ลงทุนในธุรกิจที่ผิดศีลธรรม ผู้ลงทุนจะได้รับวิบากกรรมด้วยหรือไม่?Investing in an Immoral Business — Does the Investor Also Receive Bad Karma?

Someone asked: if we buy stock in a company whose business breaks the moral precepts (for example, an arms company), even though it seems certain to turn a profit, is there a risk of picking up some of that bad karma along with it? Three questions were raised: (1) If we buy shares in a company that acts immorally, do we also receive the result of that wrongdoing, and why? (2) If someone buys the stock specifically to get money for making merit, do they gain merit or bad karma? (3) Why do stocks like this seem so easy to spot right when they're about to turn a profit — almost as if something is luring people to buy in heavily, getting them entangled in bad karma along with it?

Is Investing in an Immoral Business Really Wrongdoing?

Phra Ajarn compared this to investing in a slaughterhouse. The Lord Buddha taught clearly about right livelihood — that one should not take up work trading in weapons, in life, or in poison, because these are trades that bring suffering to the world and to living beings.

If no one invested in them, these trades would gradually disappear from the world. But the more people support them, the more others are drawn to take them up too, seeing that support brings profit. It is the same with the liquor trade — territories are divided up, licenses are auctioned, and business booms. When people drink themselves into a stupor, it leads to suffering: families fall into conflict, unable to live in peace, and sickness follows.

Whether our involvement or support is direct or indirect, it always has an effect. Indirect support brings an indirect karmic result; direct support brings a direct one.

Buying the Stock to Fund Merit-Making — Still Bad Karma?

Even if someone buys such shares with good intentions, meaning to use the proceeds for merit-making, Phra Ajarn said it is still bad karma, and that karma will come back to cause trouble for that person later.

Why Do These Profit Opportunities Seem So Easy to Spot?

Phra Ajarn explained that what lures us in is really our own unwholesome mind. It creates a false sense of certainty that this is a golden opportunity, that profit is guaranteed. That confidence comes from an inner prompting of unwholesomeness, meant to draw us in. Once we are drawn in, it becomes a channel for wrongdoing to enter, bearing fruit both in the near and distant future. Wrongdoing not yet placed on our life's path, even a mountain of it, gets pulled in right at the moment we act on this cause, creating suffering for us both now and later.

Impure Wealth Is Like Carrying Water in a Woven Basket

Two more stories were shared. In the first, someone who once worked at a food company with a slaughtering process was sent one day to observe it directly. Seeing it, he could not accept it, and resigned on the spot.

In the second, someone asked why their income had grown noticeably better recently, yet somehow there was never much left over, as if the money always found a way out. Phra Ajarn answered by recalling a dream his own teacher, Luangphor, once had: wealth like this is impure, tainted at the root. Making a donation from it still yields the merit of giving, but because the wealth itself was gained through wrong view, it is impure, and that impurity creates the conditions for it to leak away. The remedy is to shift to work grounded in right view.

Phra Ajarn likened it to scooping water with a woven basket, you can scoop up a lot, but by the time you lift it out, the water has leaked through and almost nothing is left. Better to scoop with a rice spoon: you will get less each time, but none of it leaks away.

The Inner Mechanism That Steers Us Toward the Right Path

Phra Ajarn explained further that within us there is a manager of our resources, the Wheel-Turning King's Seven Treasures, the guardian who administers what we have. When we resolve not to be involved in wrong livelihood, a mental factor of right livelihood arises, which connects with this inner guardian, helping to redirect us toward investing in something else instead, something not bound up with wrong livelihood. If we keep forcing our way into it anyway, the unwholesome mental factor takes over, and we can no longer remain within a wholesome state of mind.

When we resolve in our heart not to be involved with what is wrong, that inner guardian looks for a way to help. Try setting that resolve, and real change follows, this is something each person has to test for themselves, proving the mechanism at work within their own mind. It is this wholesome mental factor that governs our life. All the wealth we have comes from the merit we have already made; it is our own merit that draws wealth to us, not any one particular source. Resolving to keep life pure, uninvolved with wrongdoing, becomes a lasting disposition, so there is nothing to be uneasy about later, and what wealth comes will come from what is right and good.

An Example: Leaving Wrong Livelihood and Still Prospering

Another story: a family that came regularly to the temple had a member who once worked at a large alcohol company, and had to go out often at night for work, since the business revolved around nightlife venues, something the family could not accept. After about a year, he resigned without another job lined up, and started a small training business. Income was thin at first, and his partner had to help support the family. Later he found a business grounded in right view, stayed with it, and it has since grown into a large, thriving enterprise.

Phra Ajarn said that the merit already within us can draw in wealth to sustain our life regardless of what we are involved with, good or bad, it is not that only one particular source can provide for us. Even without any involvement in wrong livelihood, our own merit can draw wealth just as well through the right channels.