The shock of rebirth for the Marxist is palpable. How could this have happened? How did a psychological essence survive the dying process and traversing from one living body to another. The situation is further compounded when a human body morphs into a completely different species (perhaps a chicken or even a mosquito). Marxists are a practical group and have developed the required ability to immediately assess and deconstruct the here and now. Rebirth has not happened – or has been imagined as happening. The science of conception does not allow for any outside agency to operate upon the chemical process. Biological reproduction is blind to the vagueries of the macro world (it simply does not care about it in detail) yet this is the plane where certain religions believe rebirth happens.
This being the case, why do some human beings believe they have been reborn? Well, prevailing culture can import the idea of rebirth into the mind of the individual – as can media designed as being educational and entertaining. If a society had no concept of religion – would an individual eventually manifest the idea of rebirth entirely from within with no external prompting? It is probable to think yes. This is because the idea can be gleamed from the natural processes of nature. The cycles of the seasons, as well as observing the relatively short lives of other creatures, demonstrate how processes repeat themselves. A logical speculation might well develop about different types of natural replication. How does it work? Is it flexible? Can a much missed loved one ever return or come back? Fear, loss, and love appear to be the motivations behind the construction of the rebirth concept. If fear, loss, and love are removed from society in their most ignorant forms, then the reaction of rebirth will not manifest. Advanced education removes the material trigger that causes the rebirth reaction.
On the other hand, an individual lives through the previous day, falls asleep, and then reappears the next day. The cycle of daily existence is also a type of rebirth that may well serve to generate a thought process regarding this notion. From a physics perspective, the Marxist is left with the fact that energy cannot be created or destroyed – but only change form. This is added to by the ideas contained within quantum physics. Of course, the Buddhist view is that rebirth only appears to exist until enlightenment is realised. This suggests that a) rebirth never existed, or b) rebirth exists until the act of realising enlightenment actually destroys (or dissolves) it as an active agency. In my discourse I have usually emphasised “a” – but I must remain open to “b”.
Within Chinese academia, for instance, there is an exploration of subjectivity as being a subtle aspect of matter. This bridges the usual dichotomy experienced within Western discourse which separates the “inner” from the “outer”. The physical world is only that which exists in front of the senses – but does not include the senses – even though the senses are part of the material world. Regardless of how Revolutionary we live our lives, our existences are a collection of meaningful “moments” – one after the other. This is a solid fact in the material world. A future moment always follows a present moment – and so on. Something continues even in a Revolution – regardless of the nature of that Revolution. Our bodies are conceived, they grow, they diminish, and they cease to function (that is “die”). Much of the Revolutionary rhetoric in the West over-emphasises the objective (or surface) aspect of material existence – and completely omit the personal cost of experience. This is ironic given how many Marxists have died for their beliefs.
We all die – just as we are all born. We do not remember the birth – but we will experience the latter (providing we do not die peacefully in our sleep). Some people voluntarily end their physical existences for various reasons – usually because of debilitating mental and physical illnesses. At other times, perfectly healthy people end their lives in the face of political violence, and/or State oppression, etc. The ideology of fascism and Nazism, being motivated by high octane “hatred” – murder and kill on all and many levels – not just the physical. We can be emotionally and psychologically crushed a long time before we physically die. Che Guevara was brutalised and tortured by his US-sponsored captors – before being shot and his body paraded for the cameras of the world (the cameramen did nothing to prevent the murder). The Nazi Germans (and their Catholic allies) murdered around 27 millions Soviets during WWII – whilst the imperial Japanese murdered around 60 million across Asia. Death is with us at all time – but then what happens?
Marxists already believe in the continuation of their ideas – in that each new generation will take up a copy of Das Kapital and read it anew or afresh, etc, but what happens if a Fascist State bans the work of Marx, and makes it illegal to own, pass-on, read, or discuss it? Richard Hunn once told me about how a number of Burmese Buddhist monks he knew possessed no interest in secular politics – as only the Dhamma mattered to them. So far – so good – but supposing a government comes to power and outlaws Buddhism? There will be no rebirth of the Dhamma in the next generation. We know that if something is effectively banned – then regardless of how popular it was within the culture in question prior to the ban – its practice is soon forgotten. Who would have thought that anyone in faithful England would have followed the orders of Henry VIII in 1534 – and systematically (and efficiently) destroy the Catholic Church? Even today, when one summarises the ruins of the hundreds of monasteries and abbeys – it is an extraordinary achievement.
In a moment – things dialectically change forever. When the axe fell on the neck of Charles I in 1649 – the ancient convention of an absolute monarch in England ended forever. How could this have happened? Well, there was a Revolution which saw tens of thousands fight and die in England so that the emerging bourgeois class could usurp political power from the aristocracy. There was no future for the absolute monarchy. And yet the agency of the “moment”, despite its nature, continue to manifest unabated. Rebirth is not reincarnation – the Buddha hinted about the former but rejected the latter. Rebirth may not be what the average Marxist thinks it is. An effective Marxist regime must be replicated effectively from one generation to the next. A fully rounded Marxist should think clearly and dialectically, whilst also remaining able to come to terms with any and all experiences that life may throw at them. This includes getting old, ill, injured, or in anyway incapacitated. Rebirth cannot be religious – but it maybe scientific. It could be that the Buddha sensed the truth of quantum physics and proceeded from this perspective. Simultaneously, when Marx and Engels worked late into the night during their time in London – who would have thought that Marx would pass away sat upright in his favourate comfy chair?
Detachment and transition – the essence of any Revolution – inner or outer. Even so, engaged, concurrent, and fully aware, are the corresponding attributes. Science is developing into ever greater appreciations of the material and the ethereal – which are beginning to look ever more like one another. Spirit is just another frequency of matter – whilst the old model of matter and spirit (subtle matter) being different from one another is becoming ever more redundant. What are we left with? The Marxist must navigate the inner world with as much agility as he or she traverses the outer world – with nothing left behind. Of course, death might well be the end of all the characteristics that make each individual the being that society legally acknowledges as existing. As to the ethereal – the secular law has nothing to say – it ends when life ends (and the body no longer self-propels). Cannon Law, by way of comparison, ruled the rust for centuries before being usurped. And so the Marxist rejects the muddled and bias thinking of the religionist – and seeks a far more logical approach to lining up (and differentiating) the objects of physical existence. There is no funny business regarding the fakery surrounding theism and the social control it exerts – through after-life threats and promises of other-worldly redemptions. No – society must function fairly and cleaning – free of exploitation and arbitrary domination of power blocs (mediated by men in frocks).
SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 