Laszlo Zsolnai’s paper “Economics Beyond the Self” was published in the book “Co-Designing Economies in Transition – Radical Approaches in Dialogue with Contemplative Social Sciences” (Editors: Vincenzo Giorgino and Zack Walsh, Palgrave, 2018).
Zsolnai emphasizes that almost all wisdom traditions of humankind require some form of self-transcendence of the ego of the person to achieve a meaningful and ethical life. This paper uses the example of Buddhism to show how “going beyond the self ” can be realized in economic and social contexts. Buddhist economics is presented as a strategy, which can be applied in a variety of contexts. Buddhist economics may help
Buddhist and non-Buddhist people alike to create livelihoods which aim to reduce the suffering of human and non-human beings by practicing non-violence, caring and generosity.