Revolutionary Dialogue with Cuba

Gautama with Marx: True Communism

The Pathway of the Dharmic Economy, as a form of practical and theoretical articulation between Gautama and Marx, leaves a record of the enormous amount of impostures that have been done and said on behalf of Marxism, reason why Karl Marx himself in life decided to unmask this movement decisively sentencing that he himself was not a Marxist. Ironically, both Gautama and Marx were unable to prevent that after their deaths the nonsense has been accumulated on their behalf.

The Maitriyana is an approximation to the most revolutionary and true socialist practice, so that it has been prophesied by the thought of Marx. The metapolitical actions and teachings from the so-called Buddhist Socialism are the result of a hermeneutic synthesis between Marx and Gautama, by placing the objective of the Cure (Nirvana) of society in the central judgement of the movement.

Totally in line with the anarchist philosophy, which rises from the Earth (Gaia) to Heaven, building its political vision from below upwards, the Dharmic Economy starts from the apprentice in flesh and bones, by beginning from his actions and processes of real life,[1] transforming his ideology through detachment from what it has been preached, thought, represented and imagined that the human being is.

The Maitriyana does not stagnate itself in the mere recommendation of state policies, as it relates directly with the social classes through the education and the libertarian meditation, empirically observing the concrete reality without any kind of speculation. The revolutionary contemplation (kakumei-zen) is positioned at the midpoint between the psychical structure and the socio-political structure. From here it is perceived that the state structure emerges from the process of life of the individual, such and such this one acts in the world. Therefore, the analysis of the Buddhist Socialism starts from these material conditions determining boundaries for the independence and willingness of the human being.[2]

The Dharmic Economy is a controversial, open and libertarian interpretation, positioning itself as a critical hermeneutic thought that deconstructs the sense of the social bonds, at the same time it is the base of transreflective stances operating facing the crisis of capitalist civilization. The Maitriyana makes a denunciation to the free market fundamentalism whose model of representative democracy is functional to imperialism and to the oppression of the peoples. One of the certainties of the Free and Enlightened Being (Arhat-Bodhisattva) is that the next era of humanity will be socialist or will be not, so that the mission of the spiritual master is to guide the people in order that said revolution is performed ethically and properly. The Buddhist Socialism is controversial not only because of its critique of the neoliberal capitalism, but also because it lacks the sterile and ideological dogmatisms of the authoritarian communism, since these ones were no more than a bad imitation of the true socialist thought from Marx. The Dharmic Economy, as a form of real socialism, overcomes the historical inertias and avoids collapsing into a mere governmental revolution that has little to do with transforming the society and politics in a radical way. The Maitriyana is a Revolutionary Spirituality that never stops the progress of the critical thinking, by developing a supraideological theory and practice which purifies the epistemology and gnosiology through the libertarian meditation. Since the authoritarian communism has been a form of state domination, manifesting itself as an economic exploitation, political coercion, ideological hegemony, social exclusion and cultural denial,[3] the Buddhist Socialism is proposed as a system that transcends these oppressive features, searching for the Awakening (Bodhi) and the social Liberation. The Dharmic Economy promotes the renewal of the critical thinking, being a practical and theoretical platform of a socialist and revolutionary nature. The Maitriyana is a network of libertarian thought nodes and anti-hegemonic knowledge, by transmitting synthetic theories which paradoxically and dialectically preserve the spirit of Cure (Nirvana) and the radical emancipation characterized by Gautama and Marx. But this movement does not define itself as Marxist, by understanding that Karl Marx himself assumed that critical position. Thus, the Buddhist Socialism addresses the universal and relative truths through a vision which is postracionalist, postmetaphysical and postscientific. When delving into the cryptic statements of the spiritual master one can recognize that the field of the Dharmic Economy is genuinely revolutionary but it transcends the false political dualism between left and right. The traditions of Maitriyana are only concordant with Marxists currents that are autonomist, heterodox, critical, libertarian and open, so that the Buddhist Socialism is clearly distanced from the Marxist currents that are reactionary, bureaucratic, dogmatic and despotic.[4] Faced with the multiplicity of Marxist currents, the Dharmic Economy speaks from a position of paradoxical dialectical synthesis which assumes its centre on the work of Gautama and Marx.

Consistent with Engels, the Maitriyana warns about the danger which frequently involves thinking about that the work of Marx and Gautama have been fully understood with the mere act of assimilating their fundamental theses.[5] In this way the Buddhist Socialism is critical in the face of the economic mechanism and reductionism of many Marxists who talk about a dualism between the fields of the infrastructure and superstructures. Following Marx and Gautama, the Dharmic Economy is distanced from the false religious Buddhism and from the authoritarian communism which have attempted to find an infallible dogma rather than assuming that it is about a practical and theoretical system open to the problems and the constant rebuilding of their conceptual matrix. The consistent methodology of the revolutionary contemplation (kakumei-zen) confirms its metapolitical propositions based on the direct perception of phenomena and processes of the political, economic and social reality, considering the historical tendencies instead of simply worshiping certain fundamental theses. Like Engels, the Maitriyana aims to the peak understanding (Satori) of a true unfinished revolution whose complex theoretical and practical program is a research and an action of a libertarian spirit. The theory of the Buddhist Socialism is immanently a revolutionary praxis which overcomes the conventional considerations of the academic philosophy, the materialistic science and the partisan politics, which are functional to the dominant epistemology of the capitalist civilization. The theoretical activity of the Dharmic Economy is a critical postulation and that is open to the debate and the constant reelaboration, reason why then it is not a dogma or an ideology. It is about a restructuring and renewal in the way of thinking and acting in the world. Thus, the libertarian meditation follows the spirit of Gautama and Marx by operating as a paradoxical dialectic (koan) deeply revolutionary and non-dogmatic. In the Maitriyana there is a conjunction of a dialectical conception of the history, a critique of the capitalist economy and a deployment of the contemplative method, differing from the simplifications of the historical materialism. Therefore, the Pathway of the Buddhist Socialism is controversial because it questions the authoritarian communism as a bureaucratic and despotic system which fails with the dream of Gautama and Marx of building a Pure Land or a socialist civilization of the future. Indeed, the Dharmic Economy demonstrates that Gautama and Marx posed a metapolitical ethical imperative, foreshadowing a critical position against the capitalist civilization. The subversive willingness of the Maitriyana is being a revolutionary humanism that invests, destabilizes or banishes all the social relations in which the human being is vilified, oppressed, abandoned or despised.[6] Therefore, the radical critical vision of the Buddhist Socialism towards the capitalist civilization starts from an analysis of the poisons of the inner world which are then manifested in the outside world as greed, hatred and delusion. A Free and Enlightened Being (Arhat-Bodhisattva) is a radical being because he addresses the issue from its very root, being the human the root of the world.[7]

The Dharmic Economy warns that one of the worst mistakes of the Marxist currents was their separation of fields, as the ideological and the scientific, by dimming the multiple application contexts and stratums of meaning of the critical and open theory of Karl Marx. This interpretation or decoding is an essential key in the metapolitical thinking of Maitriyana. In addition, the Buddhist Socialism shows that the vision of Marx is also a skilful means (upaya) to analyze the vast and unexplored work of Siddharta Gautama from a libertarian interpretive framework, by not stagnating in the cheater and simplifier medium of dogma. The apprentice who has dogmas is fully disqualified from a spiritual perspective. The Dharmic Economy shows that there are multiple readings of Marx, which resulted in several Marxist currents. Precisely the state political apparatus was only one version of Marxism but it betrayed the original message of its founder. The Analytical Existential Libertarian Discourse (Buddha-Dharma-Sangha) then is provided by the spiritual master in order to understand the spirit of the revolution inaugurated by Marx.

The Maitriyana is also composed of multiple pathways and spiritual traditions, but they all have the same horizon which is the understanding of the Awakening (Bodhi) of all beings. This harmony between the different internal currents is what is lacking in Marxism, which brought inevitable consequences in the political and economic field of the world.

For such reason, the Buddhist Socialism is a return to the true teaching of Gautama and Marx, remembering that the revolutionary social movements neither must be unleashed by a minority nor that this one works in pursuit of the interests of one minority. The Dharmic Economy is the autonomous movement of a social majority working for the welfare of an immense majority.[8] In accordance with Marx, the libertarian perspective of the Maitriyana teaches that a revolutionary movement should not be heteronomous or dependent on the external guidance or from above on the part of an elitist class, a group of intellectuals or a state bureaucrat sector. Therefore, the Buddhist Socialism is the movement of the immense social majority of those oppressed beings, working towards the interests of the vast majority. The Dharmic Economy is then the autonomous and libertarian movement of the people.

The Maitriyana shows the lack of compatibility between the Marxist cosmovision of the genuine socialism with the Jacobin ideology of the authoritarian communism. In line with Marx, the Buddhist Socialism does not raise a revolution carried out by a minority nor done from above. This is where the Dharmic Economy clarifies disunity between the libertarian theory of Marx and the despotic practice of Lenin, Stalin and all the other totalitarian regimes. The Maitriyana postulates that the revolution inaugurated by Gautama and Marx was a democratic and popular revolution, by transmitting the Cure (Nirvana) to large multitudes rather than focusing solely on empowering the monks or intellectuals. Without this democratic and popular characteristic, all revolution will distance from the metapolitical thought of Gautama and Marx. Therefore, the Buddhist Socialism is empty from any superstitious veneration towards the bureaucratic machinery of the State, with its administrative layers of functionaries who follow their own selfish interests. For the Dharmic Economy the Liberation of the people consists in transforming the State by being an institution which stands above the society, by converting said State into a body completely subordinate to the people.[9] This obviously implies abandoning the system of representative democracy that is bourgeois, deceitful and even elitist, to replace it by the system of direct democracy. The Maitriyana teaches then that there is no authoritarian State in the thought of Marx, because the state must not try to control society, but it must be an organ of the social body, depending at any time and any place on the spiritual interests from the emerging new society of the transitional process to the genuine socialism. Like Engels, the Buddhist Socialism indicates that in the work of Marx it is described in detail the task of banishing the old and fake State Power to replace it by a new and true Democratic Order.[10] According to the Dharmic Economy, the State of the transition towards a libertarian socialist organization cannot be despotic or authoritarian, but rather it has to be genuinely democratic until be transformed into an association of Free and Enlightened Beings (Arhats-Bodhisattvas). This is the Great Awakening (Bodhi) of the world.

Consistent with Furet, the Maitriyana shares a humble response to the evils of the world: deepening a direct democracy with a Universalist vocation. Thus the spiritual master is a torch of revolutionary utopia, placing the choice of the subject in the centre of the political action to be able to stop the frenzy of a neoliberal market which thinks of itself as an almighty Master of the planet. In contrast to the representative democracy, which is based on greed, hatred and delusion, the system of direct democracy generates the existence of a post-capitalist and postburgeois world where it can flourish a true commune (Sangha).[11]

However, the Buddhist Socialism examines this Purpose (Dharma) of social revolution as something possible but very difficult because the superstitious faith in the State impregnates the psychological, philosophical and political field of the working, bourgeois and aristocrat sectors. This is because the figure of the State represents an unconscious form of repression of Liberty whereby the people cedes its essential decision-making capacity to a Power sector. According to the metapolitical conception of the Dharmic Economy, the realization of the idea of Cure (Nirvana) from the evils of the world -or the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth– creates a type of society based on peace, social justice, education and ecology. Since the space of libertarian meditation is born with the abandonment to all superstitious worship towards the State, because the ethics of Detachment easily uproots the childish idea that the human being must be led by an Other, either in the representation of God or the State. The revolutionary contemplation (kakumei-zen) allows looking differently to issues and interests that are common to society, instead of ceding the decision-making to the functionaries of the State. Just like Engels, the Maitriyana reveals that the system of representative democracy is nothing more than a form of covert monarchy. Although it is not a hereditary monarchy, certainly the State is nothing but an evil, being a system built for the oppression of one class over the others. Obviously, the Buddhist Socialism agrees with Engels that it must be banished the superstitious faith towards the State, since the Pure Land is a field where Truth and Liberty become a reality, these being spiritual values which are opposed to the State.

In agreement with Étienne de La Boétie, the Dharmic Economy teaches the people to stop getting used to thinking that the social issues cannot be perceived from an alternative way to that of the State,[12] affirming that the libertarian meditation provides an experience of the common affairs through a democratic and human rights communism that transcends the state framing through an existentialist style. The victory of the people, as the Commune (Sangha) did for 2600 years, should immediately banish the worst aspects of the evil that the State is until the future generations who are educated in free and enlightened social conditions are able to get rid of the old junk of the State.[13] The Maitriyana then demonstrates that Gautama and Marx were closest to the current of Anarchism or libertarian socialism than to the authoritarian communism, being the main difference between Marx and the anarchists the question about whether the Liberation or Awakening (Bodhi) must be sudden or gradual. The Reconciling Spirituality teaches both movements through the Pathways of the Buddhist Socialism and Buddhist Anarchism.

Certainly, for Gautama and Marx there is a new form of transitional State -the Commune (Sangha) – which is radically democratic and it vanishes the worst aspects of the evil which the old State represents. Since the human being interexists interdependently from the historical, social and cultural circumstances, the praxis of the revolutionary contemplation (kakumei-zen) can transform those circumstances, by teaching the apprentice to immediately banish the worst evils of the despotic world which are war, social injustice, ignorance and contamination. In this sense, the system of the five Republican powers created by the liberator Simon Bolivar is quoted by the Dharmic Economy as a precedent of a transitional State: Legislative Power, Executive Power, Judicial Power, Electoral Power and Moral Power (Citizen). While the first three are the classics of the republished system, the last two are remarkably revolutionary, being able to be similar to the Direct Democratic Power and the Journalistic Power proposed by the Reconciling Spirituality. Thus, the proposal of the liberator Simon Bolivar is a very good example of a State of transition towards the genuine socialism, by giving great power to the people through a post-colonial political platform designed for the happiness of society. The Liberator Simon Bolivar sought the independence and liberation of all America, leaving the Spanish empire in order to socially, politically and economically building a free and sovereign continent where peace, equality and ethics prevail. This social independence should be achieved progressively in the conformation of a free and sovereign people where human beings can enjoy the guarantees of liberty, justice, security and civil rights. This proposal for a division of powers was revolutionary because it avoided falling into the abuse of Power, which is what historically happened with the representative democratic regimes that have led to the usurpation and tyranny. In fact, Simon Bolivar seemed to sense the revolutionary utopian vision of the Awakened Being (Buddha) as a realistic and pragmatic political idea of the political understood as the art of what is possible, not aspiring to the impossible of an abstract and pernicious idea of unlimited liberty to avoid descend in the region of tyranny, because from the absolute libertinage one descends to the absolute Power, being the ethics of the Middle Way the supreme social liberty.[14]

The Maitriyana does not read to Gautama and Marx through the filter of Lenin or any religious orthodoxy, but rather it is immersed in the practice of the libertarian meditation as a form of metathought. Therefore, the Buddhist Socialism is not subjected to the interpretations of the currents of the past, whether orthodox Leninists or heterodox reformists. Following the guidance of Marx, the Dharmic Economy shows that to detach oneself from the old junk of the State it is essential educating the new generations in conditions of Liberty and Cure (Nirvana). This education provided by the Free and Enlightened Being (Arhat-Bodhisattva) is not the academic education structured for the idolatrous servitude or ideological submission to the State, but rather it is about a libertarian and spiritual education where only the broadest Liberty and Awakening (Bodhi) prevails.

Consistent with Marx, the Maitriyana works in favour of the disappearance of the social class differences, by recommending that production is concentrated in the hands of the people and not in charge of the private sector or the state political Power, since both are the organized power of a social class for the oppression and alienation of the other classes. The Buddhist Socialism is an organization that works to fight against materialism, whether under the form of aristocracy, bourgeoisie and proletariat. Ultimately the revolution of the spiritual master is a Counter-Power, because it does not seek to become a ruling class, but rather to bring down peacefully the existing regime of capitalist production, vanishing the social and economic conditions which determine the dualism between social classes. The Dharmic Economy works to overcome the very concept of social class, by replacing the old capitalist society full of selfishness and consumerism in pursuit of the emergence of a partnership in which the development of Liberty of the subject impels the development of Liberty of everyone else.[15] Since this is the Path of the Free and Enlightened Being (Arhat-Bodhisattva), the Maitriyana appreciates Karl Marx almost as much as Master Confucius.

In the system of dharmic civilization proposed by the Buddhist Socialism the social and economic production must be concentrated in the hands of the people, so it would be neither private property nor state-owned property, but rather socialised property. To make this condition is fulfilled, the Dharmic Economy shows that the people should be ruler, ceasing to be a spectator class, represented and submitted. Here, the people is detached from any concept of class, since it works for the welfare of the whole body of society, by using the radically democratized organ of the State as a simple raft to boost the counter-current transformation of the materialistic society and its regime of capitalist production. Herein, the revolutionary contemplation (kakumei-zen) is fundamental to rework the sociocultural conditions of dualism of classes, replacing them by a partnership in which the Cure (Nirvana) of the subject determines the Freedom and Awakening (Bodhi) of everyone. The revolutionary utopian vision of Gautama and Marx is about a Commune (Sangha) of free and enlightened human beings, and not of a totalitarian State that administers the social interests on behalf of the partnership. According to the libertarian school of the spiritual master, the State must be a subordinate organ to the social body, and not the subordinating body, because when this happens there is a social cancer. Just like Engels, the Maitriyana affirms that state ownership is not the solution of the social conflict, because it resides in the effective recognition of the oppressive character of the capitalist productive forces and therefore seeking to harmonize the way of the social and economic production. To achieve this, the Way of Buddhist Socialism openly says that the people should take immediate possession of the productive forces, not admitting to both private capitalist direction and the despotic statist direction. Nationalisation or statization is an incomplete and false measure for solving the social conflicts of the people, so that the Dharmic Economy proposes an economic and political socialization which is really a radical critique of the State of domination and authoritarianism. This is due to that the Free and Enlightened Being (Arhat-Bodhisattva) states bluntly that it is the society itself which it must change, taking effective possession of the productive forces which tend to oppress it. This implies that the economic realm is not antispiritual per se, but rather it is the direction towards the capitalist mode of production. In this sense, the Maitriyana is in favour of a social planning but it is not in favour of a state planning that lasts over time, since this old junk should only be something transitory. Thus, the revolutionary character of the Buddhist Socialism makes the means of production, which usually oppress the people, turn against the capitalist producers themselves, by redirecting the mode of production towards the world change. The Dharmic Economy is then an effective force that sublimates the blind impulse of materialism, causing that the apprentice become fully aware of how to convert his internal and external world into a field of harmony and serenity. This involves reconducting the economic field from the greed of capitalism –as a cause of constant disturbances and social cataclysms – towards the compassionate wisdom (karuna-prajña) of the authentic socialism. This revolutionary metapolitics is a transformation which becomes the most powerful lever of the production itself.[16]

For the Maitriyana, the social planning is performed with the Mindfulness of the processes of the here and now, having the peak knowledge (Satori) of the conditions and causes of the economic and political maladies of the capitalist civilization. Thus, the libertarian meditation boosts the decisive intervention of the workers and students in the decision making of the world, not resorting to the state planning of bureaucrats for being fake representatives of the general welfare. The people – both labourer and student – must become the ruler of the political and economic power, breaking with the capitalist hegemony that has led the world to the edge of self-destruction. In the Buddhist Socialism the word of production should be in the hands of the immense majority in order to ensure goals in favour of most of society, being the Dharmic Economy a direct democracy about the economic, political and social planning of workers and students.

The active forces of capitalist society, as long as they are not guided spiritually, operate exactly the same way as a cancer: blind, violent and destructive. But when the revolutionary contemplation (kakumei-zen) is practiced it can be understood their actionning, tendencies and effects, in order to attain the intended objectives of Liberation and Awakening (Bodhi). When the subject understands the oppressive nature of the gigantic forces of capitalist production, then he has the possibility to deal with this system of dominion and alienation. The Maitriyana penetrates into the nature of the Real and understands the mode of converting those tyrannical demonic forces into submissive server forces. The key is in giving power to the people, because when people are associated freely and with consciousness of the effects generated by their actions on nature, they realize that it is possible to transform the capitalist economic system from a demonic tyranny into a benevolent partnership. This implies a double participation on the part of freely associated apprentices: socio-political participation and scientific-gnoseological participation, helping to the direct democratic system and also by transmitting compassionate wisdom (karuna-prajña).

The Buddhist Socialism struggles in order that all the peoples achieve the appropriation of the peak knowledge (Satori), so that the expert vision of the great spiritual masters reaches the working classes in managing a better world, which involves redirecting the economic forces through the libertarian social planning. Thus, the libertarian meditation awakens the worker and the student by showing them the despotic division of society and teaching them a way to reach a new social cooperation between human beings. In the same way that nuclear energy per se is not negative, but rather it depends purely and exclusively on the use that it is given, for electricity or for war, the Dharmic Economy uses the capital and puts it at the service of humanity, instead of putting the humanity at the service of capital. The productive forces of capitalist society must be subject to a Purpose (Dharma) congruent with the Earth (Gaia), regulating the production collectively and in an organized way to generate what Gautama taught as correct livelihood and means of enjoyment: always consistent with the needs of nature, society and of each individual. This abandonment or overcoming of capitalism is what the world is claiming for the survival and evolution of humanity. Here the Maitriyana shows a clear overview for the collective and organized regulation of a real communism, which is the Buddhist Socialism as a Pathway that works to satisfy the spiritual needs of the whole society.

The amplification of consciousness is necessary in the process of social Liberation, increasing the productivity of the apprentice by teaching him a means of living and of enjoyment which is simultaneously ethical and functional to the needs and abilities of each subject. Unlike what happens with state bureaucratic planning, the social planning of the freely associated people is something driven by the Dharmic Economy, because on this approach the development of Liberty of each individual is the basic condition for the development of the Freedom of everyone. Therefore, the Maitriyana has a democratic and libertarian vision of social planning, by detaching from any statist and despotic ideology that impedes the direct intervention of the people in the direction of the political and economic forces. While the capitalist mode of production more and more tends to convert the workers into mere consumers of products, the revolutionary mode of production makes the workers become aware that they are actually producers, so this revolutionary Way of Buddhist Socialism involves moving the Power that corporations and States have in order to deliver it directly to the people. Only through this conversion of the private or state means of production the world will be able to achieve a genuine redistribution and social equity.

In contrast to the Jacobin or state imaginary, for the Dharmic Economy, the condition of possibility for the Cure (Nirvana) of the great evils of the world is that the people is effectively governor of its destination, thus developing a system of direct democracy that even would overcome the Athenian archetype. Before the gaze of the Free and Enlightened Being (Arhat-Bodhisattva), the capitalist economic Power is a problem associated with the representative political Power, so that the Path of the Maitriyana states that the libertarian socialist revolution must be produced in a democratic way. Ultimately, this is the future of the civilization itself, so that no corporate or state conception is able to abolish the dharmic nature of global society. However, in order that this system happens the conditions for its advent must be created first, by transforming the human mind by abolishing selfishness, dualism and consumerism. Precisely, with the Buddhist Socialism it is destroyed the very conception of proletariat and the State as such, because any difference and antagonism between the social classes or castes are vanished. In accordance with Engels, the Dharmic Economy allows saying clearly that any system that simply waits for the extinction of the State but that it does not attempt to overcome it in the here and now, it would be nothing but a form of authoritarianism or despotism. The materialistic society needs the State because it depends on an antagonism between the social classes for keeping the exploiting class to the front of the direction of capitalist production, which converts the people to the system of slavery and servitude. The Maitriyana then reveals something that many revolutionaries have not understood so far: the State keeps the conditions of the capitalist production, maintaining the class system and the conditions of oppression towards the people. Thus the spiritual master theorizes that all private or state Master by definition is an exploitative Master.

The revolutionary contemplation (kakumei-zen) is a way to understand that the free social contract is a fiction only guaranteed by State rules that are in force through the organized coercion or the state force. Ultimately, the State is the one which ensures the conditions of oppression and alienation, both through the capitalist legislation and through the use of legal violence. This is how the superstructure effectively intervenes in the infrastructure of society.

The Buddhist Socialism is the official representative of all peoples in the world, since its synthesis between Gautama and Marx forms a libertarian spiritual direction for the social body of the Earth (Gaia). This implies a de-identification towards the illusion of State Power, which has historically always been an oppressive form and that is allied to the slavery, feudalism and capitalism. The Dharmic Economy seeks the State becomes an organ of society and not its inefficient representative, having a superfluous power because in the libertarian socialist civilization there is no social class to which one has to keep oppressed and subjected. When the lifestyles of selfishness, dualism and consumerism, which are based on greed, hatred and delusion, disappear from the mind of society, then that force of repression which is the State will no longer be necessary.[17] The first act in which the State is effectively manifested as an executor of welfare, Liberty and the Awakening (Bodhi) of the whole society, taking the means of capitalist production and giving them to the people directly, then this step will be the last act of the despotic bureaucratic State and will be simultaneously the beginning of a transition State towards its inevitable dissolution. The libertarian Meditation is a revolutionary intervention that appeals to become aware of the superficiality of the State authority in all the fields of social life, so that the evil of government over the people must cease and be replaced by a mere administration of production processes. The Maitriyana is a revolutionary movement that liberates both the internal and the external world, teaching a contemplative practice that does not produce the abolition of Ego and the State, but rather their extinction (Nirvana) by themselves through a gradual cultivation, because ultimately the two have no real existence. From here the Buddhist Socialism appreciates, vindicates and justifies the anarchist set point in regard to leaving behind the State.

The Dharmic Economy is a useful means (upaya) of the Free and Enlightened Being (Arhat-Bodhisattva) who teaches that no true revolution can be done by decree, denouncing that some apparently Marxist currents were no more than worshipers of the State, constantly defending their repressive authority over the social relations. Paradoxically, the Marxist currents of the authoritarian communism did not know building a post-capitalist civilization, but rather they established a pre-capitalist regime, because by establishing a government over the people they established a generalized despotism which banned any possibility of democracy which is necessary to carry out the revolution desired by Gautama and Marx. The compassionate wisdom (karuna-prajña) of the spiritual master reminds the apprentice that the State must be a body subordinated to the Cure (Nirvana) of society and not to its repression, so the Maitriyana considers that the transition State must be radically democratic, depending completely on the control of the social majority which always works for the interest of the immense majority. In this sense, the Buddhist Socialism is a metapolitical planning that concludes that there is no social revolution without the presence of a transitional State with a direct democracy, socialization of the Power and self-government of the popular masses.[18] The teaching of the Dharmic Economy is simple: the drivers of the authoritarian communism or the bureaucratic, despotic and state Socialism are really pseudo-Marxist in the light of the thinking of Maitriyana, whose critique perfectly understands the reason why Karl Marx said I am not a Marxist.

 

Now, if Karl Marx was declared himself as non-Marxist, what would be the reason why the Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso declared that from the socio-political point of view he considers himself as a Marxist.[19] This is because the Buddhist Socialism is not in contradiction with the critical view of the religion from Marx. In fact, the metaphilosophical understanding of the Free and Enlightened Being (Arhat-Bodhisattva) makes position himself neither in favour nor against, but rather beyond the religious institutions. Unlike the metaphysics, the Dharmic Economy is really dedicated to the service of people, by promoting social ethics of pacifism, social equality, education and ecology, reason why important spiritual masters have wished to join the Communist Party. However, the authoritarian communism tends to try to subjugate the teachings of the Free and Enlightened Being (Arhat-Bodhisattva), since all despotic system oppresses the nature of the Awakening (Bodhi) for being a force that has the libertarian potentiality of rebelling against the status quo. Consistent with the Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, the Maitriyana states that while capitalism is concerned only about gain and monetary benefit, the Buddhist Socialism is based on the ethical principles of Gautama and Marx, by worrying about the redistribution of wealth and social equality. The Dharmic Economy cares about the good of the majority, who are the workers and students, but is also interested in the fate of those who are minority or simply they are not listened by the system, as the homeless and children, for example. Thus the spiritual master reveals that the failure of the authoritarian communism –like the Soviet- was because it was a totalitarian regime, but it was not because of the vision of Karl Marx is wrong. This is the reason why the Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso considers himself half Buddhist and half Marxist.[20] The metapolitics of the Maitriyana considers Gautama and Marx as inspiring heroes for the possibility of a genuine communist movement, making that humanity is emptied from all illusory ideology in order to completely change its attitude towards life. The Buddhist Socialism, by promoting social justice and human rights, is a true libertarian communism with the ability to benefit all the peoples of the world.

One of the major contributions of the revolutionary movement of the Dharmic Economy is its deconstructive analysis or libertarian meditation on the capitalist system, discovering that the latter structurally produces war, poverty, ignorance and contamination, by shortening the consciousness of the subject and oppressing his practice of life with the poisons of greed, hatred and delusion. But the Free and Enlightened Being (Arhat-Bodhisattva) is not limited to simply perform a critique of materialism or metaphysics, since his clear vision describes in detail how the world would be beyond the capitalist civilization. In contrast to Margaret Thatcher, the spiritual master does nothing but proving with his words and actions that there is an alternative to capitalism, being able to be transformed the economy, politics and culture of the entire contemporary civilization. Faced with the inevitable collapse of capitalism, the Maitriyana states that the direct democracy and human rights will make that Buddhist Socialism emerges as a third pathway to the dualism between the neoliberal capitalism and the authoritarian communism. The critical pathway from the Dharmic Economy demonstrates through the dialectical paradoxical logic that the historical progression for the emergence of a dharmic civilization is the following: first, the thesis of what has been called the expansion of unbridled capitalism; second, the antithesis of what Marx called as the parenthesis of the proletarian dictatorship or crude communism;[21] third, the synthesis of the libertarian communism which has been renamed by the Maitriyana as Buddhist Socialism. This open and dynamic synthesis is what Chögyam Trungpa called as the practice of true communism,[22] which implies that the despotic and totalitarian regimes were no more than an initial or false communism according to the contemplative gaze of the Free and Enlightened Being (Arhat-Bodhisattva).

The libertarian meditation is a way of perceiving the structural problems of society, both political and economic, by understanding that the misery (dukkha) is a cyclic condition created by the capitalist system, which is profoundly perverse. Thus, all process of Cure (Nirvana) of the inner world is undoubtedly a process of contemplative insurrection against the dominant Power, imagining how to create an instance beyond the global capitalist culture whose political and economic system is essentially evil.

Consistent with the Dalai Lama Thubten Gyatso, the Dharmic Economy claims that the poisons of greed, hatred and ignorance seem to dominate entirely the global society, which has incorporated the conflict and injustice as a part of the daily life. Thus the spiritual master predicts that if the peoples do not make the necessary changes to abandon violence, then humanity will have little chance to survive the Apocalypse.[23] In this regard, the Maitriyana is a reconciling pathway that teaches the apprentice how to protect himself ethically from the terror and destruction of both the barbaric capitalism and the despotic communism. In order to ensure the survival and evolution of the human being, the Buddhist Socialism conserves within itself the best aspects of the previous systems, showing the way to properly reach a society without State and without religion, because these institutions are essentially selfish, dualistic and consumerist. Therefore, the Dharmic Economy teaches the individual to find the strength in his heart to make an effort for the world situation and avert the impending disaster, using the methods of pacifism, redistributionism, literacy and environmentalism as skilful means (upaya) to bring Awakening (Bodhi) and appropriate welfare for all the people. Given this Purpose (Dharma), the apprentice must work diligently in the here and now, because otherwise there will be no possible future for the Earth (Gaia). The Maitriyana uses the peak knowledge (Satori) of Gautama and Marx as oracles which guide society through a transition State towards a post-capitalist civilization.

Consistent with Zizek, the Free and Enlightened Being (Arhat-Bodhisattva) does not attempt to destroy anything or precipitate the decline of capitalism, by teaching the libertarian meditation as a way of testify how the system is destroying itself into a cultural Bardo,[24] while it is also a way of imagining alternatives to build a better world. Unlike the capitalism and its consolidation of wealth, power and violence against the majority of the people, the Buddhist Socialism is the consolidation of the event of Cure (Nirvana) in the field of politics and the economy, being a dialectical return to the traditional and organic relationships within the society. Since capitalism is a set of individualistic interests which produce a shameful and brutal exploitation of the people and nature, when the subject practices revolutionary contemplation (kakumei-zen) on the financial system he can coincide with Lobsang Lhalungpa and say I see no human being there, since there are only hungry ghosts in a suit.[25]

But the critical vision of the Dharmic Economy also addresses how the global culture from East and West has been converted to the idolatry of materialism. Thus the Maitriyana is a transcultural revolutionary movement specially adapted to a socially engaged sensibility, by being liberated from the blinding influence of the cultural baggage related to the powerful materialistic forces. Like the Master Khenpo Gangshar, the Buddhist Socialism teaches the apprentice to be detached and not losing himself in the encounter with technology and the consumerist lifestyle. The libertarian meditation, in fact, is looking beyond the culture, realizing that the Spirituality of the Dharmic Economy must always overcome the capitalist cultural components of the contemporary world. In a global society of superficiality and banality, the Maitriyana is raised as an Emancipatory and Libertarian Spirituality with sufficient compassionate wisdom (karuna-prajña) to transform the society and purify the culture. While the capitalist civilization from West and East tries to turn the Spirituality into a fetish, as stated by Zizek, the Buddhist Socialism operates in the globalized world as a counterculture of Detachment in which it is never cancelled the impact of the Real, which is structurally unsatisfactory, impermanent and insubstantial. In this sense, if the world is full of war, social injustice, ignorance and pollution, the orientation of the Dharmic Economy –primarily through the revolutionary contemplation (kakumei-zen)- allows the subject to engage himself and confront this reality wishing to transform it. The Maitriyana, with its emphasis on personal and social Liberation, is primarily positioned against the status quo, because it entails the detached desire of the Awakening (Bodhi) of the inner and outer world. In this way, the Buddhist Socialism not only does not function as a fetish of the global capitalist culture, but it is rather its perfect antidote, being the Cure (Nirvana) from all materialist or metaphysical ideology. The Dharmic Economy is nothing more than the result of the real compromise of the spiritual master with the world, whose realistic vision naturally impels him to act spontaneously and in a libertarian way, not withdrawing from life in an ascetic or nihilistic way. The Maitriyana then shows that the libertarian meditation is a position of renunciation to materialism, but it is not a retreat from the social bonds with others. The revolutionary contemplation (kakumei-zen) allows the apprentice be able to assume a paradoxical dialectic distance position towards his own selfishness, dualism and consumerism, but without staying away from the relationship with the neighbour. This is the structure of mental sanity according to Buddhist Socialism. By perceiving the Real as it is, the Free and Enlightened Being (Arhat-Bodhisattva) is qualified to participate in the world but with no alienation or stress. The Ethics of Detachment, unlike the fetish, it does not leave the world untouched, but rather it is always building a Pure Land free from any hegemonic feature. By being detached from the Ego, the spiritual master is a subject with a higher and amplified state of consciousness (H-ASC), which, in addition, enables him to understand that dualism is illusory –as the distinction between East and West- and that consumerism is the global cultural hegemony. Against this, the Dharmic Economy does nothing but questioning the control, expansion and dominion on the part of the status quo.

The Maitriyana not only seeks the Liberation of the inner world, by purifying the mind from attachment, aversion and unconsciousness, but it also seeks the Liberation of the outer world, by purifying the society from greed, hatred and delusion. This implies that it is essential the work of the libertarian meditation and its analysis on how the cultural Discourse influences and dominates the peoples. But it is also crucial being devoted to the mission of creating an alternative to the current system, and this is precisely the Purpose (Dharma) of the Buddhist Socialism. The process of Awakening (Bodhi) is not only the transcendence of the false consciousness of the Ego; it is also the abandonment of the social system of ideology. Thus, the revealing study of the Dharmic Economy develops the conditions for the emergence of the libertarian, spiritual and true communism, so that the approach of the revolutionary contemplation (kakumei-zen) is the ideal supplement for a movement of the Real.

Consistent with Gautama and Marx, the Maitriyana claims that the social revolution is not a set of ideals to which the reality should be adjusted, but rather it is the very dharmic nature of society, so the Buddhist Socialism is a movement of the Real that wishes abolishing the current status quo,[26] by reaching the Cure (Nirvana) of mind and Self-liberation of the people. In this way the Libertarian Commune (Sangha) is really the practical embodiment of a post-capitalist social system that during the last 2600 years has shown an alternative way of life based on the detachment towards materialism. The Dharmic Economy then shows that the Awakening (Bodhi) is nothing less than the dealienation. Just like Gautama and Marx, the Maitriyana movement represents the true spirit of the fight against inequality and poverty caused by the status quo.

The Buddhist Socialism, as Reconciliatory Spirituality, assumes the function of being a radical therapy applied to society, working patiently for the Cure (Nirvana) of the people. The Dharmic Economy is a movement of the Real with a profound social engagement, revealing the errors and illusions of the system in order to awaken the people, so it seems trying to build a Libertarian Commune (Sangha) at a global level by unifying and reconciling the humanity into the action of the Purpose (Dharma). In the epoch of the Apocalypse or decline of the capitalist civilization, the Maitriyana synthesizes the whole saviour collective power, seeking that the apprentice assumes an insurrection pathway to become a new kind of community leader who discovers and teaches the spiritual potential of humanity and of the Earth (Gaia). Since the Buddhist Socialism is a popular movement of the Real, it is not placed in a comfortable position, but rather it constantly evades the stereotypes and fixed ideas. From the point of view of the Dharmic Economy, to transform the world it is necessary a global insurrection that is elusive to think only in the aim of taking Power, by concentrating all its strength on materializing right means to carry it out. This is how the direct democracy will strike the world with a light of hope, being able to appear at any time and place without relying on traditional political leaderships. The metapolitics of the Maitriyana is a New World Order that clears away the forces of manipulation through the awakened mind (bodhicitta), appearing at the times and places that is required, because the Free and Enlightened Beings (Arhats-Bodhisattvas) are just like that. When the Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso lamented that a genuine communism has not arrived to Tibet was not only criticizing the authoritarian communism but rather he also showed the direction towards where he wanted to lead his people: half Buddhist and half Marxist.[27] This radical third way is the Buddhist Socialism.

However, this Way of overcoming synthesis, which is the Dharmic Economy, poses the painful decision to abandon the dualism of left and right, causing that the subject is ideologically empty, because keeping these false opposite poles infects the mind with illusory ideas. So that, paradoxically, the spiritual master teaches that in a globalized world, where there is no longer East and West or left and right, the Middle Way of Maitriyana agrees with Gramsci and meditates about the Real in a libertarian way with the pessimism of the superior intelligence and with the optimism of the will to live. Only then one will be able to avoid selfishness, dualism and consumerism, by facing existence with honesty, courage and solidarity.

 

 

[1] K. Marx y F. Engels, La ideología alemana.

[2] K. Marx y F. Engels, La ideología alemana.

[3] Javier Biardeau, ¿Por qué Marx dijo: Yo no soy marxista?

[4] Javier Biardeau, ¿Por qué Marx dijo: Yo no soy marxista?

[5] F. Engels, Carta a Jose Bloch, Londres 21 de Septiembre de 1890.

[6] K. Marx, Crítica a la filosofía del derecho de Hegel.

[7] K. Marx, Crítica a la filosofía del derecho de Hegel.

[8] K. Marx y F. Engels, Manifiesto del Partido Comunista.

[9] K. Marx, Critica al programa de Gotha.

[10] K. Marx, La Guerra civil en Francia.

[11] F. Furet, El pasado de una ilusión.

[12] Étienne de La Boétie, Discurso de la servidumbre voluntaria.

[13] K. Marx, La Guerra civil en Francia.

[14] Simón Bolívar, Discurso de Angostura, 15 de febrero de 1819.

[15] K. Marx y F. Engels, Manifiesto del Partido Comunista.

[16] F. Engels, Del socialismo utópico al socialismo científico.

[17] F. Engels, Del socialismo utópico al Socialismo científico.

[18] Javier Biardeau, ¿Por qué Marx dijo: Yo no soy marxista?

[19] Stuart Smithers, Occupy Buddhism or why the Dalai Lama is a marxist.

[20] Tenzin Gyatso, Beyond Dogma: dialogues and discourses.

[21] K. Marx, Crítica al Programa de Gotha.

[22] Chögyam Trungpa, International affairs of 1979 – Uneventful but energy consuming.

[23] Stuart Smithers, Occupy Buddhism or why the Dalai Lama is a marxist.

[24] Stuart Smithers, Occupy Buddhism or why the Dalai Lama is a marxist.

[25] Stuart Smithers, Occupy Buddhism or why the Dalai Lama is a marxist.

[26] K. Marx y F. Engels, La ideología alemana.

[27] Stuart Smithers, Occupy Buddhism or why the Dalai Lama is a marxist.