Interactive Session with His Majesty the King and Mahatma Gandhi
61
thinking about the topic of just the word “Economy”. I think we have
been derailed if you talk about train; we have been derailed for many
years because of this. I think you remember the National Development
Plan from the beginning. I think for eight sessions they talked about
economy only if you remember. It is only the 9th plan that they start
adding one word of something about ethics or about something but
before that developing the country. It’s only developing economy. So it’s
was never the love, the heart and the soul as what as Desaiji was
speaking. So I think that when we were derailed and now we are coming
back realizing like pendulum. You know, swinging back and forth. I think
we swung to the extreme and now we are kind of coming back because of
we have learnt the lesson that economic growth only is not taking us
anywhere. I look at the word “Economy” and they said that if you are
coming from the base of economy only, then you’re thinking about
investment and when you invest, you think about profit, the best profit
you make from this investment is the best kind of economy. This is just
basic understanding. Now the same act of giving, supposing from giving a
book to Ajarn Chuthathip and I am hoping that she will pay me. If this
book costs me only 50 baht but she paid me 200, I’m making a good deal.
That’s good economy. In the same act but coming from a different
mentality. I give her as a gift of love. I do not expect anything at all. That
is not economy. That is from the best of Siladhamma. That is the best of
Buddhist’s loving kindness giving. So when Desaiji was thinking about this,
the wholeness of Self-Sufficiency Economy. I think we are combining and
we as a country, Thailand as a country, we are based very much on the
Buddhist value. If we understand this Buddhist value, we should able to
connect between economy and the foundation, Buddhist foundation only.
Then we can progress in a positive way. So “Giving” in Buddhist term is to
lessen one’s clinging to wealth that is the Paramita. We do the chanting