditions of unity of existence. Unity of breeds accomplishment. The continuous expansion or growth of accomplishment breeds concrescence.

 Taoistically put, the satisfaction of Tao is the accomplishment consummated by the balanced unity between Yin and Yang. Yin represents the hidden or unmanifest  Principle or Truth. Yang represents the manifest phenomena, such as human will, right effort  and right livelihood. Accomplishment is the equilibrium between Yin and Yang. When Yin and Yang are balanced , there exists harmony of association of cause and association. Harmony of association of cause and conditions is Emptiness. The satisfaction of Emptiness denotes the harmonious association or conglomeration of contigent cause and conditions. Man is the main cause and the external environmental supporting factors are the contigent conditions. Though they are dissimilarly paraphrased, God, Tao, and  Emptiness are synonyms or parallel.

Low GNH

The current world’s GNH (Gross National Happiness) is relatively low with respect to the world’s current GNP (Gross National Product) in the aftermath of the financial meltdown and prolonged economic recession.  The gap between GNP and GNH is being widened each day by unceasing occurrence of crisis after crisis. The misfortunes or adversities are mirrored from the current financial crisis and eco-crisis of global warming  and climate change, wars, political tensions, terrorism, extremism, sectarianism, racialism, demonization of others, separatism, overdose of immature representative democracy, violation of human rights and the gravest of all, religious ignorance.

 The gap between GNP and GNH is being widened as the spiritual desert of the secular state is expanding. It is an opportune time that spiritual oasis should be created in the spiritual desert of the secular state. The spiritual oasis is a more serious integration of the secular life with spiritual life. We have seen enough of the mirages in the spiritual desert. The oasis will refresh and rejuvenate our minds made fatigued by the spiritual desert.

Main Problem

In order to resurrect the human innate supreme virtue of conscience and sincerity, we must  discover the communal Truth  of God or Tao or Emptiness (Buddha). This absolute Truth is the one and the only Root of all sentient beings – the cosmic Self. The goal of life is to discover this universal  Root. Without the knowledge or awareness of this Root, human beings are deluded and have gone astray. Deluded human beings cause problems to themselves as well as to  others.

Statistics data on the population of different religions derived from the adherents.com database reveals that 20% o of the world’s population have no religions. They are either agnostics, atheists, secular humanists and so forth. Pleasantly, about 80% of the global population are adherents of either Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and other faiths. Alas!, a very small portion of these 80% adherents truly know their Lord or the  eternal Truth by themselves in themselves. Consequently, their FQs (Faith Quotient) are relatively low.  Whoever knows himself or herself knows the Lord. Knowing the Lord or Truth is pure faith. Pure faith is unshakeable belief in the Lord or Truth. The world is currently imperilled because the FQ of  its populace is generally low.

Unity of Existence

To know the Lord, Man must know himself through himself. One must know oneself esoterically in order to know the communal Truth of Wisdom. The communal Truth of Wisdom for all faith adherents of the major world’s religions is the Unity of Existence. Buddhistly put, Unity of Existence is the dependently co-arisen Unity or Non-duality. To test whether one knows the Unity of Existence in the profound spiritual sense, one must read the Scriptures of their respective religions. If one comprehends and is able to love the Truth or Lord and  the neighbour, one truly knows one’s  religion.

Whoever is a true knower of his or her own religion or Lord is never a contributor to the systemic risk to the ongoing 2008-2009 financial meltdown and the teetering global economy. Many religious adherents are still carnal or false believers. They are still driven by the self-centric ego. As long as one is driven by  one’s ego self, one will prioritize one’s self interest over public interest. It is in this way that one is alienated from God or Tao or Emptiness.

Private and Public Victories

When one is self-centred, one is separated from the dynamic process becoming of unity of existence. That separation creates a potential systemic risk. When one is public-centred, one is more concerned about public victory rather than private victory. When public victory is prioritized, one enters selflessly  in full communion with the unity of dynamic process becoming of the task or assignment  at hand. The consequence is the accomplishment of Unity of Existence. In other words, if all the team members of a  project, commercial or non-commercial, pull themselves together and strive for the communal goal of aspiration much  like the burning spirit of a five-star soccer team in the maximal spirit of oneness, accomplishment will be the natural outcome. Metaphorically put, when all tributaries slope, slant and incline towards the River Ganges, it will eventually reach the common destination – the Indian Ocean. Interestingly, all world’s religions slope, slant and incline towards the Ocean of Unity.

The main cause of the lack or absence of  faith in the Lord (the one and only universal Root) is that they do not really comprehend  the message of the universal Root. The Root is  the communal Truth of perennial wisdom (sanātana prajñā) to be discovered by all religious adherents of dissimilar faiths. The perennial wisdom is the knowledge of Theosophy which is called the perfection of wisdom (prajñāpāramitā) in Buddhism. It is designated as Tao in the Chinese Taoist philosophy. It is designated as God in Monotheism. It is called Brahman in Hinduism.

Systemic Truth

Buddhistly put, the toxic contigent conditions shatter asunder  the dependently co-arisen Unity of Existence.  They oppose the Dharma (Truth) of Emptiness. Generally put, material, labour and overhead are undoubtedly the primary contigent conditions for the sustenance of a manufacturing business entity. Every business system is a process Reality of systemic growth linked with the global process reality of economic concrescence.  Most importantly, the decisive contigent conditions sustaining the contigent conditions of material, labour and overhead in a manufacturing entity are virtue ethics of non-greed and the deontological ethics of duty and  responsibility. Thus, we perceive that the Total Quality Management (TQM) of any business system is an important regulation and oversight mechanism to ensure the production of quality goods or services at competitive prices to gain a larger market share. In the aftermath of the current global financial crisis and economic depression, TQM  functions should become two-fold. Besides its first usual function of maintaining productivity, its second function should be strategized to oversee human moral flaws that may develop the systemic risk. The first function oversees the physical defect; the second function oversees the moral defect.

The financial industry must be tightly regulated and strictly overseen by a more tightened TQM than the manufacturing industry. The financial institutions are much more intimately integrated with all other commercial industries, businesses  families, and  individuals than the manufacturing concerns. The financial systemic risk and its erupted crisis are very contagious like the diffusion of the cancerous cells. The financial crisis is like a huge wave which heaves and ripples globally. It affects more victims than the 2004 Asian tsunami which assailed only its victims in Asia .

 Yin and Yang

 The factors of economic production, such as material, labour and overhead in a manufacturing concern are materialistic or physical. These production factors are phenomenal. The wisdom and virtue  sustaining these factors of production are spiritual principle. We live in a biporal Reality of phenomena and principle. Secularity is phenomenal whilst wisdom and virtue are the attributes  of spirituality. Hence, it is obvious that secularity and spirituality are never divorced.

Chinese-philosophically put, the phenomenon  is the aspect of ‘Yang’ (陽) and the spirituality is that of  ‘Yin’ (陰) according to the Process Reality of Taoism. The bipolar Truth of the equilibrium or unity  between Yin and Yang  is Tao that mirrors the bipolar Reality of phenomena and principle or any pair of bipolar poles. The intercourse between  Yin  and Yang produces the phenomenal world – human accomplishments  constituting global economic concrescence. The global economic concrescence is the  creative advance of the icons of modern civilization. The equilibrium unity between Yin and Yang is synonymous with the bipolar monotheistic bipolar concept of God or Buddhist concept of Middle View Philosophy of interpenetration between phenomenon and principle.

The ongoing financial crisis has occurred because of the loss of dynamic equilibrium  or unity between  Yin and Yang . The harmony between Yin and Yang is the unity of non-duality. The current economic concrescence of mainland China is the consequence of the political ideology of current wise political leaders of China emphasizing the culture of harmonious cohesion in all fields of co-operation and collaboration. Current Chinese political ideology emphasizes  the harmony of living. Harmony of living is the harmony of association of cause and conditions. The harmony of cause and conditions is Buddhistly designated as Emptiness. Emptiness is the Essence of Reality of Tao.

Culture of Harmony

The Chinese philosophy of Neo-confucianism advocates the paramount importance of harmony (人以和為貴) and opposes chaos (averting luan;不可亂)  to preserve harmony of life. Traditionally, Chinese parents teach their children to avert chaos (luan) since their childhood. It is translated into the Buddhist concept of perfection of tolerance. I rejoice to note that Islamic philosophy or Prophet Muhammad promulgates that tolerance or patience is more than half of their  faith in Islam.

In fact, Whoever intuitively discerns  Insubstantiality (Anattā) and Emptiness (‘Sūnyatā  ) discerns  not only the Buddha but also the God.  Buddha is soteriological state of alienation from ego self. God is also the deliverance  from ego self. Theosophically, God equals Buddha as they share the communal Attributes of selflessness and egolessness. Thus, I conclude that whoever sees God or Buddha will not contribute a systemic risk resulting in an eventual systemic crisis like the ongoing 2008-2009 financial crisis.

When the transnational corporations in the west, especially in the U.S, the largest major national economy, sneeze, those in the east also catch the cold. In this world of increasingly globalization and liberalization, the earth community is increasingly innately connected. What one does affect so many others. What occurs in a nation affect other nations. The recent crisis of H1N1 flu is a concrete example. This is a dependently co-arisen world of contigent beings or dependent conditions. The world is an organic or holistic totality or the whole. Weakening any contigent condition will weaken the totality or the whole. The borderless world mirrors the divine Truth of Unity of Existence.

Protecting Self and Others

In the Satipațțhāna Saṃyutta of the Pāli Nikāya, Gotama Buddha promulgates that protecting oneself, one protects others; protecting others, one protects oneself. The wisdom of four establishments of mindfulness is the perfect Self-Protection. Having protected the moral Precepts, having developed right concentration, and having intuitively apprehended the Four Noble Truths,  one’s  self-protection is fully consummated. The self-protected person is one who is perfectly heedful to protect his or her six sense  doors from being defiled with spiritual taints (āsavas).

In the Confucian Classic of Learning , we are advised by the Confucian strategy of self-cultivation thus : Having known one’s True Self of innate perfection of virtue, one manifests the innate supreme virtue of sincerity of Heart. Having dwelled in the inner Heart of conscience, one rectifies one’s mind. Having rectified one’s mind, one becomes self-cultivated. Having been self-cultivated, one harmonizes relationship with others. If one is a political ruler, one harmonizes  the relationship with the citizentry. Having harmonized the relationship with the citizentry, the nation is secure and peaceful.

Conclusion

Since financial or economic industry is anthropocentric, Man is the foremost contigent condition in preserving the sustainable development of the dynamic process becoming of global economic concrescence. When manpower is  morally flawed, the contigent condition of immoral manpower becomes toxic. The toxicity of the contigent condition develops into a systemic risk. Unregulated or unforeseen systemic risk results in systemic crisis. Economic enterprise is merely phenomenal. If a phenomenon is not regulated or foreseen  by the principle of spirituality, the world will endlessly be troubled by man-made crises.