Buddhist anarchism
Encyclopedia
Some observers believe certain Buddhist
teachings form a philosophical ground for anarchism
.
Thus, there can be no "perfect State." Any man-made institution is impermanent as well as imperfect, as people and the world change constantly. Further, no material wealth or political power will grant people permanent happiness—unenlightened satisfaction is an illusion that only perpetuates samsara
. Individual liberty, while a worthy goal for anarchists, is nevertheless incomplete, to the extent that it precludes our common humanity, since there is, ultimately, no "self
" that is inherently distinct from the rest of the universe.
The Buddhist anarchist
argues that both the state
and capitalism
generate oppression
and, therefore, suffering. The former, the state, is an institution that frames the desire for power, and the latter, capitalism, the desire for material wealth. Trying to control other human beings, in the view of Buddhist anarchists, will only cause them to suffer, and ultimately causes suffering for those who try to control. Trying to hold on to and accumulate material wealth, likewise, increases suffering for the capitalist and those they do business with. Buddhism can also be viewed as inherently at odds with capitalism when the need to consume goods on an individual level is considered unnecessary and ultimately destructive.
Compassion, for a Buddhist, springs from a fundamental selflessness. Compassion for humanity as a whole is what inspires the Buddhist towards activism; however, most, if not all, political groups tend to go against the Eightfold Path that steers Buddhist thought and action. Thus, anarchism, lacking a rigid ideological structure and dogmas, is seen as easily applicable for Buddhists.
Those who have seen the conjunction of anarchism and Buddhism (in various ways) arguably include Don Paterson
, Uchiyama Gudo
, Edward Carpenter
, Ananda Coomaraswamy
, Lala Hardayal, Liu Shipei, John Cage
, Kenneth Rexroth
, Allen Ginsberg
, Diane di Prima
, David Tibet
, Gary Snyder
, Jackson MacLow, Peter Lamborn Wilson
, John Moore
, Kerry Wendell Thornley, Max Cafard, William Batchelder Greene
, as well as the pro-Situationist Ken Knabb
and others. The anarchist thinker Peter Kropotkin
saw primitive Buddhist communities as embodying the principle of mutual aid
, and Matthew Turner noted that some Buddhist monks were involved in the anarchist movement in Japan
in the early part of the 20th century.
(明菴栄西), the founder of Rinzai school
in Japan held quite a different view as regards the state (which is otherwise universally abhorred by all forms of anarchists) as shown in Ko-zen-go-koku-ron (The Protection of the State by the Propagation of Zen). This, however, has not prevented the promotion of Zen Anarchism as "whatever you make it" or of Zen Anarchists as "scholar warriors" with little reference to Zen Buddhism itself, but rather promoting a literary and psychological view rooted in Japanese militaristic
tradition. Parts of Japanese anarchism embraced this militarism and became ultra-nationalists
understood the realisation of ancient Aryan culture as anarchism, which he also saw as the goal of Buddhism. A prominent Sanskrit
scholar influenced by Swami Dayananda Saraswati
(founder of Arya Samaj
), he wished to create a movement which he saw as replicating a return to ancient vedic culture. He was active in the Industrial Workers of the World
in San Francisco and was a central figure in the Ghadar
movement which attempted to overthrow the British
in India
by reconciling Western concepts of social revolution - particularly those stemming from Mikhail Bakunin
- with Buddhism.
The relationship between Buddhism and Hinduism remains a controversial issue. (See Gautama Buddha in Hinduism and Buddhadharma and Hinduism). The controversy includes the usage of the term "Aryan", which does not necessarily carry racial connotations in Buddhism (where it more often means "noble
" - see also aristocracy
which comes from the same Aryan
root).
saw the rise of a strand of Buddhist anarchism emerging from the Beat
movement. Gary Snyder
and Diane di Prima
were a product of this. Snyder was the inspiration for the character Japhy Rider in Jack Kerouac
's novel The Dharma Bums
(1958). Snyder spent considerable time in Japan studying Zen Buddhism, and in 1961 published Buddhist Anarchism where he described the connection he saw between these two concepts originating in different parts of the world: "The mercy
of the West
has been social revolution
; the mercy of the East
has been individual insight into the basic self/void." He advocated "using such means as civil disobedience
, outspoken criticism, protest, pacifism
, voluntary poverty and even gentle violence" and defended "the right of individuals to smoke ganja
, eat peyote
, be polygymous
, polyandrous or homosexual" which he saw as being banned by "the Judaeo-Capitalist-Christian-Marxist West".
Kerouac himself was fairly conservative and eventually lapsed back into Catholicism. But the ethos he embodied in The Dharma Bums had a definite anarchist flavor of living freely and unconventionally; riding freight trains, getting in touch with nature, living simply, and experimenting with sexuality. The book, along with his other novels, went on to inspire generations of young people and anarchist culture in general to live beyond the limits of the domain of mainstream, capitalistic culture. Kerouac's vision of the dharma bum as a free-spirited "bhikku" was influenced by the legendary crazy, wild monks in Zen Buddhism beginning with Bodhidharma
himself. This kind of zen "madness" revered by Kerouac, though without any clear anarchist ideology accompanying it, is something that disrupts the normal flow of the state of things and the normal patterns of people's thought through spontaneous, eccentric, and bizarre behavior, which has the potential to undermine all of the consolidations of a state-ruled society, even if just in individual consciousnesses.
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
teachings form a philosophical ground for anarchism
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
.
Inferences drawn from the Three Universal Truths
Buddhism is rooted in three fundamental truths of the universe, the dharma seals, viz.:- Everything is in a constant state of change, nothing is permanent. (anicca)
- That "suffering" exists everywhere in SamsaraSamsarathumb|right|200px|Traditional Tibetan painting or [[Thanka]] showing the [[wheel of life]] and realms of saṃsāraSaṅsāra or Saṃsāra , , literally meaning "continuous flow", is the cycle of birth, life, death, rebirth or reincarnation within Hinduism, Buddhism, Bön, Jainism, Sikhism, and other...
. (dukkhaDukkhaDukkha is a Pali term roughly corresponding to a number of terms in English including suffering, pain, discontent, unsatisfactoriness, unhappiness, sorrow, affliction, social alienation, anxiety,...
) - That everything is devoid of a "self." (anattaAnattaIn Buddhism, anattā or anātman refers to the notion of "not-self." In the early texts, the Buddha commonly uses the word in the context of teaching that all things perceived by the senses are not really "I" or "mine," and for this reason one should not cling to them.In the same vein, the Pali...
)
Thus, there can be no "perfect State." Any man-made institution is impermanent as well as imperfect, as people and the world change constantly. Further, no material wealth or political power will grant people permanent happiness—unenlightened satisfaction is an illusion that only perpetuates samsara
Samsara
thumb|right|200px|Traditional Tibetan painting or [[Thanka]] showing the [[wheel of life]] and realms of saṃsāraSaṅsāra or Saṃsāra , , literally meaning "continuous flow", is the cycle of birth, life, death, rebirth or reincarnation within Hinduism, Buddhism, Bön, Jainism, Sikhism, and other...
. Individual liberty, while a worthy goal for anarchists, is nevertheless incomplete, to the extent that it precludes our common humanity, since there is, ultimately, no "self
Self (philosophy)
The philosophy of self defines the essential qualities that make one person distinct from all others. There have been numerous approaches to defining these qualities. The self is the idea of a unified being which is the source of consciousness. Moreover, this self is the agent responsible for the...
" that is inherently distinct from the rest of the universe.
The Buddhist anarchist
Social anarchism
Social anarchism is a term originally used in 1971 by Giovanni Baldelli as the title of his book where he discusses the organization of an ethical society from an anarchist point of view...
argues that both the state
State (polity)
A state is an organized political community, living under a government. States may be sovereign and may enjoy a monopoly on the legal initiation of force and are not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state. Many states are federated states which participate in a federal union...
and capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
generate oppression
Oppression
Oppression is the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner. It can also be defined as an act or instance of oppressing, the state of being oppressed, and the feeling of being heavily burdened, mentally or physically, by troubles, adverse conditions, and...
and, therefore, suffering. The former, the state, is an institution that frames the desire for power, and the latter, capitalism, the desire for material wealth. Trying to control other human beings, in the view of Buddhist anarchists, will only cause them to suffer, and ultimately causes suffering for those who try to control. Trying to hold on to and accumulate material wealth, likewise, increases suffering for the capitalist and those they do business with. Buddhism can also be viewed as inherently at odds with capitalism when the need to consume goods on an individual level is considered unnecessary and ultimately destructive.
Compassion, for a Buddhist, springs from a fundamental selflessness. Compassion for humanity as a whole is what inspires the Buddhist towards activism; however, most, if not all, political groups tend to go against the Eightfold Path that steers Buddhist thought and action. Thus, anarchism, lacking a rigid ideological structure and dogmas, is seen as easily applicable for Buddhists.
Those who have seen the conjunction of anarchism and Buddhism (in various ways) arguably include Don Paterson
Don Paterson
Don Paterson, OBE, FRSL is a Scottish poet, writer and musician.-Background:Paterson was born in Dundee. He won an Eric Gregory Award in 1990 and his poem A Private Bottling won the Arvon Foundation International Poetry Competition in 1993. He was included on the list of 20 poets chosen for the...
, Uchiyama Gudo
Uchiyama Gudo
was a Sōtō Zen Buddhist priest and anarcho-socialist activist executed in the High Treason Incident. He was one of few Buddhist leaders who spoke out against the Meiji government in its imperialist projects. Gudō was an outspoken advocate for redistributive land reform, overturning the Meiji...
, Edward Carpenter
Edward Carpenter
Edward Carpenter was an English socialist poet, socialist philosopher, anthologist, and early gay activist....
, Ananda Coomaraswamy
Ananda Coomaraswamy
Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy was a Ceylonese philosopher and metaphysician, as well as a pioneering historian and philosopher of Indian art, particularly art history and symbolism, and an early interpreter of Indian culture to the West...
, Lala Hardayal, Liu Shipei, John Cage
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...
, Kenneth Rexroth
Kenneth Rexroth
Kenneth Rexroth was an American poet, translator and critical essayist. He is regarded as a central figure in the San Francisco Renaissance, and paved the groundwork for the movement...
, Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
, Diane di Prima
Diane di Prima
Diane Di Prima is an American poet.-Early life:Di Prima was born in Brooklyn. She attended Hunter College High School and Swarthmore College before dropping out to be a poet in Manhattan...
, David Tibet
David Tibet
David Tibet is a British poet and artist who founded the music group Current 93, of which he is the only full-time member. He had earlier collaborated with Psychic TV and 23 Skidoo...
, Gary Snyder
Gary Snyder
Gary Snyder is an American poet , as well as an essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist . Snyder is a winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry...
, Jackson MacLow, Peter Lamborn Wilson
Peter Lamborn Wilson
Peter Lamborn Wilson , is an American political writer, essayist, and poet, known for first proposing the concept of the Temporary Autonomous Zone , based, in part, on a historical review of pirate utopias...
, John Moore
John Moore (anarchist)
John Moore was a British anarchist author, teacher and organiser. He died of a heart attack after collapsing on his way to work as a creative writing lecturer at the University of Luton...
, Kerry Wendell Thornley, Max Cafard, William Batchelder Greene
William Batchelder Greene
William Batchelder Greene was a 19th century individualist anarchist, Unitarian minister, soldier and promotor of free banking in the United States.-Biography:...
, as well as the pro-Situationist Ken Knabb
Ken Knabb
Ken Knabb is an American writer, translator, and theorist, best known for his translations of Guy Debord and the Situationist International.-Early life:...
and others. The anarchist thinker Peter Kropotkin
Peter Kropotkin
Prince Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin was a Russian zoologist, evolutionary theorist, philosopher, economist, geographer, author and one of the world's foremost anarcho-communists. Kropotkin advocated a communist society free from central government and based on voluntary associations between...
saw primitive Buddhist communities as embodying the principle of mutual aid
Mutual aid (politics)
Mutual aid is a term in organization theory used to signify a voluntary reciprocal exchange of resources and services for mutual benefit. Mutual aid is arguably as ancient as human culture; an intrinsic part of the small, communal societies universal to humanity's ancient past...
, and Matthew Turner noted that some Buddhist monks were involved in the anarchist movement in Japan
Anarchism in Japan
Anarchism was an influential movement in Japan in the 19th and 20th centuries. The anarchist movement was influenced by World War I and World War II, in which Japan played a major role. The anarchist movement in Japan can be divided into three phases: from 1906–1911, from 1912–1936 and from...
in the early part of the 20th century.
Differing interpretations
EisaiEisai
Myōan Eisai was a Japanese Buddhist priest, credited with bringing the Rinzai school of Zen Buddhism and green tea from China to Japan. He is often known simply as Eisai Zenji , literally "Zen master Eisai"....
(明菴栄西), the founder of Rinzai school
Rinzai school
The Rinzai school is , one of three sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism.Rinzai is the Japanese line of the Chinese Linji school, which was founded during the Tang Dynasty by Linji Yixuan...
in Japan held quite a different view as regards the state (which is otherwise universally abhorred by all forms of anarchists) as shown in Ko-zen-go-koku-ron (The Protection of the State by the Propagation of Zen). This, however, has not prevented the promotion of Zen Anarchism as "whatever you make it" or of Zen Anarchists as "scholar warriors" with little reference to Zen Buddhism itself, but rather promoting a literary and psychological view rooted in Japanese militaristic
Militarism
Militarism is defined as: the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests....
tradition. Parts of Japanese anarchism embraced this militarism and became ultra-nationalists
Anarchism and Hindu fundamentalism
The Indian anarchist Har DayalHar Dayal
Lala Har Dayal was a Indian nationalist revolutionary who founded the Ghadar Party in America. He was a polymath who turned down a career in the Indian Civil Service...
understood the realisation of ancient Aryan culture as anarchism, which he also saw as the goal of Buddhism. A prominent Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
scholar influenced by Swami Dayananda Saraswati
Swami Dayananda Saraswati
Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati was an important Hindu religious scholar, reformer, and founder of the Arya Samaj, a Hindu reform movement. He was the first to give the call for Swarajya – "India for Indians" – in 1876, later taken up by Lokmanya Tilak...
(founder of Arya Samaj
Arya Samaj
Arya Samaj is a Hindu reform movement founded by Swami Dayananda on 10 April 1875. He was a sannyasi who believed in the infallible authority of the Vedas. Dayananda emphasized the ideals of brahmacharya...
), he wished to create a movement which he saw as replicating a return to ancient vedic culture. He was active in the Industrial Workers of the World
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
in San Francisco and was a central figure in the Ghadar
Ghadar Party
The Ghadar Party was an organization founded by Punjabi Indians, in the United States and Canada with the aim to liberate India from British rule...
movement which attempted to overthrow the British
British Raj
British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...
in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
by reconciling Western concepts of social revolution - particularly those stemming from Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin was a well-known Russian revolutionary and theorist of collectivist anarchism. He has also often been called the father of anarchist theory in general. Bakunin grew up near Moscow, where he moved to study philosophy and began to read the French Encyclopedists,...
- with Buddhism.
The relationship between Buddhism and Hinduism remains a controversial issue. (See Gautama Buddha in Hinduism and Buddhadharma and Hinduism). The controversy includes the usage of the term "Aryan", which does not necessarily carry racial connotations in Buddhism (where it more often means "noble
Nobility
Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...
" - see also aristocracy
Aristocracy
Aristocracy , is a form of government in which a few elite citizens rule. The term derives from the Greek aristokratia, meaning "rule of the best". In origin in Ancient Greece, it was conceived of as rule by the best qualified citizens, and contrasted with monarchy...
which comes from the same Aryan
Aryan
Aryan is an English language loanword derived from Sanskrit ārya and denoting variously*In scholarly usage:**Indo-Iranian languages *in dated usage:**the Indo-European languages more generally and their speakers...
root).
"Dharma Bums"
In the 1950s, CaliforniaCalifornia
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
saw the rise of a strand of Buddhist anarchism emerging from the Beat
Beat generation
The Beat Generation refers to a group of American post-WWII writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired...
movement. Gary Snyder
Gary Snyder
Gary Snyder is an American poet , as well as an essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist . Snyder is a winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry...
and Diane di Prima
Diane di Prima
Diane Di Prima is an American poet.-Early life:Di Prima was born in Brooklyn. She attended Hunter College High School and Swarthmore College before dropping out to be a poet in Manhattan...
were a product of this. Snyder was the inspiration for the character Japhy Rider in Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...
's novel The Dharma Bums
The Dharma Bums
The Dharma Bums is a 1958 novel by Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac. The semi-fictional accounts in the novel are based upon events that occurred years after the events of On the Road...
(1958). Snyder spent considerable time in Japan studying Zen Buddhism, and in 1961 published Buddhist Anarchism where he described the connection he saw between these two concepts originating in different parts of the world: "The mercy
Mercy
Mercy is broad term that refers to benevolence, forgiveness and kindness in a variety of ethical, religious, social and legal contexts.The concept of a "Merciful God" appears in various religions from Christianity to...
of the West
West
West is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.West is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points. It is the opposite of east and is perpendicular to north and south.By convention, the left side of a map is west....
has been social revolution
Social revolution
The term social revolution may have different connotations depending on the speaker.In the Trotskyist movement, the term "social revolution" refers to an upheaval in which existing property relations are smashed...
; the mercy of the East
East
East is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.East is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points. It is the opposite of west and is perpendicular to north and south.By convention, the right side of a map is east....
has been individual insight into the basic self/void." He advocated "using such means as civil disobedience
Civil disobedience
Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is commonly, though not always, defined as being nonviolent resistance. It is one form of civil resistance...
, outspoken criticism, protest, pacifism
Pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
, voluntary poverty and even gentle violence" and defended "the right of individuals to smoke ganja
Ganja
Ganja is Azerbaijan's second-largest city with a population of around 313,300. It was named Yelizavetpol in the Russian Empire period. The city regained its original name—Ganja—from 1920–1935 during the first part of its incorporation into the Soviet Union. However, its name was changed again and...
, eat peyote
Peyote
Lophophora williamsii , better known by its common name Peyote , is a small, spineless cactus with psychoactive alkaloids, particularly mescaline.It is native to southwestern Texas and Mexico...
, be polygymous
Polygamy
Polygamy is a marriage which includes more than two partners...
, polyandrous or homosexual" which he saw as being banned by "the Judaeo-Capitalist-Christian-Marxist West".
Kerouac himself was fairly conservative and eventually lapsed back into Catholicism. But the ethos he embodied in The Dharma Bums had a definite anarchist flavor of living freely and unconventionally; riding freight trains, getting in touch with nature, living simply, and experimenting with sexuality. The book, along with his other novels, went on to inspire generations of young people and anarchist culture in general to live beyond the limits of the domain of mainstream, capitalistic culture. Kerouac's vision of the dharma bum as a free-spirited "bhikku" was influenced by the legendary crazy, wild monks in Zen Buddhism beginning with Bodhidharma
Bodhidharma
Bodhidharma was a Buddhist monk who lived during the 5th/6th century AD. He is traditionally credited as the transmitter of Ch'an to China, and regarded as the first Chinese patriarch...
himself. This kind of zen "madness" revered by Kerouac, though without any clear anarchist ideology accompanying it, is something that disrupts the normal flow of the state of things and the normal patterns of people's thought through spontaneous, eccentric, and bizarre behavior, which has the potential to undermine all of the consolidations of a state-ruled society, even if just in individual consciousnesses.
See also
- Anarchism and religionAnarchism and religionAnarchists have traditionally been skeptical of and opposed to organized religion. Nevertheless some anarchists provided religious interpretations and approaches to anarchism.-Anarchist clashes with religion:...
- Christian anarchismChristian anarchismChristian anarchism is a movement in political theology that combines anarchism and Christianity. It is the belief that there is only one source of authority to which Christians are ultimately answerable, the authority of God as embodied in the teachings of Jesus...
- DiscordianismDiscordianismDiscordianism is a religion based on the worship of Eris , the Greco-Roman goddess of strife. It was founded circa 1958–1959 after the publication of its holy book the Principia Discordia, written by Malaclypse the Younger and Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst after a series of shared hallucinations at a...
External links
- Buddhist Anarchism essay by Gary SnyderGary SnyderGary Snyder is an American poet , as well as an essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist . Snyder is a winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry...
- Zen and the Art of Divebombing
- Zenarchy by Kerry Thornley
- Excerpt from Robert Aiken Roshi talk on Buddhist Anarchism on Buddhist Peace FellowshipBuddhist Peace FellowshipThe Buddhist Peace Fellowship is a nonsectarian international network of engaged Buddhists participating in various forms of nonviolent social activism and environmentalism with chapters all over the world...
website - Zen Anarchy by Max Cafard
- Anarchism and Buddhism episode by Voice of Freedom
- The Zenarchist's Cookbook