Thursday, May 24, 2012

Karl Marx and modern physiologists may have been influenced by Buddha’s preaching on consciousness.


Karl Marx and modern physiologists may have been influenced by Buddha’s preaching on consciousness. Obviously physiological views on consciousness were not available to the Buddha at the time He preached about consciousness 2500 years ago, whereas some knowledge of the nervous system would have been available to Marx and moreover the Buddha’s dharma was available to him. Further there is evidence that he was influenced by Buddhism particularly in the fundamental idea of socialism ( vide Heinz Bechert 1966 ). U Ba Swe a Burmese Buddhist leader held that if capitalism exists it is because man has forgotten the teachings of the Buddha. Laksmi Narasu, an Indian Buddhist leader maintained that the Buddha was anti capitalist. U Nu an eminent Burmese Buddhist statesman said that socialism is a corollary of the social and ethical principles of the Buddha and approved the law nationalizing landholdings. Our own Rev. Yakkaduwe Pragnasara Thera said that Buddhists do not need any other dogma to achieve socialism. It is even said that Marxism is a page extracted from the book of Buddhism but misinterpreted! Therefore perhaps Karl Marx cannot claim originality in either socialism or the theory of consciousness and may have learnt the fundamentals of both from Buddhism.
It is not surprising that the modern physiological view of consciousness agrees to some degree with that of the Lord Buddha. It is probable that the modern physiologists working on consciousness are influenced by Buddhism, as are many modern physicists and other scientists. (If they are not they cannot be good scientists. This is not to say that Buddhism is scientific.) However just as the Buddha’s teachings on socialism was much deeper than that of Marxism and also thorough in that it included the means of controlling greed which is the driving force of capitalism, Buddha’s analysis of consciousness is profound and far reaching compared to any other theory on consciousness. It is part and parcel of the Law of Dependent Origination (Pattichcha Samuppadaya) which attempts to unravel the mystery of the human predicament; birth and suffering. Therefore to take consciousness out of " Pattichcha Samuppadaya" for the purpose of analyzing it, is to take it out of context and is meaningless. The Buddhist concept of consciousness therefore cannot be explained in physiological terms. The physiologist’s method which breaks up a phenomenon into its components and consider each as another whole, cannot be expected to comprehend the interconnected and interdependent nature of consciousness and its related phenomena such as "avidya" "sankara" etc. without which there is no comprehension of consciousness.
"Pattichcha Samuppadaya" has twelve components and these have been analyzed basically in two modes. One is on the basis of past, present and future lives. The other is on the basis of "vedana" , "karma" and "dukka". Yet another method of analysis is on the basis of "Dhamma" theory which is an Abhidammic innovation that explores the empiric individuality and its relation to the external world. This method has five modes of analysis and consciousness appears in four of these at different levels of further analysis. What is of significance is that Buddhism does not rely on analysis alone but resorts to two complementary methods ; "bedha" (analysis) and "sangaha" (synthesis). What all of the above could perhaps mean is that these concepts (what appear to be concepts to us) cannot be comprehended by any other means but by the means adopted by Lord Buddha.

No comments:

Post a Comment