Volume 33, 2026

The Canonical Logic of Prosperity: A Triadic Moral Psychology of Economic Ethics in Early Buddhism

Siong Lee Koh
Independent Researcher

This article reconstructs an early canonical account of Buddhist prosperity by examining the moral psychology in the early Buddhist texts and their Chinese Āgama parallels. Contemporary discussions of “Buddhist economics” often invoke compassion, moderation, non-harming, and mindfulness without sustained attention to the canonical analysis of desire. Drawing on a comparative philological study, this article argues that early Buddhism articulates a distinct ethical logic of economic life through a triadic transformation of motivation: from craving (taṇhā) to wholesome aspiration (chanda); sustained by rapturous diligence (pīti and appamāda); and culminating in contentment (santuṭṭhi). This progression reorganizes the familiar economic sequence of desire, effort, and satisfaction into a moral continuum that culminates not in accumulation but in equilibrium. The resulting “canonical logic of prosperity” reframes well-being as arising from certain ethical conditions rather than the maximization of consumption or preference satisfaction. By clarifying the doctrinal contours of aspiration, affect, and contentment, the article offers a constructive contribution to debates in economic ethics, well-being theory, and the moral psychology of desire. It argues that early Buddhism provides not merely an alternative set of values but a coherent conceptual architecture for understanding economic agency and the cultivation of sustainable prosperity.

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