Financialized Wall Street; Wall Streetized financial industry
Strictly speaking, what Sakyamuni did was not to spread the teachings of Buddhism for 50 years, but to spend 50 years to gradually convey and explain an extremely profound and unfathomable idea to mortals, and to enable the relevant ideas to be understood in the world. Take root in the world.
Author: GUDORDI | 2023-05-23
Over the past 200 years, Wall Street has grown from a small street in Manhattan to a pivotal force in the global financial world. (Shutterstock)
“Wall Street is the only place in the world where people ride on rolls Royce to seek advice from people riding the subway.” who take subways)
──Warren Buffett
“When it touches the teeth, the words are like the root of radish; when it touches the ears, the words are like a dustpan; when it touches the head, the words are like a stone; when it touches the nose, the words are like a pestle; when it touches the feet, the words are like a pestle. It’s like a wooden mortar; when it touches the spine, it’s like a bed; when it touches the belly, it’s like an urn; when it touches the tail, it’s like a rope.”
──Volume 32 of the “Nirvana Sutra” is also the ultimate source of the widely circulated story of “the blind man touching the elephant”.
The "impossible mission" of "the first three and seven days of Huayan"...
What not many people may know is that during the fifty years of Buddha Sakyamuni’s promotion of Buddhism, he focused on different places at different times. The understanding of the relevant process can bring a lot of enlightenment to our understanding of the Buddha’s mental journey, the nature of Buddhism and other issues. From this perspective, the following verses from Gude (generally referring to Gao Hate whose name has not been traced in ancient times) are worth pondering.
The first thirty-seven days of Huayan
Agama’s twelve directions and eight
Twenty-two years of Prajna talk
Lotus Nirvana lasted for eight years
Basically, the above verse is a very concise and comprehensive summary of the six different stages of the Buddha’s 50 years of promoting Buddhism, which are:
1. Avatamsaka Sutra (21st)
2. The Four Agama Sutras (12 years)
3. Fang et al. (8 years)
4. Prajna Sutra (22 years)
5. Lotus Sutra (8 years)
6. Nirvana Sutra (there are different versions, from one day and one night to three months)
In the author’s opinion, to understand the Buddha’s mental journey, we must first understand the essence of the Avatamsaka Sutra. According to records, the Buddha was determined to find out the secrets of life and the universe under the bodhi tree. After seven or forty-nine days of hard thinking, he finally became enlightened and became a Buddha. According to records, Sakyamuni was so excited after his enlightenment that he immediately couldn’t wait to express his understanding – this is the main content of the Avatamsaka Sutra. According to records, the Buddha spent thirty-seven and twenty-one days expounding the Avatamsaka Sutra under the Bodhi tree where he attained enlightenment. Although many of the people who listened to the sermon at that time were already prominent and knowledgeable people, it was a pity that it was No one could understand what he was talking about!
According to records, this experience made the Buddha deeply feel that ordinary people should not be able to understand the Avatamsaka Sutra, because he who had realized the Tao seemed to be standing on the top of a mountain that towered into the clouds, and was just a mortal on the ground. , would not be able to see what he saw. Therefore, from then on, the Buddha understood that if he did not want to stay in a state of self-admiration forever, he could only change his strategy and start from the low level; from the shallower to the deeper, first Agama, then the Dharma. And so on, followed by Prajna and Lotus, one layer deeper than the other. Therefore, strictly speaking, what Sakyamuni did was not to spread the teachings of Buddhism for 50 years, but to spend 50 years to gradually convey and explain an extremely profound and unfathomable idea to mortals, and to make the relevant ideas Can take root in the human world. From this perspective, what the Buddha did can be regarded as an “impossible mission” (Mission Impossible).
Before the Buddha entered Nirvana, he had already informed his disciples in advance that he was about to enter Nirvana, so they had to quickly ask the questions they wanted him to answer. Therefore, the Nirvana Sutra is indeed the last holy teaching of the Buddha. (Shutterstock)
Can Buddhism and finance have something in common?
In any case, the Nirvana Sutra is the last chapter on the Buddha’s mission of spreading the Dharma. According to records, before the Buddha passed away, he had informed his disciples in advance that he was about to pass away, so they had to quickly ask the questions they wanted him to answer. Therefore, the Nirvana Sutra is indeed the last holy teaching of the Buddha. There are different opinions on the time it took for the Buddha to reach his true Nirvana after telling his disciples, ranging from one day and one night to three months, but in short it was not a long time. This is believed to highlight the “blind man touching the elephant” in the Nirvana Sutra and above. ”The importance of stories.
I have talked so much about Buddhism and “the blind man and the elephant” to point out that we can actually understand finance from the same perspective. Relatively speaking, finance is of course far less profound than Buddhism, but on many levels, they both have something in common. For example, the concept of “emptiness” in Buddhism may be a clue to understanding what finance is. In addition, the above metaphor of “the blind man touching the elephant” can be used not only to understand Buddhism, but also to understand what finance is.
The importance of the nature of Wall Street
From a certain perspective, the views of Soros and Swede mentioned above can be understood as different parts of the “elephant” in the financial world. They each expressed their opinions based on their own experiences. What is finance in their mind? In the author’s opinion, Schwed’s insights are particularly worthy of attention. In addition to Buffett’s recommendation, another important reason is that Wall Street’s importance and influence in the modern international financial market are greater than they were two hundred years ago. Much bigger, so to understand modern finance and economics, can we ignore the nature of Wall Street and Wall Street culture.
It can be said that in the past 200 years, Wall Street has developed from a small street in Manhattan drawn by the wall by the Dutch in the 17th century (this is the origin of the name Wall Street) to a force in the global financial world. Its importance and influence should be no less than those of the commercial banks that once dominated the global financial industry. From this perspective, the two major structural developments in the global financial industry over the past 200 years are the financialization of Wall Street and the Wall Streetization of the financial industry. This is an important issue for the future of Hong Kong, because it is related to whether Hong Kong must continue to develop into an international financial center and whether Hong Kong must completely follow Wall Street’s rules. I will talk about it again.
“Hong Kong’s Legendary Future” Series 31
Contact the author: Gudordi@proton.me
