Proletariat Blogging in the Heart of (UK) Predatory Capitalism! Exploring the Interface between Matter and Perception, Chinese Buddhism, Daoism, Hakka Ethnography, and All Aspects of Radical Politics, History, Psychology and Philosophy – 全世界无产者联合起来!
Well, it’s that time of year again in the UK. All the school children are invited to wear a festive jumper – which is a little ironic for the Sikhs, Muslims, and Hindus that live amongst us. There might also be one or two reluctant Jews thrown into the mix. After all, most of these groups have already celebrate their equivalents of Xmas.
Whilst getting ready for school – our youngest daughter (Kai-Lin) – heard a “knocking” outside our bedroom window in our first-floor flat (the window is more or less in-line with the treetops nearby). When Gee pulled-back the curtain (it was around 8 am) to everyone’s surprise – there was what looked like a juvenile Woodpecker attempting to develop a head of steam through its inexperienced pecking! Normally, we only ever hear these birds “out of sight” as it were, but even then, only at a considerable distance (usually in woodland or nears forests) – but I have never seen such a rural bird landing within a city context.
Here we are. Zen is Ch’an in reverse – which is good as perception is the wrong way around. Turn it the right way around – and Zen becomes Ch’an the right way around. Not always an easy task – like catching a steam train whilst it is obscured by it’s own smoke. What a joy such contradictions are. They exist to test our perception and determination. As such, nothing else matters. We all look up – and we all look down – just like every koan (gong-an) you may have viewed. Still, none of it matters if you cannot lay it all down. None of it matters at all.
If this was the case, why did the Buddha reject Brahmanism? Why did the Buddha bite the hand that fed him? Well, he practiced all the available meditative paths, mastered them all, and realised none of them expressed the ultimate truth. He carried-on training in meditation as the Upanishads advised – and saw through all the conditioning of his mind, body, and environment. He gave up caste privilege and all work for money. He knew that this would lead to starvation, homelessness, and nakedness. He resolved these issues by dressing himself in rags found in the charnel grounds (the clothing of dead who were to poor to be cremated), he acquired the skull-cap of a dead person and used it as a begging bowl as he walked from village to village quietly requesting waste-food on a daily basis, and he sat under the foot of a tree when he meditated. The Buddha left society and lived on the forested outskirts of Hindu society. Of course, the Buddha still physically lived in India, and interfaced with Hindu society, but he did this under a completely new contract of understanding.
When an individual was found guilty of some petty offence – they were sentenced to a number of days and nights in the Town “Stocks” held by the wrists, ankles and neck – whilst passers-by were permitted to strike them with kicks, punches and any object to hand (providing disfigurement and death was avoided) and threw rotten food and excrement if any were at hand! Most of this structure is now missing – with two vertical posts (about three-feet high) still being in situé:
Not mentioned in this bourgeois memorial is the fact that widespread “Socialist” uprisings spread throughout the French Army due to the callous attitudes of the French Generals. Research shows that around 7000 Frenchmen were arrested and Courts Marshalled – with 629 being sentenced to death by firing-squad (49 of these executions were eventually carried-out). Many Frenchmen were acting in sympathy with their Russian Allies – the soldiers of whom were participating in the 1917 Socialist Revolution! This is a clear example of the bourgeois censorship of history which only partly informs the masses about the reality of their own history! The British mass murder of the Battle of the Somme soon followed Verdun – where the bourgeoisie demonstrated to the working-class that the middle-class still controlled society – which led to 60,000 British casualties in the first 20-minutes!
SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 