Ambedkar on Religion, Buddhism and Marxism

Website Editor’s Note : The following article was written by our member Tanvi Patel, last year, as part of her project work at the JNU, where she was doing her post graduate course. We are reproducing it without any changes, and would welcome comments and posts from readers. In particular we would like to get the reactions from our friends in the Buddhist community of the followers of Dr. Ambedkar.

Ambedkar on Religion, Buddhism and Marxism

By Tanvi Patel, November 2006

• Why Convert?

In 1935 Ambedkar announced, ‘Although I have been born a Hindu, I will not die a Hindu.’ And it culminated in October 1956 in the city of Nagpur where he and 400,000 followers took the ‘three refuges’ of traditional Buddhism and an additional 22 vows.

Conversion to Buddhism became one of the aspects of dalit negation of the appropriation by the hegemonic forces of Brahmanism. Through conversion dalits sought to counteract the imposed external definitions and have strived to assert their humanity as both the autonomous makers of their identity and contributors to the making of Indian society. Conversion has been a kind of social rebirth.

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Forging Unintelligence

By：Lin Ai We

June 13th, 2007

The world as we have come to know it, is actually a purposely ignorant manner of intelligence. Now you may ask how intelligence can actually be ignorance, and so I will explain it for you in detail.

We know intelligence to be of a higher level of understanding than what is perceived as common sense, common knowledge. It is the knowledge the common person is not so much aware of. It can be in forms of technology, psychology, science, medicine, mathematics, you get the point. But we must look at what we consider intelligence. Based on the list of the five above, we can relatively say that the common person views them as an intelligent focus of the mind.

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SHEN YI ZHI DAO (The Way of Spiritual Intention)

1

Still as we are,
gaining the light of this world,
we must be still.

Nature is much,
but claims none.

Follow these ways and you are enlightened.

Heaven is present
Yet does not express to everyone.

Follow this,
and you will know yourself.

Breath is everlasting
and gives to all within and without.

Follow this,
and you are immortal.

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Clearing the Misconceptions By: Yun Xing (Lin Ai Wei)

Website Editor’s Note: I visited the website that was given as the author’s URI: www.freewebs.com/jingxinyuan/ You may like to take a look too. According to the web-site “Jing Xin Yuan is a school of Buddhist cultivation. We teach methods which are resonant with the minds of our students. Jing Xin Yuan is unique in that we do not take one place as our main center, but see the Earth and Universe as our cultivation ground. We hold a variety of expedients for cultivation and welcome all forms of religions to come and take part in making the world a more peaceful and compassionate realm to be in. Jing Xin Yuan is a home within the home of all living beings.

A place where all can come and realize that all places are no places, and no places are all places. That neither here nor there are either here or there. All are equal at Jing Xin Yuan, and all are held in proper respect, with Patience, Compassion and Wisdom as our guideline for morality”.

Needless to add, the opinions of the author are his own and the article is being reproduced here without any changes.

In this discussion we will look at the expedient of religion in the Buddhist school of cultivation. In doing so, we must keep in mind that each person has their own idea of what makes a practice a religion. What we will hold in mind as the basis of this discussion is that most of the world sees Bowing, Chanting, Praying, a leader of some sort guiding “followers” along the means of practice, a place of practice, and actions of practice to all be pieces which make up a religion.

Let’s look at the expedient of religion in Buddhist cultivation. Buddhism is only named Buddhism as a focal point of reference to practices which cause a living being to reveal the Complete and True mind. To attain AnutturaSamyaksambhodi. Attain is only a word used to point out what was not present in mind before revealing the true nature. One does not attain. One only lessens what is in the mind, thus revealing the true nature.

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