By Hussain Ahmed
It amuses me how religious clerics come up with theories that they claim are the panacea to save humanity, whereas in reality they are just attempts at face saving religion. Ajarn Buddhadasa is not the first one to hijack and prostitute Marxism by giving it a more religiously inclined outlook. "Dhammic Socialism" and "Liberation Theology", although markedly different in their tenets, are both localized versions of socio-political orders that follow a stark pattern of plagiarizing Marxism, and attacking the very foundations of historical dialectical materialism. Let us critically analyze the article on "Dhammic Socialism" sent by Felix.
The article sets out by defining the term "Dhammic" and the Buddhist understanding of the term "Socialism", and subsequently what is meant by "Dhammic Socialism". Dhammic is defined as the following:
To be Dhammic is to be non-violent, unselfish, compassionate, mindful, and cool. Ajarn Buddhadasa summarized it in two words "peaceful" and "useful."
Socialism, according to Buddhist traditions, is understood as:
Sangkom-niyom, the Thai word for Socialism, literally means "preference for society," or "favoring society" rather than favoring the individual (that is, individualism).
Dhammic Socialism finds its roots embedded in Nature and in what it claims to be selflessness and morality in one's ethics and values, derived from religious and spiritual pleasure. Marxism explains history in terms of dialectical materialism and class struggles.
While Dhamma is purely a Buddhist construct, Scientific Socialism is purely an inspiration from Marxist traditions. Socialism has been defined by August Bebel in "Die Frau und der Sozialismus", put into perspective by Engels in 'Socialism: Utopian and Scientific', thoroughly explained by Marx and Engels in the Communist Manifesto, and followed up by a number of other great theoreticians in their various works. Consider the following:
"The organization of society in such a manner that any individual, man or woman, finds at birth equal means for the development of their respective faculties and the utilization of their labor. The organization of society in such a manner that the exploitation by one person of the labor of his neighbor would be impossible, and where everyone will be allowed to enjoy the social wealth only to the extent of their contribution to the production of that wealth."
~ August Bebel
(Die Frau und der Sozialismus)
Perhaps the primary reason why the above understanding of Socialism has been contested by large segments of the bourgeoisie, religious clerics and other reactionaries is because it seeks to disturb the very foundations of the status quo that exists. The materialistic conception of history obviously shatters the premises upon which religions lie. Dhammic Socialism is another one of those theories that pursues the active vilification of Marxism, and in particular materialism. Similar to the propaganda the Muslim mullahs (clerics) instigated from mosques and maddrassas (Islamic schools) in Pakistan against communism, Buddhist propaganda against materialism emanated in a Buddhist monastery called Suan Mokkh in Southern Thailand. Marx would have been proud to have seen his famous phrase "Religion is the opium of the masses" manifest itself so truly in Suan Mokkh. Suan Mokkh is literally translated as the "Garden of Liberation", and is most popular as an international Buddhist retreat. Set in aloof and serene settings, Suan Mokkh aims to rid the individual from the "tyranny of the ego" and practice Dhamma in everything the individual practices. The setting provides a perfect venue to appease the participants and brainwash them in the atmosphere that has been created away from the cosmopolitan centers of Thailand. The religious lectures, while concentrating on Buddhist teachings and values, are also set out to try and ideologically attack materialism. The overall paradigm of operations at Suan Mokkh reflects the fact that the teachings at Suan Mokkh seek to unite all religious majority and minority groups against materialism. This policy is known as "Three Resolutions" at Suan Mokkh. The three resolutions are:
To help everyone penetrate to the heart of their own religion;
To create mutual good understanding among all religions;
To work together to drag the world out from materialism.
Ajarn Buddhadasa, a Buddhist priest in Suan Mokkh, and the founder of Dhammic Socialism sought to form an international Dharma hermitage, whose primary purpose would be to "bring together spiritual people from all of Thailand's religions to further mutual good understanding and cooperation against rampant materialism and moral decay".
Clearly, there is a clash of interests here. Why does Dhammic Socialism try and focus on negating materialism? The answer is simply put by Marx and Engels in the Communist Manifesto: "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles". Dharmmic Socialism is a product ofspecific objective conditions of Thailand: i.e. the response of the olf feudal classes to the rise of Scientific Socialism.The objective conditions of Thailand necessitated the formulation of Dhammic Socialism. Historically, Buddhism in Thailand has been embroiled in excessive state control, the failure of rural development, modernization and consumerism "all factors that have strangled Buddhism and its control over citizens. Added to that is extensive patriarchy within Buddhism that has played a crucial role in the retrogressive nature of Buddhism in Thailand. Naturally, religious clerics do not want to let go off their stranglehold over masses. When Communism was presenting itself as a viable alternative to the prevailing economic order, especially in the decade of the 1970s, Dhammic Socialism was conceived in order to firstly discredit materialism, and secondly to reinvigorate Buddhism in Thailand.
Moreover, Dhammic Socialism sought to maintain the status quo by promising the aristocracy, feudals and bourgeoisie that their existing position in society would be unharmed. It claimed that Socialism can go wrong, if not coupled with Dhamma, as Dhamma would add to it the virtues of honesty, morality and non-violence. Dhammic Socialism in essence was diametrically opposed to Scientific Socialism Conjured during the peak of the Cold War, Dhammic Socialism utilized Cold War anti-Communist card to engender a fear in the aristocracy, feudals and bourgeoisie. Dhammic Socialism rather provoked an argument of peaceful co-existence between various class groups, stating that interdependence was imperative to build a harmonious society.
And yet the Karma that the Buddhists preach is ripe with social and cultural retrogression, often culminating in institutionalized violence against the minorities and the marginalized. Dhammic Socialism does not uphold parity with respect to gender rights. Patriarchy and chauvinism are the products of the hold male monks want to have over society in general. Even in this day and age, birth in female form is often seen as a result of bad karma, hence severely devaluing the social status of women. Gender and domestic violence are the direct product of the perception of a woman's inferior karma, which according to Buddhist norms, they must endure with patience.
The above assertions (the connection between Buddhism and patriarchy) is well documented in various pieces of work. I will reproduce here the work of Ouyporn Khuankaew from an article called "Feminism and Buddhism: A Reflection through Personal Life & Working Experience"
We do not have ordination for women in Thailand. Since Thai nuns have not been recognized legally or socially as ordained women, their status is the lowest of all women, because they do not belong to any category of women, either within the lay or monastic community.
The patriarchy of Thai Buddhism also contributes to prostitution…
In Thai culture, it is a tradition for all Thai men to be ordained, usually before they get married, in order to pay gratitude to their parents (especially their mother since she herself cannot be ordained). By having a son ordained, it is believed that the parents can cling to the yellow robe of their son and reach heaven after their death. This ordination is usually temporary, in which men are allowed to leave their jobs with pay for three months in order to fulfill their duty to be monks. It is also believed that monkhood for three months will purify their minds so that they will be good family leaders once they are married.
Whereas rural boys have access to education and resources through the monkhood, girls do not have the same opportunity because there is no ordination for women. To pay gratitude to parents, in particular, to provide economic security, they have very few choices - to become a maid, a factory worker or a prostitute. Because boys repay gratitude to their parents by being ordained in their youth, they fulfill their duty early in life. A girl's way to repay gratitude to her parents is usually to take care of them when they are old.
Because rural development programs in the past thirty years have failed to improve the lives of the farmers, and in fact have driven them into more debt and suffering, girls often have no way to access resources to help take care of the family. In rural areas such as my community, when the signs of rural development failure came to light, girls such as my sisters and her friends were the first group who left our village with the hope of earning money to help alleviate the suffering of the family. The first group of young women who left my village went to work as house maids, and a few of them ended up in brothels as a result of sexual abuse from the male members of the households in which they were employed.
The North has become famous for prostitution. In the past ten years, girls as young as eight have been sold by parents and the money used to pay debts, to send her brothers to school, to build a new modern house or to buy a pickup truck for her family. This epidemic has spread to the Northeast where the suffering hits the rural poor the hardest. Pattaya, a famous beach and resort town two hours southeast of Bangkok, is full of girls from the Northeast, many earning their living as sex workers. In the past ten years, young Thai women have also gone overseas to be prostitutes despite the risk of their own lives because the financial return is higher than at home. The number of prostitutes in Thailand is almost equal to the number of monks. If young, rural girls could be given the same opportunity as the boys to enter a monastic life, they would have access to education and at the same time be able to repay spiritual gratitude to their parents. These opportunities could provide girls and women with proper monastic education and spiritual guidance so they can become important spiritual guides for the rural folks, particularly other women and girls. Due to male dominance within Thai Buddhism, however, girls and women have been deprived of such an opportunity. Consequently, they have been victims of different forms of violence against girls and women, such as domestic violence, rape and forced prostitution.
Most monks today do not enter monkhood based upon the faith of wanting to learn and practice the Buddha's teachings in order to get rid of their own suffering and help ease the suffering of other sentient beings (especially the desire to be a spiritual guide in return for all of the support that the people give them). It is very common in rural areas, particularly in the North, to see monks disrobe after years of comfortable living while accumulating material resources and knowledge at the expense of community and monastic resources, and to then go on to get married almost immediately. This is the main reason why Buddhism, for many years now, has failed to function in its traditional role as the source of spiritual guidance for the Thai population.
Nowadays in the North, the rural villagers tolerate monks who break their discipline (vinaya) by drinking or having illicit sex, because they need a monk to perform Buddhist ceremonies such as funerals and the temple's religious events. Those who are devoted to real Buddhism have to go visit the Northeastern forest monks who mostly live in caves or in an isolated temple situated near the forest.
"The greatest challenge to my spiritual practice is almost every time that I encounter a situation to work with high status monks or highly educated or experienced men who have suffered from patriarchal systems. Particularly for monks, to do an experiential activity makes them feel uncomfortable, especially when they have to do it with women. Expressing feelings or hearing women talk about their feelings makes them uncomfortable. For them, showing feelings makes it seem that they are not good monks because they are still effected by worldly defilement. As an ordained person, they are supposed to maintain equanimity to whatever happens around them. One time during a workshop in Cambodia, a few monks got up and left the session when one of the women started crying while talking about her suffering during the Pol Pot regime. One monk scolded her to stop crying.
Another challenge of working with monks and male Buddhist scholars is that they think they are the authorities to speak about Buddhism because they know more that everybody else. One time a well educated monk who is known for his preaching refused to join in a half an hour gender workshop. But after the activity was done, he wanted to preach to the group about Buddhism saying that in Nirvana, the state of enlightenment, there is no gender so we do not need to talk about gender issues.
Moreover, economic inequality and political oppression are also justified with the explanation of karma. Economic/Income Disparity and prevailing material conditions of one are believed to be the just results of previous bad karma, regardless of their present moral character or behavior. The practice of generosity (dana) is translated as providing the monks with material goods. Hence, while the richer are supposedly better Buddhists by spending more on religion, and ensuring an even greater life in Nirvana, the poor are left to rue their poverty, that they believe will come back and haunt them in their next lives. While they probably aspire to resist the oppression of the system as a whole, karma again impedes their progress as defying oppressive power is seen to involve anger and conflict, thereby engendering bad karma. And hence, the status quo does not get affected, the rich do not fear revolution, the poor fall in the dual chasm of religion and capitalism. And life goes on as normal.
Communism not only offers a scientific understanding of how and why the poor are oppressed, a solution to their conundrum, and taking society on a progressive route, free of retrogressive, sexist and antiquated cultures and customs, it also helps to explain the material conditions that give rise to philosophies such as Dhammic Socialism.
It is my understanding that the views of Dhammic Socialism are similar to the ideas of Feudal Socialism that arose in Europe albeit in the specific material context of Thailand. That is why I leave the reader with the brilliant expose of Feudal Socialism by Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels in the Communist Manifesto.
Owing to their historical position, it became the vocation of the aristocracies of France and England to write pamphlets against modern bourgeois society. In the French Revolution of July 1830, and in the English reform agitation, these aristocracies again succumbed to the hateful upstart. Thenceforth, a serious political struggle was altogether out of the question. A literary battle alone remained possible. But even in the domain of literature, the old cries of the restoration period had become impossible
In order to arouse sympathy, the aristocracy was obliged to lose sight, apparently, of its own interests, and to formulate its indictment against the bourgeoisie in the interest of the exploited working class alone. Thus, the aristocracy took their revenge by singing lampoons on their new masters and whispering in his ears sinister prophesies of coming catastrophe.
In this way arose feudal socialism: half lamentation, half lampoon; half an echo of the past, half menace of the future; at times, by its bitter, witty and incisive criticism, striking the bourgeoisie to the very heart's core, but always ludicrous in its effect, through total incapacity to comprehend the march of modern history.
The aristocracy, in order to rally the people to them, waved the proletarian alms-bag in front for a banner. But the people, so often as it joined them, saw on their hindquarters the old feudal coats of arms, and deserted with loud and irreverent laughter.
One section of the French Legitimists and "Young England" exhibited this spectacle:
In pointing out that their mode of exploitation was different to that of the bourgeoisie, the feudalists forget that they exploited under circumstances and conditions that were quite different and that are now antiquated. In showing that, under their rule, the modern proletariat never existed, they forget that the modern bourgeoisie is the necessary offspring of their own form of society.
For the rest, so little do they conceal the reactionary character of their criticism that their chief accusation against the bourgeois amounts to this: that under the bourgeois regime a class is being developed which is destined to cut up, root and branch, the old order of society.
What they upbraid the bourgeoisie with is not so much that it creates a proletariat as that it creates a revolutionary proletariat.
In political practice, therefore, they join in all corrective measures against the working class; and in ordinary life, despite their high-falutin phrases, they stoop to pick up the golden apples dropped from the tree of industry, and to barter truth, love, and honour, for traffic in wool, beetroot-sugar, and potato spirits.
As the parson has ever gone hand in hand with the landlord, so has clerical socialism with feudal socialism.
Nothing is easier than to give Christian asceticism a socialist tinge. Has not Christianity declaimed against private property, against marriage, against the state? Has it not preached in the place of these, charity and poverty, celibacy and mortification of the flesh, monastic life and Mother Church? Christian socialism is but the holy water with which the priest consecrates the heart-burnings of the aristocrat.
~ Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels
(The Communist Manifesto: Chapter 3)
