Tag: meditation

BMA (UK): Buddhism As Anti-Capitalism! (8.11.2023)

Indeed, there is a complete (and refreshing) lack of commercial consideration in the Dhamma teaching. Therefore, Early Buddhism is entirely ‘anti-capitalist’ in both essence and manifestation. The problem is the tide of capitalist distortion which hits our minds and bodies in this modern age. It is as if the Buddha was the CEO of a very successful business – and that we are all shareholders! Nothing could be further from the truth! At the above link – there is an article discussing this issue that should be studied carefully.

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China: Gansu Buddhist ‘Smile of the Orient’ Said to Equal That of the ‘Mona Lisa’! (5.9.2023)

The early Buddhist groups in China mirrored that of the extant Confucian scholiastic system – often forming around married laymen – with disciples taking the surname of the teacher as their ‘Dharma-Name’ and essentially becoming an extension of his family. Grottoes such as that featured below were places where Buddhists could meet, share and practice their understanding of Indian Buddhist philosophy. An understanding of Buddhist monasticism started to arrive and distinguish itself in China from the existing lay-practice around the 5th century CE – the date I believe this ‘smiling’ monk appears to date from. Whereas Buddhist lay-practitioners did not shave their heads (like Daoists and Confucians) – monastic Buddhists (male and female) were required to shave their heads – indicative of their ‘rejecting’ of the desire-laden conventions that define, guide and justify the external world.

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Banstead Woods and Chipstead Downs! (19.8.2023)

Scattered throughout the woods are characters from the famous children’s fantasy book entitled ‘The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe’ – written by CS Lewis! Oddly, although we did not intend to find these objects – we discovered them very quickly just by accident! It seems that just by instinct – we took all the right turnings through the woods – and each of these characters suddenly materialised! Banstead is a predominantly ‘White’, middle-class area – so my T-Shirt (AK47 – Killing Capitalists Since 1947) raised a few eyebrows!

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Battersea Park: Revolutionary Flags! (27.5.2023)

Buddhism – like Socialism – belongs to humanity! Violence in the outer world can only be ended when one dominant class stops oppressing another! Peace can only be achieved if the capitalist world (in its exploitative aspect) is vanquished and the Bourgeoisie stops resisting and oppressing Socialism! If we – as the working class – stop fighting then we abandon the field to our oppressors and encourage them to inflict an even greater injustice upon us! Genuine peace will only come when the working class siezes the mean of production! As Marx once said – peace is the state achieved when there is an absence to the process of developing Socialism! These photographs were taken at the (Japanese) Buddhist London Peace Pagoda which is situated to the North of Battersea Park!

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Buddhism: London Peace Pagoda! (27.5.2023)

The history of this (Japanese) Buddhist artifact can be read above. As Chinese Buddhists – we support the concept of World Peace – and sympathise with the Japanese victims of the US Atomic Bombs. However, between 1931-1945 – the Imperial Japanese Army murdered over 9 million Chinese men, women and children – with countless more victims throughout Asia (including many Westerners)! To date, although individual Japanese Buddhists and Japanese Buddhist groups have called for World Peace – the successive post-1945 governments of Japan are puppets of the United States! This an unfortunate situation which has turned Japan in to a colony of American fascism and anti-intellectualism! Whilst calling for World Peace – the governments of a defeated Japan refuse to take responsibility for its War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity committed in China (and throughout Asia)!

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The Disappearance of Ramalinga (ராமலிங்க) Swamigal! (20.4.2023)

My PhD is in ‘Spiritual Metaphysics’ – which suggests I study all phenomena relating to religion and the human experience of spirituality. To this end, I treated every experience with an objective impartiality – neither ‘agreeing’ nor ‘disagreeing’. Of course, I possess a personal opinion – the my personal opinions are a product of my freedom of thought and have no bearing upon what might – or might not – be happening. As I do not trust the slap-dash and haphazard manner in which US anti-intellectualism manipulates historical data on the US govermentally controlled ‘Wikipedia’ – I have accessed ‘Tamil’ language sources – and spoken to Tamil historians about the situation regarding Ramalinga Swamigal (1823-1874). He was borm ‘Thiruvarut Prakasa Vallalar’ (திருவருட் பிரகாச வள்ளலார்) in a village situated in the Madras area of British-controlled India. Like the Buddha, this man was a Hindu who cultivated a ‘reforming’ attitude. This Siddha was known as ‘Ramalinga Adigal’ (ராமலிங்க அடிகளார்) and more commonly as ‘Vallalar’ (வள்ளலார்) – which is written today as ‘Vadalur’ (வடலூர்) – or the place where he was born (situated in the Cuddalore District, Tamil Nadu).

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