[Buddha-l] Marx and Buddhism

[Dan Lusthaus]

Boy, talk about contemporary Westerners imagining an imaginary Buddhism in
their own image (as was discussed here not so long ago re: Zen).

>Capitalism
> is completely incompatible with Buddhism, by the way,

Buddhism literally crawled out of the swamps in India when it allied with
the Merchants, who not only helped them establish a major base in Gandhara,
but led them through the Silk Road from Parthia to China. Mahayana Buddhism
(e.g., Sambhoga-kaya) is capitalist through and through and through.
Buddhism survived when it did in Asia due to patronage from the upper
classes (merchants, officials, ruling classes), and it is similarly no
accident that those in the West most attracted to Buddhism continue to be
middle class or better.

Marx's so called "materialism" (dialectical materialism) is not really as
materialist as is often thought, and many contemporary thinkers now concede
he never overcame Hegel's idealism, as he viewed it, but repeated it in a
modified form. Instead of nirvana, he offered a this-worldly utopia.
Buddhism would have been one more opiate of the masses (so that, e.g.,
Western Buddhists can imagine they are not really middle class dependents on
the capitalist system).

To quote another 60s poet-musician who also came up with some insightful
lyrics from time to time:

"Keep you doped with religion, sex and tv,
now you think you're so clever, and classless, and free,
But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see.

A Working Class Hero is something to be..."

("Working Class Hero"; John Lennon)

Dan Lusthaus