Many impoverished Asian countries possess ancient cultures and profound Buddhist traditions. The “impoverished” attribute stems from the modern Western system which has spread across the world from Great Britain. This system reduces every citizen to a competing individual whose self-worth is measured solely by the size of a bank account. Similarly, countries that follow this system act like inidividuals in the international arena – making strategic alliances with other State actors designed to protect this status. Just as an individual “purchases” every service and attribute required for a comfortable life – a modern Nation State develops and purchases weaponry, dominates locations and projects its will around the globe. The accumulation of money is the prime-mover of this system which causes various degrees of misery for everyone living within its confines – whilst a few live very well and possess the greatest measure of choice due to the monetary wealth they control. The acquisition and control of money is the entire purpose of predatory capitalism. As this is the only recognisable method for living – every citizen is broughtup to habitally cultivate “greed” as the highest virtue for modern living. Of course, as the Buddha states that greed, hatred, and delusion are the basis of all human suffering – the answer to this human suffering is to uproot these taints through the practice of meditation and physical discipline. Therefore, Buddhists diverge from the demands of predatory capitalism through the requirement to cultivate non-greed, non-hatred, and non-delusion. The practice of genuine Buddhism, therefore, is a contradiction to the reality of predatory capitalism. This explains why places such as Thailand – which is currently dominated by US Neo-Imperialism – possesses both a vibrant Theravada Buddhist tradition as well as large areas of abject (material) poverty. As Thailand is NOT a Socialist country (and is still a victim of Western colonial and imperial conquest) – its society offers an interesting dichotomy between two systems of self-worth, one ancient and Buddhist, whilst the other modern and entirely foreign. An individual might not possess any monetary wealth – but could be well-educated in Buddhist Studies. This aligns with the Buddha’s statement that the gift of Dharma excels all other gifts! A Buddhist monastic (or a devout lay-Buddhist) might well live a life of non-greed, non-hatred, and non-delusion – and therefore possess NO position within the predatory capitalist system. This is true regardless of whether an individual lives within an impoverished Asian country or an affluent Western country. Conversely, an Asian country that has successfully taken the path of monetary wealth accumulation must accommodate citizens who which to practice the Dharma to a greater degree within their everyday lives. Although it is doubtful that a capitalist country would ever allow any type of non-profit based existence – the superior morality of Socialism must ensure that individuals who which to practice the Dharma must be given the right to do this with the State facilitating this lifestyle as a matter of right.
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(KPL) Many thousands of Buddhist followers gathered at the annual almsgiving ceremony of the That Luang Festival, the biggest religious ceremony of the country on 27 November morning. (KPL) Many thousands of Buddhist followers gathered at the annual almsgiving ceremony of the That Luang Festival, the biggest religious ceremony of the country on 27 November morning. The alms giving ceremony was attended by President Thongloun Sisoulith, President of the Lao National Assembly Xaysomphone Phomvihane, along with their spouses. The religious ceremony aims to pay homage to That Luang stupa. The final day of the celebration of the That Luang Festival also witnesses an alms giving ceremony in the morning. Several hundreds of monks are invited to the ceremony.
They represent all temples in the Capital. The traditional game Tee Khee is played in the afternoon and the candlelit procession takes place in the evening to pay homage to the grand stupa. Dear Gillian
They tell Mr Moonie is God... S Korean forces killed more than Japanese killed in 36 years A completely random find in English! In China the Korean War is called the 'US War of Aggression in Korea' - whilst North Korea (a close ally of China) excludes all mention of Chinese involvement in the conflict! The US encouraged the Koreans that had fought for Japan during WWII (Korea had been a Japanese colony since 1910) to form a 'new' anti-leftist (a deliberately 'vague' definition at the time) military force that eventually murdered hundreds of thousands of South Koreans prior to (and during) the Korean War (1950-1953). I live near to New Malden - which is the only place outside of the US that South Koreans are allowed to migrate (temporarily) to - for work in the Korean car industry. The children of South Korean people go to school with my children - and over the years we have heard the stories of South Korean oppression. This is why British born Koreans often refuse to go back to South Korea - because life there is terrible in that country! The US has complained about this phenomenon but the Tories (who possessed no qualms deporting 500,000 Chinese Nationals from the UK during Covid-19 on the spurious grounds that 'Chinese people spread disease') will not deport non-White (Korean) children born here - although this attitude of strictly adhering to the law does not apply to ethnic Muslims born in the UK - the US lawyers astutely counter. If anything, this demonstrates the flexible nature of British racism! If you have read this far, this is not even the worst of it - as I was researching the (November) 2021 case of a 60-year old South Korean Buddhist monk who apparently possessed the strength to beat to death a local layman (with a stick) who came to the temple to complain about the noise of the morning prayers (a deliberate act designed to produce the maximum loss of face and the greatest offence)! This has something to do with the US missionary work in South Korea which seeks to wipe out Buddhism by 2050 (New Malden is saturated with 'Korean Only' Churches all positioned along the Main Road leading to Worcester Park). When reporting this case in English the US directed racism presents the Buddhist monk as a typical Asian madman because his lawyers claimed 'Self-Defence' in Court - but does not give the historical or socio-economic context. The English language South Korean press acts as if it is writing for a 'White' US audience rather than the ethnic Koreans the news is about - a clear demonstration of the essence of White colonialism. The layman in question, or so I have discovered in non-English language sources, was a 'Christian' deliberately sent to the temple to cause trouble. I say 'Christian' in the broad sense as he was a 'Moonie'. The Buddhist monk was expelled from the Sangha [correct action in accordance with the Vinaya Discipline he violated by allowing a 'hateful' thought to a) form in his mind, and b) 'manifest' as violent behavioural actions in the body and through the environment which led to c) the taking of a life] and tried as a layman. He was found 'Guilty' of murder and sentenced to twenty-years in prison. He is quoted as saying: 'The irony is that I used to sit in a cell and meditate voluntarily - now I have to sit in a cell and meditate involuntarily - it is just a matter of moving my meditation cushion.' The South Korean 'Christian' community issued a joint message condemning the ex-monk and praising the Court - stating that: 'This situation demonstrates the 'heathen' nature of Buddhism and fully justifies the US attitude and policy toward Korean Buddhism, which has proven historically untrustworthy in opposing the enemies of the US in the past and has often served as a hotbed of 'Socialistic' attitudes and other types of similar evils!' The stuff of soap operas, indeed! Thanks Adrian Author’s Note: I encountered the article referenced below – not in its original ‘English’ rendering – but in fact in a Russian-language translation featured as an informative post uploaded onto the ‘Грибник Илюша Chat’ (Ilyusha Hrybnyk Chat) Telegram Channel. When I translated the Russian-language text back into English (before I located the original English-language version) – I found that the Russian author had arranged the data from the research into a more efficient representation of the findings – and had achieved this by ‘tidying-up’ the original presentation. It is the English translation of the Russian interpretation that I have referenced below*, as I feel it possesses a greater insight and clarity into the findings of the research with regards to ‘expansive awareness’. Essentially, different parts of the brain are simultaneously ‘enhanced’ or ‘reduced’ in their functionality (disrupting the genetic blueprint of ‘balance’ provided through natural selection) when subjected to the ingesting of mind-altering drugs. This process generates a perceivable ‘distance’ or ‘dissonance’ (often described as a ‘three-dimensional’ and ‘all-embracing space’ within which all things seem to ‘manifest’ and ‘appear’) in the manner through which the human subject experiences the inner (subjective) and outer (objective) world. Indeed, such designations as ‘subject’ and ‘object’ appear to dissolve into insignificance as all things seem to be ‘unified’ whilst maintaining their inherent ‘diversity’. As the brain is striving to ‘balance’ the chemical processes to enhance the (evolutionary) chances of survival for the subject concerned – the ‘creative’ impulses are dramatically enhanced! This explains why ‘inspired’ and ‘unique’ artistic creations are often the result of this type of transformational experience. The point I make below, is that certain spiritual and religious ‘rituals’ replicate (overtime) the dramatic (existential) effects of entheogen chemicals – but that these ‘rituals’ achieve this transformation through psychological discipline and radical behaviour modification - having no reliance upon an external chemical agency. Finally, science is proving that genuine spiritual or religious experience is ‘real’ but that it is NOT the product of an external theological entity ‘protecting’ the transformation process into the individual concerned, as a ‘reward’ for devotional or faithful living! Such an experience, although unusual, is entirely natural and is subject to explanation through scientific investigation. ACW (7.7.2022) Although when human subjects living within modern (‘individualistic’) societies (as opposed to ‘collectivised’ primitive, traditional or tribal societies) ingest mind-altering drugs - there is little or no preparation for the resulting transformative experience. Therefore, the experienced ‘event’ is perceived as being ‘peak’, highly ‘unusual’ and sometimes even ‘traumatic’ as it separates the perception of the subject from the ordinary world that is ‘familiar’ to the senses. This is because the sensual experiences have not been anticipated and prepared for through the agency of spiritual, religious or communal ‘ritual’ that educates, acculturates and prepares the experiencing mind and body for this shift in awareness. This ritual can vary in length, but when linked to established religious practice (such as that found within the many and various ‘monastic’ or ‘meditative’ traditions of the world), it can take numerous years of training involving extensive study, discussion and guidance before a ‘breakthrough’ occurs that is accomplished not through an ingestion of a chemical agent – but rather through the application of a ‘spiritual’ technique designed specifically for this purpose. This can be contrasted with the reality found within modern societies wedded to ‘secularism’ and ‘individualism’ - where a person simply decides to ingest a mind-altering drug with no preparation and sits back to observe the consequences! The 2014 research paper published by Dr Robin Carhart-Harris of King's College London (and his colleagues) referenced below, observed the effects of ‘psilocybin’ (‘Magic Mushrooms’) on the chemical functioning of the brains of fifteen volunteers and concluded in-part: *“It was found that under the influence of a hallucinogen, the same parts of the brain are activated as during sleep - the hippocampus, which is involved in the formation of emotions, and the anterior cingulate cortex, which is responsible for the decision-making process, sympathy and emotional state. At the same time, the processes related to higher nervous activity, for example, to self-awareness, were not coordinated with each other. All this together, according to the researchers, gives the effect of ‘expansion of consciousness’." Those interested in this research should read and study the full findings of this study referenced below. As with any study of the chemical functioning of the ‘brain’ (and how this might relate to the ‘mind’) - the field of study is fluid, changeable and always subject to radical reinterpretation as more evidence becomes available. In other words, it is a continuously developing area of study, clarification and breaking new ground. I suspect that the ‘preparation’ involved with Buddhist meditative study orientates the practitioner to ‘integrate’ each new and unique subjective experience into his or her objective existence without the usual ‘dissonance’ reported by those who ingest mind-altering chemical substances merely as an exercise of the agency of momentary ‘individual’ choice. Although the Buddhist practitioner often reports ‘momentary’ breakthroughs in enhanced awareness – these are seldom traumatic and generally serve as an incentive toward further study. What the successful Buddhist practitioner does achieve is the eventual ‘permanent’ breakthrough in the expansion of awareness that reconciles entirely with the existential circumstances of the objective world! Perception is radically altered through the scientific process described above – but without the accompanying ‘alienation’ of the individual from a) the experience itself, and b) the objective world they inhabit. This spiritualised process represents the difference between decades of preparation through rigorous psychological and physical self-discipline – and the ‘momentary’ whim inspired through superficial social interaction and the wish to momentarily ‘escape’ sensory perception as experienced during everyday experience. English Language Research:
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/152867/new-study-discovers-biological-basis-magic/ Russian Language Source: https://t.me/c/1624019600/1505 As the world slowly emerges from 'lock-down' and the threat of Covid-19 reduces (despite being far from over), people start to get back to the normal patterns of everyday life! Last year, during 2021, the Communist Party of China celebrated one-hundred Years of existence! The CPC has existed for one-hundred years and has held power since 1949! As Buddhism fundamentally 'rejects' greed, hatred and delusion, and given that predatory capitalism is premised upon greed, hatred and delusion, it logically follows that genuine Buddhist philosophy - when not subject to distorting human ignorance - is obviously and inherently 'anti-capitalist'. Indeed, to adjust Buddhist thinking so that it 'supports' predatory capitalism, entire sections of the Dharma in ALL traditions would have to be removed so as to 'purge' all the teachings that describe in detail how to uproot greed, hatred and delusion! Of course, there has been the odd distortion away from the Buddhis Suttas (or 'Sutras') which emphasis 'greed' and 'material' accumulation instead of deepening penetrative insight and seeking to 'uproot' taints from the mind - but these are obvious aberrations often linked to everything that is bad within human nature and human endeavour! In other words, such perversions of the Dharma are easy to spot because they surround most of us much of the time! The primary distortion lies in the books shops all around us in the West - where smiling Buddhist monks attempt to 'sell' you peace of mind, or attribute all kinds of miraculous cures to 'mindfulness' - providing you can afford the fee! Bourgeois Buddhism is essentially Proletariat Buddhism kidnapped by the middle-classes and distorted to suit its own ogre-like image! May Day reminds us that we are all workers and that we are not only important - but through are collective labour - we build and sustain the modern world! London held the first May Day march in three-years yesterday - after the Covid-19 emergency! We must physically march holding the Red Flag of Freedom aloft - but we must also 'march' whilst 'looking within' so that we free ourselves from the greed, hatred and delusion that inspires and sustains the middle-classes! Onward - we have a world to win!
If the Roman Catholic Church can spend the last one-hundred years openly supporting fascism - Buddhists csn sit quietly and uproot the greed, hatred and delusion (through Meditation that inhabits the mind! Indeed, 'Nazism' is the development of greed, hatred and delusion into a certain and specific 'frequency' of hatred which is then projected upon hr world! This 'delusion in the ethereal mind' becomes 'destruction in the material world!' Whereas the Roman Catholic Church has Priests and Monks on the ground dashing to and froe between Neo-Nazi Poland and Neo-Nazi Ukraine ('blessing' Neo-Nazi White 'Volunteers' from the West as they head towards a certain death) - Buddhists the world-over start by sitting quietly in a disciplined manner and through regulating the breath and focusing the mind upon whatever Buddhist technique that is preferred - the surface activity of the mind is 'calmed', greed, hatred and delusion 'settle' and are slowly 'disentangled' from how the mind 'interacts' with the physical, and by extension, with the material world! Eventually, as 'essence' of the mind is understood to be 'empty' of 'self' and 'other' - the habit energy that genertes greed, hatred and delusion diminishes and finally is 'extinguished' at source - never to be engaged again! All this a Buddhist can do 'here and now' and does not hae to travel to the Ukraine to assist the Russian Offensive! It should be common-knowledge that at least three Soviet Republics were 'Buddhist' during the days of the USS (1917-1991), although technically speaking, the USSR was not declared until late 1922 - after the Soviet Red Army had defeated The UK and thirteen of her allies, and Germany and six of her allies - in an aggressive war waged by the bourgeois West (with the shadow of the ogre Churchill lurking in the background), which became known as the Russian Civil War (1918-1921), even though it was a massive military incursion that eventually killed around ten million Russian men, women and children! The capitalist West inflicted this war upon Russia and there was nothing 'Civil' about any of it! There has been no recognition, no acknowledgement and no apology issued by the West! The bourgeois West tried to eradicate the USSR again in 1941 - although this time the US and UK decided to keep out of this direct and far more bloody attempt at 'geocoding' the Russian people so that Hitler's Germany could have more 'living space to move into! Germany was assisted by Italy, Spain, the Roman Catholic Church, Hungary, Finland, Romania, Slovakia and Bulgaria. Raw materials to keep Hitler's armies going in the field were also provided by Sweden, Portugal and Turkey amongst others! This time, the death toll was much higher. Declassified Soviet documents unearthed in 2017 form the Planning Department of 1946 (a department responsible for assessment of needs and policies required to fulfil these needs), state that between 1941-1945 the population of the USSR decreased by a massive 52 million! It was decided that 11 million were due to 'natural' causes whilst '41 million' were due directly to Nazi German (and Axis) war activity in the Western USSR (primarily in the Ukraine)! The numbers were broken down as the Soviet Red Army lost 19.5 million men and women, whilst 21.5 million men, women and children civilians were murdered or otherwise perished!
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. Given that the inner content of the mind is a reflection of the external world, then all religiosity is false in that it is a misreading of that external stimuli. For any spiritual path to be effective, it must ‘see through’ the fog of religion and the confusion of the inner mind. None of the images constructed in the inner fabric of the mind represents anything other than what they are – namely ‘disconnected’ and ‘disparate’ phantoms of light and shade. Religion is constructed from this jumble of nonsense when the capacity for logical thought is applied to it. The logic capacity of the mind chops and resizes all this mad kaleidoscopic light show and generates a type of ‘plausibility’ that fills in the huge gaps of credibility through mindless ‘faith’. None of it is real, but due to a cultural and historical lack of clarity of thought, even the most intelligent of individuals still consider it a possibility that the irrationality this religiosity represents might well be ‘true’ when viewed in the right light, or given the right conditions, etc. The fact that none of it ever makes any independent sense, is lost even on the greatest of minds! Meditation, when uncoupled from its associated religiosity becomes a vehicle through which the empty nature of the inner mind can be perceived. This is achieved by the ‘attention’ capacity ‘detaching’ itself from the ‘thought content’ so that it is no longer experienced through the illusion of some kind of substantiality. When detached, these thoughts no longer present anything than what they are – phantoms and light shows within the inner mind. Instead of the ‘awareness’ capacity being limited to the thought constructs themselves, it ‘spreads’ to encompass the entire physicality of the inner mind itself, generating an ‘expansion’ of awareness. This is a very real experience. Furthermore, as the awareness is now fully extended throughout the terrain of the inner mind, it is emphasised and extended through the six senses so that the awareness also permeates the inner body. This appears to extend into the physical environment through the sense-organ – sense data dichotomy. This is how the ‘awareness’ capacity when freed from attachment to thought constructs and the misreading of inner (irrational) phantasms as cogent religion – appears to ‘expand’ into and ‘through’ the physical environment. This is not a mysterious event but rather an evolutionary necessity that has become lost through the complexities of modern living. The point is that it is possible to free the awareness from the tyranny of constructed and conditioned thought forms and thought patterns, etc. When this happens, the thought capacity appears to manifest as if in a deep pool of silver-like water, which ‘reflects’ inwardly all it encounters in the external environment. Despite the accuracy of this reflection, religiosity derives from the natural distortion of this capacity (which appears to be a by-product of human evolutionary adaptation). Whether accurate or inaccurate, however, none of these reflections are ‘real’ in the material sense. Thought forms are the creations of bio-chemical interactions that ‘cease’ at the point of physical death. It is possible to understand all these processes prior to death, and to free the awareness of attachment to form following a relatively straightforward course in meditative self-development. Not only is the awareness capacity ‘freed’, but so is the logic capacity which evolved to ‘order’ thoughts. When freed from the rigid thought constructs conditioned throughout history, this type of enhanced logic can be used to strengthen and develop Socialist science to an ever-greater degree! Physical death then becomes an exercise in the logical closing-down of the bio-chemical processes of the body which sees the perception capacity quite literally ‘folding-in’ upon itself. There is nothing to fear and everything to gain!
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!
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AuthorAdrian Chan-Wyles PhD - Political Commissar and BMA (UK) Historian & Researcher. Archives
April 2024
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