眾生無邊誓願度
煩惱無盡誓願斷
法門無量誓願學
佛道無上誓願成

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Dharma Teachings

24 Sep 2020    Thursday     4th Teach Total 2643

Can Buddhist practitioners play the stock market?

Among the Eightfold Path there is right livelihood (samyag-ājīva) and right action. Right livelihood means supporting oneself and one's family in a reasonable way that neither deceives others nor harms their interests; otherwise, the path one follows is not right but wrong. Right action is the same: all occupations and activities one engages in must be right; one must not engage in deceptive, harmful, wrongful occupations or use wrongful methods. Harming others' interests is neither the conduct of a bodhisattva nor something any cultivator of the Path should do. There is cause and effect there, and in the future the karmic consequences must be repaid. A bodhisattva should thoroughly understand cause and effect and strictly abide by the laws of causality, and thus will be free from faults and perils. A bodhisattva's mental conduct should be that of sacrificing oneself for others. In engaging in worldly occupations, the most basic conduct should be not harming the interests of sentient beings; at the very least, one should achieve a win-win outcome, rather than winning while others lose. If a win-win outcome cannot be achieved, one would rather lose oneself than let others lose. Is the mentality of those who play the stock market really one of preferring to lose themselves so that others may win? Can a win-win outcome be achieved there?

——Master Sheng-Ru's Teachings
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