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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The 14th Dalai Lama was brought up in a Potala Palace (in Lhasa) that deliberately harboured Nazi German War Criminals. He was at the top of a ruthless 'Lamaist' hierarchy that raped, tortured and murdered the oppressed Serf population! These Nazi War Criminals had escaped from British POW Camps in India and had taken refuge in a Tibet that had been 'friendly' to these racists from Hitler's Germany! In return for their compliance in 'lying' about a forceful takeover of Tibet by the fabled 'Chinese' (the remit was that the 'Chinese' behaved like 'Nazi Germans') these Nazi German 'War Criminals' would be granted 'Immunity' from Prosecution! Indeed, they would write books (in English) and would receive immediate US Citizenship for their assistance in this grand scheme of deception! Part of this façade has involved the 14th Dalai Lama being presented to the West as a ‘Christ-like’ figure worthy of respect and worship! India has been part and parcel of this process of ‘lying’ and ‘misrepresenting’ China, its culture and its religious traditions! The US anti-intellectualism employed by the CIA was that 'China' had 'invaded' an integral part of its 'own' territory! By the time of the 1949 Socialist Revolution in China – and the 1959 'Liberation' of the Tibetan region - Tibet had been a part of geographical China for over a thousand years - with millions of Tibetans living throughout Southwest China after expanding into China proper! When the capitalist-friendly 'Nationalist' government ruled China between 1912-1949 - the US was absolutely fine with Tibet being an integral part of China! It was only when the anti-capitalist 'Socialist' government was brought to power in 1949 that a right-wing US (Truman) government had a problem with the new arrangement. This was when the myth-making machine chugged into action! When the ethnic Han (Chinese) Buddhist Master - Xu Yun (1840-1959) - visited the Tibetan region during the late 1880s - he was shocked and appalled by the 'decadence' he encountered! Many 'apologists' for Western imperialism tried to suggest that this movement away from the Vinaya Discipline (as laid down by the Buddha) was a necessary part of the Buddhist adaptation to the Tibetan environment, but the problem with this thinking is the 'Lamaism' is NOT Buddhism per se, but rather a ruthless manifestation of a system of Buddhist totalitarianism! These so-called 'High Lamas' were nothing but militarised Landlords who possessed numerous wives and concubines and passed on their vast estates to their children! Anyone who dared to question or challenge their authority often ended up having their eyeballs publicly 'gouged out' with a spoon! This was the corrupt system that Adolf Hitler was very interested in - as he was obsessed with the bizarre idea that the racially pure 'Aryans' had originated within Tibet - and that the naturally 'racist' high Lamas were somehow 'descendants' of these racially pure ancestors who had spread to Germany! This explains why numerous Nazi German archaeological expeditions were sent to the region - and why the young 14th Dalai Lama was ingratiated with Hitler's emissaries! These 'Aryan' representatives would soon be replaced by their CIA equivalents - as the Americans spirited the Dalai Lama away to India and a fabricated story of a 'Chinese invasion' was concocted! This falsehood is now masquerading as the 'norm' in the West - with only people across China (including the Tibetan region) - truly understanding the reality of the situation! The corruption of the 14th Dalai Lama is well-known – but the US follows a policy of never presenting his image in a negative light! He has been friends with mass murderers, has been involved with the hacking of US defence computers and has been caught demanding that everyone follows a vegetarian diet – whilst being caught ordering plates of ham sandwiches at the various five-star hotels he and his entourage frequents! Although he is supposed to be an impoverished Buddhist monk – it has been revealed that he receives a yearly allowance of $200,000 from the US govement! This maverick behaviour all fits in with the ‘Bourgeois’ (‘Christianised’) Buddhism he peddles in the West! Anyone can access the Buddhist Vinaya Discipline – even the far more liberal ‘Tibetan’ version – and see that the 14th Dalai Lama does NOT adhere to this very strict psychological and physical discipline that involves the upholding of hundreds of rules! Yet again his hypocrisy and corruption has been displayed in his ‘amorous’ behaviour (forbidden by the Vinaya Discipline) which involves him insisting upon ‘kissing’ those he meets – but only involving the touching of tongues!
The BBC is an arrogant ‘White’ (Bourgeois) institution that has the working-class forcibly ‘pay’ for its own anti-Socialist indoctrination! This is a very Hitlerite arrangement which contributes to the further enrichment of the ruling classes – and the impoverishment of the ordinary toiling masses! Since the rise of the British Tories in 2010, the BBC has abandoned any pretence of being genuinely ‘British’ and of being ‘accurate’ and ‘truthful’. What the BBC broadcasts today is settled and authorised in a smoke-filled room somewhere deep in the labyrinth that is the (Washington DC) White House! Thailand, on the other hand, whilst undoubtedly being a bastion for the genuine Theravada Dhamma, is nevertheless a US-dominated ‘capitalist’ cesspit! People routinely die of starvation, medical neglect and Islamo-fascist terrorism (ironically also funded by the US), whilst ‘White’ American ‘males’ (amongst other such perverts) continuously travel to the country to pay impoverished Thai parents for the privilege of ‘raping’ their children – often paying a few dollars more for permission to film the same defiled children being ‘murdered’ in Snuff Movies! It is odd then, that the Prime Minister of Thailand should announce a crackdown upon ‘drug-taking’ throughout the country, an activity that is only really practiced by the better-off section of the Thai Bourgeoisie. The Buddha-Dhamma explicitly forbids any form of ‘intoxication’, including the imbuing of mind-altering or sense-numbing substances – outside of legitimate pharmaceuticals that cure or diminish the ‘pain’ of illness and injury. Whereas the Thai people desperately need a Socialist Revolution – the US dominance ruthlessly maintains this decrepit status quo when many Buddhist teachers clearly state that the Buddha’s philosophy supports all aspects and elements of Socialist ideology (a point clearly demonstrated in countries such as Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, North Korea, China and perhaps even Bangladesh and Pakistan, etc). The message is clear – Buddhist philosophy definitely denies and forbids any and all forms of drug imbibing designed as leisure activities. Of course, as the BBC pursues a pro-Christian (and very ‘White’) agenda – nothing is mentioned about this Buddhist ‘anti-drug’ attitude – particularly as the Protestant and Catholic Churches produces, hides and protects its own homegrown ‘paedophiles’ priests and monks, many of whom may well prey upon innocent (but impoverished) Thai children. The BBC – on its so-called ‘World Service’ (surely a sick joke) - recently put-out the misrepresented story that a Buddhist Temple was ‘shut-down’ due to an epidemic of ‘drug-taking’ in an area of Northern Thailand! This is fake in as much as it not factually correct. The drug-taking problem has been found not amongst the ordinary people (who cannot afford enough food to stay alive), but rather primarily amongst the office workers and those other bourgeoisie who possess a disposable income. Out of all the hundreds of Buddhist (monastic) populations tested throughout Thailand so far – only one (single) Buddhist Temple was found to possess individuals who tested ‘positive’. The BBC presented this fact so as to (falsely) suggest that ALL Buddhist Temples in Thailand are overrun with a tremendous drug-taking problem – and that ‘Buddhism’ is failing the Thai population! In fact, the temple concerned remains ‘unnamed’ but contains thirty-eight ordained (male) Buddhist monastics. Out of these, only one (male) lay-helper and just six Buddhist monastics were found to test ‘positive’ for ‘methamphetamine’. One such monk was aged over 70-years old and had been a Buddhist monk for just five-years. He said that the vast majority of monks NEVER take any drugs and that he would occasionally ask a local child to procure the substance for him (misusing his Sangha Authority). Of course, the BBC decided to omit the reality that thirty-two of the Buddhist monks had NOT tested positive for any drugs in this temple – and that this ‘negative’ pattern was repeated across Thailand as the testing unfolded! After these monks had been formally interviewed by the Head Monk – they were then arrested, charged and transitioned to a special State-funded clinic designed for treating drug-addiction (an act met with general ‘applause’ in the West – but had such action been taken in China or the DPRK – all the BBC would have broadcast is anti-Socialist propaganda). I suspect that this monkish misbehaviour constitutes a ‘Minor’ infringement of the Vinaya Discipline Rules and should not, in and of itself, justify an ‘expulsion’ from the Ordained Sangha. Again, there is no information from the BBC on the realities of everyday Buddhist culture – such is its racism. After condemning the very fabric of all Buddhist culture – the BBC finished with a pro-American flourish expressing the most sublime ‘anti-intellectualism’ - falsely claiming that Myanmar (Burma) as a friend of China, mass manufactures and exports ‘methamphetamine’ across the world (including ‘to Thailand’), aided and abetted in this dastardly and nefarious task by Socialist Laos! Laos is a developing ‘Socialist’ country with a very strong Buddhist Sangha and equally good relations with China! Western institutions such as the BBC are Past Masters in ‘lying’ and expertly mixing ‘fact’ with ‘fiction’ so that it is difficult to tell the two entities apart! None of the Thai language sources support the BBC narrative upon this subject. Indeed, the manipulation of the truth and the upholding of US anti-intellectualism are the primary objectives of the (White) racist BBC. Nothing the BBC says should or can be trusted! Thai Buddhism, despite the decisions of its greedy politicians and deluded Royal family, retains one of the purest Buddhist Sanghas in the world – which is NOT over-run with drug-taking! Do not trust the BBC in any way – and let us all join Russia in fighting the Western-backed Neo-Nazism in the despicable Zelensky-led Ukraine! Thai Language Sources https://www.thaigov.go.th/news/contents/details/61580 https://www.m-culture.go.th/phetchabun/ewt_news.php?nid=2010&filename=index https://news.ch7.com/detail/601348 As the Western (US-Dominated) Internet Cannot be Trusted – This is the Basic Article: สนามข่าว 7 สี - ใส่สบงแล้วทรงเพลิดเพลิน ไม่ได้ลึกซึ้งกับรสพระธรรมแต่อย่างใด แต่เพลิดเพลินกับการมั่วสุมเสพยาเสพติด พระวัดดังย่านปากน้ำ จ้างวานเด็กไปซื้อยามาให้เสพ ฝ่ายปกครองได้รับร้องเรียนบุกตรวจพระในวัด 38 รูป พบ 6 รูป ปัสสาวะสีม่วง ให้เจ้าอาวาสจับสึก ก่อนส่งตัวเข้ารับการบำบัด เจ้าหน้าที่ฝ่ายปกครอง ได้รับเรื่องร้องเรียนจากชาวบ้านว่า มีพระลูกวัดวัดดัง ตำบลท้ายบ้าน อำเภอเมือง จังหวัดสมุทรปราการ มีพฤติกรรมมั่วสุม เสพสารเสพติด จึงนำกำลังบุกมาตรวจค้น และตรวจปัสสาวะพระสงฆ์ภายในวัดดังกล่าว จำนวน 38 รูป พบว่ามีพระลูกวัดปัสสาวะสีม่วง จำนวน 6 รูป และฆราวาสอีก 1 คน เจ้าหน้าที่จึงนำพระ 6 รูป ส่งให้เจ้าอาวาสวัดทำการสึก ก่อนนำตัวทั้งหมดส่งดำเนินคดีตามกฎหมาย และเข้าสู่กระบวนการบำบัดต่อไป พระรูปหนึ่ง บอกว่า ตอนนี้ตนเองอายุเกือบ 70 ปี บวชมาแล้วเกือบ 5 พรรษา แล้ว ที่ผ่านมายอมรับว่าเสพยาเสพติด แต่ไม่ได้เสพบ่อย นาน ๆ ถึงจะเสพสักครั้งหนึ่ง โดยแต่ละครั้งที่จะเสพก็จะจ้างวานให้เด็กที่รู้จักกันไปซื้อมาให้ โดยที่ยาบ้าที่ซื้อนั้น เม็ดละ 100 บาท รวมค่าจ้างแล้ว English Language Source:
Stupid White People – And How They Betrayed the Revolutionary Nature of Buddhism! (12.9.2022)9/12/2022 Buddhism is stronger than any bullet, bomb or army! Buddhism possesses the greatest form of power and that is the ability to alter thought patterns and change the way individuals and groups perceive the material world and decide how to act in it! When White people set off for Asia in the last few centuries – what did they do? They took along (tucked safely inside them) the Bible they had so fervently had rejected on the outside! When they studied Buddhism here and there – they all managed to miss the point – and they studied the Dhamma as superior ‘White’ people pontificating upon the inferior machinations of the great unwashed (and slightly ‘smelly’) non-Europeans – those odd people who all seemed to claim an ancient culture but which no one seemed to know anything definite about! Oh – how they failed those tests! Still, they did manage to acquire the words of the Buddha and they did bring those words of the Buddha back to Europe – and what did they do with these most powerful of Revolutionary words? Well, they immediately set about mimicking the establishments of the Christian religion they had abandoned and as if this was not enough of a betrayal – they immediately began to turn Buddhism into a commodity that could be bought and sold on the free market! They then wrote copious amounts of books about how clever they thought they were and how their understanding was greater than any other Western convert! Entire publishing empires developed committed to peddling the spiritual imaginations of ‘White’ people who had been to Asia and ‘stolen’ (after-all, they never paid for) the Dhamma for nefarious reasons. The very Christian religion Buddhism should have washed away with an unstoppable wave of anti-theistic wisdom was bolstered and reinforced! The capitalism that the non-greed of Buddhism should have uprooted and laid to rest was thrown ‘Buddhism’ to devour like a bone casually tossed to a hungry dog! The Revolution that Buddhism should have caused amongst the Working-Class of the West was hijacked by the Middle-Classes who could afford to travel to exotic lands and lounge under trees for long periods of time! Trotsky in a Saffron robe – that is what these shaven headed Order of Contemplatives have brought to the West! The Buddha saw that ‘religion’ is the enemy – the ‘stupefier’ of humanity! These stupid White people with their fake sincerity and impure hearts defied the Buddha whilst pretending to follow him – and they still do! The Working-Class can wake-up in an instant! There is no need for mimicking or appropriating the culture of others! Buddhist dialectics applied properly is the end of the bourgeois inverted mind-set – the end of the false consciousness of the Working-Class! God does not exist because he NEVER existed - so away with your old Churches, graveyards and pretend royalty! Buddhism is stronger than bullets even though words can be used with the force of bullets! Buddhism is communicated with words and with silence! Revolution is greeted with turmoil and then an unfolding stability! Stupid White people rob Peter to pay Paul! The Buddhism they follow is Christ in drag! The Queen is dead – long live the Dharma Raja!
Many people are surprised to learn that Thich Nhat Hanh’s main teacher was ‘Thich Quang Duc‘ – a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who burned himself in protest to the Western (and ‘Catholic’) imperialist invasion of Vietnam. This is because Thich Nhat Hanh and his Western acolytes were highly successful in distancing his perceived history from this fact. Why did this happen? What drove an Asian Buddhist to side with his Western persecutors? The West has appropriated Asian Buddhism with very little protest from the small number of ethnic Buddhists living in the West. This has nothing to do with condoning this process of what might be termed ‘spiritual theft’ and everything to do with the reality that Buddhism as conceived and practiced in the West is a perverse ‘inversion’ of what it is in Asian and has been throughout history for over 2,500 years or more. Most Westerners, for instance, are so used to reaching for their credit card when they pick up their ‘mala’ that most would be incredulous to learn that the historical Buddha himself, considered it a spiritual offense to demand money (or any form of payment) in exchange for receiving instruction in the ‘Dhamma’ or his understanding of reality. Indeed, whilst thousands of Westerners crammed into meditation halls ‘at a cost’, the only genuine Buddhists in the world were living in poverty-driven enclaves throughout Asia (these being the products of Western imperialism) and suffering from periodic bouts of ‘death’ caused by the tens of thousands of bombs dropped upon Asian countries by the US Airforce. This historical process of the aggressive West blowing the bodies of ethnic Buddhists to smithereens has happened throughout India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, China, Japan, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, etc. Individual Buddhists, their temples and their communities were thoroughly destroyed in the name of Eurocentric dominance and greed – whilst elements of that destroyed culture were imported into the West to be used in the process of capitalist exploitation – a preferred bourgeois mirror-image of the hellish reality generated out of sight and out of mind. The misrepresentation of Buddhism has been a lucrative business fie not only the White community, but also to those Asians who have aligned their minds and bodies with it, such as the 14th Dalai Lama, Li Hongzhi and Thich Nhat Hanh, etc. All these are examples of Asians who have sat at the head of a vast money-making empire that has ‘sold Buddhism’ to Westerners – whilst those same the governments elected by those same Westerners have chosen to blanket-bomb large swathes of Asia for ideological reasons. Surely, such Asian leaders in the West are guilty as Buddhists of breaking every one of the prohibitions and guidelines contained in the Noble Eightfold Path and the spiritual guidance contained in the Four Noble Truths. Not to mention the hundreds of moral restrictions formulated throughout the extensive Vinaya Discipline! This betrayal of Buddhism and the Asian people is exactly how I would like to remember the Traitor to the Vietnamese people – Thich Nhat Hanh – who sat quietly counting his money (a practice termed ‘pacifist’ by his Western admirers and hangers on), whilst the bombs paid for by the tax dollars of this followers were dropped by the governments those followers elected into power! This is the image I have of Thich Nhat Hanh and the image through Thich Nhat Hanh will be remembered by the vast majority of ethnic Buddhists living throughout Asia!
Religionists ‘imagine’ that their belief system is comprised of a higher knowledge which ‘survives’ the ‘dying’ process and even pre-exists the ‘conception’ and ‘birthing’ mechanisms! Of course, there is no evidence for either of these conjectures with ALL evidence being to the contrary. Therefore, the truth claims are not correct. However, as a regulatory device within society, and given the deep habit religion still maintains throughout much of human society, religion can be useful. The problem is that those who existentially adhere to the teachings of religion, also literally believe in the extraordinary claims of those religions. In other words, religion is not merely a vehicle for existential regulation, but is also a guarantor for what is believed to be what comes after physical death. If an individual or group dedicate their lives to following the religion here and now, then the promises made by the theology are believed to come into play (regardless of the outrageous nature of those claims). As these pre-birth and post-death claims have no basis in observable fact, there is no reason for existential society to be premised upon these claims as it is a pointless exercise and a lack of resources. There is no point constructing a physical society in a manner which reflects the unscientific claims of theology and religious philosophy. Although an interesting experiment in the combination of the human imagination and the ability to physically organise and construct buildings whilst directing all human endeavour, science is neither recognised or even known! In such a society, progression is stultified with the present always defined as conforming to a regressive ideal that that has emerged arbitrarily from the human imagination. As each such religious ideal is intolerant toward difference and totalitarian in both essence and deployment, each human grouping that has developed such am ‘inverted’ organisation of society is a priori antagonistic to all other competing modes of human social and cultural organisation. Marx identifies that a thought in the head is mistaken as a concrete object in the material universe. In other words, a set of thoughts appearing in the mind are mistaken for a set of processes in the physical universe. As there is no corresponding physical presence or mechanical process in the material universe, it becomes obvious that such religious constructs are ‘inverted’ in nature. Religion them, is a thought in the head mistaken for an object in the physical universe – an object that does exist. Religion is comprised of the shadows of the human imagination which generates phantasms as manifestations of human fear of the unknown. Buddhism, of course, is an interesting exception to this analysis which has the potential of clearing the human-mind of all regressive and inverted mind patterns and can reveal the raw dialectical reality that Marx and Engels appear to have been born knowing quite naturally. In this regard, when Buddhism is freed of its accrued religiosity, it can be used productively for Revolutionary organisation, that is to change society from its regressive and exploitative stage to that of progressive Socialism in preparation for Communism.
Author’s Note: I compiled the following academic research paper with the determination to expose a) the baseless religiosity associated with monasticism, and b) the inverted and unscientific nature of the British ‘Society for Psychical Research’ - a vestige leftover from the Victorian obsession with ‘spiritualism’ and other such non-scientific nonsenses. My initial intention, if you excuse the pun, was to go straight into the lion’s den and get an academic paper published that on the surface appeared to be engaging and furthering the supposed debate surrounding psychic phenomena, whilst in reality was actually ‘undermining’ that reality and exposing it as being both ‘inverted’ and ‘unscientific’. Obviously, some way along the line of SPR review process, one or two of their Editors took exception to either part (or all) of the narrative of this exposing article and decided to ‘veto’ its publishing in their journal: From: Journal Editor <[email protected]> To: Adrian Chan-Wyles PhD <[email protected]> Subject: JSPR: Editorial Decision RE: Your Submission Date: Wednesday, 1 December 2021 09:08 Dear Adrian Chan-Wyles, The Editors have read and discussed your paper and after a careful review it has been decided not to accept your paper for publication in the journal. The content is not quite a match for our audience. We are sorry for any disappointment which this decision causes and wish you luck publishing it elsewhere. Best wishes, Tammy This failure is also indicative of its success, whereby these Editors felt compelled to ‘defend’ their moribund position by preventing any criticism of it. The point I make remains valid, nonetheless, in as much that only ‘emptiness’ remains at the end of any long path of religious purification – as it is empty of any ‘religious’ content – and full of the ‘material’ reality it attempted to escape. If the participant is honest – then even the religion that sustained his inner quest must ultimately give-way to the stark reality of the existence of the material world! There is a ‘wisdom’ tradition – which teaches which way an adherent to reality must traverse the abyss – but it is a ‘wisdom’ tradition that ultimately re-asserts its validity through its redundancy and the rejection of the threat of ‘nihilism’! Monasticism can serve as a fast-track to this reality whilst along the way jettisoning any and all patterns of false consciousness and inverted thinking – but it is a path which must ‘give-up’ (as Joseph McCabe did) any religious garb it was once dressed within! ACW (1.12.2021) Examining the Claims of ‘Monasticism’ as a Means to Achieve a Permanent Altered Perception That Transcends Manufactured Dissonance, Social Alienation, Self-Doubt and the Maintenance of Dualistic Realities.By Adrian Chan-Wyles PhD Abstract. Reality - defined as a multifaceted - entity is open to manipulation due to the nature of its (simultaneous) construction and non-construction. As this is the case, it follows that a reality defined by the bodily senses alone (and which ignores the interior of the mind and the opposing dialectical forces evident in the material environment) cannot logically correspond to an ‘ultimate’ reality despite its usefulness as a momentary, expedient device which is designed to radiate ‘stability’ and cultural coherency. The issue examined in this paper is what happens when such expedient devices are used to define human existence and causes an alignment of ‘truth’ with those expedient structures so that a) reality and b) its definition becomes entirely skewed to the human perception. Furthermore, this ‘skewed’ interpretation of reality becomes a holographic representation of what it might (or might not) mean to ‘exist’ (and ‘not exist’) as the forces of dialectical reality continuously play-out their interactions without interruption or limit. Truth can only be known in its ‘momentary’ guise as this is all the limits of human sensory perception allows. Although truth and reality are usually confused, conflated and negated by one another’s presence, any genuine understanding of reality must be defined by (paradoxically) withdrawing the human senses ‘away’ from any direct contact with their intended sensory objects whilst the nature of this contact is considered, categorised and even transcended back into the ever-present moment that is the essence of the permanent ‘here and now’.
Reality is a continuously unfolding event that is far from neutral (Grahame Gardner, 2012) in the world of human affairs. What constitutes reality at any given time, that its viable ‘content’, is fought over by governments, businesses, militaries, State apparatus, medical providers, education establishments and even powerful political or financial figures. To this list must now be added social media platforms. All these controlling factors vie to catch your attention and influence your thinking. This is how models of reality are generated even though the model concerned does not have to reflect the actual reality of the material world or the machinations of the inner world. This type of reality is a construct and a fabrication that goes nowhere and which captures reality in a time-warp. This is because a contending reality is not a reality at all but a conduit for competing forces that may (or may not) become apparent at any given moment of observation (Gary Schwartz, 1997). The ‘control’ of this process decides entirely upon the type of reality that will manifest, and the preferred reality that the hidden controllers would like to see prevailing not only throughout the (external) material environment, but also within the interior of the mind itself. It is a ‘double bind’ process when reality is defined. Moreover, the process of reality defining absorbs the greater degree of material resources to maintain its dominance on the grounds that all realities, regardless of their apparent robust natures, are in fact entirely ‘momentary’ in nature and require a continuous process of rebirth and re-stabilisation so as to maintain the illusion of permanency. The dominant view is not necessarily that which is ‘correct’ or even ‘right’ - but rather that configuration of society which attracts the greater resources in its maintenance. Black will be defined as white – if that inverted configuration of reality is chosen to represent the mainstream viewpoint. A method of changing or altering perception (as the physical world remains the same in structure, content and direction) is that of ‘monasticism’ or ‘monachism’ as the esteemed Indian scholar Sukumar Dutt (1924) referred to it. One way of assessing an established practice is to assess the etymology of the term and see how close current practice reflects the intended meaning of the term. Obviously, the ‘meaning’ and the ‘practice’ of a term can converge or deviate a number of times, particularly if the term is of an ancient origin (Britannia 2021). The modern English term ‘monasticism’ has its historical roots within the ancient Greek language where it is expressed as ‘monachos’ (μοναχός) which is a descriptive term considered a ‘masculine noun’ - although just as many women are drawn to this practice as men, even if they are not as politically, culturally or socially empowered to the same extent. The most obvious contradiction is the inherent ‘patriarchy’ associated with a term that implies an individual voluntarily entering a profound state of psychological and physical isolation defined as being permanently ‘alone’ and living in a state of quiet ‘solitude’. This Greek term is rendered into the Chinese language by the ideogram ‘孤’ (gu1) denoting the state of being alone, solitary, orphaned, widowed and parentless. A person who pursues this path abandons his or her family as the bonds of filial duty are ‘cut’ so that parents lose their child just as the child loses his or her parents, and a spouse loses their significant other, etc. The cohesive forces that hold society together are broken when this model of monasticism involving an individual leaving society in search of higher knowledge is advocated. However, the monastic method does not have to be applied in this ‘conventional’ manner as the example of Vimalakirti demonstrates. Vimalakirti (within the Mahayana tradition) was a contemporary of the historical Buddha and despite having a number of wives, children and a successful business, his practice of ‘monasticism’ (by ‘looking within’ to seek ‘oneness’) was considered superior to many of the Buddha’s monastic disciples who had completely left the world of mundanity (Charles Luk, 1972). Another example can be found in the teachings of the Greek philosopher Plotinus (204–270 CE), who lived in society and taught at his own school. He lived in the mundane world, but everyone who knew him stated that he possessed no real interest in the physical world around him. This is the genuine state of ‘oneness’ with the inner realm that monastics try desperately to attain. A contemporary example that blends the old and the new with regards to monastic practice are the White Robed Monks of St Benedict in the US, which follows a modified ‘Zen Rule of St Benedict’, and which facilitates both lay and cloistered practice whilst profoundly integrating Catholic Christianity with Asian Buddhism. As monasticism is the finding of a new way to correlate and interpret sensory data, then it logically follows that the genuine achievements of monasticism are primarily psychical and psychological rather than physical, and although it is true that humanity exist within a material world that cannot be denied as being dominant and defining throughout human evolution, the inner fruits of monasticism must involve more than merely moving the physical body through the various structures of material society. As ‘awareness’ and ‘experience’ is the key to monastic growth, this paper explores the possibility of genuine monasticism being separate and distinct from the formal religious structures that have in many ways co-opted it and made it their own. Monasticism does not need to be associated with a formal religion to be effective, indeed, it does not need to be associated with religion at all. Through calming the mind and discipling the body (which anyone can do ‘here and now’) the frequency through which the mind and body senses reality and operates within it is thoroughly transformed. Reality is multifaceted and infinitely layered, and it requires tremendous amounts of directed resources to keep an apparent reality ‘static’ in-front of the human senses. This is partly because the human sense organs are integral to the reality being a) presented and b) artificially preserved. For the same waking-reality to ‘always be there’ requires the marshalling of mind-boggling amounts of productive forces throughout society and is far from what a normal fluid reality should be (Robin Lane Fox, 2006). Humanity has always striven to keep a preferred ‘reality’ static in-front of the perceiving senses (Charles Luk, 1984). This habit is so ingrained that much of humanity barely questions its efficacy today. Conservatism is inherently linked to ‘safety’ and successful ‘procreation’ when in reality the inherent structures of these stable realms of human behaviour and perception are far from ‘safe’ for the majority of those compelled to inhabit their interiors! This phenomenon may be referred to as the ‘tyranny of stability’ and the ‘dictatorship’ of the few over the many, etc. This closed system that defines reality has effectively removed the true nature of ‘unpredictability’ out of the process of reality-selection and into the peripheral fringes of the mind (depicted as a daemonic psychosis), and the proverbial wastelands of the material world of existence. Reality for most people has been reduced to merely a lack of instability, change and rebecoming. In other words, the true nature of human existence has been propagandised out of the normal sphere of human perception and sensory orientation. Limitation has become confused with infinite perception, whilst a mind unable to conceive of any reality other than the wall of perceptual data confronting its senses is mistaken as having realised all there is to be aware of in a world of competing immaterial and material realities. The mundanity of reality is the foundation from which all other realities emerge, manifest from, and dissolve back into. Although the nature of the human language used, often involves the negation of the transference of deep meaning at the point of contact between participants, nevertheless, words can perform their mission of ‘penetrating’ meaning into the mind and body of the recipient as the user expertly deploys these forces of literature to the greatest possible degree of efficiency. The recipient can be permanently ‘changed’ as a consequence of this experience, but more often than not be influenced to stay exactly the same – as this is a type of inverted or negative ‘change’ - a reality that artificially stays the same whilst folding in upon itself (WY Evans-Wentz, 1960). This process exhibits characteristics commonly encountered within descriptions of the dying process experienced primarily by human-beings (but also animals) which appear to suggest that the facility of human perception literally ‘folding-in’ upon itself – so that the experiencer becomes ‘less’ in the conventional sense, and far-more in the non-conventional sense (an experience commonly recorded throughout the wisdom traditions of the world). The modalities of reality are defined by the psychological frequency of ‘awareness’ required to be cultivated in the mind (and body) of the recipient so that these realities can be successfully ‘accessed’ and ‘viewed.’ Modality, indeed, is the key to human awareness and its development without the need to ‘alter’ and ‘adjust’ the perceptual parameters of human awareness – there will be no discernible ‘shift’ in the central positioning from the ‘point’ through which reality is experienced. Quite often, it is the specific ‘process’ involved in the training of the mind (and body) that facilitates this alteration in the ‘central-point’ from which each individual perceives reality. Whether training within a committed group (or ’exclusive’ community), or sat isolated in a cold and dark cave, if the applied method of ‘frequency alteration’ is successful, then the ‘central-point’ from which reality is a) perceived, and b) interpreted is entirely transformed. Whereas many become entrapped upon the thorny hedges of religious methodology and confined within this or that religious-defined modality, the true purpose of these ‘frequency-alteration’ exercises are to change ‘how’ and ‘why’ reality is perceived through the mind and bodily sense-organs. This is the successful process of permanently shifting the ‘central-point’ of awareness from one psycho-physical location to another. Traditionally, this is achieved through the expenditure of physical labour involving the application of spiritual and/or religious methodologies which are designed as ‘door-ways’ through which individuals travel to access and encounter new dimensions of reality. These processes essentially alter the frequency through which the mind (and body) processes the inner and outer data associated with conscious existence, and involve the voluntary ‘limitation’ of how the mind (and body) would usually function in a free-association (or ‘natural’) setting (John Ruskin, 1899). The perceived problem with everyday reality is that it remains more or less ‘the same’ every time an individual opens their eyes in the morning to face a new day! This type of apparently ‘deterministic’ reality appears like an unscalable (monolithic) wall that cannot be conquered or traversed by the rigours associated with normal levels of will-power and self-control. Indeed, passivity in the face of this wall of perception simply strengthens its presence and tells nothing about what ‘might lie beyond’. Of course, the ‘speculation’ of what might lie beyond this wall of perception has given rise to a lavish and highly diverse religious literature that no one trapped ‘this side’ of the perceptual wall can tell is correct or not. Faith that a certain reality might exist beyond the perceptual wall is quite often a product not of religious ideology (despite its obvious association), but is rather the result of various and certain societal forces that encourage this limited interpretation of reality and which act as a ‘conservative’ straightjacket placed around the mind (and body). This preserves the external status quo ‘this side of the perceptual wall’ whilst hinting that at some later point (probably when the individual's life is over and the death process is entered), what lies beyond the ‘perceptual wall’ will be fully experienced. In the meantime, and before then, the structures of outer society (with all their inherent injustices and limitations of perception) must continue to function ‘unchanged’ and ‘unchallenged’. The device of ‘monasticism’ has been with humanity in one form or another for millennia and should not be limited to the peculiarities of this or that religion. Indeed, anyone who disciplines their body and looks ‘within’ is practicing monasticism. This process of radically reassessing reality can be performed anywhere and by anyone. Although there most definitely does exist the more formal monastic paths associated with Jainism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, etc, there are also the pathways associated with Daoism and Confucianism as well as the ancient Pagans, Picts and Celts, etc, not to mention the myriad forms of indigenous and tribal practices around the world (which might be indicative of humanity’s earliest attempts to ‘see’ beyond the wall of everyday perception). This being the case, then why doesn’t the forces that control society simply ‘proscribe’ monastic practice? The answer is twofold. Firstly, in the West monasticism is usually tucked safely away nowadays within Catholic monasteries that open their Cathedral grounds to the fee-paying public. This conformity to the conservative forces of society tends to negate any genuine ‘revolutionary’ tendencies that the practice of monasticism might imply. Secondly, as monasticism is now ‘permanently’ removed as an institution from the heart of modern society, many younger people perceive it as a strange and bizarre method that is hopelessly out of date and requires of its practitioners the acceptance of unnecessary suffering. In other words, the conservative forces of modern society tolerate a limited form of monasticism in the physical world as it is perceived as a more or less ‘pointless’ and therefore ‘harmless’ practice that possesses no real ability to influence current events or transform society for the better. As the device of monasticism is nothing less than the cultivated ability to communicate with and merge into a hitherto unknown reality, the religious garb that now surrounds the practice is not required. Indeed, one element of contemporary monastic practice is its ‘secular’ nature. This observation does not negate the usual religious vehicle through which the monastic method is communicated into the present, but it does indicate that neither religious faith or religious methodology are required for the monastic method of self-cultivation to be effective. The religious element may or may not be present, and the individual concerned may or may not draw inspiration from religious imagery – even if that individual is otherwise a committed ‘secularist’ through upbringing and inner orientation. A major problem is that religiosity and secularism are judged by their respective content and relation toward religious imagery when a case can be made that the apparently ‘empty’ nature of essential secularism is ‘identical’ to the most profound states of religious absorption that emphasis eternal love and boundless wisdom! Secularism at its deepest point of awareness is ‘empty’ of every conceivable thing and not just the imagery of religiosity. Moreover, many religiously motivated monastics often make the startling (to them) discovery that the essence of the mind, body and environment is thoroughly and completely ‘empty’ of any and all contrived political, social or cultural construction (including that of formal religious structure). For many, the essence of human perception turns-out to be very similar to the bare rock wall of the natural interior of the meditation cave, or the equally bare structured wall of the purpose-built monastic structure! Furthermore, as the developmental constraints of the training methods are gently ‘released’ with the attainment of genuine insight, the mind becomes ‘expansive’ in its awareness and perception – again, just like the spacious interior of a cave or the imposing inner structure of a Cathedral! The major difference being that the mind (and its ‘awareness’ capacity) is no longer limited to such arbitrary physical barriers. Indeed, the very nature of the realised mind (and body) is one of both boundless existential presence – which simultaneously links the past to the future (through the eternal present moment). The question is whether any of this achievement and perception is ‘real’ and reliable in the sense that it actually exists rather than being ‘imagined’ as existing. Understanding and experiencing the monastic process from ‘within’ as it were, does not necessarily mean that the claims of accomplished monastics are ‘true’ in the sense that they are materially ‘real’. If the ‘mind’ - being the sum-total of the functioning of the ‘brain’ - is nothing but a modern ‘faery -tale’, then how can humanity trust anything that emerges from it as being pertinent to the explanation of reality? Although it is true that religionists gain ‘certainty’ from associating themselves with the inner narratives of their chosen dogmas – this cannot be the case for those humans whose minds (and bodies) are not habitually entrapped within the formal structures of religion. It could be, for instance, that the Buddhist injunction to ‘empty the mind’ of all its contents is in fact an instruction to a) abandon all religious thought, and b) in so doing empty the functioning brain of all notions of the mind! The problem is that even if an all-embracing spatial awareness is realised, how does the individual concerned know if it is real or not? If the brain is able to generate the ‘mind’ as a means to communicate with inner and outer world, then logic dictates that the brain is also capable of generating the ‘illusion’ of all-embracing space, should the practitioner be successful in ‘stilling’ the activity of the surface mind and thereby ‘empty’ it of all intermediary content (which manifests as thoughts, feelings and memories, etc). Whereas in the past an ‘all-embracing space’ has been interpreted as a God-concept – the secular practitioner possesses no reason to ‘protect’ such a notion upon the surface mind as it goes about its many daily machinations. Whereas the ‘ordinary’ and ‘average’ individual goes about their business oblivious to the rigours of monastic training, their mind and body functions quite admirably from birth to death (regardless of the type of society they inhabit) without ever striving for or knowing any other psychological or physical state of being. All participate in the process of ‘living’ but what differentiates each distinct existence is the level of awareness and certainty that is developed within each. The understanding that the content of the human mind is only a facsimile of reality should be a ubiquitous realisation, but is this the reality? A ‘thought’ cannot be ‘isolated’ and then ‘extracted’ from the mind-flow so that it can be ‘weighed’ and ‘measured’. Although it is true that mind-activity can be observed as electronic impulses on a TV monitor – this is far from the associating each electronic pulse with the inner content of an individual thought – should such an entity exist. Indeed, why should such a thing exist at all? Certainly not on the grounds that humanity finds such an idea comforting and would like it replicated throughout the material world. An idea can only be ‘projected’ onto (and ‘into’) the physical environment providing that it has first established itself as an ‘unquestioned’ habit within the brain-mind nexus that produces it. Obviously, the more people who think this thought (and relate to its ideological appearance in the material world), appear to add credibility to a) the presence and reality of the thought, and b) its apparent ‘independent’ existence from the mind that originally gave birth to it as a distinct and separate psychical entity. Once such a thought becomes a natural ‘currency’ in the human world of culture and apparent self-determination, the inherent ‘inverted’ nature of the situation is not recognised and becomes something of a ‘taboo’ subject (as its recognition and acknowledgement tends to ‘undermine’ the socio-economic structures that have become established throughout the material world, and which privileges a certain class of human-being). Generally speaking, such an ‘inverted’ arrangement implies that a single human thought quite literally ‘thinks’ the human-mind that produces it. To be clear, the chain of observable events suggests that a) a single thought (regardless of content) pre-exists the mind from b) it originally emerged. In other words, the entire edifice that a certain aspect of human religious and philosophical thought stems from an inversion of reality which possesses the illogical ontological and epistemological foundation which oddly suggests that a single thought (and a set of related thoughts) existed independently – and then (for reasons unexplained) - gave-rise to and emitted the ‘human-brain’ into ‘existence’ that first experienced this thought (or corresponding set of thoughts). This is such an ancient misalignment of logic and reason in the realm of human culture that its antiquity is taken as ‘proof’ of its efficacy. Every single ancient human grouping has exercised this inversion of the logical chain of events and built the often substantial and massive constructs of religious representation upon it! Although religions are diverse and multitudinous in nature, and given that human-beings have been prepared to kill one another in the millions for whose idea of the divine is ‘correct’ or should be ‘dominant’ - the foundation of each and every religious and spiritual structure is premised upon the inverted idea that places the cart before the horse. How can a single ‘thought’ (or group of related ‘thoughts’) generate the mind from which they originally emerge? A single human thought cannot pre-exist the human-mind from which it emerges. Forevermore, at no time in human history has it been materially demonstrated that the human-brain has emerged from within the thoughts it produces. Evolutionary theory, of course, regardless of its incomplete narrative regarding the origins and development of physical humanity, is premised upon a non-inverted and logical view of the development of humanity. In this model of the unfolding evolution of humanity, the development of the physical brain precedes the manifestation of the human-mind - from which ALL human ‘thought’ subsequently ‘emits’. This contradicts the human (cultural) habit of assuming that human sentiment, emotion and thought precede all physical development of the human – being on the material plane. If the agency of ‘monasticism’ is to be taken seriously, then it must satisfactorily engage, reconcile and transcend both of these narratives – that is the ‘inverted’ and the ‘non-inverted’ - narratives that humanity has used to describe its own machinations! The main problem appears to be the lack of genuine knowledge within mundane human society of what ‘exactly’ monasticism ‘is’ and ‘is not’. Certainly, off the bat it must be said that monasticism ‘is not’ necessarily ‘religiosity’ despite its very close association with religious thought and religious convention over the passing millennia. The religious garb of monasticism may be viewed as a relatively ‘late’ development in its own evolution. It may also be interpreted as something of a misnomer to associate the presence and purpose of monastic practice with religiosity in the world, particularly as the most likely ‘outcome’ of such a long-term exposure of such training for the human mind and body is that ALL inverted thought is a) understood as such, and b) thoroughly abandoned and ‘given-up’ as a legitimate means to express the essential nature of the human existential and historical experience. Forms of structured monasticism that are designed to support the ‘inverted’ view of a particular religion, however, sells the developmental procedure short and cheats its human practitioners of the FULL benefits monasticism which although ironically often involving the sitting in a cell – also corresponds with an observable (and thoroughly ‘profound’) realignment of how the individual cellular-biology of the individual monastic manifests! This emergence of a renewed biological (and psychical) reality has no relationship with the maintenance of any inverted world-view. This often means that an individual clearly ‘succeeds’ at being a monastic – whilst simultaneously failing at being a religionist (as he or she clearly outgrows the supporting religious structure). In this respect, the 1960s phenomenon of The Beatles can be said to be ‘monastic’, in as much as a group of ordinary and non-descript young men traversed the summits of immense musical and lyrical creativity (as an expression of the four’s collective conscious and unconscious minds), whilst simultaneously embracing the hippie-enhanced notions of ‘love’ and ‘sharing’. This pathway included an apparent rejection of the conventional religiosity of the West, and saw The Beatles (no longer viewed as just ‘four ordinary young men’) travel to India and literally ‘embrace’ the Hindu teachings of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Together with experimentation involving recreational drug-taking – The Beatles embraced the transformation of the mind and body that is a prime indicator of the monastic path – before finally rejecting religiosity (and monasticism) and collectively settling for the conventional life of accumulating immense material wealth (harvested from their commercial success) upon the physical plane. Of course, the eventual outcome of the monastic journey does not negate the inherent ‘value’ of the journey itself. Four working-class young men from Liverpool experienced a monumental shift out of the psychical and physical world they were born into. No one else in the history of their families had ever experienced such a profound or sustained material change in their life-circumstances, and it is interesting to observe that this transformation in fortunes was primarily one of finance with an enhanced income granting a greater ‘choice’ movement on the physical (and psychological) plane. This, in-turn, initiated a growth in psychological awareness that explored new avenues of ‘being’ and ‘expression’. Whereas in the traditional (or conventional set-up) a monastic does not have to work for a wage in the physical sense, all his or her physical needs are taken care of – although not necessarily in a lavish sense. In-short, for the regular monastic attached to a conventional religion, the need to perform regular ‘work’ is negated by the communal set-up of continuous material support (usually provided free of charge by the guiding Church and the supportive laity). After writing their initial ‘hits’, of course The Beatles gained so much money that ‘working’ for them ceased to have any real connection to the mundane world. They quite literally became their own ‘Church’ and this is how millions of people still perceive their creative out-put today! The Beatles led an individual from the mundanity of ordinary existence to the heights of transcendent creativity – before finally dumping the traveller firmly back in the material world... Whatever ‘growth’ has been gained from following this process is very much a matter for personal interpretation. Most, if not all, is merely a ‘Revolution in the Head’ as Ian McDonald (2008) explained, and yet something ‘tangible’ does appear to be happening. An intriguing example of the monastic life succeeding in transforming the individual to new heights of being, also serves as a paradoxical example of monasticism ‘failing’ to support the very conventional religious structure within which it is preserved. Joseph McCabe (1867-1955) was the Chesire-born son of Irish-Catholic parents. In 1883 (aged-15-years-old) John McCabe was placed by his parents (and without his consent) into the (Franciscan) Gorton Monastery situated in Manchester, UK. This is where he trained as a committed Franciscan monk for twelve-years and eventually mastered the contemplative lifestyle and the entire academic syllabus. At this time, Joseph McCabe mentions in his biography, it never crossed his mind to question the decisions of those adults around him or protest against the lifestyle – as he was brought up to dutifully ‘accept’ and ‘do’ without question, comment or complaint (Joseph McCabe, 1897). He was thrust into the ‘straightjacket’ of formal (religious) monastic self-limitation that saw his mind and body squeezed into a very narrow expression of cloistered existence. This is because the hermit’s cell demands that the realisation of inner ‘oneness’ is pursued on one’s own and requires the outer ‘oneness’ of isolation even if those who seek it live collectively within a monastic community. Inner oneness and outer oneness (monos) are intrinsically linked and arise from within a common root of mind-body coordination and interaction. Although Joseph McCabe writes with a persistent vitriol against religion in general – and monasticism in particular – he arrived at this point of multitudinous ‘freedom of thought’, that is ‘unlimited’ thought, through the restrictions imposed upon his mind and body during his formulative years, that were the consequence of formal monastic training. In this instance, this formal monasticism required isolation, privilege, education, self-limitation, (discipline), and a commitment to the realisation of the idea that one particular religious view is absolutely and uniquely ‘correct’, and yet Joseph McCabe describes a certain ‘decadence’ existing at the heart of the training of what should have been the ‘poor friars.’ For instance, the faithful laity and Church Authorities provided the monastery with ample (and excessive) amounts of food and (alcoholic) drink. Mead, beer, port, sherry, wine and even champagne would be available (but not water) with each meal. Fish were allowed to be eaten – as were fowl (because, like ‘fish’ they lived in ‘water’). If one main meal was had during fast times at 12pm midday – the monks would ensure that it lasted until 4pm – with a partial meal added in the evening! Joseph McCabe explains how a corrupt ‘gluttony’ had become a manifestation in the monastery of what the Church culture now believed that ‘humility’ and ‘simplicity’ represented. Eating more became representative of ‘eating less’ by the Church Authorities (although this distortion has nothing to do with the principle of ‘monasticism’ in and off itself). There is also the ‘slippage’ of meaning within Joseph McCabe’s text where the post of ‘priest’ is continuously conflated with that of a ‘monk’, when they are two different roles. Originally, religious monastics owned nothing and where pious lay men and women living in isolation or communion in the search for inner and outer meaning. A ‘priest’ by comparison, is formally ‘ordained’ and is permitted to live within lay society whilst being qualified to perform the ‘sacraments’ to the lay community. For many centuries, priests were considered superior to the lowly monastic, and were even required to grant the ‘sacraments’ to the monastics themselves. As the monastic communities tended to develop in remote areas, priests were not always available to administer the ‘sacraments’ and so it was decided that the monastics themselves would receive an ‘ordination’ similar to that of the priest to solve this problem (with the ‘priest’ still holding a superior position with regards to dominance within the lay community. As matters transpired, the problem for the Catholic Church is that although Joseph McCabe’s developing mind and body was intensely subject to the strictures of formal monasticism, and despite him benefitting tremendously from the corresponding (intellectual) education, the agency of ‘monasticism’ developed the mind and body of Joseph McCabe to the point where he ‘transcended’ the need to be ‘controlled’ by a formal religion. Just as his mind left the Catholic Church through its development beyond theology – his physical body was soon to follow – and he left the Catholic Church completely. Despite his continuous attitude of disrespect and denigration of the monastic tradition, the argument can be made that the monastic lifestyle as applied to Joseph McCabe’s mind and body, performed its intended task admirably by generating a permanent sense of ‘transcendence’ within his character Transcendence, once attained, cannot be limited to the auspices of convention. Transcendence is itself an act of destructive creation. Whatever has followed in the past dissolves like the fuel that drives a machine forever onward. The non-certainty of reality is the heart of the genuine monastic experience. In 2009, the Western media reported the story of an ethnic Spanish boy who broke-away from and rejected the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism as espoused by the 14th Dalai Lama in the West (Guardian, 2009). Today, ‘Osel Hita Torres’ is 24-years-old and laments what he views as being a ‘wasted’ upbringing deprived of all the normal sensory stimulation associated with a normal childhood experienced within the modern world. Admittedly, there are disturbing undertones of emotional, psychological and physical child abuse attached to this story but no one from the Western Pro-Tibetan Movement has yet been arrested or charged (this includes the actor – Richard Gere who used to live in a hut next to this imprisoned child but did nothing to interfere). Osel Hita Torres is a European born in the West with no physical connection to Asia in general or Tibet specifically, and yet the Dalai Lama – who placed him on a throne to be ‘worshipped’ as a toddler – had him transported from his home in Granada to a Buddhist monastery in Southern India. As a grown man, Osel Hita Torres explains that none of this culture had any meaning to him and that he most definitely was NOT an incarnated lama as decreed by the Dalai Lama! Osel Hita Torres does not believe in the concept of reincarnation as preserved within Tibetan Lamaism (but which was rejected by the historical Buddha and distinguished from the limited concept of Buddhism that he preferred). Indeed, the Foundation to Preserve the Mahayana Tradition, which spends its time raising funds in the West possesses around 130 centres around the world, as of 2009, still published texts online ignoring the ‘suffering’ that Osel Hita Torres experienced and still eulogising him under the fabricated name of ‘Lama Tenzin Osel Rinpoche’. He was ‘enthroned’ at just 14-months-old by the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India, and lived next to Richard Gere at six-years-old. Although having no association with the Tibetan Buddhism extant within China today, the type of Tibetan Buddhism propagated in the West is highly Christianised to gain converts (and influence) in the West and is dominated by a form of ‘extreme’ devotionalism that is not present (or applicable) in the East (Liu Li, 2015). As he was so young when placed into this predicament, why was he not merely ‘conditioned’ into accepting the new situation? Indeed, Osel Hita Torres was so young that it is remarkable that he managed to remember his old life and understand that what was happening to him was not ‘correct’. Is it the case that the monastic structures within which he was trapped facilitated the development of his high-mind above and beyond that which would have been expected if Osel Hita Torres had ‘conformed’ to the conditions of his abusive imprisonment? Again, the straightjacket of religious dogma was left behind as the aspirant was able to transcend the situation he was in, and follow-up this psychological (and ‘psychical’) freedom with the physical body following suit by literally ‘extracting’ itself from the material situation at hand. Such is the murky world of religiosity and monastic endeavour. Freedom is not always what ‘others’ think it might be. A proposed ‘freedom’ into religiosity can just as well turn-out to be a ‘freedom’ from (or ‘outside’) of religiosity. Father Andre Louf (1929-2010) was an eminent (French-born) Trappist monk, prominent theologian and Retreat Master. He also wrote widely in the French language about all areas of the spiritual path. Father Louf represents something of an enigma to the modern mind. This man was both deeply religious and profoundly spiritual, and yet when he marshalled groups of committed young men through his meditation and contemplation hall during intense periods of spiritual retreat, one of the markers of his method was to ‘reject’ every notion of ‘God’ each of these men held regardless of the corresponding depth of commitment to the ‘belief’ involved. Indeed, Father Andre Louf was a firm believer that virtually ALL notions of God held in the minds of all those who came to train with him were nothing but culturally conditioned ‘false-constructs’. In other words, this type of ‘worship’ was not ‘worship’ at all but merely an ‘internalised’ snapshot of the particular ‘externality’ of the mundane society that had produced them. Working upon the assumption that ‘God’ is not a ‘reflection’ of mundane society – Father Andre Louf demanded that each of the monks under his care ‘discard’ the notion of ‘God’ entirely brought in from the outside world and start their search again for an entirely ‘new’ grasp of what ‘God’ may or may not be. In this regard Father Andre Louf demanded that each retreatant firmly cultivate an unassailable attitude of ‘atheism’ in their training as a means of completely uprooting and discarding the pious deluded ideas and notions they had arrived carrying in the very fabric of their minds and bodies. Without this extreme measure, there was no way of knowing what was and was not a glimpse of true grace as one went about their daily activities. Within this Catholic monastic structure – a Retreat Master was making use of the very ‘atheism’ that was said to be rampant throughout society, and which was making the Catholic Church struggle for converts. This suggests that ‘atheists’ are not exempt from the positive effects of a genuine monastic experience. The crux of this matter is that human psychical development should not and cannot be limited to the boundaries defined by infantile dualisms. Just because God might exist it does not necessarily follow that God does not exist. Equally true is the idea that even if God is proven as ‘not existing’ this does not have to mean that for humanity no God exists at all. Indeed, reality, even one with or without a divine essence, does not have to fit-in to the current level or standard of human (collective) knowledge and understanding. Truth, whatever this beast may or may not be, requires a mind and body trajectory that cuts-through all the baggage of cultural conditioning. Indeed, ‘truth’ in the transcendent sense may not exist at all just as some scientists and philosophers are of the opinion that the concept of the human ‘mind’ is nothing more than a modern reinterpretation of the religious notion of the ‘soul’ (or ‘psyche’). A proposed spiritual essence free of the tyranny of the association with established religion. As such, the ‘mind’ is nothing more than a contemporary ‘faery-tale’ told by adults to frighten children in their cribs! At least this is the position of the ‘eliminativists’. In other words, any state that appears to manifest within the interior of mind is until proven otherwise – an ‘illusion’ of perception – a phantom standing in the dark or lurking around the corner. The vestige of a far-off and far more profound primitive state of human existence. It is interesting that this often ‘extreme’ position of ‘materially’ understanding the mind does appear to reflect a certain transcendent theme central to virtually all hermitic traditions. This is because ‘emptiness’ (as opposed to ‘nothingness’) is often mentioned as being indicative of ‘advancing’ upon the monastic path, primarily for the reason that the aspirant is now considered to have realised the underlying ‘void=essence’ of all reality – whilst remaining ‘non-attached’ to the still existing phenomena indicative of the material world which appears unhindered within this ‘new’ and ‘all-embracing’ emptiness which seems as infinite as it is boundless. Of course, the language of the mystic is not the same language as used by the scientist – even if each is attempting to understand and discuss exactly the same reality. REFERENCES: Bacon, F. (1925). Essays of Francis Bacon with an Introduction by Oliphant Smeaton. London – New York – Toronto. JM Dent & Sons Ltd. Bakunin, M. (1970). 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Desert Father – A Journey in the Wilderness with Saint Anthony. Boston. Shambhala. Dimitrov, G. (2002). Against Fascism and War. New York. International Publishers, Co., Inc. Dutt, S. (1924). Early Buddhist Monachism: 600 BC - 100 BC. London, UK. Kegan Paul, Trench, Thubner & Co, Ltd. Engels, F. (1883). Dialectics of Nature. Retrieved 12.11.2021, from https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1883/don/index.htm Evans-Wentz, WY. (1960). The TIBETAN Book of the DEAD or The After-Death Experiences on the Bardo Plane, according to Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup;s English Rendering – Compiled and Edited by WY Evans-Wentz. London, Oxford, New York. Oxford University Press. Fox, RL. (2006). The Classical World – An Epic History of Greece and Rome. London, UK. Penguin Books. Fuchs, D. (2009). Boy Chosen by Dalai Lama Turns Back on Buddhist Order. Manchester, UK. Guardian Newspaper. Retrieved October 11, 2021, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/may/31/dalai-lama-osel-hita-torres Gardener, G. (2012). Dowsing Magic – from Water Finds to Dragon Lines – Book One “Basics”. Cornwall, UK. Penwith Press. Gilmour, D. (1982). Disposed – The Ordeal of the Palestinians. London. Sphere Books Ltd. Go, PG. (2004). Understanding Chinese Characters by Their Ancestral Forms. California. Simplex Publications. Hadot, P. (1989). Plotinus or Simplicity of Vision – Translated by Michael Chase – With an Introduction by Arnold I. Davidson. Chicago and London. The University of Chicago Press. Hannaford, I. (1996). Race – The History of an Idea in the West – Foreword by Bernard Crick. Balti-more – London. John Hopkins University Press. Heelas, P. Lash, S. & Morris, P. (1999). Detraditionalization – Critical Reflections on Authority and Identity – Centre for the Study of Cultural Values at Lancaster University. Oxford. Blackwell Publications Inc. Jayatilleke, KN. Prof. (1987). Facets of Buddhist Thought – Book One – Two Essays. Chiangmai – Thailand. S. Sapkanpim Press. Joyce, P. (1995). Class. Oxford – New York. Oxford University Press. Kazantzakis, N. (1975). The Last Temptation – Translated by PA Bien. London – Boston, faber and faber. Lang, JF. (1971). Old Cockington – Volume I. Plymouth. Western Litho Co. Leedbeater, CW. Archbishop (1957). The Science of the Sacraments (Illustrated Edition). Gloucestershire – UK. The Dodo Press. Liu, L. (2015). Dalai Lama’s Younger Brother: When the Dalali Lama Leaves the World We Will Be Free. Tibet Net, China. Retrieved October 11, 2021, from https://news.sina.cn/gn/2015-12-14/detail-ifxmpnqi6478089.d.html?from=wap Louf, L. (2004). In the School of Contemplation by Andre Louf, OCSO – Translated by Paul Rowe, OSCO. Collegeville, Minnesota. Liturgical Press. Luk, C. (1990). The Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra – Translated and Edited by Charles Luk (Lu K’uan Yu) - Foreword by Taizan Maexumi Roshi. Boston & Shaftsbury. Shambhala. Luk. C. [Translator] & Hunn, R. [Editor] (1988). Empty Cloud – The Autobiography of the Chinese Zen Master Xu Yun. Dorset. Element Books. MacDonald, I. (2008). The Revolution in the Head – The Beatles Records and the Sixties – Third Edition. London, UK. Vintage Books. Marx, K. (2012). The Poverty of Philosophy. Kansas. Digireads.com McCabe, J. (1897). Twelve Years in a Monastery [First Edition]. London, UK. Smith, Elder & Co. Nabar V & Tumkur S Professors. (1997). The Bhagavad-Gita. Hertfordshire. Wordsworth Classics. Narada, T. (1993). The Dhammapada – Pali Text and Translation with Stories in Brief and Notes. Taiwan - China. The Corporate Body of the Buddha Educational Foundation. Noonan, DPM. (2020). The Grace To Desire It – Meditations on St Benedict’s Twelve Degrees of Humility. Australia. Cana Press. Robert, FA. (2021) White Robed Monks of St Benedict. Retrieved 9.11.2021, from http://www.whiterobedmonks.org Ruby, JG. (1996). Wordsworth and the Zen Mind – the Poetry of Self-Emptying. Albany. State University of New York Press. Ruskin, John. (1899). The Seven Lamps of Architecture, Architecture and Painting – Aldine Eldine Edition – The World’s Great Books. New York, USA. D. Appleton and Company. Schwartz, G. (1997). First Impressions - Hieronymus Bosch. New York, USA. Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Strathern, P. (2003). The Essential Derrida. London. Virgin Books Ltd. Stevens, J. (2007). Zen Bow, Zen Arrow – The Life and Teachings of Awa Kenzo, The Archery Master from Zen in the Art of Archery, Boson & London. Shambhala. Vivekananda, S. (1991). Monasticism – Ideal and Traditions. Chennai, India. Sri Ramakrishna Math. Weiner, J. (1995). The Beak of the Finch – Evolution in Real Time. London. Vintage. White, P. (2017). Druids in the South-West? Ilkley – UK. Bossiney Books Ltd. Yu, Lu Kuan [Charles Luk]. (1984). The Secrets of Chinese Meditation – Self-Cultivation by Mind Control as taught in the Ch’an Mahayana and Taoist schools in China. York Beach, Maine (USA). Samuel Weiser, Inc. Dear Gillian
What is interesting is that after decades of effective inner and outer martial arts practice, I have arrived at a profound 'stable' state of mind, body and spirit (whatever that is). This journey has traversed many inner and outer levels or states of being. Mostly, this has included a logical approach to physical training motivated by 'doubt' a) in the process itself, and b) in my ability to keep-up the practice or c) to carry-out the prescribed practice correctly. This 'doubt' was inward whilst the physical 'outer' Chinese martial arts techniques were superb and highly effective. This 'doubt' (which ceased to function about 14-years-ago in c. 2007) acted like a force of magnetism drawing my 'uncertain' inner-being toward to the solid and stable outer-structure of the martial arts techniques and how they might be used in self-defence (function) and mind and body health and fitness (longevity). There is now a great awareness. A great all-embracing sense of psychological being that appears to be united with mind, body and environment. This unity I term 'spiritual' because all this seems 'transcendent'. Of course, whilst being driven on by the inner doubt to practice physical martial arts (as a form of 'armouring' against external attack), I also committed myself to intense Ch'an meditative practice as a means to 'uproot' this doubt which all motivating throughout my entire life to 'take action' in many different arenas - it also contained an element of 'weakness'. As I interpreted this 'weaknesses' as a major problem that a) held me back in a state of fearful 'non-action', or b) sabotaged physical actions so as to render all exertion completely pointless! The mind 'cleared' and 'expanded' - it became all-embracing so that the body stopped appearing to be 'outside' of it and took its place entirely within psychological awareness. Although I had my initial experiences of the realisation of a 'still' and 'empty' mind with its awareness expanding and embracing all things around 1990 - it took another 15-years for this experience to settle-down (2005), and about another two or three years for all vestiges of 'doubt' to completely dissolve (2007/8). What did happen around 1990, however, is that my physical use of outer Chinese martial arts technique deepened, expanded and matured, and since the time of 'teaching' in my own right (as opposed to 'training' under a teacher) - I have never lost a fight in the training hall. (Around a year before this experience, I was following a strict Chinese (Mahayana) Buddhist 'monastic' regime and sitting in meditation for hours a day practicing the hua tou 'Who is hearing?' Suddenly, whilst sitting in my 'cell' and without warning, my mind 'ceased to move' becomingly utterly and completely 'still'. This was accompanied by deep sense of permanent ecstasy! My Chinese teachers correctly taught me with 'silence' - whilst my Western teacher Richard Hunn (1949-2006) - my Western Ch'an teacher - correctly taught me with words! Ironically, he drew my attention to the authentic Chinese Ch'an texts. 'Neither be attached to the (realised) inner void - nor hindered by (the 'external') hindering phenomena'. It was deep within the 'silence' of my Chinese Ch'an Masters (including Chan Tin Sang [1924-1993] that I discovered the poignant meaning of Richard Hunn's spiritually 'vibrant' words. This is how I knew that Richard Hunn was correct in his understanding. Later, this dual instruction [into non-duality] led to the next shift in perspective This occurred a year later after a further period of intense practice, and was a product of a complete change or 'turning about' [see the 'Lankavatara Sutra'] at the deepest essence of the mind. It was such a profound and important 'first principle' that I nearly omitted it from the list of all the important events! I was once meditating sat on the ground outside 'returning' all sensory data 'back to its 'empty ground' essence - when a cool and refreshing Summer's freeze blew gently across my face. Suddenly, my mind instantaneously 'turned the right way around' immediately abandoning its previous 'inverted' functionality and appeared to 'expand', assume an 'all-embracing' position of being, whilst this 'new awareness' thoroughly permeated the physical-body and penetrated the physical universe throughout the past, present, and future! This permanent shift in psychological and physical manifestation changed 'me' from the DNA-chemical foundation upward and influenced all the views and opinions I now hold!) This includes not only transforming the experience of sparring with students (which is now unified experience premised upon wisdom, loving kindness and compassion) - but also manifested within the otherwise 'brutal' realm of 'honour fights' whereby unknown and unfamiliar individuals suddenly turn-up at my training hall and (disrespectfully) ask to spar! They wish to gain fame and fortune through 'out of control' violence which involves (for them) the 'beating' and 'exposing' a local (Chinese) gongfu teacher! How did this happen? I think whereas my opponents were still motivated by a deep and profound sense of 'doubt' (often involving a profound 'self-hatred') - I no longer experienced this 'doubt' which 'divides' human-beings during combat. Doubt by this time in my life had become nothing more than a profound sense of enhanced 'awareness' full of compassion and understanding. This is all held in place by a physical (martial) ability that can use 'gentleness' just as easily as 'harshness' to 'control' or 'regulate' physical interactions. Signed: Adrian Chan-Wyles [陳恒豫 - Chan Heng Yu] (22.11.2021) - '釋大道' (Shi Da Dao) Witnessed and Authenticated by Yau, Gee-Cheuk [邱芷芍] (22.11.2021) - 'Gee Wyles' - Wife of Adrian Chan-Wyles Let’s start with the thorny issue of ‘Zionism’ which was unanimously declared a form of ‘White Supremacy’ by the United Nations (UN) in 1975. The modern State of Israel was imposed upon the Palestinian people without their knowledge or consent by the imperialist British. Although emerging out of the era of the Nazi German Holocaust (a campaign of genocide targeting the Jews, the Romany, the Disabled, the Homosexual, the Communists and the Politically Dissident) which saw the systematic murder of around six million Jews and five million non-Jews – the modern State of Israel has its roots in the racist, Zionist ideology prevalent in the West from around 1880 – which managed to politically influence British (imperialist) foreign policy since at least 1917 (through the Balfour Declaration). At that time, and giving-in to Zionist (terrorist) agitation in Palestine, the British unilaterally declared that a ‘State of Israel’ would be carved-out of an existing Palestine! This policy was not enacted until 1948, and involved heavily armed Jewish mobs attacking, killing and driving-out the Palestinians from the ancestral lands their people had occupied for thousands of years (referred as the ‘Nakba’ by the Palestinian victims of this new ‘genocide’).
The Zionists responsible for this outrage pursue a White, racist ideology which they superimpose over their Jewish identity so that the two become conflated with one another, and those who protest this fascistic activity paradoxically leave themselves open to unfounded and unwarranted allegations of ‘anti-Semitism’. Ironically, the protection of Jews from fascism requires genuine anti-fascists to target the rampant ultra-nationalism inherent within Zionism, to the same intensity and extent as the anti-fascist movement attacks any and all forms of far-right ideology advocating race-hate and violence! Zionists are ‘White’ and advocate the death and destruction of the ‘non-White’ Palestinian people! It is this ultra-nationalism of Zionism that is the enemy – and not Judaism itself. A number of affluent middle-class Jews living within 1880s Germany allowed themselves to be swayed by the far-right political rhetoric prevalent at the time, and aligned themselves with it as a means to ‘camouflage’ themselves into being ‘accepted; into mainstream ‘White’ German society. What Zionists do not tell you when they call you ‘anti-Semitic’ is that across the world millions of Jews also RESIST Zionism and routinely refer to it as ‘fascism’. Be strong in your anti-fascism and do not be swayed by the murderous and bullying tactics that is ‘Zionism’! In the above article, Leonard Cohen espouses a load of incomprehensible and contradictory gibberish that appears dangerously close (in essence) to ‘aligning’ itself with Zionist’ ultra-nationalist rhetoric. This was an in interview given around 2006 about his time spent in a Japanese Zen Monastery in the Las Angeles hills (a place of self-deception and self-delusion) catering to the rich and famous: ‘I wasn’t looking for a religion,” Cohen once reflected. “I already had a perfectly good one [his Jewish faith]. And I certainly wasn’t looking for a new series of rituals. But I had a great sense of disorder in my life, of chaos and depression, of distress.’ Really? If his so-called ‘Jewish faith’ met all his requirements for a healthy and good inner and outer life – then why is he suffering (in his own words) ‘... a great sense of disorder in my life, of chaos and depression, of distress’? This type of delusional psycho-babble sounds very similar to the incomprehensible media statements released by the Israeli government every time its military forces wantonly break the law and murder innocent men, women and children! What probably never helped matters for ‘Leonard Cohen’ (the suffering individual) is that the Japanese Zen Buddhist tradition is renowned for its inherent corruption of supporting State fascism both before and during WWII, and how key Japanese War Criminals not only went ‘unpunished’ after WWII by the occupying US Authorities – but were used by the Americans to export their particular brand of fascistic (and anarchic) Buddhism to the West! The parallels between corrupt Japanese Zen and Zionism are stark. DT Suzuki was probably the most well-known these criminals (who harked from a long line of Japanese War Criminals) who assisted in the distortion of Buddhist philosophy so that the Buddhist establishment could add its wait to whatever an ‘out of control’ government and State decided to do in the secular world. These individuals went ‘unpunished’ because the US government believed that their ‘fascistic’ Buddhism formed a natural barrier to the spread of Chinese Communism into Japan (and the West)! The other issue discovered by Leonard Cohen is the inherent corruption found within the Japanese Zen tradition which has refused to adhere to the Vinaya Discipline laid-down by the Buddha over two-thousand years ago! Indeed, the eminent Chinese Ch’an Buddhist – Master Xu Yun (1840-1959) - lived through the rampant destruction of China inflicted by the Kwantung Army of Imperial Japan during the 1930s and 1940s, witnessing the barbarous acts first-hand. He always taught that such immorality stemmed from the Japanese Buddhist tradition refusing to teach its monks, nuns and laity the ‘correct’ Buddhist morality and discipline in the temples and monasteries! The above article explains Leonard Cohen’s experience: ‘The five years that Cohen spent living in Mount Baldy, under the strict instructions of the monastery’s founder, Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi, was intended to cure him of his mental health woes. While it added much-needed structure to his life, Cohen found an unlikely drinking buddy in Roshi, and they enjoyed late-night whiskey sessions together. However, his search for inner peace ultimately came to no avail, and in 1999, Cohen decided to walk away.’ It would appear that in all this mockery of ‘Buddhism for cash’ no one advised Leonard Cohen to ‘return’ all that he ‘hears’ (sees, smells, tastes and touches) back to its empty perceptual essence! Whilst the ‘fake’ Japanese ‘Zennists’ sucking at the teat of US capitalism created a ‘mirage’ for rich people to head for but never reach – no one taught Leonard Cohen the ‘correct’ Buddhist path? Now, Leonard Cohen thinks he has been a Zen Buddhist priest for five-years and the Western media indulges his self-delusion whilst simultaneously failing to confront his Zionism! |
AuthorAdrian Chan-Wyles PhD - Political Commissar and BMA (UK) Historian & Researcher. Archives
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