What can a Buddhist monk tell us about business?

Phra Anil Sakya, one of Thailand’s most senior Buddhist monks, teaches mindfulness to business executives and to criminals. In Rayong Central, a high-security prison with more than 7,000 inmates, his mindful cognitive therapy programme has an impressive record. Overall, a third of prisoners released from Thai prisons reoffend and are jailed again within three years but, according to Phra Anil, nine out of 10 inmates who do his course never return.

“I asked one murderer who had been paid to kill his victim, why?” Phra Anil recalls of one exchange. “He told me, ‘Venerable Sir, because killing is my job.’ Being mindful is knowing what is wrong or right for humanity, so when I speak to business executives, I teach them they have to put people before profit. Mindfulness is coming back to who you are, changing yourself first before trying to change others.”

The teaching of…