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Previous Section: Foreword
1). Preamble – The Case for the Buddha Influencing Marx
Karl Marx was born in Trier, Prussia, on May 5th, 1818, to an intellectual (secular) Jewish family. At 17-years-old he enrolled at Bonn University and attended for one-year, before transferring his studies to Berlin University where he stayed until 1840. In Berlin, he became ever more interested in the thinking of Hegel, and finally attained his doctorate in philosophy in 1841. He secured this distinction with a thesis on post-Aristotelian Greek philosophy. If the Asian (Indian) philosophy of Early Buddhism is proven as influencing the development ideology of Scientific Socialism, then the entire complexion of the work of Marx and Engels changes, and makes any allegation of ‘Eurocentrism’ (as asserted by Edward Said), less than tenuous. Karl Marx was extraordinarily placed in the 19th century to study Early Buddhist philosophy in the German language, within the context of secular, Western culture. He encountered Buddhist ideology as an ‘intellectual’ episode in the history of the evolution of human thought. He did not witness ‘cultural’ Buddhism within the context of its everyday Asian milieu, and therefore this highly specialisation encountering of the ‘Dhamma’ (the ‘Teachings’ of the Buddha) by Marx, allowed his modern and progressive mind to see the ‘philosophical’ truth of the Buddha’s schematic ‘outside’ of any assumed religious context. In this regard, Buddhism is almost always encountered in the West this way today, but during the lifetime of Karl Marx, Buddhism was not well-known within any Western society (despite extensive ‘Eurocentric’ imperialist projects abroad). Karl Marx utilised the Buddha’s understanding of ‘being’ as a distinct and central contribution to his theory of historical necessity (or practical materialism), and this influence provided a major facet of the ideology of Classical Marxism, also referred to as the Scientific Socialism that Marx and Engels developed. The Marxist ideology associated with the concept of ‘historical materialism’ is a development of interpretive Early Buddhist philosophy developed for explaining modern conditions. Materialism is formulated without excluding the mind or regressing into religiosity. The mind must be recognised but the habitual imagination of ‘religion’ rejected, so that human perception is purified to think clearly and perceive material conditions correctly (via the agency of sensation). Just as Marx rejects the dualism of spirit and matter, the Buddha rejects the notion of Brahma and the illusion of the physical world he is supposed to have created. Asia has its share of gods and spirits, but the Buddha (who is sometimes referred to as the world’s first ‘modern’ thinker), through an act of will, ‘sees’ psychologically beyond the era within which he physically exists. The idea that sensory-object, bodily sense-organ and perceptive mind are inherently linked through evolution is ground-breaking and worthy of further research. The perceptual activity of the mind is not separate from the material world, but is an extension of matter that can be accurately described as ‘rarefied’ matter. Bodily-sensation is a necessary ‘barrier’ for this system to function properly, although in its unrealised form it often gives the false impression of a ‘mind’ being separate from the ‘world’ it perceives. This is the cardinal error that leads to religiosity and the loss of correct interpretive insight, as the perceiving mind emerges from the physical organ of the brain, and is definitely an aspect of physical matter.
Next Section: 2). Introduction – How the Buddha Influenced Marx
Return To Index
Previous Section: Foreword
1). Preamble – The Case for the Buddha Influencing Marx
Karl Marx was born in Trier, Prussia, on May 5th, 1818, to an intellectual (secular) Jewish family. At 17-years-old he enrolled at Bonn University and attended for one-year, before transferring his studies to Berlin University where he stayed until 1840. In Berlin, he became ever more interested in the thinking of Hegel, and finally attained his doctorate in philosophy in 1841. He secured this distinction with a thesis on post-Aristotelian Greek philosophy. If the Asian (Indian) philosophy of Early Buddhism is proven as influencing the development ideology of Scientific Socialism, then the entire complexion of the work of Marx and Engels changes, and makes any allegation of ‘Eurocentrism’ (as asserted by Edward Said), less than tenuous. Karl Marx was extraordinarily placed in the 19th century to study Early Buddhist philosophy in the German language, within the context of secular, Western culture. He encountered Buddhist ideology as an ‘intellectual’ episode in the history of the evolution of human thought. He did not witness ‘cultural’ Buddhism within the context of its everyday Asian milieu, and therefore this highly specialisation encountering of the ‘Dhamma’ (the ‘Teachings’ of the Buddha) by Marx, allowed his modern and progressive mind to see the ‘philosophical’ truth of the Buddha’s schematic ‘outside’ of any assumed religious context. In this regard, Buddhism is almost always encountered in the West this way today, but during the lifetime of Karl Marx, Buddhism was not well-known within any Western society (despite extensive ‘Eurocentric’ imperialist projects abroad). Karl Marx utilised the Buddha’s understanding of ‘being’ as a distinct and central contribution to his theory of historical necessity (or practical materialism), and this influence provided a major facet of the ideology of Classical Marxism, also referred to as the Scientific Socialism that Marx and Engels developed. The Marxist ideology associated with the concept of ‘historical materialism’ is a development of interpretive Early Buddhist philosophy developed for explaining modern conditions. Materialism is formulated without excluding the mind or regressing into religiosity. The mind must be recognised but the habitual imagination of ‘religion’ rejected, so that human perception is purified to think clearly and perceive material conditions correctly (via the agency of sensation). Just as Marx rejects the dualism of spirit and matter, the Buddha rejects the notion of Brahma and the illusion of the physical world he is supposed to have created. Asia has its share of gods and spirits, but the Buddha (who is sometimes referred to as the world’s first ‘modern’ thinker), through an act of will, ‘sees’ psychologically beyond the era within which he physically exists. The idea that sensory-object, bodily sense-organ and perceptive mind are inherently linked through evolution is ground-breaking and worthy of further research. The perceptual activity of the mind is not separate from the material world, but is an extension of matter that can be accurately described as ‘rarefied’ matter. Bodily-sensation is a necessary ‘barrier’ for this system to function properly, although in its unrealised form it often gives the false impression of a ‘mind’ being separate from the ‘world’ it perceives. This is the cardinal error that leads to religiosity and the loss of correct interpretive insight, as the perceiving mind emerges from the physical organ of the brain, and is definitely an aspect of physical matter.
Next Section: 2). Introduction – How the Buddha Influenced Marx
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