Buddhist Communism

There is no soul to Man. As the great Buddha has taught us, there is no such thing as human nature. Would one be so foolish as to search for a soul, for a being, in a chariot, in a compilation of many parts? Just like a chariot, humankind is composed of parts which create the being.

The physical form (rupa)
Feelings or sensations (vedana)
Ideations (sanna)
Mental formations or dispositions (sankhara)
Consciousness (vinnana)

The Occident teaches that Man is endowed with a certain nature, unchangeable and permanent, which condition man from one generation to another, over the age of time. The religions of the occident, these oppiates of the masses that Marx warned about, that accept god and silly superstitions, who ally themselves with the classes of money to oppress the workers and peasants, stand fervently in the defense of human nature. Man was according to them made in the "image of god" but fell from grace to corruption when Adam and Eve fell to sin. Be it original sin or ancestral fault, according to them Man is born corrupt, imperfect, and this cannot be changed. What is it that this justifies? This serves to justify the imperfections and the cruelty of the capitalist and imperialist system itself! Man is inherently imperfect and cannot be changed, and therefor it will always be the case that man will live in a state of imperfection, greed, avarice, corruption, and exploitation. Man exploits Man - and is that not his very nature? Man cannot be changed, and neither can the system of exploitation.

We know better. The great Buddha, Marx, and Lenin have all shown that there is no such thing as human nature, that Man can be molded and sculpted. Did not the Buddha grow up in a palace, surrounded by luxuries and hidden from the temporal world, until he discovered the true existence of the world and embarked upon meditation and ultimately found the middle way, sitting under the sacred Bodhi tree, and there discovered enlightenment? There is no such thing as human nature, and Man can sculpt himself. Buddhism teaches that there is a path to enlightenment with the four noble truths: that life is suffering and dissatisfaction, that suffering is caused by craving, grasping, desiring, that to bring about the end of craving and desiring is to relieve suffering, and that this can be achieved by following the eightfold path, the Middle Way, between a life of asceticism and the desire of pleasure. Through mental discipline, compassion, ethical conduct, and wisdom, Man can walk the eight fold path.

And it is clear, that there is only one existence which enables man to walk the eight fold path to its completion. The Buddha's genius was to realize the existence of the Middle Way, but the Buddha's great tragedy was that he was unable to discover or to create the conditions enabling all of Man to complete the eight fold path and for Mankind to be liberated.

For on this earth there have been two great geniuses: Buddha and Lenin.

It is the great Lenin who has shown that Man can advance from the stage of capitalism, to the socialist society. In primitive communism, humanity was the closest to enlightenment, as it shared everything and functioned in a functional equivalent to democracy. This transitions to the slave society, wherein craving, grasping, and desiring, becomes entrenched, leads to suffering. Feudalism emerges from this, and as feudalism develops its proto-capitalist ideas and classes, the profit motive is held up as the center of society. And from this emerges capitalism, and its highest stage, imperialism, which brings craving, grasping, and desire to its logical and maximal extent. Throughout all of these, humanity is unable to achieve enlightenment, even if it comes close in primitive communism, because it is fundamentally weighed down by lack of knowledge and the inability to end craving and desire which therein results in the end of suffering. In capitalism, feudalism, and slave empires, profit and greed prevent this. In primitive communism, the reason is even more cruel: the knowledge of the great Buddha, of the need to end desire and greed in order to end all suffering, did not exist. It is only once both of these are combined, the end of the enshrinement of property, greed, desire, and craving in existence, which is the inevitable result of the three previous stages of society, married to the teachings of the noble Buddha, that Man can achieve enlightenment. The Buddha's teachings are the key, and the Socialist society is they keyhole which it unlocks. At last, the two have found each other, after these thousands of years when Humanity has been cursed to its dismal and sad existence.

Only the socialist stage of history, which ends greed when the means of production are taken from the capitalists and put in the hands of the workers, when the workers govern themselves through communes in a dictatorship of the proletariat, and when greed occasioned by money and finance is replaced by the labor vouchers of Marx, provides for the necessary preconditions for human enlightenment to be achieved. In such a society, following the eight fold path and allowed to do so by the means of production there existing, Man's present so-called "nature", will be cast asides, replaced by a selfless, educated, healthy, and socialist Man, committed to the spreading of the Revolution. Over his base instincts, his craving for pleasure and luxury, the hard working, disciplined, and devoted New Buddhist/Vietnamese Man (all true Vietnamese being Buddhist after all) breaks free of the greed and avarice conditioned by capitalist society, to achieve enlightenment in the new socialist reality. The New Buddhist/Vietnamese Woman emerges as a wife and mother who selflessly produces children for the next generation, and who works selflessly to achieve the advancement of socialist society, much like her husband. The family in Socialist society is strengthened and removed of the feudal and capitalist oppression which introduces discord between the sexes, instead forming a union of Socialist citizens. As wives and mothers, the New Buddhist Woman secures the advancement of the socialist society. Along with the school, the teacher, the party, radio; newspapers, it is to her to be the Socialist Mother who contributes to the fifth part of the Human being, mental formations or dispositions (sankhara).

It is the duty of the Party to condition society so that the "Engineers of Man" can help society on the path towards socialism and enlightenment. The two are inextricably linked, for the socialist society requires that the sankhara is sculpted so as to enable the transition of socialism, which is required for the completion of enlightenment and the eight-fold path. As the Great Leader Nguyễn Thiện Ngôn himself notes:

"It is the duty of monks, writers, artists, and teachers to study conscientiously Marxism-Leninism and the teachings of the Buddha, so as to be able to enhance their own ability to understand the material nature of existence and the eight-fold path. By doing so, they can become the engineers of man who will enable man to be educated and progress along the material stages of existence."

Henceforth it must be that writers and artists are to produce material which conforms to the need for the socialist revolution, espousing, demonstrating, and spreading the ideals of Marxism-Leninism-Buddhism. Teachers are to teach, kindly but firmly, to elevate and to change the sankhara of Man. And monks and monasteries will become red priests and temples, as the false and unnatural dichotomy between the Eight Fold Path and the road of the great Lenin is torn down, instead as we embrace the construction of a New Man on this earth, who will lead society from its fallen and corrupt ways to enlightenment through the path of the great Buddha which can at least succeed because of the genius of Lenin. Already, the Vietnamese people shed their greed, avarice, and desire, and embark on the path towards liberation and the abolition of suffering.

Long live the New Man! Long live Vietnam! Long live the great Buddha! Long live Lenin!