The position of the BMA (UK) is that the Sangha includes (equally) the Laity and the Ordained - and that both constitute a spiritual vanguard in the progression of humanity toward Socialism and Communism! The latest article on the BMA (UK) site seeks to unite theistic monasticism (of the Judeo-Christian tradition and the Sufism of Islam) with the Buddhist equivalent: Of course, implicit in this exercise is the acknowledgement that many great evils have existed within religion - and it must be made clear that the oppression and ignorance that holds many religious teachings together is NOT being defended. To sit and meditate effectively is to breakup this "religious" ignorance and the internal pollution that the system of predatory capitalism imports into the interior of humanity! This is the premise of all further Revolutionary action in the (external) material world. Indeed, the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels is a rich and inspiring resource for self-purification. As is the work of Lenin, Stalin, Mao and Ho Chi Minh! Genuine religion must be purged of its worldly ignorance and greed! Only Marxist-Leninism-Maoism possesses the moral power to achieve this mighty and crucial task for humanity! It is the lies of the Bourgeoisie that sullies the deep spiritual waters of the Proletariat! The workers possess the only moral right to punish the corruption of the Bourgeoisie - and those who value meditation must assist every worker in this task! Marx never defined the state of "Communism" - simply because he could not! How could he? Basically, the only thing that can be said is that "It is NOT this!" The Enlightenment of the Buddha, I suspect, reflects the state of "Communism" inwardly realised in a material world that was not yet ready to manifest such a sublime (external) reality! Look within and find it for yourself and unite with the Proletariat!
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Update: Directive Number 13 – The BMA (UK) Supports Russia’s Anti-Fascist ‘Special Operation’3/8/2022 The Buddha developed a system that generates the conditions of ‘inner’ Socialism by uprooting greed, hatred and delusion from the functionality of the ordinary human mind. Through a corresponding physical behaviour that is ‘free’ of greed, hatred and delusion, Socialism In the ‘outer’ world is built. The Buddha’s path is an expression of early Socialism that places the emphasis upon the individual ‘freed’ from the collective tyranny of the faceless caste-system. Marx and Engels, by way of contrast, denies the ultimate validity of the individual, and instead defines the collectivity of ‘class’ as the only genuine driving-force behind any and all genuine Revolutionary action. Things are not quite this simple, for instance, as the Buddha (whilst advocating the ‘disciplining’ of the individual mind) describes how the notion of ‘self’ (that is, the ‘individual’) is a culturally conditioned concept with no basis in material reality. The ‘Sangha’ in Early Buddhism may well be an indication of the formation of an early-class system. In this case, made-up entirely of ordained Buddhist monastics whose function was to preserve, practice and convey the ‘Dhamma’, or Buddha’s enlightened Teaching. The non-ordained laity, by way of contrast, circumnavigated the Sangha and drew inspiration, guidance and support from it. The Sangha of Early Buddhism was a primitive ‘Communist Party’ defined around the concept of ‘membership’ and ‘non-membership’. The ‘members’ (monastics) conditioned the ‘non-members’ (laity) to develop to the extent where they were psychologically and physically prepared to become Buddhist monastics themselves. Although all Buddhist monastics are ‘equal’, it is also true that the Buddhist monastic community is led by the eldest (and ‘wiser’) strata of the population. This is generally comprised of those monks and nuns who have been ‘ordained’ the longest and not necessarily those who are the eldest in the (literal) chronological sense. These qualified elders had spent a lifetime carefully studying the Dhamma, teaching and advising others, as well as personally putting into practice each minute element of the teaching. In this sense, this ‘inner core’ of the Buddha’s elite disciples formed what might be termed a ‘Polit-Buro’ concerned with the perpetuation of an ideological purity and orthodoxy.
Later, with the liberalisation of Buddhism, the term ‘Sangha’ was expanded to include not only the ordained Buddhist elite, but now also included all lay-people who considered themselves a ‘follower of the Buddha’ (but not those ordinary people who did not support Buddhism). This expanded the membership of this primitive ‘Communist Party’ to include a non-ordained laity. Furthermore, Buddhist monastics lost their ‘elite’ status and became quite literally ‘beggars’ who existed in a privileged position (where they did not have work or participate in family life), that was ‘inferior’ to the lowest lay-person! Why was this? Everything each monk or nun used was not owned by them per se, but was the collective property of the monastic community ultimately provided by the hard-work of the lay-community that had provided it! Now, with the biographies of Hui Neng (the Sixth Patriarch of the Chinese Ch’an tradition), and the Indian merchant Vimalakirti (the ‘married’ contemporary of the historical Buddha) were well-known, lay-practice within Buddhism was transformed into ‘matching’ or even ‘transcending’ that of the Buddhist monastics. Although a profound example of democratisation, Buddhism today is still led by an elite monastic core, although with one or two lay-practitioners now included in the ‘Polit-Buro’! As the Buddha ‘rejects’ greed, hatred and delusion, it is inherently anti-capitalist. It is a philosophical and ideological impossibility for Buddhism to follow or advocate the predatory capitalist system. Buddhist meditation is a Proletariat device for clearing the human mind of the conditioned (habitual) patterns that generally define human society. As the Buddha states that ‘rebirth’ and ‘karma’ do not exist in the post-enlightened state – it is logical to assume that ‘rebirth’ and ‘karma’ do not exist in the pre-enlightened state. These two concepts only appear to exist because they are common elements of pre-Buddhist (Indian) religion that many Buddhist practitioners brought with them when they decided to approach the Buddha for discipleship. The Buddha used these terms to inspire morally ‘pure’ actions on the physical plane so that the inner mind could be more readily transformed through meditation. Only when advising advanced practitioners did the Buddha decide to ween them off of these childish concepts of religiosity. As there is no ‘rebirth’ or ‘karma’, the Buddha’s path is a purely material ideology centred around the Vinaya Discipline which modifies the external behaviour so that the inner mind (and its functionality) can be permanently modified into a Proletariat (enlightened) state. Dear Adrian, It was the birthday of John Lennon earlier this month, and I've been listening to some of his music to mark the occasion. He was one of the most talented and greatest rock and pop musicians who ever lived. His song, Imagine, which is often voted as the best and most profound pop song ever written, is one of my favourite songs of all time. It echoes my sentiments perfectly and has a strong atheistic flavour, and I'm a self-confessed atheist. Lennon said that Imagine is virtually the Communist Manifesto. I think that religion and superstition are exactly the same; it's just that religion is ritualised superstition. They arose from primitive man's fear of the unknown, and we haven't yet evolved enough to discard such insecurities. Neither religion nor superstition is rational or provable. One of the best policies that the Chinese Communist Party implemented was to promote atheism and discourage superstition. I believe that all communist countries have declared themselves officially atheist. As I've mentioned before, communism is more advanced than capitalism, so atheism is more advanced than religion or superstition. However, humans are still emotionally and psychologically not advanced enough to discard such primitive thoughts and practises. It certainly strikes me as paradoxical that we now have technologies like the internet and mobile phones and even the ability to travel through space to explore other planets - yet some people still in ghosts, psychics, clairvoyance and fortune-telling etc. I've yet to hear of a clairvoyant who's correctly predicted the lottery numbers! Imagine there's no heaven It's easy if you try No hell below us Above us only sky Imagine all the people Living for today... Aha-ah... Imagine there's no countries It isn't hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no religion, too Imagine all the people Living life in peace... You... You may say I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the world will be as one Imagine no possessions I wonder if you can No need for greed or hunger A brotherhood of man Imagine all the people Sharing all the world... You... You may say I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the world will live as one Kind regards, Waiman Dear Waiman
Thank you for your interesting email. The key point about Socialist thinking is that it is a natural dialectical process that cannot be rushed or forced. Socialism emerges from the brain patterns of the individual when inner and outer conditions permit. Socialism obviously expands into the body (and through progressive patterns of behaviour) into the environment! As Socialism advocates 'class' as the vehicle of material struggle - then the outer structures of objective Socialist culture serve to reinforce and strengthen the inner Socialist convictions of each participating individual. Marx talks about this in the 'Theses of Feuerbach'. Although our behaviour must be transformed away from superstition and ignorance - the key to this lies not in forced (external) compliance but rather through the positive process of good and sound education. The central point of this permanent 'change' of humanity lies firmly within 'freedom of thought' and nothing else. If the mind is allowed to 'cascade' its way through all the trivia of existence - it has been my experience working with hundreds of students - that eventually, even the most conservative and steadfast in their ways eventually experiences an epiphany whereby all vestiges of bourgeois pollution drop away in an instant and an entirely new way of viewing the world becomes evident! Religion in China exists to a) support the building of a Socialist State, and b) assist each interested individual in a 'private' capacity to develop their mind and body to be 'better' Socialists! Socialism and spirituality are merged without contradiction. This is because most, if not all Asian religions are naturally left-wing in ideological interpretation of the world. It is only when Asian religions are polluted by Western religious thinking and capitalist ideology that this 'left-wingism' is lost. Buddhism, for instance, strive to uproot greed, hatred and delusion, and this a priori 'anti-capitalist' in nature. Confucianism supports education as well as good and virtuous behaviour toward one another - but firmly rejects exploitative profit making! Daoism often fully rejects the world of ordinary life and settles instead for a high mountain-peak from which the four-seasons that define a 'year' can be quietly observed. Eating and not-eating are all the same to the Daoist! You see, even religion has its place within building the Socialist State - but if Marx and Lenin are correct, then eventually the pain and suffering that generated religion in the first place will be slowly (and naturally) eradicated as structures of the 'new' Socialist society become apparent and start the process of guiding humanity into a 'Communist' reality that is 'free' of any structures of controlling 'State'. It is this latter reality - from Socialist 'State' to Communist 'non-State' - that John Lennon is singing about. Marx does toy with the idea of 'instantaneous' Revolution (I think in 'The German Ideology'), but thinks better of it on the grounds that the workers need time to gather together, organise and agitate! Best Wishes Adrian 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.
Living within the capitalist West, the existential reality for a young worker is that of family which serves as a cocoon within larger society. A young worker exists to have their minds and bodies ‘exploited’ by the Bourgeois State within which they live. The purpose and function of each generation of the working-class is the maintenance of the (historical) production of continuous ‘profit’ which is ‘stolen’ and ‘usurped’ by the controlling-bourgeoisie – and used to a) construct a sound nest and b) feather that nest with every available comfort known to humanity! As the bourgeoisie control the means of production, they also control the political system, the judicial system and the type of law-making they prefer which moulds the interior of society to their liking. The predatory capitalist system is presented as ‘inevitable’ with the best the working-class can hope for is to secure semi-stable employment and save a little of their wages for a rainy day. Of course, as the bourgeoisie now ruthlessly controls the management of business and has systematically ‘crushed’ and ‘disempowered’ the Unions over the last four-decades, attaining a job is a) not that easy, and b) maintaining a job once secured for any length of time is just as hazardous. This is because the bourgeoisie use capitalist society as a trading-floor where they buy and sell working-class (human) flesh for the lowest possible prices, for the minimum of any sort of ‘guarantee’. The bodies and minds of the workers are set adrift in this sea of habitual aggression and brutal exploitation with only the agency of ‘death’ (natural or otherwise) offering a permanent ‘break’ with the system! As the ‘Communist Party’ hardly figures on the daily radar of the contemporary working-class (even though the Communist Party is the only legitimate way out of predatory capitalism for the working-class) – as it is the bourgeois system that is pumped into the living room of the average family through the TV, radio and print, media, etc. Schooling provides a sound basis in eulogising the capitalist system and in demonising Socialism and capitalism, whilst further and higher education only serves to strengthen this view through ever more sophisticated models of fabrication, disinformation and exaggeration, etc. In other words, the mind and body of the worker is assailed on every side by the pro-capitalist rhetoric of the bourgeoisie! As it takes time to dialectically work their way out of this ensnarement, coming into contact with the works of Marx and Engels, and getting to grips with the disparate nature of the post-1991 Communist situation (following the collapse of the USSR), a worker is left with the only viable option of working on the state of their own mind. As both Buddha an Marx defined human-suffering as emerging from ‘inverted’ thinking, it can be argued that by embracing an Early Buddhist approach to mind-control and bodily discipline – the greed, hatred and delusion upon which the bourgeoisie construct their society are uprooted from the mind of the individual worker – eventually [producing (through labour) a ‘new’ Socialist individual who has broken the false isolating individuality preferred by the bourgeoisie (as an isolated individual is easier to control than an empowered collective) and has opened their mind to a ‘collective’ and ‘all-embracing’ reality which allows for an inrush of correct class consciousness! This is where a worker can acquire knowledge of Buddhist meditation from a book or documentary, or locate and attend a local Buddhist temple. The point is not to embrace a community of religion, but rather utilise the Buddhist method to break free of bourgeoise conditioning and use this as an embarkation point on the sea of a new proletarian politics! A worker who has achieved this ‘breaking’ with the bourgeoisie system can then approach the complicated world of Socialist and Communist ideology with a sense of confidence and assuredness!
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!
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AuthorAdrian Chan-Wyles PhD - Political Commissar and BMA (UK) Historian & Researcher. Archives
April 2024
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