His Holiness the Dalai Lama - Beginning of introduction

Why am I writing this book now? Because I feel we all should have a sincere concern and responsibility for how the global economy operates, and an interest in the role of businesses in shaping our interconnectedness. Times have changed and I believe that leaders of religious traditions—with their ability to take a long view—should participate in discussions of global business and economics. Our world faces very serious problems. Those that are of particular concern to me include how to alleviate poverty in poor countries; the fact that even in prosperous countries the sense of satisfaction with life has been stagnating since 1950; the negative impact on the environment that is a result of negligence and of our ever-increasing population and rising standards of living; and, finally, the lack of peace in many parts of the world.
Because Buddhism takes a rational and logical attitude to such problems, its approach is sometimes easier to understand for those who are not religious. There is a stress on human values and particularly on the importance of motivation—how humans can be taught to take a holistic approach to solving society’s problems. This is an important contribution that Buddhism can make to these discussions. - Click here for complete text

Laurens van den Muyzenberg - Beginning of introduction

This project is about the meeting of two worlds: my world of management consulting, more specifically the global marketplace, and the Dalai Lama’s world of Tibetan Buddhism. At the beginning, my knowledge of Buddhist teachings was limited; so too was the Dalai Lama’s experience with economics and the world of business. Although His Holiness had studied the socialist system and the works of Karl Marx, his exposure to the free market system was more limited. The idea was that I would brief the Dalai Lama on an economic issue and the Dalai Lama would comment on the issues based on his perspective.
These discussions covered many of the basics of business and as such had little to do with Buddhism. However, it soon became clear that the Dalai Lama wanted to understand and see the big picture—how business fits into society and the true meaning of “corporate responsibility.” - Click here for complete text

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Prof. C.O. Herkströter
Former CEO of Shell and Chairman of the Board of ING.