{"id":166092,"date":"2020-08-03T12:00:36","date_gmt":"2020-08-03T11:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=166092"},"modified":"2020-08-01T10:41:12","modified_gmt":"2020-08-01T09:41:12","slug":"a-buddhist-socialist-peaceable-kingdom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2020\/08\/a-buddhist-socialist-peaceable-kingdom\/","title":{"rendered":"A Buddhist Socialist Peaceable Kingdom"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Buddha was a “soft” social revolutionary. \u00a0In founding the sangha<\/em> \u2013 a kibbutz-like community of wisdom seekers \u2013 he set an example for the transformation of Indian culture.\u00a0 The word Buddha means Awake.\u00a0 The sangha spread and multiplied.\u00a0 India became in fact a more enlightened \u2013 a more peaceful and egalitarian \u2013 being-in-the-world-with-others.\u00a0 Thanks to Emperor Ashoka, circa 250 BCE, India\u2019s metamorphosis into a Dharma nation showed that peace is possible, and so is the welfare of all.\u00a0 This experiment was never wholly successful, of course; but for the first thousand years of the Common Era, it was planted in the fructifying soil of virtue and shared prosperity, and India\u2019s monastic universities were the greatest gardens of learning the world had ever seen.<\/p>\n

Now, there are indeed vast differences between Buddhism and Marxism, but this does not exclude important points of overlap.\u00a0 One such point is Buddha\u2019s Declaration of Human Rights<\/em>, which, gleaned from multiple sutras, asserts that all people have a five-fold right to… food, shelter, clothing, medicine, and community.\u00a0 This ideal can only be actualized on a foundation of perpetual peace and cooperation, in a spirit of universal-brother-sisterhood conjoined to humility and creative opportunity.\u00a0 In which case, Marx’s dictum applies … “To each according to their needs, from each according to their capacity.”\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This agapic<\/em> vision of a peaceable kingdom on earth includes reverence for Gaia; thinking globally, acting locally; sustaining a healthy biosphere with gratitude for harvest, care for beauty, and a holistic devotion to the well-being of all future generations.\u00a0 Marx developed his notion of \u201cspecies consciousness\u201d in order to encourage a shared commitment to animal rights and a clean environment.\u00a0 His endeavor echoes Pythagoras, Lao Tzu, and Buddha, three of the world\u2019s first ecological sages.<\/p>\n

“It takes a village to raise a child.”\u00a0 This Buddhist\/Ubuntu\/Socialist vision is manifest when a society abandons greed (the first of what Buddhism calls \u201cthe three poisons”) and devotes itself instead to The Enlightenment Project, embodied in free lifelong educational opportunity for all.\u00a0 Such a society is free from<\/em> scarcity, oppression, deception, and alienation; humanity having returned to its roots in The Life Force<\/em> that grew us in the womb \u2013 the magical mystery tour of interbeing.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>__________________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Stefan Schindler taught philosophy, psychology, education, and religion for 40 years at institutions of higher learning, including The University of Pennsylvania, La Salle University, Berkley College of Music, The Boston Conservatory of Music, Dance and Theater, and the Boston and Brookline Centers for Adult Education.\u00a0 Co-founder of The National Registry for Conscientious Objection, a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, a recipient of The Boston Baha\u2019i Peace Award, and a Trustee of The Life Experience School and Peace Abbey, Dr. Schindler received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Boston College (on Freud, Sartre, Hegel, and Jung). He wrote The Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Awards for Howard Zinn and John Lennon.\u00a0 His books include <\/em>The Tao of Socrates and <\/em>America’s Indochina Holocaust.\u00a0 His forthcoming book is titled <\/em>Buddha’s Political Philosophy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Buddha was a “soft” social revolutionary. Marx developed his notion of \u201cspecies consciousness\u201d in order to encourage a shared commitment to animal rights and a clean environment. His endeavor echoes Pythagoras, Lao Tzu, and Buddha, three of the world\u2019s first ecological sages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":108698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[401,1041,1178,1022,1677,2078,107,2062,623,874],"class_list":["post-166092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-focus","tag-environment","tag-karl-marx","tag-lao-tzu","tag-marxism","tag-marxist-ecology","tag-pythagoras","tag-religion","tag-shakyamuni-buddha","tag-social-inclusion","tag-socialism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}