Money, Sex, War, Karma Quotes

“People are "punished" or "rewarded" not for what they have done but for what they have become, and what we intentionally do is what makes us what we are.”
― David R. Loy, Money, Sex, War, Karma: Notes for a Buddhist Revolution

“the gross national product could no longer be confused with our gross national happiness. the fact that any such movement would be resisted tooth and nail, points to the heart of the problem. the influence of major corporations, not only on the economy, but also on the government, and on our ways of thinking. US militarism and foreign policy over the last century or so, cannot be comprehended without noticing how they have served the interests of big American companies, rather than the American people. our public priorities make little sense, attacking Iraq, enormous military expenditure, no national health system, the growing gap between rich and poor, etc., without understanding the role of corporate media in capturing our attention and moulding our opinions. in a country that prides itself on its democratic traditions, they are the means by which self-serving elites have gained control over national priorities.”
― David R. Loy, Money, Sex, War, Karma: Notes for a Buddhist Revolution

“language affects the ways we experience the world, and ourselves. we usually think of language, when we think of it at all, as something transparent, or like a mirror that reflects things as they really are. the most important realisation of 20th century western philosophy was that language does not simply mirror the world, in fact, it largely determines what we notice and what we do not.”
― David R. Loy, Money, Sex, War, Karma: Notes for a Buddhist Revolution

“they are notoriously difficult to understand, which is why they are respected more than they are actually studied”
― David R. Loy, Money, Sex, War, Karma: Notes for a Buddhist Revolution

“we need to stop evading the emptiness at our core and realise its true nature - lack of money, the great seduction”
― David R. Loy, Money, Sex, War, Karma: Notes for a Buddhist Revolution

“the threat today is not western religions, but psychology and consumerism. is the Dharma becoming another psychotherapy, another commodity to be bought and sold? will western Buddhism become all too compatible with our individualistic consumption patterns, with expensive retreats and initiations, catering to overstressed converts, eager to pursue their own enlightenment? let’s hope not, because Buddhism and the west need each other. despite its economic and technologic dynamism, western civilisation and its globalisation are in trouble, which means all of us are in trouble. the most obvious example is our inability to respond to accelerating climate change, as seriously as it requires. if humanity is to survive and thrive over the next few centuries, there is no need to go on at length here about the other social and ecological crisis that confront us now, which are increasingly difficult to ignore [many of those are considered in the following chapters]. it’s also becoming harder to overlook the fact that the political and economic systems we’re so proud of seem unable to address these problems. one must ask, is that because they themselves are the problem? part of the problem is leadership, or the lack of it, but we can’t simply blame our rulers. it’s not only the lack of a moral core of those who rise to the top, or the institutional defamations that massage their rise, economical and political elites, and there’s not much difference between them anymore. like the rest of us, they are in need of a new vision of possibility, what it means to be human, why we tend to get into trouble, and how we can get out go it, those who benefit the most from the present social arrangements may think of themselves as hardheaded realists, but as self-conscious human beings, we remain motivated by some such vision, weather we’re aware of it or not, as why we love war, points out. even secular modernity is based on a spiritual worldview, unfortunately a deficient one, from a Buddhist perspective.”
― David R. Loy, Money, Sex, War, Karma: Notes for a Buddhist Revolution

“We don’t like to hear this, and we don’t want to believe it when we do. “Those intense feelings I have toward my partner make our physical and emotional bond unique! We are swept up in something wonderful that helps each of us transcend our individual sense of isolation and open up to something other than ourselves.” Yes, your relationship is special, but that is simply because it is yours and not someone else’s. It is part of the game that nature/biology/evolution plays with us, and if we don’t understand this we are in for a fall and more dukkha.”
― David R. Loy, Money, Sex, War, Karma: Notes for a Buddhist Revolution

“Abortion is killing. According to the Pali Canon, the Buddha said that it breaks the first precept to avoid killing or harming any sentient being. Any monastic who encourages a woman to have an abortion has committed a serious offense that requires expiation.We may wonder how much the Buddha knew about the genetic physiology of conception and pregnancy, but the textual prohibition is unambiguous. This absolute rule in early Buddhism is a source of discomfort and embarrassment to many Western Buddhists, and is often ignored by those who are aware of it.”
― David R. Loy, Money, Sex, War, Karma: Notes for a Buddhist Revolution

“Needless to say, there is a karmic rebound. The more we value money, the more we find it used—and the more we use it ourselves—to evaluate us. Money takes on a life of its own, and we end up being manipulated by the symbol we take so seriously. In this sense, the problem is not that we are too materialistic but that we are not materialistic enough, because we are so preoccupied with the symbolism that we end up devaluing life itself.”
― David R. Loy, Money, Sex, War, Karma: Notes for a Buddhist Revolution