In and of itself, Marxist ideology is very difficult to understand without committed study, experience and dialectical debate. This is absolutely fine if an individual is lucky enough to be born into a Socialist State which possesses a progressive education system. If an individual lives in a Socialist State – then all the components exist within their educational environment that are required to facilitate this process. As no bourgeois ‘inversion’ exists, and given that there is no longer any capitalist corruption or exploitation, a young person is educated within an a priori ‘Marxist’ milieu where there is no contradiction or deliberate policy of ‘undermining’ this reality! So far, so good. However, if a person is born into a predatory capitalist society, then any attempt at securing a sound Marxist education is very much an experience of swimming against the current. As persecution is rife, it is very difficult to establish and secure a Marxist educational foothold within a capitalist society outside of relatively small and isolated ‘special interest’ groups (such as in the ‘free’ education classes offered by the various branches of the now disparate Communist Party). As we live in a predatory capitalist society, and given that we cannot readily access a Communist Party branch, what can be done to assist a Marxist education? Obviously, in this sense all Marxist education is ‘self-education’ due to the fact that mainstream education is dominated by the ideology of the ruling bourgeois class. Everything is pre-set to present Marxism in a thoroughly disjointed and despised ideology that is opposed to the well-being and aspirations of the working-class. The bourgeoisie is of the opinion that the only reality that benefits the working-class is that of continued oppression and subjugation to the bourgeoisie. Anyone honest worker who lives in this nightmare knows full well that this is a ‘lie’ from top to bottom – and that when they read the work of Marx and Engels – their minds and bodies feel ‘empowered’ and ‘strengthened’ regardless of personal circumstance – and this is just the effect of the written word presented within a non-inverted format. Therefore, a worker must read and study all things ‘Marxist’ (excluding Trotsky whose work represents the ‘inverted’ mind-set of the bourgeoisie). This process will probably ‘empower’ and ‘confuse’ in equal measure at the beginning of the process. Das Kapital, for instance, is often described as being so clever that it is difficult to grasp its full scope and impact – even after two or three readings! Of course, not all of the work of Marx is this specialist in presentation – and he wrote ‘The Manifesto of the Communist Party’ as a substantial and excellent foundation to his anti-capitalist thinking. My experience of Buddhis meditation has assisted me in preparing my mind for the work of Marx and Engels to ‘make sense’. As a child I had a terrible first-part to my education in the UK – barely being able to read and write until I was ten-years-old. The second part of my education was much better and I had to rush to catch-up once my ability to read and write was on a par with the other children. As I experienced a terrible start to my education, this made me realise just how important the ability to read and write actually is for the working-class! Without being ‘literate’ Marxism will remain an opaque subject. I have found that if I read a section of a Marxist text and then meditated for 30 minutes – any confusion or misunderstanding I originally had quite literally ‘falls away’ and the original meaning of what Marx intended shines through! I repeated this training policy for many years, particularly during my late teens and early twenties. Focusing my mind upon my breath, and putting into practice the various methods of the Chinese Ch’an School. By focusing the mind in upon itself – the obscuring ‘ignorance’ (which is like a bourgeois-derived self-limiting mechanism – a form of inner oppression) is ‘dissolved’ through precise and exact concentration. This allows the non-inverted basis of my true-mind to ‘unite’ with the non-inverted true-mind that Marx is writing from. Where I needed to break the inner obscuration within my mind through Buddhist meditation (imported from my capitalist environment) - whereas Marx and Engels already possessed this frequency of mind through natural evolution. As for myself, I had to use Buddhist meditation to reach the same frequency of reality. Once my surface mind was cleared of its habitual obscuration, my understanding capacity increased dramatically, as did my intellectual ability to engage with new texts and comprehend the meaning correctly and exactly on the first reading. My view is that Buddhist meditation, as it uproots greed, hatred and delusion, is quite naturally ‘anti-capitalist’ in nature, is nothing other than an early version of ‘Marxism’ suitable for the historical epoch within which it manifested.
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Dear M
The problem is a lack of genuine Buddhist material in the West. However, the book 'What the Buddha Taught' by Walpola Rahula is a sound Theravada text that explains that the Buddha rejected the notion of a spirit as opposed to matter. Indeed, the Buddha even described 'thought' as a material phenomenon. The Buddha, like Marx, stated that human suffering is premised upon an inverted mindset that perceives things the wrong way around. The answer to eradicate this inversation and develop a true consciousness. The Buddha defines reality through the Four Noble Truths. This contains the Five Aggregates explanation of reality. The Buddha places the world of matter as being primary, from which emerges sensation, perception, thought formation and consciousness. Consciousness only exists as long as the human sense organs are in regular contact with the physical world. No contact (such as in death) no consciousness. The Buddha also says that when greed, hated and delusion are fully uprooted, then a practitioner realises that there is no rebirth and no divine realms, etc. Trevor Ling has written a number of books about the similarity of Buddhist ideas and Marxist thinking. Marx learned his Buddhism from his friend Karl Koppen (a renowned Early European expert upon the subject) - but his excellent books have yet to be translated from their native German into English. Marx even writes to a friend saying that he had tried Buddhist meditation to help relax his mind: https://buddhistsocialism.weebly.com/when-karl-marx-practised-buddhism.html The Soviets appear to have known about this association as Joseph Stalin opened a Buddhist Academic Centre in 1928 as a means to gather and focus good quality work about Buddhist thought. You might be interested in this: https://thesanghakommune.org/2017/02/21/ussr-fi-shcherbatskoy-1866-1942-expert-in-buddhism/ Best Wishes Adrian Dear M
The BMA (UK) caters as a focal point for many different people of various backgrounds. As such, there is no rigid membership - just fluid ideas all heading away from capitalism and towards Socialism (as Marx and Engels explained). We all bring our own requirements, so to speak, and collectively work it all out! My job is that of key researcher for the BMA (UK) which involves stripping away all the bourgeois layers of misrepresentation and appropriation that is used to mislead the masses in the West! Basically, Buddha becomes Christ and enlightenment becomes God. The next step is to brainwash the practitioners into believing that there is no difference between the theism of Christianity and the non-theism of Buddhism! This prepares the psychological and physical ground for conversion to bourgeois Christianity, and on it goes! Genuine Buddhism is nothing like this and very close to the Dialectical approach of Marx and Engels! Indeed, these last ten years of my research has been to 'prove' this hypothesis and the evidence is clear. It is an association which is common place in China and I have made good contacts with professors over there - all of whom agree with this observation. In this regard, meditation becomes a means through which working class people can take control of their own minds and purge them of ALL bourgeois conditioning! This method can be used even before any type of formal education as anyone can sit and meditate and reorientate their minds toward a thoroughly proletariat world view. The Buddha dialectically discovered a form of Scientific Socialism 2,500 years ago and expressed it in a Revolutionary manner using concepts familiar to his culture and his Epoch - but like Marx and Engels, he also used the current situation, terms and common understandings to generate a new view of the world that only really makes sense to humanity today, and only then to individuals who have already studied Marx and Engels! When the mind is thoroughly emptied of its contexts, then the only remaining reality is that of Scientific Socialism! Of course, this turns out to be the only real reality when everything else is understood to be bourgeois, delusive nonsense! We can either live in our imaginations or clear our minds and occupy the dominant position of dialectical prominence and advanced understanding and behaviour! Best Wishes Adrian I fully recognise that the human species is communal and has evolved from an extended family base that became tribal. Indeed, human collectivity has been the strength underlying human (biological) evolution in general, and cultural development specifically. What, then, is the purpose, value and meaning for humanity (as a whole), for an individual pursuing a solitary path? What does it mean to be 'solitary'? Can a human being be truly isolatory? Is it possible to leave human society completely or even partially? What is it that is being left? From what is the individual removing him or herself from? To where are they relocating? What changes when an individual supposedly 'leaves' society? From a philosophical position it would seem that 'leaving society' might be a 'tautology' - more of a convention than a practical reality, and yet something tangible does appear to 'change'. Firstly, there is an inner change in orientation usually coupled with a concerted change in behavioural patterns. Indeed, 'leaving society' seems to be primarily a decision about abandoning one set of behaviours whilst embracing another. What is abandoned is the ordinary or expected patterns usually associated with the conventions of everyday life. Although there are grades of disengagement from everyday life - the more stringent examples include the rejecting of commercial labour (that is labour for profit), but not usually labour in principle. Personal (amorous) relations are purged from the expectations of the mind and body - as are any associations and interactions with family members and family structures. These are remarkable realignment of outward behaviour, but their purpose is to create an external (sensory) environment that generates the conditions for a profound change to occur in the functionality of the inner psychological and biological processes of the body. An outer physical transformation is required because without this impetus it is doubtful that will power alone could furnish the requisite strength of purpose required to permanently 'change' the frequency through which the mind and body operates. This being the case, is living in isolation in reality simply another definition of collective existence, albeit existing 'outside' of the convention that usually defines what many believe communal living actually is? If course, as the individual living in isolation still inhabits exactly the same physical world after supposedly 'leaving' it - and given that no one disappears or that anything changes to any great extent - it must be the case that 'leaving society' is really a redefinition of the physical phenomena of the world and of the manner in which these processes interact. Nothing changes except how the physical world is interpreted. However, although this may appear to be a superficial definition, throughout human history, it is clear that great historical and dialectical forces have been unleashed and harnessed that have brought down (and established) dynasties, empires, religious movements and social orders, all premises on markers of outer differences and distinctive modes of inner thought. Gods have come and gone, spirits have emerged and been exorcised and many different types of nature worship have come and gone. Yet the ability for a man and woman to live peacefully in the metaphorical (and actual) hills has often provided the inner (and outer) stimulus for great spiritual, artistic and engineering achievements to be conceived in the mind, built through the control of the body and put to use for the benefit of humanity. In this model, the direction of travel is easy to discern - from isolatory inspiration to purposeful application to collective human society in general. How did this happen? What is the pattern that grants this kind of inspiration? It seems that by consciously ‘withdrawing’ an individual is entering a ‘different’ type of collectivity – one that is not necessarily common or obvious to the rest of humanity. There appears to be a ‘gathering’ of inner and outer energy – a combination of psychological creativity and physical strength and healthy robustness! This intensification of the over-all energy available to the participating individual is ‘focused’, ‘directed’ and ‘intensified’ through the act (and experience) of ‘isolation’. It is as the ‘herd’ is seen better from a distance and understood to a greater degree. As an individual is part of the herd – it is the same as stating that the ‘herd is looking at itself in a particular manner’ - and none of this at this juncture has to have anything to do with ‘religion’ as such or even specifically. Taking a step back allows for the human mind to adopt a wider scale of observation and thereby ‘select’ a more effective mode of interactive behaviour that is designed to alleviate the greatest amount of collective suffering with the least (or most ‘efficient’) amount of individual effort. Although perhaps associated with the monkish disciplines – even those undergoing specialist education in the secular world still have to ‘withdraw’ from regular society to attend a school and become a ‘student’. A certain ‘isolation’ from mainstream reality is acquired to define what is a ‘different’ approach to understanding and interpreting reality! It could be that by adopting the meditative style of the monastic – a style of being considered the most ‘efficient’ for self-isolating – the secular student could achieve a much more profound appreciation of their subject matter! The forces of historical materialism, for instance, together with the waves of dialectical transformation could be easily perceived as unfolding through the inner and outer world! Surely, this is the Revolutionary power of isolating for self-education.
Although the Buddha expresses a logic and reason very similar to that exhibited by the Greeks, he is emerging from a very different socio-economic base. Marx saw this and referred to Buddhist philosophy as being a ‘rational Brahmanism’. As with everything Marxian, this description is comprised of a far greater depth of meaning than the surface words appear to denote and the length of sentence suggests! ‘Rational’ in that like the Greeks, the Buddha is attempting to distinguish his method from the historical religiosity of India, and create a method that appears thoroughly ‘modern’ in its assessment of matter and psychological and physical processes. The term ‘Brahmanism’ denotes the vast and ancient religiosity within which the Buddha was born, out of which his mind and body eventually ‘grew’. The Greeks, of course, possessed a pantheon of gods just as the Brahmans were polytheistic. In this respect, the two systems were similar. The Greeks expected to find numerous gods being worshipped by the various (non-Greek) peoples of the world and made allowances for encountering these unknown entities. (This is why the Greeks possessed a ‘god with no-name' as a matter of accommodation). The Brahmins – like the Jews, however – viewed their system as already complete and essentially intolerant of any other religious system of religious organisation. The Jews would eventually develop the notion of monotheism whereas the Greeks would not. The Buddha would emerge out of Brahmanism and declare it ‘incorrect’ - just as the Jew known as Jesus Christ would emerge out of Judaism and declare his religion incomplete and ready for transformation! The Greeks would make a clean break with religiosity by developing ‘philosophy’ - which like the Buddha’s ideology is always moving away from religious thought. It would be the later Christian who would seize Greek philosophy and distort its underpinnings and interpretation so that it could be superimposed upon a new form of Judaism and referred to as ‘Christian theology’! This is why Greek terms are found all the way through Christian theology but used in a thoroughly incorrect manner. Even amongst modern philosophers there is the habit of using the pagan Germanic term ‘soul’ in place of the Greek ‘psyche’ - which was co-opted by the Christians as they tried to convert these tribal people. Soul originally referred to the spirituality of water (an idea common in pre-Christian Europe), but the Christians took this term and transposed it with the term ‘psyche’ (‘breathe of life’) which the Greeks used to describe the ‘spark’ of existence that explodes into physical and conscious life at the point of conception in the womb! For the Christian missionary, the German ‘soul’ became that spiritual entity which existed separate and distinct to the physical body and mind, and which entered the mind and body at conception and left the mind and body at death! As the Christian first borrowed the Greek ‘psyche’ to describe this entity, they soon became dissatisfied with its close approximation to Greek thought and decided to obscure reality further by co-opting yet another alien concept in a drive designed to demonstrate both ‘uniqueness’ and ‘difference’ from Judaism! The Buddha, of course, understood that all religious thinking depended upon an imagined spiritual entity existing somewhere out-there – which was intimately linked to each individual human through an ‘atma’ (atman) or ‘soul’. Through this ‘connection’, the Brahmins stated that the supreme God Brahma controlled a) each individual life, and b) ensured the functioning of Indian society through the caste system. Any obvious or deliberate attempt to contradict this ‘will of god’ would be met with a terrible re-birth and a hellish karma. Conform to the injustices of Brahma’s will – or face a terrible re-birth! The Buddha decided to see if any of this was true and embarked upon a number of well-known spiritual paths all linked to the religion of Brahma. He followed at least six distinct meditative and ascetic paths to their full completion and realised they did not go where their teachers claimed they went, and did not bestow the knowledge the teachers claimed they did. Through submitting his mind and body to the severe discipline required of these paths – an undertaking many others could not do – the Buddha empirically ‘proved’ that the Brahmanical religion was incorrect!
Although the Buddha’s assessment of physical reality seems very ‘modern’ in its use of logic and reason, is his notion of enlightenment relevant to a modern world that is dominated by science? What relevance does a Buddhist viewpoint have in a world that no longer accepts religious dogma in a blind and one-sided manner? Even if the Buddhist philosophy is placed to one-side and Buddhist enlightenment is reduced to perceiving the empty essence of the thinking mind, so what? How does this ability assist humanity in a world of measuring matter, observing processes and continuously striving to understand more about material existence? How does the Buddha’s idea of leaving the world help a person living in the modern world understand that world better? Of course, the honest answer is that it does not. Seeing into the empty fabric of the mind does not build houses, feed people or cure diseases. As an ability, it does not generate an income and cannot pay the bills. Leaving the world does not offer any contribution to making the world a better place. For the Buddha, an individual removes themselves from the most obvious causes of physical and psychological suffering. This suffering he associates with the conventional life of a lay-person participating in marriage, child-rearing and working for a living. This includes the activities of commerce, politics and warfare, etc. Interestingly, the Buddha advocates a moving further into abject poverty as all work is abandoned as a manifestation of desire. Once a regular income is denied, then it becomes a matter of sustaining the life of the individual through the indifferent eating of waste-food acquired by the monastic through the act of begging. Even so, as begging does not guarantee a daily meal, a semi-state of starvation becomes the norm. What is the point of this lifestyle? The Buddha states that all of humanity’s suffering stems from the traits of greed, hatred and delusion continuously operating in the mind, which manifest without end through a corresponding set of physical behaviours in the outside world. Cutting-off and uproot these three traits in the mind and the corresponding behavioural patterns will cease to function in the outside world. When the root of humanity’s suffering is permanently uprooted in the mind and purged from the body, then there exist no more suffering-inducing conditions to plague the individual. However, as life in a capitalist society relies entirely upon ‘greed’ and ‘selfishness’, the Buddhist path is obviously ‘anti-capitalist’ and renders the individual impotent and unable to effectively participate in a greed-orientated society. Of course, things are different within a Socialist society, as a ‘selfless’ individual who profoundly cares for the ‘welfare’ of others is exactly this type of ‘altruistic’ society requires for each of its citizens. An enlightenment achieved within a capitalist society proves to the experiencer that all greed is thoroughly incorrect and counter-productive toward the achieving of human happiness. In other words, a genuine Buddhistic experience grants the insight that the world of predatory capitalism is immoral, backward and the source of all human suffering! Capitalism is clearly perceived as existing entirely due to an unquestioning of human ignorance! Once the mind is cleared of its capitalist corruption, then the individual acquires the ability to comprehend not only the higher teachings of the Buddha but also the dialectical meaning contained within the work of Marx, Engels and Lenin! This would suggest that the Buddhist ideology, if pursued within its proper Asian context, leads the practitioner to an innate understanding and comprehension of the ideology of Scientific Socialism as formulated by Marx and Engels, and developed by thousands of other Revolutionary leaders ever since! Of course, bourgeois Buddhism – or that teaching which is mixed with the Judeo-Christian tradition to exclusively serve the socio-economic system of predatory capitalism – is nothing but a ‘bogus’ Buddhism used by privileged ‘White’ people as a leisure activity and simple play-thing. As this is the most common Buddhism functioning in the West, Buddhism in this guise has no relevance for freeing humanity or in the appreciation of Communist ideology. This is the fake Buddhism of ‘feeling good’ and of temporarily ‘escaping’ from the woes of everyday life for short periods of time. No one practicing this ogre of misrepresentation can ever clear their minds of greed, hatred and delusion, as all this ‘playing’ does is strengthen the functioning of greed, hatred and delusion! This shadow of Buddhism ‘strengthens’ capitalism and gives it’s a greater stability in the minds of the practitioners. This is why bourgeois Buddhism is nothing other than a collaboration with capitalism and the exploitation of the working-class! Anyone can read the Pali and Sanskrit Buddhist teachings, and apply the teachings themselves as part of their study of Marxist-Leninist ideology. Indeed, meditating and calming the mind allows for a preparation of the intellect so that it can more readily ‘absorb’ the profound lessons inherent within the teachings of Scientific Socialism and the work of Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Ho Chi Minh, Che Guevara and Thomas Sankara, etc. Ethnic Buddhist communities in China, Laos and Vietnam use this method to integrate their communities into the Socialist System! It is exactly the same method used by the three or four Buddhist Republics that were part of the Soviet Union! Although Buddhism is certainly not required for the successful learning of Marxist-Leninism, nevertheless, if it already exists it can be useful as a method of working-class empowerment!
If a fall into the abyss of mysticism is to be avoid, then logic and reason must be applied to any and all Buddhist explanations of mind development. This process not only replicates the manner in which the ancient Greeks assessed reality, but also the method appears to make use of as recorded in the Pali Suttas. As an interesting aside, this would mean that any apparent talk of ‘rebirth’ or ‘polytheistic’ gods must be later additions to the texts, or inheritances from the past that contemporary readers (including Buddhists) do not know how to correctly ‘interpret’. Why should this be the case? If ‘rebirth’ in numerous other realms, together with the belief in ‘gods’ and a semi-spiritualised version of ‘karma’ are upheld as being a genuine part of Early Buddhism, then logic demands an answer to the question of ‘What is the point of Buddhism if it is just another version of Brahmanical teaching?’ In this regard, there is a ‘pull’ between the Buddha’s use of a pristine ‘logic’ and ‘reason’ - and the parts of the text that subtly try to undermine this reason and replace it with mythology and theology! In this regard, ‘gods’, ‘dimensions and ‘karma’ all fall under the categories of greed, hatred and delusion – or those psycho-physical traits which are thought to bind humanity to ‘Samsara’ - the ‘cycle of suffering’, etc. A living human body is created through two adult humans engaging in sexual intercourse. Nine to ten months later the woman gives birth to a child. As the child develops in the womb, he or she is receiving stimulus from the outside world through the mother’s body. This process continues at an increased pace after the baby is born and leaves the inside of the mother’s body. At this time, the mother’s body no longer gives direct protection from the physical environment. The human brain is a physical organ that sits inside the head of a physical body. From the brain emerges what is called the human mind. The mind can sense the thoughts it creates, is aware of the past, present and future, and is able to sort-through and make sense of the sense data received through the other five senses – the nose (smell), the ear (hearing), the tongue (taste), the eye (vision) and the body (touch). Each human mind is conditioned to think in patterns that reflect the outer conditions of the individual concerned. This process is believed to adjust the individual to ‘survive’ in whatever environment is present, (pleasant, unpleasant or neutral). An individual builds an inner image of the outer world through all kinds of experiences. Cultural considerations define what particular circumstances are ‘preferred’ as to what conditions should be ‘ignored’, etc. The ‘self-awareness’ that is an implicit part of the mind is taken in the modern world as comprising the foundation of the individual. This ‘individuality’ sits ‘juxtaposed’ to the five other sense-organs of the body and generates a ‘dualism’ of perception. A foundational and all-enveloping mind-awareness sits atop the five bodily-senses that continuously ‘receive’ information about the outside world. Human culture dictates how this ‘duality’ is to be perceived, managed and expressed. An individual traverses through life building-up a reservoir of knowledge and experience, ad seeking the best ways in which life can be lived, and other people interacted with. Yes, life is not always ‘good’ or ‘pleasant’ - but the good times are often understood as emerging from the bad times – and a compromise of experience is usually a key to a balanced life. However, throughout human history, some individuals have ‘rejected’ this cycle of human existence, and actively sort-out a different way of living – the historical Buddha was one such being. The point is that much of human life is defined by terrible poverty, illness and calamity. The daily psychological, emotional and physical pain is often unbearable, and reduces an individual into a shivering mass of suffering and stupidity! Much of this suffering pre-exists in areas of poor economic, social and cultural development. In the Greek model, for instance, ancient Greece was an affluent State within which most of the work was carried-out by male and female slaves. The philosophers had plenty to eat, did not have to work, and inhabited a warm climate! This is similar to the Buddha’s upbringing of luxury and opulence in a world of utter poverty and death! What the Buddha sought was a profound ‘indifference’ to physical circumstance premised upon a permanent inner calm. In other words, such a person would remain exactly the same both inwardly and outwardly regardless of whether their circumstances were considered ‘good’ or ‘bad’! To test this idea, the Buddha shifted his everyday experience to that of abject poverty – away from the opulence he had once routinely enjoyed. Continuous sexual indulgence was replaced with an absolute celibacy, etc. Enlightenment is the experience of an all-embracing and all-expansive conscious awareness that is permanent and ever-lasting. The five bodily-senses – ‘receive' data from the environment in an indifferent manner, and this data is processed by a mind that does not waiver and which is free of greed, hatred and delusion. Painful experiences are no longer viewed as something to be ‘avoided’ just as ‘pleasant’ experiences are not something to be sort-after. Bare attention free of greed, hatred and delusion generates wisdom, compassion and loving kindness. All this is verifiable and correct. However, what interests me here is the perception of ‘three-dimensional emptiness’ by the mind, which appears to permeate the inside of the human-body, and which expands outward into the environment (in an infinite ‘roundel’ shape or ‘circle’, etc). This perception of ‘all-embracing emptiness’ unites the inner body and the outer world in a totality of integrative interaction. An interesting question from a scientific perspective is ‘is this experience ‘real’ or an illusion created by the mind?’ Why could this perception of ‘all-embracing’ emptiness be an ‘illusion’? The mind possesses the ability to ‘generate’ and ‘sense’ thought. Thought is a concept or ripple in the psychic life of the individual. Although the mind can inwardly replicate any external image found in the environment – it can also amalgamate its many experienced impressions and generate entirely ‘new’ inner images (imaginations) that have no bearing on the existing outside world. Through a difficult and disciplined path of self-cultivation, an experience that is ‘real’ in the physical sense, it could well be that the objective of all this effort is that the human mind is ‘forced’ or ‘conditioned’ into generating a single but permanent ‘thought’ that it is experiencing as ‘three-dimensional’ empty space! This type of thought is different to everyday thoughts which traverse the surface mind – as it is singular, consolidating and apparently ‘underlying’ all other sensory activity generated in the mind. This ‘thought’ of ‘unified space’ is all-encompassing and seems to include the inner body and outer environment, and is ‘limitless’ in scope. It is as large as the universe is infinite – but suppose it exists nowhere else than in the individual human-mind that experiences it? If this is the case, then it is not the underlying reality of the universe and does not truly exist either within or outside of the body. It is, in reality, just another form of hard-earned delusion very different from the norm. As a state of mind this sense of ‘unified oneness’ brings inner and outer peace, and changes the human character and behaviour for good. Such a state rejects the more brutal aspects of human instinct and instead emphasises peace, love and tranquillity. The inner and outer life is ‘transformed’ because of this realisation (which is not easy to achieve). Although probably a by-product of the evolutionary process, the Buddha suggests that true enlightenment is beyond both ‘perception’ and ‘non-perception’, in other words, reality is beyond both ‘thought’ and ‘non-thought’. Perception and non-perception is stage four in the Caodong School of Ch’an’s Five Ranks of Prince and Minister – with stage five representing ‘that’ which is beyond ‘perception’ and ‘non-perception’. Although all-embracing emptiness is a difficult stage of reality to perceive – even so it must be ‘seen through’ and understood to be ‘empty’ even of ‘emptiness’! When the human-body ‘dies’ - then all perception and non-perception will quite naturally fall away. Given that this is the case, it seems that all-embracing unity is a difficult to acquire state of being which is rarefied and ultimately ‘empty’ of any permanent reality. It is a door-way through which a spiritual aspirant must pass, but which is an illusion just like any other. It heals and it cures but is not unexplainable or truly ‘mystical’ in the divine sense. Through achieving ‘enlightenment’ - a ‘new’ perceptual base is laid - through which the individual experiences the world. This achievement raises the individual from primordial instinct to a higher level of reasoning and interacting. All perception, regardless of its shallowness and depth is ultimately a delusion because it all falls away at the point of physical death. In reality, the organ of the brain exists in a dark and lonely place, but its capacity to generate ‘mind’ and then fill that mind with all kinds of interesting data serves to transform human existence. In-short, the ‘religious’ and ‘spiritual’ experience has nothing to do with the assumed presence of divine beings – and everything to do with a brain that has met the challenges of evolution in a most spectacular and meaningful way! Building an inner reflection of the outer world is an illusionary event – but which has been crucial for the evolution of humanity!
The ‘national flag’ of Laos was originally the flag of the Laos Patriotic Front (LPF) which was a ‘united front’ opposing Western imperialism in Laos pre-1975 – and which resisted the many (illegal) military incursions into Laos by the US Military! The ‘red’ rectangles represent the victory of the ‘Socialist’ Revolution paid for with the blood of the Laotian people! The ‘blue’ rectangles represent the beautiful land of Laos – and the peaceful and laid-back attitude of the people! The ‘white’ circle symbolises the ‘unity’ of the Laotian people under the leadership of the Laotian Communist Party – and the ‘bright’ future the country has under ‘Socialism’! The ‘white circle’ also symbolises the ‘bright moon’ shining over the Mekong River. Due to the devastation caused to the country by the (illegal) US blanket-bombing campaigns and other military operations into the area during the 1960s and 1970s – the actual number of Laotian casualties remains unknown. Speculations suggests the low thousands to the high hundreds of thousands (and even millions)! These US War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity have never been ‘acknowledged’ or properly ‘investigated’ by the United Nations (UN). Although the Laotian Communist Party successfully militarily defeated the colonial French, the imperialist US (and their allies) - bringing a permanent ‘end’ to these mass-killings of Laotian people – it is now the US that falsely accuses the Laotian Government of committing ‘atrocities’ against its own people (whilst providing no evidence) as a means to ‘camouflage’ its own historical criminality in the area! In August 1991, the Supreme People's Assembly enacted the First Constitution of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. The Constitution clearly stipulates that the Lao People’s Democratic Republic is a (Socialist) People’s Democratic Country. As the Soviet Union was being dismantled and reverted to the predatory capitalist system (causing all kinds of suffering to the Russian people) the Laotian Marxist-Leninists were determined that their young Socialist State (founded on December 2nd, 1975) would stay vibrant through ‘reform’. This is why it was confirmed that ‘All Power Belongs to the People’ - and that this will not change! People of all ethnic groups were guaranteed to continue exerciing their rights as equal citizens under the leadership of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP). Furthermore, although the ‘national emblem’ of Laos was altered in 1991 – removing the red star, axe and sickle and replacing these icons with examples of Luang-type architecture – this symbol (and many others) remains distinctly ‘Marxist-Leninist’ meaning. The two ears of rice denote an affluence of the national crop under Socialism: the large tower represents historical Laotian architectural and a future achievement of construction under Socialism, there are also symbols Laotian engineering in the modern sense; there is a gear, a dam, forests, fields and other industrial icons as well as clean water and abundant forestry; The ear of rice symbolizes success in agriculture. The ribbons on both sides read "Peace, Independence, Democracy, Unity, Prosperity", and the ribbon at the bottom reads "Lao People's Democratic Republic". The Laotian people favour Theravada Buddhism which has retained much of the flavour of ‘Early Buddhism’. As Buddhist teaching is known to be friendly toward ‘Socialist’ ideology – the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP) has recognised the importance of Buddhism acting as a cohesive cultural force amongst ALL the Laotian people – and a unifying factor that spreads evenly through the rich and poor areas created by historical exploitation associated with outmoded feudalism and Western imperialism. The economic damage inflicted on Laos by the Europeans and Americans will probably take decades to eradicate – but the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP) has been instigating widespread educational, welfare, medical, housing and employment reform (in-part) through the already existing infrastructure of widespread Buddhist temples, monasteries and shrines. Traditional Buddhist education, of course, emphasises the similarities and compatibilities between Early Buddhist philosophy and the ideology of Classical Marxism and Marxist-Leninism! This is how Buddhist monks living in the most remote areas of the Laotian countryside directly assist the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP) by bringing much need Socialist education and reform to these areas! In this regard, Buddhism is a major component of Laotian Marxist-Leninism and Communist ideology! Many people from China travel to Laos for relaxing holidays to another ‘Socialist’ country where they will be ‘safe’ and very ‘welcomed’. The travel blogs penned by these tourists offer a rare insight into the everyday life of Laotian people which the Americans and Europeans (aided and abetted by the English-language Wikipedia) would like you not to know about – simply because it tends to demonstrate the success of a ‘Socialist’ country and contradicts all the usual ‘racist’ lies propagated by the anti-Asian and anti-Socialist Western media. In this case, a husband-and-wife couple set-off from Shenzhen in China and flew to Vientiane – the capital city of Laos – spending six days exploring the country during April, 2018! The Chinese blogger stated that although the Laotian ‘Socialist State’ has only existed since 1975 (a mere 43-years of reconstruction) - much had already been achieved! The country of Laos is peaceful, clean and populated by a happy and content people! Wealth and infrastructural development have been developing within city areas and spreading outward into the countryside. This socio-economic development is slow but continuous for a country with just a seven-million population. However, the remote Buddhist temples (and other centres) have served as ‘re-distribution’ points for resources and services into villages areas that do not yet have a developed infrastructure. This has allowed for some villages and towns to develop ‘oases’ of Socialist reform even amongst areas (and peoples) who have suffered abject poverty in the past. The Buddhist monks then assist such developed village and town to ‘link together’ to combine the benefits of their ‘Socialist’ development! Of course, this dramatic success of integrating Buddhism and Socialism is ignored in the West – and flatly ‘denied’ by the forces of bourgeois Buddhism which is in the service of the capitalist exploiters! Chinese Language Sources:
https://you.ctrip.com/travels/laos100105/3659273.html https://baike.baidu.com/item/老挝 The above document is my research suggesting a philosophical link between the Buddha's theory of matter and transformation (as recorded in the 'Chain of Dependent Origination') and the theory of 'Historical Materialism' as developed by Karl Marx! The bourgeois publishing industry in the UK and the USA is not interested in this type of 'Socialist' research and so will not consider disseminating any of it through conventional publishing deals. Furthermore, although Buddhism, Daoism and Confucanism are thriving philosophies and religions within Mainland China - the same bourgeois publishing companies continue to perpetuate the Japanese and US (racist) 'myth' that Chinese religion no longer exists, etc. This ignorance about a country whose population numbers over one billion, and which possesses the oldest 'unbroken' culture in the world - is truly staggering! As I am an expert in Chinese philosophy, culture and political development - and the foremost scholar in the world concerning the correlation between Classical Marxism and Early Buddhism - I made a decision a long time ago to by-pass the corrupt bourgeois publishing industry and as well as sharing my research with fellow academics around the world, to also make it 'directly' available to the general public. Those who need it will surely discovver it and make a good use of it.
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AuthorAdrian Chan-Wyles PhD - Political Commissar and BMA (UK) Historian & Researcher. Archives
May 2024
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