The Western philosophical and religious tradition has often assumed that 'thought' is separate and distinct from 'matter' - as if arising within (and representing) a 'non-material' and 'unseen' realm. However, the above-linked neuroscience research offers proof that 'thought' is a physical phenomenon that possesses physical characteristics and can be both 'observed' and 'measured'. Moreover, all trends in bourgeois science confirm the observations of Karl Marx - but 'stop' only at the measurement of matter - adopting an ideological position of ignoring the socio-economic conditions that humanity has created throughout its long evolution, and which a) influence and b) manipulate how matter manifests and c) conditions 'how' this matter is 'interpreted' in the best interests of the ruling class. Bourgeois science exercises a brutal control of material resources so that its class dominance can be perpetuated and defended (often through naked aggression and warfare). What is interesting is that bourgeois science perpetuates the myth of 'neutrality' as its public face - whilst behind the scenes it cooperates fully with the bourgeois system it serves, supports and endorses. Although bourgeois science is continuously 'proving' the attitudes and opinions of Marx (and Engels) correct - this fact remains suppressed as the bourgeois system itself does not want the masses 'knowing' or 'understanding' this, and thereby being 'influenced' into 'changing' the dynamics of the 'class' that runs and administers Western society. It is probably correct to say that the world prior to the rise of capitalism (and the bourgeoisie control of society) possessed a much more uninhibited and fertile ground for 'free thought' (outside of religion) than it does today - but that without Marx (and Engels) to focus this thought, it lacked the potential for meaningful Revolution!
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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. Awareness probably preceded rational thought by millions of years within human evolution. Long before humans were ‘human’ they traversed various species of animals and started their evolutionary development with a vague ‘awareness’ of being ‘here’ - before learning to visually distinguish between light and dark. This progressed to mediating with the environment through violent instinct before finally developing the ability to produce rational thought. The ‘vague awareness’ that distinguished the primordial life from inert matter has never left humanity and has been continuously misconstrued to represent and justify the ‘religious’ instinct. Whereas this ‘vague awareness’ used to ‘sense’ the dark (tree) canopy within which early humanity existed – today it is used to ‘imagine’ the presence of God (or some similar imaginary underlying substance). Worshipping God today was worshipping the (tree) canopy yesterday. From the canopy all life has emerged and is sustained, and to the canopy all life shall return. A dark damnation lies below – whilst a limitless ‘brightness’ exists above! The mistake of human perception is a basic ‘inversion’ of reality. Whereas the canopy ‘pre-exists’ each new life born into it – the human ‘awareness’ of the canopy DOES NOT pre-exist the sensing of the canopy each new life experiences when born into it! The idea that human ‘awareness’ pre-exists the individual beings that experience its presence is a major misconception and error of judgement. Unlike the pre-existing canopy which possesses a separate and distinct material history outside of the minds and bodies of those who are born into it – the capacity for human ‘awareness’ does not possess an ‘external’ origination (which would see it projected or broadcast into each human mind from afar) - but originates within the bio-chemical deep structure of the psychic fabric of each separate brain-mind nexus. Although human consciousness is a special organisation of matter, this ‘awareness’ emerges from a number of specific bio-chemical reactions which create the illusion of lucidity in the mind – a lucidity which serves to ‘reflect’ and ‘mimic’ the world of external materiality. This is the correct chain of events and pathway of logical evolutionary development despite the religious urge to perceive reality the wrong way around. The point is that nothing can be known to exist outside of ‘awareness’ for each human-being regardless of the external world pre-existing and post-existing each individual life. Material existence carries on regardless of the status of each individual human existence. Awareness begins, for sake of argument at the point of conception and ENDS at the point of bio-chemical death. Admittedly, during the dying process raw awareness may be the last human agency of communication to dissolve – but dissolve it undoubtedly will - leaving no sensory-capacity to discern the imaginary world of religiosity!
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 Within Early Buddhist thinking – premised upon the content of the Pali Suttas – the Buddha explains that material reality is the basis of all existence, and that the physical body is the basis of ALL aspects of what is collectively referred to as the ‘mind’. Although the Buddha never knew of the physical organ of the ‘brain’ encased as it is in the skull-bone – he nevertheless described the ‘mind’ as emerging from conditions that involve the physical body. Not only this, but the Buddha on occasion referred to certain thoughts as being entirely ‘physical’ in nature! Within his teachings of the Four Noble Truths, the Buddha explained human existence as comprising of a physical body from which emerges sensation, conception, thought formation and consciousness. Within the Pali Suttas he describes why he thinks this with a crystal-clear clarity! For the Buddha, the capacity to ‘think’ is not a matter of a ‘spirit’ being divinely placed the body in opposition to ‘physical’ reality. Although like Marx the Buddha acknowledges the existences and usefulness of the ‘mind’, he is of the opinion that regardless of how apparently ‘ethereal’ the thought-processes might be – they are not in origin a product of a ‘divine-being’ placing his or her spiritual ‘essence’ inside the heart of human-beings! This observation of the Buddha broke the assumed connection of each individual to an assumed but unseen spirit-world that supposedly controlled human affairs from afar and justified the ‘racist’ caste system! This is why the Buddha’s alarmingly ‘modern’ method of defining and assessing physical existence immediately placed him at odds with the Brahmanical religion of ancient India which still holds so much sway over the imagination of modern India! Neuroscientists have recently released research that demonstrates that the brain’s capacity to ‘think’ is a physical act. This confirms the Soviet assertion that ‘consciousness’ is a ‘special arrangement of matter’ and has nothing to do with the existence of an assumed ‘hidden’ realm involving all-seeing spiritual entities with the power to affect each life entirely through a whim! The human brain has evolved the ability to generate the ‘mind’ - which is an ‘internalisation’ of the experienced external conditions that exist ‘outside’ of the body. Originally, human life has three-bodies. First there is the conceived foetus, secondly there is the womb of the mother’s body, which (thirdly) exists within a physical world. These are the multiple worlds available to the ‘new’ human. The ‘external’ world of other human, animals and varying conditions is mediated through the body of the mother for the first ten months of gestation prior to birth. The developing individual ‘learns’ about the external world through the body of his or her mother and as the brain slowly grows and becomes more capable of ‘sensing’. When the baby is born, he or she loses the body of the mother as a mediating device and it must experience the outside world entirely upon its own. Yes, adults may well provide auxiliary care, but reality from now on is strictly a matter of ‘direct’ sensation which is processed in a brain which is forever developing and learning to build an ever more efficient ‘internal’ (holographic) representation of the external world in its interior, or so it seems. There are now only two bodies that a human individual inhabits – the individual (organic) body and the physical (material) body that is the external environment! The biological body – although comprised of a certain biological blue-print – is nevertheless considered ‘unique’ to its owner, whilst the physical environment will be generally the same, albeit comprised of differing conditions, circumstances and survival characteristics. A life of opulence Is generally easier to live than a life of grinding poverty, etc. science, etc. The human mind can predict the past, contemplate the present and speculate about the future. However, other than being ‘aware’ of existential reality that is happening ‘now’ through the senses, the ability to ‘remember’ the past and to ‘speculate’ about the future are skills of pure ‘imagination’ regardless of the accuracy of such capabilities. In other words, these are ‘illusionary’ abilities developed during the course of human evolution, designed to assist humanity with its ability to ‘survive’! These abilities are ‘illusionary’ because they do not pre-exist the birth of the individual, and do not post-exist the death of the individual, as each ability is the product of a fully developed and functioning brain within a living body! Thoughts are hollow constructs within which humanity can ‘imagine’ or ‘import’ any content he or she wishes! This is a remarkable human ability as each thought construct can be ‘imagined’ as containing the entirety of material existence, or ‘speculate’ as to the nature of the infinitesimally small quantum universe! A thought construct in the mind is essentially ‘empty’ in nature so that its interior can be filled-up with whatever content the individual requires – although, of course, the Buddha suggested ‘emptying’ the thought constructs so that their empty nature can be fully comprehended and understood ‘here and now’. Furthermore, the reality of the interior of the thought construct is mostly empty space. This mirrors the construction of material reality in the external world – which is mostly ‘empty space’ with the occasional passing piece of matter. Before the advent of modern science, the Buddha found a way of explaining the nature of the physical universe by having each aspirant ‘look’ directly into their owns minds! Again, the Buddha’s ancient wisdom often dove-tails with the findings of modern science to a remarkable degree! This is why I believe that Karl Marx may well have been influenced by the philosophy of Early Buddhism when formulating his theory of historical materialism! Reference:
Neuroscientists Track Thought’s Trip through Brain http://www.sci-news.com/othersciences/neuroscience/thoughts-trip-brain-05648.html |
AuthorAdrian Chan-Wyles PhD - Political Commissar and BMA (UK) Historian & Researcher. Archives
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