Buddha Break

Business Week has published a special report on what it calls 'Karma Capitalism.' As the caption reads, "Times have changed since Gordon Gekko quoted Sun Tzu in the 1987 movie Wall Street. Has the Bhagavad Gita replaced The Art of War as the hip new ancient Eastern management text?"

My friend and fellow Buddhist Mike LaTorra had this to say about the article:

At the risk of prejudicing readers before they have even read this article, I feel compelled to offer my own comment up-front. The article points out that the formerly "hot" ancient book for business wisdom was Sun Tzu's ART OF WAR, but now it's the BHAGAVAD GITA. If one were being charitable, one might say that businessmen have turned from the one book to the very different other one because everything of value had already been learned from the first book. If one were more cynical (or perhaps, more realistic) one could say that businessmen are always looking for new sources of advice because they are under constant competitive threat and cannot afford to overlook any possible source of help, no matter how outlandish, and -- like a placebo -- nearly any "words of wisdom" can seem to help for awhile. But fairly soon this new source of wisdom will be replaced by another. And another.