Tricycle article on the Dalai Lama and Marx

The popular Buddhist magazine Tricycle has an interesting and informative  on-line article on the Dalai Lama's relationship with Marxism.

The article also has some critical comments, following Zizek, on the potential for Western Buddism to foster an apthetic attitude towards suffering and injutice.

Well worth a read.

For whom the Bell Tolles

In my view, Eckhart Tolle has some useful things to say regarding present moment awareness and so forth. However, when he ventures into the "Consciousness is evolving" realm things get troubling.

The troubling aspects are insightfully described by "David the Blade" at the Guruphiliac blog:

Nietzsche, Buddha, Marx

For all his vanity, grandiosity and offensiveness,  in my view Fiedrich Nietzsche had some profound insights. It may seem incongruous at first glance to suggest common threads between his philosophy, that of his compatriot Karl Marx, and the work of the Buddha.

Ambedkar: Buddha or Karl Marx

A classic article on the Buddha and  Marx was penned by the inspiring Indian political leader, jurist  and writer B.R. Ambedkar.  The essay was in draft form at the time of Ambedkar's death.

Ambedkar's death happened a few months after his conversion to Buddhism,  in which he also converted 500,000 of his supporters from the Dalit ("untouchable") caste. The revival of Buddhism in contemporary India through the Dalit Buddhist movement owes much to this event.

The point is not to interpret the world....

Here are some excerpts from the Pothapadda Sutta from the Pali Canon and Marx's Theses on Feurerbach, which both highlight the primacy of practice over theory and speculation.

Certainly, one is focussed on the inner world and the other on the outer, but essentially the concerns are the same.

Why this blog?

Welcome to the Marxist Buddhism blog.

Here is some background about why I started the blog.